KidsWrite! Director, Lindsey Salatka

Lindsey Salatka is the Director of the KidsWrite! Children’s Writing Contest. She is also an award-winning author, editor, and ghost-writer. Her debut novel, Fish Heads and Duck Skin was published on July 20, 2021 by She Writes Press. Her writing has been featured in Shanghai Family Magazine, Urbanatomy: Shanghai, Art in the Time of Unbearable Crisis, Zibby Mag, and volumes 3, 4, and 5 of Shaking the Tree: Brazen. Short. Memoir. Her essays won a coveted space in the San Diego Memoir Showcase in 2020, 2021, and 2022. She looks forward to reading the exceptional work of the young writers of San Diego. www.lindseysalatka.com

KidsWrite! Judge, Jen Laffler

Jen Laffler is an award-winning poet, author, and educator who firmly believes that there’s genius in every one of us.  Her children’s book J is for Jitterbug: A Fanciful Animal Alphabet, illustrated by Tony Perrin, was published in 2016.  Jen has published more than a dozen poems in journals, magazines and anthologies.
Jen served as Director of Children’s Programming for the inaugural San Diego Writers Festival and directed the KidsWrite! San Diego Children’s Writing Contest for three years. 
Jen believes that there is nothing quite like poetry — the right words at the right times — for creating deep and joyful connection between people; and that fresh young minds are naturally gifted at this kind of connection-making.  Her favorite children’s poem just might be “Smart” by Shel Silverstein. www.jenlaffler.com

KidsWrite! Judge Tania Pryputniewicz

Tania Pryputniewicz is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She is the author of the poetry collection, November Butterfly (Saddle Road Press, 2014). Recent poems appeared in America, We Call Your Name: Poems of Resistance and Resilience and The Rockvale Review. A poetry instructor at San Diego Writers, Ink, Tania also has had the honor of teaching writing workshops to middle school children in the San Diego area. She lives in Coronado with her husband, three children, one blue-eyed Husky and a formerly feral cat named Luna. http://www.taniapryputniewicz.com

KidsWrite! Judge Dr. Puja Shah

Puja is a visionary poet who shares her voice through written and spoken word, guided meditations, and teaching. Born in Queens, New York to immigrant parents, she defied teachers who questioned her English skills by winning countless poetry and short story awards in her youth. With over 10 years of nonprofit experience and a long public health career, she has created a campaign aligned with girls rights awareness causes for her multiple award winning novel, For My Sister. 

KidsWrite! Abby Vail

Abby Vail is a Middle Grade author from Pennsylvania. The stories she loves to write most often are spooky with a mental health flare, giving kids a fun and escapist way to explore both fictional monsters and the all-too-real ones that live in our minds. She’s active in a Middle Grade writing group and has been mentored by author Sylvia Liu. Outside of writing, Abby is a mother, musician, and enjoys painting murals all over her home. 

KidsWrite! Judge Christiana Doucette

Christiana Doucette is a poet and Middle Grade author from South Carolina. She grew up loving e e cummings, Jack Prelutsky, and Shel Silverstein. And then grew into loving works by Sarah Teasdale, Mary Oliver, and Osip Mandelstam. One of her poems has been set as an art song by Opera Composer Mark Buller, and another published in 2021 as part of a Cardigan Press anthology. Christiana is currently revising a Middle Grade novel-in-verse under the mentorship of Joy McCullough. When she isn’t playing with words, she enjoys building baking soda and vinegar volcanos, or mixing together Ooblek with her three daughters, or biking with her family along the Swamp Rabbit Trail. Christiana loves the way word sounds can make you picture a moment. And she loves when words play with several meanings in the same line.