ABOUT
YOUNG AUTHORs' studio
Young Authors' Studio (YAS) began in 2017 as a 7-week writing program held on Saturdays at Arizona State University's (ASU's) Polytechnic campus. It continued as a 6-week program in 2018. In 2020, the program moved online to this website (where students can still complete writing activities and earn a certificate). We also added the journal, Unscripted, that year, which published the work of youth writers. In 2021, we expanded this online program, adding four live Zoom workshops on poetry writing, storytelling, making comics, and getting ready to publish. In 2023, Young Authors' Studio received a grant from AZ Humanities to host a writing series consisting of two Zoom events with YA authors (Visual Storytelling with Xavier Garza and Novel Writing with Tom Leveen) and an all-day Writing Retreat at ASU's Polytechnic campus (featuring spoken word poet, Tomas Stanton). In addition to providing funding for speakers, this grant allowed us to put a YA book in the hands of every attendee at the Writing Retreat. Additional funding from ASU Foundation donors allowed us to purchase writing supplies for the event and lunch for participants. The Young Authors' Studio program ended in 2023.
Dr. Wendy Williams, Associate Professor of English at ASU, founded and directed this program. As a writing researcher whose work has focused on out-of-school youth literacies, writing identity, and visual storytelling, she developed YAS to inspire creativity in young people, to cultivate their writing skills and confidence, to offer them experiences with many forms of writing, and to honor talents and interests that sometimes go unnoticed in schools. Regardless of the format this program has taken over the years, it has consistently provided free programs and events for youth, as well as opportunities for ASU students to gain valuable life and work experience serving as mentors for youth writers.
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WHAT PEOPLE SAY
NICK, PARENT
“As impressed as I am with all the young writers and their dedication, I am even more impressed by how well the mentors taught them. My daughter easily related back to me advanced writing concepts and structures that I discuss with seasoned writers and authors with years of experience. Well done all of you!”
JUSTIN, PARENT
“As a parent, I was very impressed with the thoughtful care put into all aspects of the course. The ‘creativity’ levels exceeded my expectations and introduced my son to several awesome writing techniques I had never seen before.”
NANCY, PARENT
“I thought you all did an AMAZING job! The thing that stood out to me the most was that my son thought it would be incredibly boring, but it ended up being incredibly fun and he learned so much! He learned there were many writing styles and just because he wasn’t necessarily great at one, he was good at another. Thank you!!!”
2021 mentors
Ernesto Velasquez
(he/him)
Ernesto Velasquez is a graduate student working on his master’s degree in American Literature with a primary focus in comics/visual sequential narrative/graphic novel. His applied project for his degree is focusing on comics from 1986 to 1996 that explorers culture desires and audience wants during this prolific time in the comic medium. As a mentor he will be helpful at figuring out how to create a comic book for submission. He is hoping to be entering the PhD program at ASU to pursue his career goal of being a college professor.
Andie Vidales
(she/her)
Andie Vidales is a senior studying English literature. Before ASU, she studied education and creative writing at Mesa Community College. There, Andie’s writing was awarded three MCC Creative Writing Awards for her poetry and nonfiction, including a Maricopa District Award. In 2020, she was honored to accept The Lux Poetry Award for her poem, "Reptile House". Her poetry can be found in Passages, Lux Creative Review, and her sketchad. She is currently working on her first novel. After graduation, she will continue to grow as a writer and teacher.
2020 mentors
Mandy Hall
Mandy is pursuing a Masters in Narrative Studies at ASU. She is currently writing a fiction novel in Young Adult Literature. She hopes one day to become published and continue to write creatively. She loves animals and has six dogs of her own…yes, six! When she has a moment to herself, she enjoys reading, walking her dogs, and traveling to new places. When she writes, she likes to start off with a free write and write about anything at all for 10 minutes to get her creativity flowing.
Joy Young
Joy Young is a performance and teaching spoken word artist based in Phoenix, AZ. Their performance works focus on transgressing borders, both real and imagined, and entering social justice topics through poetic personal narratives. Joy has been featured on Button Poetry and Everyday Feminism as well as on stages and in colleges and classrooms across the country. They believe our personal narratives should be a driving force for healing ourselves and the world around us— that they are a doorway through which we should consciously enter the world of social justice in hopes of creating understanding, connection, and making substantive change.
Angela Vu
Angela Vu graduated with a bachelor's degree in Creative Writing and she now studies English Literature. She loves cats, food, and anything pink.
Laurie Ralston
Laurie Ralston is working on another graduate degree in Narrative Studies at Arizona State University (ASU), honing her storytelling skills to feed her writing addiction. She has worked at ASU for nearly 20 years for four different colleges, including teaching video production, graphic design, and graduate research and writing for the past nine years. She’s a voracious reader and binge watches TV when she can sneak it in.
Lauren Clevenger
Lauren is a Junior studying Graphic Information Technology at ASU. She hopes to one day work as a librarian, and will be pursuing a Masters in Library Science after graduation. She currently lives with her roommate and their many, many plants. In her free time, she enjoys reading, drawing, and playing D&D with her friends. Her favorite ways to write include journaling and working on creating a storyline for the D&D campaign she's currently writing!
Jake Semerdjian
Jake Semerdjian is pursuing his Bachelor of Arts in English at ASU. He has been a story crafter for his entire life and has always loved creating short stories, poems, and other tales for the purpose of entertaining others. He hopes to get published after graduating so he can continue to write and share his stories with others. He enjoys nature and the outdoors, critical analysis, dinosaurs, and music. He often gets ideas for his day-to-day writing by taking something he overhears out of context and making a story or song around it.
Ashley Domínguez
Ashley Domínguez is a PhD student in the Learning, Literacies, and Technologies (LLT) program at Arizona State University (ASU). Prior to ASU, Ashley was a K-12 teacher for seven years in Dallas, Texas and taught a variety of subjects including Speech, Drama, Spanish, Dance and Language Arts.