GrubWrites

Meet the YAWP Instructors: Katie Bayerl

Get to know your instructors ahead of class! This week, meet Katie Bayerl, who is teaching Novel Writing for Teens this summer.

What is the best writing advice that helped you overcome a hurdle or gain confidence?

See to your gusto. (Or, put another way, "Eat dessert first.”) When I get bogged down as a writer, I have to get back to that place of joy and inspiration. Sometimes that means playing, or taking in great music or art, or writing scenes out of order.

Who is your literary crush?

I have so many! Edwidge Danticat, Sara Zarr, Benjamin Alire Saenz, and Jandy Nelson are all authors I look to often as role models. I've met/know three of them in person, and they are lovely in real life too!

What keeps you coming back to teach for YAWP? Why is it special?

Writers spend a lot of time alone with words. For me, YAWP is a chance to get a jolt of energy in a room with other wonderful humans. I love how YAWP students are so ready to try out new things with their writing and how supportive they are of each other. I walk away from every class inspired and ready to write.

Katie fell in love with books before she can remember and with teaching when she was just a teen. She has degrees in education studies from Brown, teaching from Tufts, and an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her first young adult novel, A Psalm for Lost Girls, is coming from Penguin/Putnam in 2017. Find out more about Katie here.

For more information about upcoming teen camps, click here.