Dear Simpsonistas, 

We are pleased to announce that Julayne Virgil, CEO of Girls Inc. Alameda County has been named the 2021 Simpsonista Award Recipient. The Simpsonista Award honors extraordinary people and organizations that give voice to writers and storytellers across the generations. Julayne has long been a staunch, eloquent advocate for girls, women, health, education, and stronger communities. She is a champion of the writing of girls who tell powerful stories of their lives, and we are honored to celebrate the remarkable Julayne.

Julayne graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and holds a master’s degree in public administration from the Sol Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California where she previously served on the Alumni Association Board of Directors. She serves on the boards of Educate 78 and San Francisco University High School where she is also President of the Alumni Association. Julayne is an Oakland native who returned with her husband to raise their daughters in her beloved hometown.

Under Julayne’s guidance, Girls Inc. Alameda County became the first institutional partner of the New Literary Project in 2017. Since then the Project, in concert with the UC Berkeley English Department, has led six writing workshops, offered free of charge, for ninety girls who aspire to be first-generation college students, many of whom went on to be published first-time authors in Simpsonistas: Tales from the New Literary Project Vols 1, 2, & 3. 

The success and growth of these young writers is evidenced in the work they have produced in The New Literary Project’s Simpson Workshops. Consider this excerpt from Esmeralda Pedroza’s poem Untitled:

People may ask, what is the true meaning of life?
What is the purpose of the ocean, sun, and all of God’s creations?

Seeking help in a world full of loss, 

In desperation, I gaze at God’s creations. 

Blank stares but no answers to all my questions, 

Silent as a forgotten melody.

I lie there helpless

The wind blows against my face, 

Closing my eyes, I lose all my fears.

The humid sand is soft beneath my feet, 

I watch time fly as the waves crash into the rocks.

As the birds soar in the clear blue sky, 

As the sun begins to set, the skies cry, 

In red, yellow, and orange shades of tears.

The sun shines through the clouds like a seashell in the sand, 

The sun-kissed yellow glow makes me feel safe, creating warmth. 

In the unforgettable words of Toni Morrison, “the world may be bruised and bleeding,” and of late it is literally on fire, but that is “precisely the time when artists go to work.”

Working alongside you,

The New Literary Project
Ashley, Diane, and Joe