In June 2013, Caroline and Janet wanted to celebrate their birthdays in a way that would spark their creativity and help others jump-start their own creative lives. They conceived of The 18 Somethings Project, based on The Writing Salon introducing this framework to D.C., who then generously shared it with Janet.
We are quite grateful to the first participants for being our guinea pigs, to the people who have participated in all three editions, and to Victor Saad and The Leap Year Project for inspiration.
Caroline Kessler, based in Oakland, CA, is a poet, editor, and community creator who works at the intersections of language, spirituality, and organizing. She is the author of Ritual in Blue (Sutra Press, 2018) and holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Washington University in St. Louis, where she was a T.S. Eliot Scholar.
Caroline is the co-creator Index/Fist, a creative collective that (to this day!) publishes handmade magazines featuring the art and writing of people from around the country. She is also the co-founder of Ashreinu, the only independent kehilla (community) in the city of St. Louis. After graduating from Washington University, she was a 2017-18 Dorot Fellow in Israel. Her poetry and prose has been published or is forthcoming from Barnhouse, Echolocation, The Oakland Review, The McNeese Review, Quiet Lightning, and elsewhere.
Janet Frishberg writes fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. She’s working on a memoir about grief, writing, and friendship, which is represented by Kerry D’Agostino at Curtis Brown, Ltd. Janet is an Assistant Interviews Editor for The Rumpus.
Janet’s writing has been published in [PANK], Catapult, Electric Lit, The Rumpus, Hobart, No Tokens, and many other places. Her short story, “All The Secrets of the Universe,” was the top read story on Joyland West in 2018. Her flash piece, “I Don’t Know Where Exactly His Grave Is,” published by Cheap Pop, was nominated for Best Micro Fictions 2018.
She is not great at Twitter and is often trying to spend less time on Instagram. Find her most recent reading list here.
