Meet our 2024 Creative Collaboration Fellowship Recipient

Erica Novack is a twenty-six-year-old single mother to a beautiful four-year-old girl. She currently resides in Danvers, MA. She graduated high school as the Peabody Learning Academy Student of the Year and was awarded a substantial scholarship by the Simon Youth Foundation to attended college. But life intervened. Erica is a sexual assault and domestic abuse survivor. As Erica is fond of saying, “Life is what happens while we’re busy making other plans.”

We asked Erica to share the genesis of her interest in writing.

I fell in love with books and writing from a young age because they offered a way to escape from the chaos and uncertainty of my life. Reading and writing gave me the feeling of peace and comfort that I so desperately needed at the time. My favorite book was The Two Princesses of Bamarre by Gail Carson Levine. It’s the story of a shy and frightened girl who has to be brave and overcome her fears to save her sister and their kingdom. I really resonated with the character of Addie because at her age, I too was extremely shy.

As hard as my formative experiences were to overcome, they helped shape me into the strong, brave, courageous, and bold woman that I am today.

I always thought I would write fiction and never dreamed I would write about my own life. I began my memoir with the goal of reaching out to women fighting battles similar to mine and letting them know they are not alone. Women who have experienced sexual assault and/or domestic abuse need to know it is possible to find the strength to leave and come out the other side standing taller than ever before.

We are excited to work with Erica on her memoir and have included as part of her fellowship the gift of a laptop to help her complete her work.

Each year, Christmas Lake Creative awards a fellowship to a talented writer ready to benefit from coaching and collaboration. We are thrilled to be working with Erica Novack in 2024 on her memoir.

Each year, Christmas Lake Creative awards a fellowship to a talented writer ready to benefit from coaching and collaboration. We are thrilled to be working with Jay Wong in 2023 on his first novel.

Jay Wong is a Fujianese-Chinese American writer, magician, medical student, college and medical school admissions advisor, and entrepreneur. Born on Long Island in Baldwin, New York, his family comes from Fuzhou, China. He is a member and advocate of the LGBTQIAP+ and low SES communities, a first-generation immigrant, and first-generation in his family to go to high school. Jay graduated as valedictorian of Baldwin Senior High School's Class of 2012. As a former Gates Millennium Scholar, he earned a merit-based full-ride scholarship to Yale University where he received his Bachelor of Arts with Distinction in Molecular, Cellular, Developmental Biology in 2017. Jay has also been the recipient of two academic fellowships: one in Advanced Chinese Language Studies completed with Harvard University and one in Advanced Japanese Language Studies completed with Stanford University. In 2019, he matriculated to the University of Michigan Medical School where Jay was awarded the school’s most distinguished merit-based full-ride scholarship for a dual-degree, the Dean’s Scholarship. As a Dean’s Scholar, Jay pursued an MD/MBA dual-degree and worked towards becoming an inventor of medical devices through the creation of a novel painless needle device that would make injections pain-free.

Jay has received several awards for his writing and has published numerous Op-Eds and creative nonfiction pieces in online medical publications such as KevinMD, as well as poetry in medical magazines like Auxocardia. Most recently, Jay won first prize on NPR National Public Radio’s storytelling segment, The Moth, at their StorySLAM competition in New York City, and is a GrandSLAM Championship finalist. Currently, he is working on his debut novel, and plans to apply to MFA programs in creative fiction writing in the future. 

NOTE: In the spring of 2024, Jay was accepted to Columbia University’s MFA Program for Fiction in the fall with a merit scholarship. Please join us in congratulating Jay and wishing him success!