2023 Connecticut Student Writers magazine and Recognition Night

Chandra Prasad is the author of the young adult novels Mercury Boys, a 2022 Connecticut Book Award finalist, and Damselfly, a racially diverse, female-driven survival tale published by Scholastic. Damselfly is used widely in schools as a modern parallel text with the Lord of the Flies. Her general fiction titles include On Borrowed Wings, another Connecticut Book Award finalist; Death of a Circus, which Booklist calls “richly textured and packed with glamour and grit;” and Breathe the Sky, a fictionalized account of Amelia Earhart’s last days. Prasad is the editor of—and a contributor to—the W.W. Norton anthology Mixed, the first-ever collection of short stories on the multiracial experience. Her shorter works have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, The Week, Teen Voices, School Library Journal, and in literary, arts, and poetry journals. Prasad is a frequent guest speaker on podcasts and at high schools, universities, and literary conferences. She is also a contributor to New Haven Noir, an anthology edited by Amy Bloom.

Books: www.chandraprasad.com (http://www.chandraprasad.com/)
Email: chandraprasadbooks@gmail.com (mailto:chandraprasadbooks@gmail.com)
Twitter: @chandrabooks
Instag
ram: @chandraprasadbooks
Facebook: @chandrabooks
TikTok: @chandrabooks

For our second live event since 2019, we will be implementing a few changes, some of which will likely be permanent and others which are hopefully temporary.

The event will be catered but offerings will be light.
Certificates will be distributed at Recognition Night rather than electronically. We plan to call names of honorees at Recognition Night but will NOT be calling students to the stage—OTHER THAN THE 13 INVITED SPEAKERS.
Likewise, the magazine will NOT be distributed in print at Recognition Night. The magazine WILL be distributed electronically as a PDF and WILL be available for download from our website. We would recommend for print copies that you use any of a number of online services, or even a place like Staples.
We WILL still have a keynote speaker–Chandra Prasad–and we WILL have 13 student speakers from grades K-12 who will read their work from the stage.
There WILL be parking in one or more of the parking garages on campus. Last year there was a flat rate of $5. Seniors, young kids, etc., can be dropped off in front of Jorgensen and then Mom or Dad can go park the car and walk over. Hopefully it doesn’t rain!
There is NO limit on the number of people who can attend. Jorgensen holds about 3000 and our largest pre-pandemic crowd was about 1600. Anyone can attend–siblings, teachers, grandparents, neighbors, the mailman. All are welcome.
Got questions? DO email us at cwp@uconn.edu. Do NOT call the office. We’re mostly working remotely.