SARANE JAMES

YEARS AS MENTEE: 3

GRADE: Junior

HIGH SCHOOL: Bronx High School of Science

BORN: Bronx, NY

LIVES: Bronx, NY

MENTEE’S ANECDOTE: This year, Margo and I spent a lot of time reading work by other authors—women like Helen Ellis and Morgan Parker, whose command over words left us feeling awestruck. Inspired by them, we decided to go outside of our comfort zones and write from another author’s perspective. One of the stories from American Housewife inspired an amazing fictional email chain packed with snark and passive-aggressiveness. While it was hilarious to look back at all the veiled insults we had written, it was also impressive that we managed to capture the voice of another writer—something I wouldn’t have tried alone.

MARGO SHICKMANTER

YEARS AS MENTOR: 3

OCCUPATION: Associate Editor, Doubleday Books

BORN: Lenox, MA

LIVES: New York, NY

MENTOR’S ANECDOTE: Seeing Black Panther together on opening weekend was a golden moment for us this year. In the week leading up to it we kept texting about how excited we were. Even sitting together in the theater was more fun than usual—it felt like we were part of a cultural moment. Afterward, I was so happy that this movie existed, in general, and for Sarane. We could not stop laughing when we both said at the same time that if she was any character from the movie she would obviously be Shuri, the princess who is also a tech genius.