Girls Write Now Awards HONORING WOMEN WHO WRITE THE WORLD

HONORING DAWN L. DAVIS ROBERTA KAPLAN

EMCEE TANZINA VEGA

Tuesday, June 3, 2014 FROM 6 PM TO 9 PM

The Bowery Hotel About Girls Write Now

Founded in 1998, Girls Write Now is New York’s first and only writing and mentoring program for teen girls. The mission of Girls Write Now is to provide guidance, support, and opportunities for at-risk and underserved girls from ’s public high schools to develop their creative, independent voices, explore careers in professional writing, and learn how to make healthy school, career, and life choices.

Over the past 16 years, Girls Write Now has served nearly 5,000 marginalized teen girls, building a record of achievement and innovation recognized twice by the White House, by , the MacArthur Foundation’s Hive Learning Network, and evidenced by the hundreds of Scholastic Art & Writing Awards our girls have earned. Girls Write Now has a successful college readiness program with 100% of our mentees graduating high school and going on to college. Our girls bring with them portfolios, awards, scholarships, new skills, and a sense of confidence.

2014 Girls Write Now Awards

In today’s changing landscape, Girls Write Now is paving the way for the next generation of women writers, one girl at a time. Every year, the girls we mentor join a supportive community where they discover their voices and embrace the fearlessness to share their stories. Just like the women we are honoring at the 2014 Girls Write Now Awards, our girls are breaking through boundaries, both in life and in writing, to realize their promise and the possibilities of change. Tonight, we celebrate the girls and women who inspire us as they write the world. 2014 Girls Write Now Awards

EMCEES: TANZINA VEGA NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES

TUHFA BEGUM GIRLS WRITE NOW MENTEE

GROUNDBREAKER HONOREE: DAWN L. DAVIS

VP & PUBLISHER, 37 INK AN IMPRINT OF ATRIA/SIMON & SCHUSTER Introduction by Kamy Wicoff, Girls Write Now Board Chair

TRAILBLAZER HONOREE: ROBERTA KAPLAN

PARTNER, PAUL, WEISS, WHARTON & GARRISON LLP Introduction by Julie Salamon, Girls Write Now Mentor

SPECIAL VIDEO PREMIERE: “MALALA” Song written by Suzzy Roche and Girls Write Now Mentees

EXECUTIVE REMARKS: MAYA NUSSBAUM

GIRLS WRITE NOW FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

GAMECHANGER HONOREE: GLORIA STEINEM

AUTHOR, ACTIVIST, & FEMINIST Introduction by Gloria Jacobs and Ellen Sweet, Girls Write Now Board Members HONOREES

GROUNDBREAKER HONOREE DAWN L. DAVIS

VP & PUBLISHER, 37 INK AN

IMPRINT OF ATRIA/SIMON &

SCHUSTER

Dawn L. Davis joined Simon & Schuster in 2013 as the Vice President and Publisher of 37 INK, an imprint within the Atria Publishing Group. 37 INK draws on Ms. Davis’s strengths as an editor and publisher, with a list that encompasses the best in literary fiction, narrative nonfiction, journalism, memoirs and pop culture, and drawn from a wide range of authors of all backgrounds. 37 INK’s first book was the New York Times bestseller, The Butler: A Witness to History, by Wil Haygood. This spring she published Dear Leader: Poet, Spy, Escapee - A Look Inside North Korea, by Jang Jin- sung, to critical acclaim.

Ms. Davis came to the Atria Publishing Group from Harper Collins, where she had been for twelve years, first as Editorial Director of Amistad/ Executive Editor of HarperCollins and most recently as Publisher of Amistad. During her time at Amistad, she published numerous well-known, highly- acclaimed bestselling authors including Edward P. Jones, author of The Known World, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Critics Circle and IMPAC Awards for Fiction, and the story collection All Aunt Hagar’s Children, a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award; Steve Harvey, author of the bestsellers Straight Talk, No Chaser and Act Like A Lady, Think Like A Man, which launched a #1 box office film and talk show; Chris Gardner, whose life story The Pursuit Of Happyness was the inspiration for the popular motion picture starring Will Smith; Attica Locke, author of Black Water Rising, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Orange Prize, and Dolen Perkins-Valdez, author of the New York Times bestselling novel,Wench. Prior to Amistad, Ms. Davis held editorial positions at Vintage Books and the New Press.

TRAILBLAZER HONOREE ROBERTA KAPLAN

PARTNER, PAUL, WEISS, WHARTON & GARRISON LLP

Roberta (Robbie) Kaplan, a partner in the Litigation Department of Paul, Weiss LLP, has been described as a “powerhouse corporate litigator” and “pressure junkie” who “thrives on looking at the big picture” whether “in the gay-marriage legal fight or high-profile corporate scandals.” Robbie has been selected as one of “The 100 Most Influential Lawyers” and one of the top “40 Under 40” lawyers in the United States, as well as a 2013 Litigator of the Year by The American Lawyer and 2013 “Lawyer of the Year” by Above The Law.

Robbie successfully argued before the United States Supreme Court on behalf of Edith Windsor in the landmark case of United States v. Windsor. In Windsor, the nation’s highest court issued a landmark ruling that a key provision of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) violated the U.S. Constitution by barring legally married same-sex couples from enjoying the wide-ranging benefits of marriage conferred under federal law. The consequences of the Windsor decision have been both rapid and profound. At least 16 courts throughout the United States, including courts in New Jersey, , New Mexico, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Utah and Virginia, have relied explicitly on Windsor to extend rights to gay people.

Robbie’s representation of Edie Windsor was chronicled by Ariel Levy in her piece in the September 30, 2013 issue of the entitled “A Perfect Wife.” Robbie was also recently profiled in a documentary produced by the PBS “MAKERS” series.

Robbie’s work has been honored by many organizations, including the National Organization for Women, the Eleanor Roosevelt Legacy Foundation, the American Constitution Society, Stanford Law School, Columbia Law School, and the Family Equality Council. She is to receive an honorary doctorate this year from Johns Hopkins University. However, Robbie is probably most proud of the fact that a character was named after her in Terrence McNally’s latest Broadway production, “Mothers & Sons.”

GAMECHANGER HONOREE GLORIA STEINEM

FEMINIST, ACTIVIST & AUTHOR

Gloria Steinem is a writer, lecturer, editor, and feminist activist. She travels in this and other countries as an organizer and lecturer and is a frequent media spokeswoman on issues of equality. She is particularly interested in the shared origins of sex and race caste systems, gender roles and child abuse as roots of violence, non-violent conflict resolution, the cultures of indigenous peoples, and organizing across boundaries for peace and justice.

In 1972, she co-founded Ms. Magazine, and remained one of its editors for fifteen years. She continues to serve as a consulting editor for Ms., and was instrumental in the magazine’s move to be published by the Feminist Majority Foundation. In 1968, she helped to found New York Magazine, where she was a political columnist and wrote feature articles. As a freelance writer, she was published in Esquire, the New York Times Magazine, Glamour, as well as publications in other countries.

Her books include the bestsellers Revolution from Within: A Book of Self- Esteem, Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions, Moving Beyond Words, and Marilyn: Norma Jean, on the life of Marilyn Monroe. Her writing also appears in many anthologies and textbooks, and she was an editor of The Reader’s Companion to U.S. Women’s History.

Ms. Steinem helped to found the Women’s Action Alliance, a pioneering national information center that specialized in nonsexist, multiracial children’s education, and the National Women’s Political Caucus, a group that continues to work to advance the numbers of pro-equality women in elected and appointed office at a national and state level. She was president and co-founder of Voters for Choice, a pro-choice political action committee for twenty-five years, then with the Planned Parenthood Action Fund when it merged with VFC for the 2004 elections. She was also co-founder and serves on the board of Choice USA, a national organization that supports young pro-choice leadership and works to preserve comprehensive sex education in schools. She was the founding president of the Ms. Foundation for Women, a national multi-racial, multi-issue fund that supports grassroots projects to empower women and girls, and also a founder of its Take Our Daughters to Work Day, a first national day devoted to girls that has now become an institution here and in other countries. She was a member of the Beyond Racism Initiative, a three-year effort on the part of activists and experts from South Africa, Brazil and the United States to compare the racial patterns of those three countries and to learn cross-nationally. Now, she is working with the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College on a project to document the grassroots origins of the U.S. women’s movement.

As a writer, Ms. Steinem has received the Penney-Missouri Journalism Award, the Front Page and Clarion awards, National Magazine awards, an Emmy Citation for excellence in television writing, the Women’s Sports Journalism Award, the Lifetime Achievement in Journalism Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, the Society of Writers Award from the United Nations, and most recently, the University of Missouri School of Journalism Award for Distinguished Service in Journalism. She is also on the Creative Advisory Council for Hedgebrook writer’s retreat.

Ms. Steinem graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Smith College in 1956, and then spent two years in India on a Chester Bowles Fellowship. She wrote for Indian publications, and was influenced by Gandhian activism. She also received the first Doctorate of Human Justice awarded by Simmons College, the Bill of Rights Award from the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, the National Gay Rights Advocates Award, the Liberty award of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Ceres Medal from the United Nations, and a number of honorary degrees. Parenting Magazine selected her for its Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995 for her work in promoting girls’ self-esteem,and Biography Magazine listed her as one of the 25 most influential women in America. In 1993, she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York. She has been the subject of three biographical television documentaries, including HBO’s “Gloria: In Her Own Words”.

In 1993, her concern with child abuse led her to co-produce and narrate an Emmy Award winning TV documentary for HBO, “Multiple Personalities: The Search for Deadly Memories.” With Rosilyn Heller, she also co-produced an original 1993 TV movie for Lifetime, “Better Off Dead,” which examined the parallel forces that both oppose abortion and support the death penalty.

She lives in New York City, and is at work on a book about her more than thirty years on the road as a feminist organizer, due out in 2015. MENTEE AND MENTOR PERFORMERS

CHENELLE AGNEW Chenelle is a high school junior and a second year Girls Write Now mentee. Chenelle has won the Scholastic Art & Writing Award Honorable Mention in Poetry. “My mentor teaches me something new every time we meet that always leaves an impact on me and makes me mindful of other things in my surroundings.”

TUHFA BEGUM Tuhfa is a high school senior and a third year Girls Write Now mentee. She received a full scholarship to where she will begin this fall. In the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, Tuhfah has won a National Silver Medal in Memoir, and three silver keys in Senior Portfolio, Memoir, and Humor.

MARY PAT KANE Mary Pat is a second year mentor at Girls Write Now. She is a writer and a teaching artist. Mary Pat has been published and recognized by the Brooklyn Herald, the Christian Science Monitor, and the Philadelphia Daily News. MENNEN GORDON Mennen is a high school junior and a third year Girls Write Now mentee. “My mentor and I read a beautiful poem, where the narrator was fixated on these tiny sheep in a test tube, and what to do with them. Natasha said we should pick something; what would be in our test tube? I drew a short comic about a galaxy in a bell jar, and after we did it again, about a rock. Natasha and I always wind up writing something amazing whenever we meet, even if it just looks like scribble on a page or a lightly drawn comic.”

MARIAH DWYER

Mariah is a high school senior and a first year Girls Write Now mentee. “Something that I learned from my mentor, Meg, is that everything comes in due time. In life, we are handed obstacles and it’s up to us to work through them toward what we want. Along with that comes not always knowing what we want - and that can be okay. Sometimes, detours happen for a reason and you can’t lose faith.” 2014 GIRLS WRITE NOW AWARDS SPONSORS CHAMPION $10,000

CREATORS $5,000

SUPPORTERS $2,500 SPECIAL THANKS

INDIVIDUAL SPONSOR HOST COMMITTEE Hammer Family Foundation Unyi Agba Karen S. Ali CHAIRS Amy Berkower | Writers House Erica Mui Gretchen Crary | February Media Corporate Engagement Chair Lee Clifford | Altruette Erica Silberman Joanne Edgar Artistic Production Chair Amy Ferris Kamy Wicoff Rebecca Gradinger Board Chair Gloria Jacobs Lisa Chai Justine Lelchuk & Ben Block Sang Lee | SJL Attorney Search Suzanne Braun Levine VICE-CHAIRS Mindy Liss Marci Alboher Nancy K. Miller Sandra Bang Martha Nelson Tamra Davis and Mike Diamond Susan Oehrig Maya Nussbaum Hope Pordy | Spivak Lipton LLP Founder & Executive Director Chelsea Rao JillEllyn Riley HONORARY COMMITTEE Ellen Sweet Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Maddy Zollo Abigail E. Disney Jennifer Egan Robin Morgan Francine Prose Zadie Smith Meg Wolitzer SPECIAL THANKS

CONTRIBUTORS Alex Anthony Salon GIRLS Arnot-Roberts Winery Lia Sophia BCC Life Coaching Meg Cassidy Bergino Baseball Clubhouse Michael Skurnik Wines | Jay Goldberg Moet Bill Carter Momofuku Milk Bar Birchbox Ms. Magazine BOLLYX New York Writers Workshop Caroline K. Lane-Steins Associates Onefinestay Cole Haan Out of Print Continental Furniture People StyleWatch Dave Shuff Princeton Atelier Elie Tahari Rent The Runway Elizabeth Arden Rouge NY FIGS Sarah Lewis Flaca Jewelery Simon & Schuster Genua & Mulligan Printing Corp. Suzzy Roche The Zox Brothers SPECIAL THANKS

BOARD OF DIRECTORS STAFF Maya Nussbaum Maya Nussbaum Founder & Executive Director Founder & Executive Director Kamy Wicoff Molly MacDermot Board Chair Communications Advisor Chelsea Rao Michelle Paul Vice Chair Director of Development Justine Lelchuk Tracy Steele Treasurer Director of Operations Nancy K. Miller Tara Bracco Secretary Grant Writer Marci Alboher Emily Coppel Unyi Agba Digital Media Program Manager Sandra Bang Lilia Epstein-Katz Gloria Jacobs Administrative Coordinator Sang Lee Rebecca Haverson Erica Mui Writing & Mentoring Program Ellen Sweet Manager Sarah Hubschaman Program Coordinator Aarti Monteiro Program Coordinator Ruby Slippers Fundraising Event Consultants

INTERNS Sasha Bogoslowsky Megan Malloy Emely Paulino Emily Turner Natalia Vargas Caba Congratulations to our Honorees:

Dawn L. Davis Roberta Kaplan Gloria Steinem

You have paved the way for the next generation of women writers by breaking through boundaries in writing and in life. You are mentors to all of us and to our girls.

On behalf of the Girls Write Now Board of Directors:

Unyi Agba, Marci Alboher, Sandra Bang, Gloria Jacobs, Sang Lee, Justine Lelchuk, Nancy K. Miller, Erica Mui, Maya Nussbaum, Chelsea Rao, Ellen Sweet, and Kamy Wicoff

Congratulations to the young writers served by GIRLS WRITE NOW and to my editor and friend DAWN L. DAVIS who always pursues the 5Cs

CHRIS GARDNER CEO OF HAPPYNESS Gloria,

you are

FAN-F#*&ING-TASTIC!!

Love,

Abby Disney

Congratulations to

Girls Write Now on their 15th Anniversary and to our editor, publisher and friend,

Dawn Davis for this recognition of her commitment to her craft. Her DC family of writers, Dolen, Edward, Lonnae, Kevin, and Wil.

Simon & Schuster and Atria Books salute

on their 15th Anniversary and the young writers it supports year after year.

And congratulations to our own Dawn L. Davis, publisher of 37 INK, for her longstanding commitment to her authors.

FROM OUR HONOREES

“The courageous young women of Girls Write Now know perfectly well the power of the written word to move hearts and influence minds. (...Their...) writing is powerful, resilient, and above all, true.” DAWN L. DAVIS

“Jewish tradition teaches that in the beginning, the world itself was created with the word. And there can be no question about the power of words to transform the world in myriad ways, both good and bad. By teaching these young women to powerfully articulate their own voices through the written word, Girls Write Now is participating in the great human endeavor of transforming and, in this case, repairing the broken world in which we live.” ROBERTA KAPLAN

“To write is to bring an inner voice into the outer world, to believe that our thoughts are worth entering the thinking of others, and to make real what has never existed in quite the same way before. What could be a better path to self-valuing than that? In giving young women in the five boroughs this biggest of all gifts, Girls Write Now is giving the rest of us the gift of those girls.” GLORIA STEINEM

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