About Lines & Breaks
We are thrilled to welcome you to Lines & Breaks: A Literary Journal From WriteGirl! As a complement to printed anthologies from WriteGirl, Lines & Breaks is an online showcase of WriteGirl teens’ writing from workshops and mentorships. Lines & Breaks features writing from a diverse range of ages, genres and styles on themes of hopes and fears, loves and losses, snacks and boy bands. Inside the pages of every issue, you will also find the creative work of alums of the WriteGirl program and special guest writers! We hope this literary journal inspires you and offers a glimpse into the minds and hearts of WriteGirl members.
WriteGirl would like to thank the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs for supporting the publication of this literary journal, and all of our generous WriteGirl donors for ongoing support of the organization.
Editorial Process
The editorial process for every issue of Lines & Breaks: A Literary Journal from WriteGirl is a collaborative decision-making effort among the Lines & Breaks editorial team that aims to reflect the diversity of our membership. Each issue features selected creative work from WriteGirl members according to the theme, along with creative work from alums and special guest writers. Issues will be released on an ongoing basis.
About WriteGirl
WriteGirl is a Los Angeles-based creative writing and mentoring organization that spotlights the power of a girl and her pen. At WriteGirl, we match girls with women writers who mentor them in creative writing. WriteGirl is a thriving community with 200 volunteer women writers serving more than 500 girls annually. Every year, we produce dozens of workshops, panel discussions and special events to help girls get creative, get through high school and get to college! In fact, since 2001, 100% of our graduating seniors have entered college, many on full or partial scholarships.
Through one-on-one mentoring and monthly creative writing workshops, girls are given techniques, insights and hot topics for great writing in all genres from professional women writers. Workshops and mentoring sessions explore poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, songwriting, journalism, screenwriting, playwriting, persuasive writing, journal writing, editing and more.
WriteGirl Publications:
WriteGirl publishes poetry, prose, scenes and songs written by our teens and has published 37 anthologies, booklets and chapbooks.
WriteGirl’s 15 Core Mentoring Program anthologies have received 96 book awards and positive reviews from Los Angeles Times Book Review, The Writer, Kirkus, School Library Journal and more.
About the Lines & Breaks Editorial Team
Editor-in-Chief: Keren Taylor
Managing Editor: Annlee Ellingson
Associate Editors: Allison Deegan, Katie Geyer, Kirsten Giles
Production Coordinator: Sofía Aguilar
Assistant Editors: Kelsey O’Brien, Eva Recinos
Production Support: Maddie Silva
Design: Sara Apelkvist, Anna Buckley, Keren Taylor, Katie Geyer
Key Team Bios
Allison Deegan, Ed.D., serves as WriteGirl’s Associate Director. She is also a member of the Advisory Board. In addition, she has served as an Associate Editor on all of WriteGirl’s award-winning anthologies. She has extensive experience and expertise in supporting incoming and current college and graduate school students, managing youth and writing programs, creativity and public policy. She holds a B.S. from Syracuse University, an MFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts, an MPA in Public Policy from California State University, Long Beach, and an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership, also from CSULB.
Katie Geyer, WriteGirl Managing Director, manages WriteGirl day-to-day operations, internal and external communications, membership services and all aspects of mentoring programs, and assists in strategic planning, staff development and overall program planning. Katie has a Master’s in Journalism from Boston University and a BA in Communication Studies from UCLA. She worked for several years as a political reporter and assistant editor for a daily newspaper and has been published in several magazines.
Kirsten Giles, WriteGirl’s Curriculum Director, guides the development of learning content for WriteGirl workshops. She holds a Master’s in Education and B.S. in Sociology (with a Creative Writing minor), both from the University of Southern California. Kirsten has studied poetry with Carol Muske-Dukes, David St. John, Cecilia Woloch, Laurel Ann Bogen, and Sarah Maclay, and she has been an Associate Editor for WriteGirl’s anthologies since 2007.
Annlee Ellingson is a mentor and managing editor for WriteGirl. She is managing editor, digital cities, for American City Business Journals, and co-editor-in-chief of Exposition Review. She is treasurer of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and writes a column about films directed by women. She holds a Master of Professional Writing degree from the University of Southern California and a B.A. in Film Studies from the University of Minnesota. She tweets and Instagrams about books, movies, hiking, food, travel and nephews at @annleee.
Sofía Aguilar is a Latina writer and editor based in Los Angeles, California. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in New Orleans Review, Emerge Literary Journal, and Melanin Magazine, among other publications. As an alum of WriteGirl and a first-generation college graduate, she earned a BA from Sarah Lawrence College, where she received the Andrea Klein Willison Prize for Poetry and the Spencer Barnett Memorial Prize for Excellence in Latin American and Latinx Studies. You can find her at sofiaaguilar.com.
Kelsey O’Brien is a writer with a Master’s in English from King’s College London. Her fiction, reviews and travel pieces have appeared in print journals and online. Her work tends to blend historical settings with the fight for social justice. Her teleplay about the Radium Girls was recognized in numerous competitions, including the Austin Film Festival and Script Pipeline. She is currently working on her first novel, set in 18th-century London.
Eva Recinos is an LA-based arts and culture journalist and creative non-fiction writer. Her profiles, features and reviews have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, GOOD, The Guardian, KCET Artbound, Art21, VICE, Bitch, Jezebel and more. Her essays have appeared in Electric Literature, Catapult, Refinery29, Marie Claire and more. She was a 2021 Pen America Emerging Voices Fellowship finalist.
WriteGirl Publications
Los Angeles
© 2022 This literary journal as a collection is copyrighted by WriteGirl Publications.
All rights reserved. No part of this journal may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photography, recording or by any information storage or retrieval system or technologies now known or later developed, without written permission from the publisher.