Fear that a person’s story has no value can hold any writer back.
“Everyone else’s story is like finding a one-hundred-dollar bill on the ground. Mine’s like finding a penny,” the boy wailed. As a visiting writer helping 200+ seventh graders write memoirs, I blew his mind by replying, “There’s your first line!”
Two core principles inform my practice as a writer, educator, and storytelling series producer: 1) Get the story out of your head so the reader can picture you in time and space, and 2) Your slice of life is as valuable as anyone else’s in the world.
Writing Workshops
I have designed and facilitated a wide range of college admissions essay writing, creative writing, and storytelling workshops for:
The Astoria Bookshop
The Center for Fiction
Eastern Kentucky University
Fairleigh Dickison University
Global Learning Collaborative High School
The Gloucester Writers Center
House of SpeakEasy’s College Readiness Program
Legal Outreach’s College Bound Program
Madison Junior School/ Madison Education Foundation
Palisades Convention Management, Inc.
Queens Public Library
The Spence School
Success Academy Charter Schools
Summerfuel’s CAP Columbia Program & Summerfuel Virtual
Sunnyside Arts
Sunnyside Plays
Woodhaven Neighborhood Senior Center/ Queens Council on the Arts
The Young Women’s Leadership School, Queens
Contact me at kjfitzsimmons@gmail.com to design a workshop that best fits the needs of your school, office, or organization.
Bio
Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons is a writer, educator, and storyteller who lives in Astoria, Queens. Her nonfiction work has appeared in (Re) An Ideas Journal, Human Parts, Humungus, Marie Claire, Hippocampus Magazine, and more. Her award-winning essay “My Timeline Stops March 10, 2020” is part of the charitable anthology The Corona Chronicle: Essays For New Yorkfrom Ellipsis Rare Books.
After a decade of supporting AP teachers and coordinators behind the scenes with the College Board’s Advanced Placement Program, she stepped back into the classroom. Now, she designs and teaches writing workshops for students of all ages.
Her specialty is helping high school students craft meaningful college application essays that highlight their unique character for admissions officers. She offers a series of group workshops as well as private coaching.
Kelly Jean earned an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Fairleigh Dickinson University. Combining her love for narrative nonfiction and theater, she created No, YOU Tell It!, a reading series that brings storytellers together to trade tales, speak each other’s words, and empower voices on the page and stage.
As a writing instructor and No, YOU Tell It! producer, she excels at generating a room filled with warmth and levity where writers of all levels can gain a new perspective on their personal stories.
