The Telling Room’s 2023 Young Emerging Authors Book Launch
6:00pm, doors at 5:30pm
Meet The Telling Room’s latest published authors for an evening of poetry and prose as we celebrate these promising young voices in Maine’s literary community.
Authors Nazik Adam, Mo Drammeh, Calla James, and Atticus Prinn took part in a nine month fellowship with The Telling Room to write, revise, and publish their books with support from professional authors and writing mentors. Their publications feature a tale of two siblings, a haunting horror that becomes all too real, poems of healing and self-discovery, and a young adult adventure gone awry.
This event is free and open to the public, with the authors new books available for purchase. No registration is required.
About the YEA Fellows
Nazik Adam is a graduate from Deering High School and a Telling Room alum. Born and raised in Portland, Maine, Nazik likes to write poetry about Sudan. In her first debut short novel, she uses her poetic style to construct this intimate story in vignettes about a Sudanese family living in Portland, Maine.
Mo Drammeh grew up in Bangor, Maine, where he has lived all of his life, and is a senior at Bangor High School. In 2022, Mo won the 2022 Crime Flash Competition from the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance, and was named among Maine Magazine’s Mainers of The Year for his writing. Mo is a 2023 Macklin Fellow, and plans to attend the University of Maine to pursue a science degree and was awarded with full tuition for his project at the Maine State Science Fair. He plans to continue writing into the foreseeable future and a bit past that, too. He is currently working on the first installment of a planned superhero fantasy & high fantasy trilogy.
Calla James is a senior at Waynflete who spent the fall of their junior year at the Outdoor Academy in Pisgah Forest, North Carolina. There, they relearned to love being outside and in the absence of technology. Upon their return to Maine, they found ways to run around the woods any chance they got. Aside from adventuring and writing, they like to read, knit, and row. You can catch them looking for frogs in their stream or walking around Portland with their friends. In the fall, they’ll be starting at Carleton College to study creative writing and the environment.
Atticus Prinn is seventeen years old and lives in the small town of Yarmouth, Maine. Ever since he was little, Atticus has had a passion for creativity, crafting stories in a wide variety of mediums. This past year, Atticus has had the honor to be a part of the Telling Room’s Young Emerging Authors Fellowship, where he was able to write the very book you’re holding now. When not writing, Atticus enjoys spending time with friends and family, and loves reading books, listening to music, watching movies, and playing video games—all of which he uses as fuel in his storytelling.
About the Telling Room
The Telling Room empowers youth through writing and sharing their voices with the world. As a literary arts education organization focused on young writers ages 6 to 18, they seek to build confidence, strengthen literacy skills, and provide real audiences for Telling Room students. They believe that the power of creative expression can change our communities and prepare our youth for success both now and in the future.