WRITERS JOINING THE FESTIVAL IN 2020
Photo Courtesy of junauda.com
Junauda Petrus-Nasah
The Stars and The Blackness Between Them
- YA Fiction
Workshop for :
Junauda Petrus-Nasah
DREAMING OUR LIVES AND FUTURES THROUGH YOUNG ADULT FICTION WRITING
How do you develop your voice as a young adult writer? What are the ways you can engage your inner child in the journey of writing for young people?
Author Junauda Petrus-Nasah will share her journey of reclaiming her inner teen self and researching queerness within Black American and Black Caribbean culture for her young adult novel, The Stars and The Blackness Between Them.
Her work is inspired by the absence of examples of herself within popular texts as a young person and how this absence influences both her life and her work.
For the workshop, she will lead participants in writing meditations inspired by her book, that reflect on personal childhood emotions and remembrances in order to bring this tender knowing to the page in confident and refreshing ways.
Photo Courtesy of junauda.com
Junauda Petrus-Nasah
Junauda Petrus-Nasah is a writer, pleasure activist, filmmaker and performance artist of Black-Caribbean descent, born on Dakota land. Her work centers around wildness, queerness, Black-diasporic-futurism, ancestral healing, sweetness, shimmer and liberation.
She is the co-founder with Erin Sharkey of Free Black Dirt, an experimental arts production company. She is currently writing and directing, "Sweetness of Wild" a poetic-episodic film series themed around Blackness, queerness, biking, resistance, love and coming of age in Minneapolis. Her first YA novel, The Stars and The Blackness Between Them is out on Dutton Children’s list.
Junauda lives in Minneapolis with her wife, child and family.
This is Junauda s first Festival as a participating writer and she will be offering the Writing Workshop, “DREAMING OUR LIVES AND FUTURES THROUGH YOUNG ADULT FICTION WRITING”.