At Bronx Loaf, we invite distinguished writers from a variety of fields and disciplines to spend time with our Loafers and share their experiences. We also invite organizations that can provide opportunities for our writers to share their talents in new ways. Here are some of the writers and organizations we will have this year, as well as ones we have welcomed in the past.
When Elizabeth Hatt was 14 she penned a 100-looseleaf notebook page letter to her cousins describing the dynamics of the surrounding high school social scene. Despite this early propensity for sharing news, it took an accounting degree and career change before she became a professional writer. Since then she has evolved from a food journalist to web editor to marketing writer, always staying true to her love for the semi-colon.
Integrate NYC is a youth-led organization that stands for integration and equity in New York City schools. In their own words, “We, the students, are the best experts on the impacts of segregation and inequality. At IntegrateNYC, we are also designers of solutions, advocates for transformative policy, and visionaries for a more just future.” Bronx Loaf is excited to have IntegrateNYC with us this summer to talk to our writers about how they might use their writing talents for activism and to promote change. Visit www.integrateNYC.org to learn more.
Willie Perdomo is a Puerto Rican poet and children’s book author. He is the author of The Essential Hits of Shorty Bon Bon (Penguin Poets, 2014), a National Book Critics Circle Awards finalist, Where a Nickel Costs a Dime (W. W. Norton & Company, a Poetry Society of AmericaNorma Farber First Book Award finalist, 1996),[1]Postcards of El Barrio (Isla Negra Press, 2002), and Smoking Lovely (Rattapallax Press, 2003),[2] which received a PEN Beyond Margins Award.[3] His children’s book, Visiting Langston, received the Coretta Scott King Honor. Perdomo was also the recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts Poetry Fellowship in 2001 and 2009. He is a Pushcart Prizenominee,[4] and recently was a Woolrich Fellow in Creative Writing at Columbia University. He is co-founder/publisher of Cypher Books, a VONA/Voices faculty member, and is currently an Instructor in English at Phillips Exeter Academy.
Benjamin Warner is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin and Cornell University’s MFA program. A lecturer at Towson University, he teaches courses in composition, environmental writing, and fiction writing. Ben is the adviser to the Towson University Urban Farm and Veg Club. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Salon.com, The Washington Post Magazine, and Punchnel’s, among others.