Delmarva Today 6-4-21
Harold Wilson’s guests are New Voices of the Potomac editor Neal Gillen and contributing author Fatimah Iqbal. Fatimah Iqbal, reads and discusses her story “Under the Chelsea Lights.”
New Voices of the Potomac is a collection of stories written by five students at Winston Churchill High School in Potomac, Maryland. All of the authors are female and were either Juniors or Seniors at the time their work was published. All were participants in a writing group led by Neal Gillen. As I read through the collection, I was curious about what was on the minds of these young women during this year of the pandemic. What I found was surprising. In their writing these students display a mature openness to exploring very human emotions including the pain of separation, death, the possibility of physical aggression, fear, and the power of fate. As a bonus, there is a beautiful alternate ending to Sleeping Beauty that is moving on many different levels.