Waring Welcomes North Shore Young Writers Conference 

On February 7, 2025, Waring welcomed high school students from across the Greater Boston region to the 34th annual North Shore Young Writers Conference. More than fifty young writers from 11 different schools and three award-winning authors joined us on campus for a day of small group writing workshops and readings. The day culminated with students reading some of their pieces for the group and celebrating their accomplishments.

What Is the North Shore Young Writers Conference? 

The North Shore Young Writers Conference is an intensive writing workshop where peers and mentors can practice their love of poetry, short essays, creative writing, or personal essays. It is an ideal opportunity for students from across the region to unplug from social media for the day and write under the mentorship of accomplished writers. 

During this year’s conference, mentors led workshops throughout the day, gave advice on writing techniques and styles, mentored students, and shared their writings with workshop attendees. This year’s mentors included the talented writers January Gill O’Neil, Matthew E. Henry (MEH) and D. Eric Parkison. 

Our 2025 Mentors 

This year’s published mentors are accomplished writers who come to us with a wealth of experience and a passion for the art of writing that they hope to share with aspiring writers.

January Gill O’Neil

January Gill O’Neil is known for her artistry in writing along with her lyrical, narrative and uplifting poetry and writings. Some of her most recent publications include Glitter Road (2024), Rewilding (2018), Misery Islands (2014), and Underlife (2009), all from CavanKerry Press. She is an associate professor of English at Salem State University. 

Her accolades and fellowships include the 2022 Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award from the Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College for her poem “At the Rededication of the Emmett Till Memorial.” She has also received fellowships from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, Cave Canem, and the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund. Additionally, she served as the John and Renée Grisham Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi from 2019 to 2020. 

She can be contacted on Twitter/X: @januaryoneil, Instagram: @januarygilloneil or on Facebook: /january.oneil.

Dr. Matthew E. Henry (MEH) 

Matthew E. Henry is a speaker, poet and editor. Henry is a Boston-born author who has published the full-length collections the Colored page (2022), The Third Renunciation (2023), and said the Frog to the Scorpion (2024), and the chapbooks Teaching While Black (2020) and Dust & Ashes (2020), and the micro-chapbook have you heard the one about…? (2023).

MEH is the Editor-in-Chief of The Weight Journal, the creative nonfiction editor at Porcupine Literary, and an associate editor at Rise Up Review. His accolades include being the 2023 winner of the Solstice Literary Magazine Stephen Dunn Poetry Prize. 

Matthew E. Henry can be reached at MEHPoeting. 

D. Eric Parkinson

An accomplished poet, D. Eric Parkinson’s writings have appeared in The Squaw Valley Poetry Review, Zyzzyva, American Chordata, and Zymbol. His works include No Arcadia (2020) as well as Celebration, Flight Path and Incomplete Coronation. In 2022, he was awarded the Artist’s Grant in Poetry by the Massachusetts Cultural Council. 

Born in upstate New York, Parkinson received his MA in English from the University of Rochester and his MFA in Poetry from Boston University. He is currently the Director of Programming at the Gloucester Writers Center. 

He can be reached at poet@deparkison.com or at https://deparkison.com.

A Waring Tradition 

This year’s conference was a full day of writing, workshopping, sharing and working alongside experienced mentors. It was amazing to see young writers taking risks with their writing and learning from both the mentors and fellow conference attendees as they brainstormed and shared their techniques. Under the direction of Jill Sullivan, Writing Department Chair, the workshops, readings and performances were a huge success!