It's Personal Writing Institute

IT'S PERSONAL writing institute for teen girls ages 14 to 17  is a workshop is led by Ms. Jonetta Rose Barras and presented by Esther Productions, Inc. 

If things happening in your life you want to write about?

Are you preparing a biographical college admission’s essay?

Are you writing for fun and want to improve?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, then IT’S PERSONAL is for you.

Learn how to structure a personal essay, using a variety of styles and approaches.

Learn how to effectively use lively, descriptive language to tell a compelling narrative. 

Guided by award-winning author Jonetta Rose Barras in writing about events in their lives or preparing a college admissions essay or preparing a work of creative nonfiction for fun.  

Ms. Jonetta Rose Barras is an award-winning journalist and best-selling author. She has more than 20 years experience reporting and commenting on national social, political, and cultural trends, including as an opinion writer with The Washington Post, Washington Examiner and Washington City Paper.

Ms. Barras hosted her own weekly radio show on the 50,000-watt WPFW-FM radio in Washington, D.C. Following that stint, she served for more than six years as the political analyst for NPR affiliate WAMU-FM radio, where 75,000 individuals listened each week to her. She also has appeared on CBS (60 Minutes), C-SPAN, CNN, PBS (This is America with Dennis Wholey) and Fox News Channel’s The O’Reilly Factor.

Ms. Barras founded Esther Productions Inc. in 2004 after the publication of her Black Board bestseller Whatever Happened to Daddy's Little Girl: The Impact of Fatherlessness on Black Women (Ballantine 2000, hardcover—2001, paperback). She has spoken at more than two-dozen national and international conferences and symposia, and many consider her the foremost authority on the affects of father absence among girls and women.

Understanding the need to offer solutions to Esther Productions Inc.’s target audience of fatherless girls and women, Ms. Barras wrote Bridges: Reuniting Daughters and Daddies (Bancroft Press 2005). That book is a step-by-step guide for girls and women hoping to reconcile with their fathers or simply to come to terms completely with the affects of father absence in their lives

Ms. Barras communication expertise combined with her management skills has made her a highly sought consultant. Through Esther Productions Inc. she offers her knowledge and experience to other nonprofit organizations and individual entrepreneurs.

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Ms. Barras has expertly used the art of personal essay to take readers inside her world, hoping to help them understand and assess important local and national issues. Her writings have appeared in the Washington Post, The Hillrag, The Washington City Paper, Essence Magazine and the New Republic. Ms. Barras has written three nonfiction books and two collections of poetry. Her fiction and essays have appeared in numerous anthologies and journals.

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