Young Adult 2024
introducing the writers of the 2024 workshop with Natalia Sylvester
Allie Qiu
Allie Qiu is a Chinese American writer with a never-ending love for Shakira. She has most recently participated in StoryStudio Chicago’s Novel in a Year and the Key West Literary Seminar Writer-in-Residence Program. In addition to her YA novel, her other major work in progress is a capybara coloring book. You can find her writing in Sweet Lit and Joyland.
Christina Berke
Christina Berke is a Chilean-American writer and educator. Her manuscript based on her maternal family’s history during the 1973 military coup won Honorable Mention with the Miami Book Fair Emerging Writers Fellowship. Berke is an Adjunct Professor of English and Teaching Artist based in Los Angeles. She’s been supported by Sewanee Writers, Tin House, Bread Loaf Writers Conference, Hedgebrook, Vermont Studio Centers, Storyknife and Ragdale. Her work is in Teen Vogue, The Rumpus, Gulf Coast, NPR’s Desert Companion, Edible, Pithead Chapel and elsewhere. She is working on Well, Body: a memoir on body image, eating disorders, and childhood trauma, an excerpt of which was Longlisted with Disquiet Literary International.
Sheila Navarro
A writer and educator, Sheila Navarro was born in Cavite, Philippines, grew up in Suisun City, California and is now a resident of Las Vegas, Nevada. She received an MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College in Oakland and believes that more stories need to be told of the Asian American Pacific Islander experience; if we don't write it, who will? She co-founded a literary arts program, WeWrite, which focuses on amplifying more AAPI voices in Las Vegas and beyond. She is passionate about working towards a more inclusive literary landscape and is a firm believer that every story, no matter how seemingly ordinary, has the power to ignite change and foster understanding. Sheila is writing a collection of short stories inspired from her Pinay upbringing listening to ‘90s R&B music and a children's book on themes of the Filipino diaspora.
Sheila Navarro is the recipient of a scholarship from the Philippine American Writers and Artists (PAWA) / Manuel and Penelope Flores Scholarship. PAWA has been supporting VONA writers since 2011.
Uma Phatak
Uma (she/her) is a writer based in foggy San Francisco. She has attended workshops including Sewanee and the Levinthal Tutorial at Stanford. She enjoys reading and writing about family and ancestry. Her favorite thing to do is find a new coffee shop and have a long chat with a friend. She can always be found where the books are.
Also in the YA cohort:
Aysha Mahmood
Ara Lucia Ciro