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Many aspiring young adult writers fall into the same tempting trap: not taking teenagers seriously. Stranded in adulthood, we look back on our high school days with shimmery longing or a vague nausea, and watch the new generation of teenagers, thinking, I was never like that.

Though the world continues to change at a breakneck pace, you don’t need to study TikTok or memorize lingo to write for teenagers. In this two hour workshop, we’ll use parts work to identify different versions of ourselves throughout time, and open a dialogue with each of them. These intimate writing exercises will move you through memory to help remember what it’s like to be a teenager—and practice enthralling your audience across age-lines.

Kelsey Day is an Appalachian poet and author of the young adult novel The Spiral Key, forthcoming from Viking, Penguin Random House in February 2026. Their writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Orion Magazine, Aeon, Freeman’s, and beyond. They are a recipient of the University of Chicago’s Young Memory Fellowship and the International Women’s Writing Guild Fellowship, as well as a grant recipient of the Boston Art OpportunityFund. Kelsey’s book will be available for purchase the day of class. The day following this class, March 20, 2026, join Kelsey for a book event at Firestorm Books just across the street from the FWR.