Facilitators
The Young Writers' Endeavor runs on volunteer support so that young Baha'i writers around the world can continue to participate in the workshop for free!
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Nasim Mansuri
Co-Founder & Facilitator
Nasim Mansuri is a fiction writer, poet and journalist. Her work on entertainment, spirituality and community development has been published on Hypable.com, Tor. com, and BahaiTeachings.org (where she worked as editorial staff). Currently, she lives in Massachusetts and works as a freelance editor for journalists and novelists, as well as freelance technical writer. Oh, and she's also a food manufacturing plant engineering manager on the side. She has a BS in Chemical Engineering and Professional Writing, and she's engaged in establishing a strong junior youth and children's spiritual empowerment program with her local community. You can find out more on her website.
Nasim started the Young Writers' Endeavor in 2019 to learn more about how youth can combine their writing talent with the civilization-building vision of the Baha'i Faith.
Hope Krummell
Co-Founder
Prospects were bleak in 2019, when Nasim Mansuri sent out a cry for help on her Facebook wall, seeking support for the Young Writers' Endeavor. Entire hours had passed and the comment section remained a barren wasteland. Despair was sure to be sinking in at this point. One could say that, with a single comment, a beacon of Hope emerged from the cyber heavens and changed the course of Nasim's story... Thus began the Young Writers' Endeavor.
On a serious note: Hope is studying at Western Governors University and serving full-time in her neighborhood in Colorado. She loves all arts but has a soft spot for poetry.
Jackson Jopling
Facilitator
Jackson has a BA (hons) degree in History with Theology and Philosophy. He is 100% British. Being from the south of the island, he's a Celtic descendant. His passion for writing comes from Cornish (homeland) landscapes, love of gothic fiction, comic books and poetry.
Jackson moved to Brazil in 2019 to pioneer after getting married to an amazing coastal Ecuadorian. He currently works as an English tutor teaching kids and adults in China, Taiwan and Japan. Since he moved to South America, he adopted two dogs and two cats: 2 Argentinians and 2 Brazilians to make a team and give some spice and love to life. Jackson joined to Young Writers' Endeavor after Hope Krummel visited him in Brazil and invited him to participate.
Ron Lapitan
Facilitator
Ron Lapitan is a junior youth animator and webcomic artist living in Virginia, US. His series, "A Baha'i Comic," explains Baha'i principles in short illustrations, and his series, "Ron's Baha'i Comics," features short comics about friends of different beliefs learning about their common values, or about the experience of Baha'i youth. Both can be found on Webtoon.com. He also wrote a book of short stories, "We Laughed: A Baha'i Youth's Diaries about Religion, Diversity, Change, & Growing Up."
Chloe Liu
Facilitator
Chloe began her artistic journey as a toddler when she covered her walls with crayon. Her love for the arts has expanded ever since. She grew up in Beijing and moved to New York City seven years ago. Dealing in all things visual, Chloe is an aspiring filmmaker, screenwriter, illustrator, and 2D animator. She is currently studying film and television at NYU with a focus in animation. It is her dream to tell meaningful stories to children and reignite childlike hearts in adults.
At The Young Writers' Endeavor, she hopes to bring her insights into fiction and writing for visual media. She is excited to see the spiritual light shine through in young writers as they embark on this endeavor!
Juliet Monireh Bogan
Facilitator
Juliet Monireh Bogan is a storyteller, artist, writer, and performer currently studying at Barnard College. Juliet writes graphic novels, novels, scripts, and, when she's feeling particularly emotional, very moody poems. She enjoys watching people on the subway, and sketching in the park. She loves animating junior youth groups. In her work, she draws heavily on Baha'i conceptions of justice, truth, friendship, and the union between body, soul, and nature.
Juliet has worked as a freelance artist and graphic designer, and is currently working on a comic book zine in collaboration with her university. She has also performed in multiple theater productions including Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing and Lorca's Yerma, in which she played an independent young woman and an independent old lady respectively, which she would say are pretty good reflections of her real-life self.
2022 Collaborators
The Young Writers' Endeavor is thankful to have the support of professional Baha'i writers who help us develop our curriculum and facilitate key events.
Andrea McLean
Songwriting, Poetry, and Performance
An emerging artist and ongoing student of the arts, Andrea McLean studied voice performance at the University of Waterloo as a music major. She now lives in Toronto, Canada, and is working on a Royal Conservatory of Music Associate Diploma in voice performance while working as an apprentice voice teacher at Voices of Colour Music, and as the Education and Outreach Affiliate with No Strings Theatre.
Emiliano Morondos (DVRSL)
Hip Hop Artist
Baha’i-inspired Hip Hop artist and Emcee “DVRSL” (Diversoul) has been a participant in Hip Hop culture for 20+ years. Emiliano collaborated with other Bahá'í artists to produce the Hip Hop album “The 7 Cities,” inspired by The Seven Valleys by Baháʼu'lláh, and has also collaborated with FRMWRK, a Bahá'í-inspired Hip Hop collective which recently produced a series of songs inspired by the Universal House of Justice’s July 29, 2021 letter on eliminating racial prejudice.
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Esther Maloney
Writer & Multidisciplinary Artist
Esther Carmel Maloney is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, coach and educator. Her work as a storyteller includes performing with professional theatre companies, and a number of film and voice credits. Esther founded Illumine Media, a community-based film project connected with the Junior Youth Empowerment program in 2012, with which she has written and produced a dozen narrative films. Her short film, Another World, is a futurist pandemic-poem to her son, and is currently being featured in a number of film festivals. She is also the author of The Lovebird’s Freedom, a children’s book about grief and loss (Plant Love Grow, 2018). She has contributed articles on themes of community, land and motherhood to the Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail and Medium, and was a panelist on the topic of media and gender at the 2018 United Nations’ Commission on the Status of Women. Esther holds an MA in Education from the University of Toronto, and a BFA in Theatre Performance from Concordia University. She loves going on bike rides, building lego with her son and helping people make/write/dream things into reality.
Najee Brown
Playwright
Najee A. Brown can be described as nothing else than a young entrepreneur. After starting his media company, Mindlezz Thoughtz, in 2011 he has helped provide numerous resources to aspiring artists. In addition to running his own media and arts company, Najee Brown also produced his own music and has danced on every stage from the Apollo to Carnegie Hall. Most recently, Najee wrote and produced his play The Bus Stop, which sold out six times in New York City, and recently featured at the Seacoast Rep last summer. He co-wrote and directed the musical Glimmerings Of Hope, which premiered in New York City and toured Michigan in the spring of 2019. He also directed and choreographed the award-winning musical Henry Box Brown A Musical Journey, in Edinburgh Scotland in the summer or 2019. Brown oversees the “Sol,” series at Seacoast Repertory Theatre, which will focus on presenting Black, Indigenous, and People Of Color (BIPOC) narratives. Stokley and Martin and Nevaeh’s Brother, are his newest plays to premier at Seacoast Repertory Theatre.
Bahá’í Publishing Trust
Nonprofit
Established by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States at the instruction of Shoghi Effendi in 1955, the U.S. Bahá’í Publishing Trust (BPT) is a nonprofit business that functions under the aegis of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and receives its charter, as well as general and specific guidance, from the Universal House of Justice. This year, BPT is offering guidance to YWE participants who may be interested in pursuing publication.