For the Sonorous
Meet the Mentors
Prose Mentors
Isabella Li│co-founder & co-director
Isabella Li is a student from North Carolina who is interested in using stories as a means of empowerment. She is a four-time National Scholastic Art and Writing medalist, and has been published by TRACK//FOUR, Moledro Magazine, Canvas Literary Journal, and more. She will attend Yale University in the fall.
Sandra Chen
Sandra Chen is a 16-year-old junior from California. She is a two-time national gold medalist in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards and a California Arts Scholar in creative writing. Her work can be found in the Vassar Review, National Poetry Quarterly, Ellipsis Zine, and Rising Phoenix Review, among others. As a young, Chinese-American female, she values the power of stories to tackle identity, heritage, and marginalization.
Valerie Wu
Valerie Wu is a Chinese American student in San Jose, California. She is a two-time National Gold Medalist in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Her writing promotes ethnic and social consciousness in contemporary society, and has been recognized by the National YoungArts Foundation, the Huffington Post, the Asian Pacific Fund, and more.
Poetry Mentors
Masfi Khan│co-founder & co-director
Masfi Khan is a student from New York. She is the founder and editor-in-chief of For the Sonorous. Her poetry has received national recognition from the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, Smith College, Gannon University, and Columbia College Chicago, and her writing can be found inThe Rising Phoenix Review and Eunoia Review, among others. She believes that poetry can embody the spaces that frighten and excite us, unravelling our authentic and vulnerable selfhood. She will attend Yale University this fall.
Lily Zhou
Lily Zhou is a rising freshman at Stanford University. Her writing has been recognized by the National Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, the Poetry Society of the UK, the National YoungArts Foundation, Gannon University, and Columbia College Chicago. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Best New Poets 2017, Tin House, Sixth Finch, Vinyl, Waxwing, The Adroit Journal, and NightBlock. She is interested in the ways in which poetry inspires empathy and serves as a vehicle for unconventional storytelling, especially with regards to mythology and surrealism.
Stephanie Tom
Stephanie Tom is a Chinese-American high school student living in New York. A Pushcart Prize nominee, her poetry has either appeared or is forthcoming in Rising Phoenix Review, the Blueshift Journal, Hermeneutic Chaos Literary Journal, and Tinderbox Poetry Journal, among other places. In addition, she has previously been recognized by the national Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, the International Torrance Legacy Creativity Awards, and the international Save the Earth Poetry Contest. She loves the bravery of the written word, all of the lives that can be shared with it, and all of the voices that it can speak for. She believes that writing is a sort of transformative magic that anyone can harness and learn as they grow. Currently, she is a blog contributor for Sugar Rascals and reads poetry for Venus Magazine, Red Queen Literary Magazine, and The Cerurove. She will attend Cornell University this year.