About three weeks ago I returned to the U.S. from a Fulbright Scholarship. I spend a year teaching days, and writing nights–mostly for Rookie. Right now I’m nesting in Jersey City and working on my novel project, inspired by this difficult but interesting year in Poland. More news on that in the future, but also look out for some more awesome stuff coming up for Rookie in August!
The picture above is Allegra’s illustration from my short story “Running Errands” that ran in May. It’s about a teen boy losing his virginity and realizing it wasn’t quite what he wanted…
In May, my essay “I Against I” also ran with illo by Cynthia. I’m really proud of this essay as it expanded some things I was thinking about during my whole year abroad: creativity, loneliness, and the space inside your head where you exist solely as YOU, not the way other people see you, or you bounce off of them.
And finally…
What is not to love about this story “The Gray Girls”. Not only is it a collab (we each wrote a section) between me and fab Rooks such as Emma Straub, Jenny Zhang, Pixie Casey, and Maggie Thrash, my fellow Polish Rookie Marjainez and Emma Dajska collaborated on the illustrations! It’s also super creepy…I did the ending!
Monika Zaleska 