Born and raised in Brooklyn, Torrey Maldonado is an acclaimed author and educator whose work impacts middle grade, young adult, and elementary school literature. He approaches thirty years teaching and has been celebrated by two NYC Chancellors as a top culturally responsive educator. Named “Best Books of the Year” by NPR, The Washington Post, Oprah, and the New York Times, Hands, What Lane?, Tight, and Secret Saturdays are inspired by his and his students’ lives. They're praised for their authenticity about friendship, family, and choices. Torrey contributes to anthologies alongside celebrated authors. Children’s literature celebrates his 2026 debut picture-book, Just Right, and upcoming picture-books.

Dr. Tracey T. Flores is an associate professor of language and literacy at the University of Texas at Austin. A former ELD and ELA teacher, she spent eight years serving culturally and linguistically diverse K–8 students, families, and communities in Glendale and Phoenix, Arizona. Her research examines Latina mothers’ and daughters’ language and literacy practices, the teaching of young writers in diverse classrooms, and family and community literacies. She founded Somos Escritoras/We Are Writers, a creative space for Latina girls (grades 6–12) to share and perform stories from their lives through art, theater, and writing.

In this special episode of NWP Radio, Stephanie Jones interviews Cara Furman, author of Teaching from an Ethical Center: Practical Wisdom for Daily Instruction, about bringing ethics, philosophy, and body-centered practices into teaching. They explore how children's literature can expand students' ethical thinking, the importance of care and love in teaching reading and writing, and how educators can honor their professional values while meeting institutional demands. This conversation offers teachers practical wisdom for nurturing both their students' and their own wellbeing in the classroom.

NWP Radio sits down with Katie Wood Ray and Stella Villalba to discuss the new edition of Wondrous Words, Katie's landmark 1999 book on responsive writing instruction. Twenty-five years later, the authors explore how teaching has changed—and why their message about writer agency, teacher decision-making, and the joy of teaching is more urgent than ever. In an era of mandated curricula and scripted lessons, they argue for a pedagogy of listening and kidwatching that treats students as writers making real choices, not just students completing assignments.

Hena Khan has been publishing books for children, including many that center Pakistani American and Muslim characters, for over two decades. She writes award-winning books in a multitude of formats, including picture books, middle-grade fiction, pick-your-path adventures, and graphic novels. Her stories are often centered around her culture, community, friendship, and family, and draw from her own experiences. Hena’s bestselling novels include Amina’s Voice and More to the Story. She is also the author of the Zayd Saleem Chasing the Dream, Zara’s Rules, and Super You! series. Hena’s acclaimed picture books include Golden Domes and Silver Lanterns, Under My Hijab, and It’s Ramadan, Curious George. Her most recent books include Bhangra Boogie and Dark Nights and Light Hearts. She holds an MA in International Affairs from The George Washington University.

Rhiannon Berry Adsit runs, bikes, swims, and writes whenever and where she can, gets unreasonably excited about beautiful trees, and has yet to meet a dog she didn't love. Born and raised in North Syracuse, Rhiannon graduated from LeMoyne College ('08) prior to earning her masters for Secondary English Education at Syracuse University. She taught at Liverpool High School for many years before moving to Lake Placid, where she currently teaches English and Creative Writing. She is the editor of LOCALadk Magazine and is often exploring the mountains with her husband Eric.

Tony Weaver, Jr. is a storyteller who creates diverse worlds where every reader can find their place. His debut graphic novel, Weirdo, sold out of its first printing in seven weeks of publication, received multiple starred reviews, and was named one of the best books of 2024 by School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, People Magazine, The New York Public Library, and the Children’s Book Review. He was the first comic writer ever selected for the Forbes 30 Under 30, selected as a Flying Start by Publishers Weekly, and has attracted coverage from ABC, NBC, and The Huffington Post. Tony’s writing prowess has not only garnered him institutional accolades, but has built him a loyal following of over 1 million followers across TikTok and Instagram.Tony is currently focusing on promoting his Nerds For Literacy initiative and as well as his award-winning graphic novel memoir, Weirdo,

Valeriana Boadu is an educator, author, and storyteller. She was born on the Caribbean Island of St. Lucia to a family of ten children. She has been in education for over twenty-five years, teaching Geography, Language Arts, and Multilingual Learners. She is a television presenter and a published author. Her very first novel was a romance novel, which placed her in the top ten for romance writing and earned her a nomination by Foreword Reviews for excellence in writing. Since then, Val has published 11 more books—multicultural short stories and Language Arts textbooks to support writing in elementary and secondary schools.

Rob Walker is a journalist covering design, technology, business, the arts, and other subjects. He writes the BRANDED column for Fast Company and has contributed to The New York Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, The Atlantic, NewYorker.Com, Design Observer, The Organist, and many others. He is the author of The Art of Noticing (Knopf), and writes its spinoff newsletter of the same name. Walker is on the faculty of the Products of Design MFA program at the School of Visual Arts; he lives in New Orleans.

Kevin Hodgson teaches sixth grade in Southampton, Massachusetts, and is a teacher-consultant with the Western Massachusetts Writing Project.

James Fester has worked for more than two decades as a classroom teacher, instructional coach, technology director, and curriculum specialist. His writing spans many different areas and includes Edutopia, ISTE, and National Geographic. His most recently published book titled The National Park Classroom which focuses on how classroom teachers can benefit from the educational resources and experts connected to our national parks.

Maggie Delgado-Chernick is an English teacher at Twinsburg High School in Twinsburg, Ohio. She has enjoyed working with members of NWP-KSU at Kent State University and rangers at Cuyahoga Valley National Park on Write Out programming since 2019. Write Out's focus on place-based learning inspired Maggie to pursue additional research on student-led community-oriented projects and service learning. This research and the collaboration with Write Out colleagues led Maggie to create a course titled Writing for Civic Engagement at Twinsburg High School that focuses on getting students and their writing out of the classroom. In addition to other professional collaborations and cohorts, she contributed a chapter titled "Stories of Our Community: Podcasting for Place-Based Inquiry" for the 2024 text Place-Based Writing in Action: Opportunities for Authentic Writing in the World Beyond the Classroom, edited by Rob Montgomery and Amanda Montgomery.

About Write Out

Write Out is a free two-week celebration in October where we step outside the doors of our classrooms, homes, and workplaces to write and create. Learn more at writeout.nwp.org.

About The Write Time

The Write Time is a special series of NWP Radio, a podcast of the National Writing Project (NWP), where writing teachers from across the NWP Network interview young-adult and children’s authors about their books, their composing processes, and writers’ craft. You can view the archive at https://teach.nwp.org/series/the-write-time/

Derrick Barnes is a National Book Award Finalist for his graphic novel Victory. Stand!-Raising My Fist For Justice, which also won the YALSA Excellence in Young Adult Nonfiction Award, and a Coretta Scott King Award Author Honor. He is also the author of the critically acclaimed, multi-award-winning picture book Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut which received a Newbery Honor, a Coretta Scott King Author Honor, the Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award, and the Kirkus Prize for Young Readers. He is a native of Kansas City, MO, but currently lives in Charlotte, NC with his enchanting wife, Dr. Tinka Barnes, and their four sons, the Mighty Barnes Brothers.

Dr. Chandra Maxwell is a Lead English Language Arts teacher at David Wooster Middle School in Stratford, CT. She became interested in English Literature as a student at Central Magnet High School in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Through her English teacher, Mrs. Cynthia Fernandes, she learned about the power of intentional writing as found in the works of Langston Hughes and Lorraine Hansberry. As a result, Dr. Maxwell has done extensive research on equitable reading intervention programs for middle school students so that all students can be exposed to intentional reading and writing practices.