Ad Aster
By Aster Lit
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Ad AsterFeb 25, 2024
New Beginnings: Setting 2024 Writing Resolutions!
In 2024, how do we want to redefine the role of writing in our lives? According to co-hosts Kate and Emma, “I write, therefore I think, therefore I am”—as in, writing is the most fundamental catalyst and medium of new thoughts, ideas, and interpretations of the world. Join them as they explore writing as a mindset (a philosophy for directing attention and intention), set new year's resolutions (it's never too late!), and chat about how writing has evolved to intersect with other newfound interests.
INTRODUCTION TO QUANTUM THEORY by Franny Choi
Point At Which Parallel Waves Converge & From Which Diverge - Tin House
Asterisms: the Connections Between Writers (ft. Daniel Liu & Sunny Vuong)
Join Daniel and Sunny as they explore their friendship in the teen writing community—from their friendship origin story to being founders and Editors-in-Chief of teen writing magazines to meeting writers as people after reading their works intimately. Navigating the constellations of online competition, college matriculation, plagiarism, and gaining confidence in their work, Daniel and Sunny have a heart-to-heart about the joys and intricacies of growing together as teen writers.
Daniel Liu is a writer. He is the recipient of the 2023 Lin Arison Excellence in Writing Award. He was selected as the 2022 Foyle Young Poet of the Year by The Poetry Society and as a finalist for the 2022 Adroit Prize in both poetry and prose by Arthur Sze and Kali Fajardo-Anstine. He was a 2023 YoungArts National Finalist and has been recognized by the Pulitzer Center, Bennington College, Columbia College Chicago, and others. His works are forthcoming or have appeared in The Adroit Journal, Diode, Tinderbox, Sixth Finch and elsewhere. He is currently working on a collection on memory.
Sunny Vuong is a Scholastic Awards National Gold and American Voices medalist, and a scholarship winner with a Silver with Distinction medalist for her portfolio. She was the 2022-2023 second place winner for poetry in the Bennington Young Writers’ Awards contest. She is the founder and editor-in-chief of Interstellar Literary Review. Her work is featured or forthcoming in Diode, Strange Horizons, and Kissing Dynamite, among others. She currently studies molecular biology and English at Yale.
The Social Impact of the Writer (with Poupeh Missaghi): Trans(re)lation, Fragmentation, and Importance of Asking Questions
Join poet, editor, and translator Poupeh Missaghi as well as Ad Aster hosts Emma and Celina to reflect on her work. We discuss Missaghi’s book trans(re)lating house one, what it means to be a writer and reporter during times of violence and crisis, and how to subvert traditional narratives of backwardness and victimhood with aesthetics, form, and emphasis of questions over answers.
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- What is the role of the writer or artist in times of turmoil and crisis?
- What does it mean to translate(re)late? What should we keep in mind when joining together stories?
- What is lost in creating content for the “other”? How does one subvert expectations of “traumaporn” and victimhood in marginalized literature through questions, aesthetics, and form?
- What is the relationship between searching for the truth and searching for how to tell the truth? In what ways can fragmentation reveal a more accurate truth?
- What is the strength in revisiting questions and open ended text, in intentional form and style? How do we ask questions when we know there isn’t an answer? Is reporting/writing/exploration just a labyrinth of stories?
- How can young writers and artists explore and create for positive social change?
Poupeh Missaghi is a writer, translator, and editor. Her debut book trans(re)lating house one (Coffee House Press, 2020) is a hybrid investigation of the role of the witness through the frame of the 2009 protests in Iran. her second book Sound Museum, forthcoming from Coffee House Press in 2024, investigates the history of global torture enterprise. her translation of Nasim Marashi’s I’ll be Strong for You was published in 2021 (Astra House), and she has two other translation books forthcoming in 2023 and 2024. An assistant professor of literary arts and studies at the University of Denver and a faculty mentor at Pacific Northwest College of Art MFA, she is currently based in Denver, Colorado.
links
Poupeh Missaghi - Words Without Borders
Visual Spotlight: Some Artists on Developing a New Visual Language of Protest
The Many Voices of the Displaced
Navigating *International* Opportunities (Part II)
In part 2 of our series on writing competitions, Emma, Ari, and Daisy talk about how to find competitions and opportunities, submitting strategies, and introduce some international writing competitions in poetry, short stories, and more, with input from guest Anna Feng on her own experience winning a Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award.
In addition to the international contests mentioned in the episode, we’ve compiled a list of many others for you to explore! The link to that list is here. The transcript for this podcast episode is available on our website, asterlit.org. Listen to part 1 of this series on writing competitions wherever you get your podcasts.
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notable moments:
0:33 - Finding writing opportunities & how to connect with the writing world
10:44 - Submission strategies & advice
11:30 - Different approaches to writing & submission
16:05 - Introducing international contests!
27:45 - Guest Anna Feng on the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award
29:29 - Outro
links
Princeton High School Contests
National Youth Poet Laureate Program
Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes
Inktober (drawing)
Navigating Writing Competitions (Part I)
Join Emma and Daisy as they explore the application process for upcoming (U.S. based*) writing competitions! Listen to first hand advice and experiences from Bennington, YoungArts, and Scholastic Winners
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Mosaic of tips and reflections from past Bennington Young Writers Awards, YoungArts, and Scholastic winners
Joanna - Meaningful form (hermit poems!) (as a reformed STEM + Elon Musk stan)
Emily - “Someone should be able to pick up your piece off the ground and know that it’s yours”+ send what you love!
Kate - You learn a lot from the process of applying + last-minute submitting panic + Covid YoungArts experience
David - Be true to your craft and style
Emma - Slightly stealing mini jam from scholarship breakfast in NYC
Daisy - Contests or not, it’s all about the craft
notable moments:
0:25 - Meet Daisy!
2:12 - Bennington Young Writers Awards (international)
2:57 - Joanna Liu (2022-2023 Bennington YWA Winner in Creative Nonfiction)
9:50 - YoungArts Competition (US)
12:16 - Emily Pickering (2023 YoungArts Finalist in Creative Nonfiction)
15:46 - Kate Choi (2021 YoungArts Finalist in Play)
20:40 - David Chen (2022 YoungArts Merit Winner in Creative Nonfiction, 2023 Honorable Mention Winner in Creative Nonfiction)
26:28 - Scholastic Art & Writing Awards (US)
28:10 - Emma Zhang (2022 Scholastic Best in Grade and Gold Medal in Personal Essay & Memoir)
31:10 - Other contests
34:03 - Outro
links
Bennington Young Writers Awards (poetry, fiction, nonfiction | Nov 1)
Joanna Liu, “Diagnosis of Familial, Lateral Curvatures”
Ran Zhao, “How Did Li Bai Die?” (hermit crab poem)
YoungArts Competition (creative nonfiction, novel, play or script, poetry, short story, spoken word | Oct 13)
Emily Pickering, “Speak” (p. 71)
Kate Choi, “All’s in the Past Now” (p. 28)
David Chen, “Two-Faced” (p. 35)
David Chen, "Self" (p. 75)
Scholastic Art & Writing Awards (critical essay, dramatic script, flash fiction, journalism, humor, novel, personal essay & memoir, poetry, science fiction & fantasy, short story, writing portfolio for seniors | varies)
*Some other contests*
Leonard L. Milberg ’53 High School Poetry Prize
The Princeton Ten-Minute Play Contest
Columbia College Chicago Young Authors Writing Competition
The Adroit Prizes for Poetry and Prose
*P2 will include international comps + advice on finding writing opps!
“Lacuna" Exploring our Fall 2023 Theme—Gaps Within Literature, History, and Experience
Join Editor in Chief Emma Zhang and Managing Editor Celina Naheed as we discuss our literary magazine theme for fall 2023: Lacuna.
Originating from the latin etymon Lacus, meaning “lake,” the word Lacuna is defined as an unfilled interval, or gap; as in, a gap filled with water, like the ones in history, or like our perception of the world, translation, black-out poetry, the editing process, and the diaspora experience.
What does lacuna mean to you? Submit your own exploration to our Fall 2023 Issue of Aster Lit: asterlit.org/submit!
Pieces referenced:
Erasure in Three Acts: An Essay by Muriel Leung
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet-books/2021/11/erasure
Dispatch in Two Parts: The Arab Body Writes Itself In
https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/dispatch-in-two-parts-the-arab-body-writes-itself-in/
Winter Tangerine Skins Issue: http://www.wintertangerine.com/shedding-skins-toc
Someday I’ll love [Redacted] by Daniel Liu https://www.indigoliteraryjournal.com/issue-four/daniel-liu
Follow us on Instagram:
@ aster.lit
Or email us
general@asterlit.org
Submit to our fall issue: Lacuna by November 10th: asterlit.org/submit
Guidelines and details on the website.
If you have any episode ideas or feedback, please fill out this form: https://forms.gle/zyF2NWsBQ8qX8Cg36
The Joy of Writing: Hybrid Forms, Writing + Tech, Being Creative in a Competitive Society
Join Emma and Fiona as we talk to Lucy Zhang about hybrid writing, growing tech implications for the literary arts (or the lack thereof), self-teaching writing from works we admire, and how to have creative freedom in a competitive world and economy.
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- An interview with the incredible Lucy Zhang
- Hybrid form (aka the undoing of form), writing + technology meditations: the authors joy of expression
- Writing in a competitive/tech cooperate culture
- "Great writers steal, bad writers copy" — learning writing from training wheels, and what it means to have a literary voice
- The exploring of "Emotional Truths"
- Can writing/humanities be taught?
- Advice for young writers!
Lucy Zhang writes, codes, and watches anime. Her work has appeared in CRAFT, The Spectacle, Redivider, and elsewhere. Find her at https://lucyzhang.tech or on Twitter @Dango_Ramen.
Language, Literature, and Serendipity with Poet & Translator Sean Zhuraw
Getting Published as a Teen Writer with Ariana Thornton
Ariana Thornton is a teen poet, artist, and environmental activist whose many awards include being recognized as the poetry theme winner for Issue 5 of Aster Lit! Today we chat with Ariana about her journey as a storyteller, how she self-published her chapbook Creation Stories while in high school, and her advice to young writers wanting to get their work published and shared with a wider audience.
Writing, Remembrance, and Truth
Do we write to remember or do we remember in order to write? To what extent do we change our memories to write better stories? How does writing filter and dictate what matters enough to be remembered? Join Zara and Emma for an episode of reminiscence and existential musings as we explore the relationship between writing and memory, inspired by our Fall 2022 theme: remembrance.
It’s About Time! (Literally): Making Peace With and Questioning the Concept of Time in Literature and Beyond
Reflecting on the Writing Community
Hi Asterisks! We hope that you're all doing well! In this episode, Maddy, Abby, and Emma discussed their experiences on the teen writing world and reflected on some lessons they've learned. Whether you're just beginning to enter competitions and programs or a veteran of the teen writing community, this episode will definitely have something you relate to.
Shattering Echo Chambers and Building Community Creatively with Sophie Beren, Founder & CEO of The Conversationalist
If you ever want to have an incredible conversation about having incredible conversations, Sophie Beren is your girl! She is the founder and CEO of The Conversationalist, a multimedia digital platform empowering 15,000+ Gen Z leaders to break out of their echo chambers, have difficult conversations, and unify together. Through The Conversationalist's Gen Z Talk Show, "POVz"; their digital network on the Geneva app; and their text line, Sophie is helping unifying diverse young people from across the globe, once voice at a time. Sophie was recently recognized for her work as a 25 Under 25 by Social Entrepreneurs Magazine and 21 Womxn Entrepreneurs to Watch in 2021. Today, Sophie chats with Liz, Abby, and Hesandi about her journey from Kansas to the University of Pennsylvania to starting the Conversationalist, why echo chambers matter, and how writing and art can be used to build unifying communities.
Ringing in the New Year!
Hello Asterisks, long time no see! We hope you've had a great 2022 so far. In this episode, Caroline, Hesandi, and Maddy shared their New Year's Resolutions and plans they hope to accomplish in the new year. Join us as we discuss how to balance all of your goals (and provide some tips for your resolutions too!)
Productivity & Writing (and How To Avoid Burnout)
Hi Asterisks, and welcome back to the 11th episode of Ad Aster! Today, Maddy and Liz discussed productivity and writing, fall, English classes, and college applications (dun dun dun!!) Join us as we discuss how to avoid writer's block and burnout or if you want some tips to remain engaged and in love with writing.
Diversity and Inclusion with Binaka Norris and Diversify Our Narrative
Unraveling the Myth of Impactful Creative Writing (mini episode!)
Interviewing Christina Li, Starlit Award Winner in Prose
Christina Li is a young writer from Canada and the inaugural winner of Aster Lit's Starlit Award in Prose. Her winning story, "Always Human," can be read in Issue 1 (Spring 2021) of Aster Lit at https://www.asterlit.org/spring2021. Today we chat with her about the inspiration behind her writing, her experience as a member of the Aster Lit community, and her favorite books. We hope you find this interview enjoyable and insightful, particularly as you consider submitting your prose or poetry to Issue 2 of Aster Lit (Summer 2021) by May 20 at https://www.asterlit.org/summer2021/submit!
Finding Your Way in a Competitive World
Hello Asterisks, and welcome to our seventh episode! Join us as we discuss the drawbacks of competition in many facets of our lives and our tips for surviving and thriving in this culture. If you're a young writer, teenager, or person in general, you'll find yourself relating to at least one of the topics we discuss here. Join hosts Maddy, Hesandi, Zoe, and Liz as they conquer competition and show you how you can too!
Interviewing Poetry Icon Rhiannon McGavin
The Joy of Winter Holidays
A Litany of Self-Care Lessons for Young Writers
Hey Asterisks, it’s been a while! We’re so excited to share Part 2 of our "Litany of Self-Care Lessons" series (alliteration ftw!). If you're a young writer, high school/college student, or general human being who is struggling to find motivation during the pandemic -- never fear, Ad Aster is here! In this episode, you'll learn our top 10 self-care tips to improve your mental health, productivity, and overall happiness during COVID-19 and beyond. Join hosts Maddy, Nafira, and Caroline as they describe their personal journeys with self-care and celebrate the unparalleled joy of dancing in the street!💃
--> Connect with us on Instagram!
--> Check out all our socials, open submissions, & other opportunities here.
A Litany of Self-Care Lessons with National Youth Poet Laureate Meera Dasgupta
Welcome to Ad Aster’s third episode, and join as we discuss the importance of self-care not only as writers, but as youth living in these strange and usual times. This week we welcome our first guest Meera Dasgupta, the U.S National Youth Poet Laureate! As an avid spoken word artist and the youngest/first Asian-American National Youth Poet Laureate, Meera’s performances have been featured by PBS, Apple, the Apollo, the United State of Young Women, and many more. Listen to us interview Meera about her self-care tips as a youth writer and activist, as well as our own tips on how to take care of your well-being. Stay tuned for Part 2 of our self-care series!
Self Care Playlists :) Caroline’s Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5WT4U6Po4VBhG5f3tFqJJf?si=6ZsFMIHpThK9JrIhjjz8ew
Maddy's Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0igdb4TYlgPmCRjJOKzdP0?si=w-KQsx6BT7ydS0CbqGV4xg
Cross-cultural Constellations
Join your hosts Celine, Hesandi, Caroline, and Liz as we discuss our unique experiences with culture as both minorities and majorities in our respective countries! Topics range from the importance of cultural representation in media and literary curriculum, to how culture impacts our writing, to how you can build your own cultural awareness and competence.
Be sure to check out Liz and Caroline's organizations!
Bridge to Literacy --> Instagram: @bridgetoliteracy | Website: https://bridgetoliteracy.com/
The World in Us --> Instagram: @the_world_in_us | Website: https://linktr.ee/theworldinus
The Origin Story
Ad Aster Trailer: Takeoff!
Introducing our podcast Ad Aster, an offshoot of Aster Lit! Come aboard as we traverse the creative universe together, interview published authors, and share our experiences as young writers from around the world. Stay tuned for the first episode!
Instagram: @aster.lit