Founder and Teacher

Jackson Pearce is the author of sixteen books for tweens and teens, including the Pip Bartlett's Guide to Magical Creatures series (Scholastic), the Ellie, Engineer series (Bloomsbury), and the Doublecross series (Bloomsbury). Her books are published in twenty-three languages worldwide and have earned multiple state and national awards.

Jackson teaches creative writing as a form of play—an activity to be enjoyed, experimented with, and shared. She often observes that students can be their own harshest critics and strives to remind them that every piece of writing, whether good, bad, or in-between, has value and can be fun.

Her classes are dynamic, informative, and engaging. Jackson genuinely loves helping students uncover or refine their writing talents. She encourages active participation, welcoming questions and discussions, and tailors her lessons to align with her students' unique interests, ensuring a meaningful connection to the material.

Teacher

Tiffany Schmidt spent seven years as a sixth-grade teacher and has also taught kindergarten, preschool, and worked extensively with middle and high school writers as a tutor. She holds a Master’s in Elementary Education and a B.A. in English, both from Lehigh University.

Tiffany is the author of nine novels for teens and tweens, including the Bookish Boyfriends series, the Hold Me Like A Breath series, and Once Bitten, Twice Dead from the Monster High series. She’s also the momma of three spirited Schmidtlets.

Her goal for her students is always to help them "Grow and Glow"—creating a safe environment to try hard, take risks, and feel proud of their accomplishments.

Teacher

Tracy Banghart is the author of several young adult books, including the Grace and Fury series (Little, Brown) and the Perfect Girl (Feiwel & Friends). She also writes picture books, such as Love Like Chocolate (Little, Brown).

With a BA in English from Davidson College and an MA in Publishing from Oxford Brookes University, she brings a wealth of knowledge and passion to creative writing. An avid journal writer, traveler, Girl Scout leader, Army wife, knitter, stained glass artist, and mom to two children and three pets, she is eager to share her expertise and experiences with others. She looks forward to writing alongside you!

Teacher

Saundra Mitchell is an award-winning and critically-acclaimed author of twelve novels, including The Vespertine, Shadowed Summer, and the Camp Murderface series. She's also the author of two non-fiction history books, and an editor of four anthologies—all for young people, including All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens throughout the Ages. She primarily writes for tweens and teens, and has spent the last fifteen years of her career fighting for the reading rights of young people, especially those from marginalized groups and backgrounds.

For almost twenty years, Mitchell was also the head screenwriter and an executive producer for Fresh Films, the largest filmmaking program for teens in the world. During her tenure, she wrote more than four hundred short films, half of which competed at film festivals all around the world. Ten earned Academy Award eligibility.

Mitchell also teaches creative writing and screenwriting to students of all ages, and enjoys reading, studying history, playing ttrpgs and video games, and spending time with her wife and daughters. After a lifetime in the midwest, she now resides in Maryland. Her pronouns are she/they.

Teacher

Emma K. Ohland has been telling stories since before she knew how to write them down. She grew up in the middle of a cornfield in Indiana, but her imagination often carried her away to other worlds. When she’s not writing, reading, or smelling books, she enjoys traveling, crocheting, D&D, and snuggling with her rescue greyhound. She is the award-winning author of Funeral Girl as well as her upcoming novel Here Goes Nothing, and her work is featured in the short story anthology Out There: Into the Queer New Yonder.

Before publishing, she was an admissions officer of a top 50 university where she read and made decisions on over 5,000 student applications. Along with writing, she is also a private college counselor where she helps students gain admission by crafting strong personal narratives utilizing storytelling techniques. Her students have been accepted into top schools such as the UCs, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, University of Michigan, UT Austin, Northeastern, and more.

Teacher

Jax McQueen brings nearly a decade of diverse teaching experience to the table, ranging from serving as an adjunct professor at two local universities to assisting in an elementary school classroom. Her background also includes providing personalized reading skills instruction and teaching English. She holds a B.A. in Communication Studies (with a minor in Writing for the Screen and Stage) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and an M.A. in Interactive Media from Elon University.

Beyond teaching, Jax is a freelance developmental editor who loves helping authors refine their stories to shine their brightest. As a hybrid author. She has self-published ten romance books for adults and is represented by an agent for her women’s fiction projects.

Jax is passionate about empowering her students to embrace their creativity and boldly share their stories with the world. When she’s not playing with words, she loves to travel, attend live events, explore different styles of dance, curate the perfect playlist, and eat all the desserts.