The MHS Writer's Den. Photo by Falyn Kelley.
The Writer’s Den is a place where MHS students are free to learn about and work on creative or academic writing.
Fiona Maurissette is the new advisor of the Writer’s Den. Maurissette was born in Jersey City, New Jersey. She graduated from Wellesley College and said that “[Wellesley] was a great learning environment and taught [her] how to be proud of who [she] is and gave [her] the tools she needed to be successful in what [she is] doing now.” She majored in English Literature and minored in History and took quite a few courses in religion.
Maurissette said she was “excited to come to Malden High and [she] has been an educator for ten years.” She started her career teaching high school students and has been teaching college students for the last three to four years and “wanted to get back to teaching high school students who are about to start their college journey.”
She started working at MHS in early February this year. Maurissette plans on doing a series of different types of writing, allowing students to submit poetry, short stories, essays, memoir pieces, or any type of writing the students “feel passionate about and [that really shows] who [they] are as a person.”
The publication this year is going to be called “Who Tells Your Story” a Malden soundtrack with seven sections. The sections are named after popular songs and soundtracks. The sections are Kendrick Lamar’s DNA, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton, India Arie’s “I Am Light”, Pink’s “Raise Your Glass”, Nina Simone’s Young, Gifted and Black, and Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “How Far I’ll Go” from Disney’s Moana.
Maurissette has been listening to a lot of music while she works on her own projects. She said “when [she] listens to [her] songs on Spotify…certain soundtracks really get [her] going… [she] listens to the same song on repeat and [she] wanted to bring that to Malden”. She chose what the sections would be called based on titles that would “speak to the population in Malden.”
She was really interested in bringing in “two loves of [hers], music and writing and [finding] other people who like to do that as well.”
English teacher Sean Walsh, who was a part of the process in hiring Maurissette, said his first impression of her was that he was “incredibly impressed by [Maurissette]’s creativity, enthusiasm, and passion for this work.” He added that “[Maurissette] brings a wealth of experience and vision to a space in the school that hopes to improve student voice and confidence.”
Walsh thinks the Writer’s Den will offer a “safe space for students to express his or her voice, as well as a chance to meet other creative students and to have student work published or become public.” He also hopes that the Writer’s Den will “focus on creation and a place for students, teachers, and educators to engage in the process of writing. [He] would love for [The Writer’s Den] to grow as a hub in the school and community for writers and writing.”
English teacher Robin Doherty, who was also a part of the process in hiring Maurissette, thinks “having the Writer’s Den is great and [she] thinks [Maurissette] is the perfect candidate to be the coordinator.” She explained how “[she] thinks [it is] awesome [that Maurissette] tries to make connections with the students [through] current music that [students] enjoy. [Being] able to write [about] [that] so important.”
The Writer’s Den is located in room B327 and Maurissette is there on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12:15-3:30.
