2015 Mentors

2015 Mentors
of GKA's Summer Writing Studio

RONA WANG | Prose

Rona Wang is a sixteen-year-old from Portland, Oregon, who is absolutely thrilled to be mentoring prose this summer. She has studied fiction at the Iowa Young Writers' Studio and Stanford University. In addition, she has been recognized nationally by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. She has been published in The Best Teen Writing of 2014, Canvas Literary Magazine, Brouhaha Magazine, as well as Glass Kite Anthology itself. Currently, she is a poetry reader at The Blueshift Journal, which received four stars from The Review Review.
Favorite Authors: Laurie Halse Anderson and Lisa Yee.

Somi Jun is seventeen years old and a sweatmonster from South Pasadena, California. She is the editor-in-chief and founder of Tunnel Magazine, an online zine for student art, and is currently at the Jonathan R. Reynolds Young Writers Workshop on scholarship. She attended CSSSA (California State Summer School for the Arts) in 2013, will attend the Between the Lines international program at the University of Iowa this summer, and is a Scholastic silver national medalist. She was also rejected from three different programs this summer, plus countless other contests, and is beyond grateful for all the achievements listed above; they took hard work, love, and sweat from the sweatmonster. In addition to creative writing, Somi loves journalism and is an editor for Tiger, objectively the best high school newspaper. To make dat ca$h m0n3y b1z, she tutors children in English. And, fun fact: she participated in a surprisingly great beauty/scholarship pageant last month!
Favorite Writers: Kurt Vonnegut, Haruki Murakami, Jenny Zhang

SOMI JUN | PROSE

JESSICA SHEN | Prose

Jessica Shen is a sixteen-year-old writer and aspiring editor from San Diego, California. She is a 2014 California Arts Scholar and contributor to Glass Kite Anthology. She lives for the rush of 3 a.m. inspiration, of bringing a character to life, of finding the words to tell the stories only she knows; but the greatest feeling, she thinks, is helping other writers grow and their works transform.

Margaret Zhang is a deep experiencer of human emotions. She's been writing ever since her 2nd grade teacher praised her for describing the nonexistent snow in California as "drifting." She currently writes about the wild-haired kids of her childhood and different kinds of attraction that extend beyond romantic, sexual, and platonic. She has attended writing workshops at the Iowa Young Writers' Studio, California State Summer School for the Arts, and Interlochen Arts Camp; she is also a Foyle Young Poet, California Arts Scholar, and a recipient of awards from Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, River Styx, and Peninsula Young Writers Contest. Margaret is 16 years old and lives in Saratoga, CA.
Favorite Writers: Ocean Vuong, Kelly Link, Pablo Neruda

MARGARET ZHANG | Poetry

NOEL PENG | Poetry

Noel Peng is a 2014 California Arts Scholar, and former short story plagiarizer (in her defense, she was in first grade). Her work has appeared or is forthcoming Canvas Literary Journal, Telltale, and The Cadaverine, and has been recognized by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Her poetry focuses on the alienation of close relationships, the rhythms of the human body, and the silences that root internal revolutions. She has studied fiction under author Simon Van Booy. She is sixteen, and lives in Palo Alto, CA.
Favorite Writers: Ocean Vuong, e. e. cummings, Melina Marchetta

Christina Im is a wordsmith, armed and dangerous, and an ardent believer in ghosts. She was recognized with two national medals by the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards in 2014, and her work has either appeared or is forthcoming in several publications, including Germ Magazine, -Ology Journal, Canvas Literary Journal, and Young Adult Review Network. In addition, she serves as editor-in-chief of The Teacup Trail, a speculative literary/art magazine. When she's not writing, Christina can be found overthinking, smiling too much, reading, or doing all three at the same time.
Favorite Poets: Ashe Vernon and Talin Tahajian