NYWIFT Salon Conversation: An Evening with Women Authors

NYWIFT kicks off the summer by bringing our community together to celebrate creators across all mediums.

Come meet writers with a lifelong impetus to use their storytelling ability and take pen to paper in nonfiction and memoir. Join us to hear about their ambitions, journey, how they got started, and what they learned along the way regarding the creative process. Authors will also share industry insights from their publishing journey and what is next for them.

Speakers include Zenaida Mendez, Rossana Rosado, Denise Tomasetti, and Tèja VanWicklen. Moderated by former NYWIFT Board Treasurer Gretchen McGowan.

DATE:
Tuesday, June 23, 2026

TIME:
7-8:00pm ET (Panel Conversation with Audience Q&A)
8-8:45pm ET (Reception and Book Signing)

LOCATION:
Stuart Cinema & Cafe (37-18 Northern Blvd, LIC, NY 11101)

PRICE:
Free for NYWIFT Members
$10 for nonmembers*

Register

*Discount is applied upon login. Not a member yet? Email membership@nywift.org and we’ll expedite your membership so you can attend for free. 

 

 

 

Meet the Authors:

Zenaida Mendez is the Chief External Affairs Officer at Manhattan Neighborhood Network (MNN), author, President of National Dominican Women’s Caucus (NDWC), as well as a pioneer leader in community media, public service, and civic advocacy. Her journey with public access television began in the early 1990s as an MNN community producer, reflecting a lifelong commitment to amplifying underrepresented voices. She co-produced two short films: Clandestiny & Coffee and a Donut. From 2015 to February 2025, Zenaida served as Director of MNN’s El Barrio Firehouse Community Media Center.

Zenaida is the author of AMOR Y DESAMOR DE LA DIÁSPORA (LOVE & HEARTBREAK OF THE DIASPORA), a work that reflects her deep engagement with culture, identity, and the lived experiences of diasporic communities. Ms. Mendez has served on the boards of Directors of multiple organizations among them the New York Women in Film & Television (NYWIFT), and is currently serving on the board of the Harlem SGL-LGBTQ Center.

Zenaida received many awards for her work, among them the Jewel Ryan White Award for cultural diversity from the Alliance for Community Media. In 2022 Zenaida was awarded the Medal of Merit as an outstanding Dominican woman living abroad (diaspora) by the President of the Dominican Republic and the Ministry of Women in Santo Domingo.

 

Rossana Rosado is a journalist, writer, educator, and fierce champion of justice. Born and raised in The Bronx, her journalism career spanned over 30 years in New York media and included stints in radio, and television.

She was the first female Editor, and then Publisher & CEO of El Diario La Prensa, the oldest Spanish language newspaper in the country. As a young reporter she covered City Hall and wrote many stories about the challenges faced by Latino New Yorkers.

She has a Journalism degree from Pace University and master’s in criminal justice from John Jay College where she was Distinguished Lecturer, and taught courses in four NYS prisons. During her media career, she earned an Emmy Award, a STAR Award from the NY Women’s Agenda, and a Peabody Award for Journalism.

Presently, she is a commissioner in New York State overseeing Criminal Justice Services. Previously, she served as New York’s Secretary of State. Her passions are leadership, justice, women and her family.

Rossana’s memoir BRONX ATTITUDE is a celebration of family, traditions, heritage, and good old hardcore New York City hustle. From her Bronx childhood to a seat at the table in New York’s iconic boardrooms, Rossana demonstrates how Latinas lead.

 

 

Denise Tomasetti, a born-and-raised New Yorker, built a successful career as a businesswoman in New York City. Yet beyond her professional achievements, Denise experienced a life-changing revelation about dating that would transform the way she viewed relationships forever: Food Talks.

After more than 20 years of dating, Denise realized that many of the answers she had been searching for were sitting right in front of her—across the dinner table. Through countless dates, relationships, heartbreaks, and lessons learned, she discovered that food is far more than something we eat. It is a window into a person’s character.

The way someone orders a meal, treats waitstaff, handles a disagreement, shares food, or engages in conversation can reveal valuable clues about their values, emotional intelligence, generosity, respect, and relationship potential. These seemingly small moments often tell a much bigger story.

In FOOD TALKS! HOW TO STOP WASTING TIME ON THE WRONG DATE, Denise shares her unique and entertaining approach to decoding dating behavior through food experiences. Readers will learn how to recognize red flags, identify green flags, avoid unnecessary heartache, and make smarter dating decisions with confidence.
Because when you learn to listen, Food Talks. And when it does, you’ll know how to lose the losers, keep the keepers, and stop wasting time on the wrong date.

 

 

Tèja VanWicklen is a writer focused on reimagining self-defense for women and parents, and a consultant specializing in realistic violence depiction for writers and filmmakers. She coined the term “protective offense” to emphasize that we may be called on to protect children and loved ones (not just our “self”) and that to do this we must embrace the empowering concept of strategic “OFFense”.

Teja has studied multiple martial arts, edged-weapons, firearms, wilderness survival, biomechanics, and health, and has seen self-defense though many lenses: as a neglected, neurodivergent child raised around drugs and violence, an instructor, personal trainer, EMT, and mother. Teja has trained with elite military and law enforcement personnel. As manager of Art of War, an international stunt performance team, Teja oversaw major events, including the Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, and The Matrix: Reloaded premiers in NYC and LA. She assisted the choreographers on films like The Hunted, starring Tommy Lee Jones, and Confessions of Dangerous Mind, starring George Clooney. Teja has won several grand championships, been featured in magazines, and interviewed for TV. Her screenplays have won awards and her short stories have been published in literary magazines (as Teja BenAmor). REIMAGINING WOMEN’S SELF-DEFENSE is Teja’s first book. 

 

 

Gretchen McGowan (Moderator) is an award-winning producer and the head of production for Goldcrest Features in New York where she oversees titles such as Carol and Restrepo. Gretchen has collaborated with Sebastian Junger on five films, most recently as a producer on the documentary features Hell of a Cruise for Peacock and the Emmy Nominated 64 Days. She produced Paramount’s Emmy Award winning The Fire That Took Her and in 2025 and the Oscar shortlisted Once Upon a Time in Ukraine.

Gretchen independently produced Jim Jarmusch’s The Limits of Control in Spain for Focus Features and she produced American Swing for Magnolia Pictures. She line produced the Oscar nominated Dancemaker, Buffalo ’66, Two Girls and a Guy, American Psycho and Heavy.

While head of production with Mark Cuban’s HDNet Films, Open City Films and Blow Up Pictures, Gretchen supervised over 25 features including Brian De Palma’s Redacted, Alex Gibney’s Enron, Zoe Cassavetes’ Broken English, Steven Soderbergh’s Bubble, Nicole Holofcener’s Lovely and Amazing and Jim Jarmusch’s Coffee and Cigarettes.

Last year, Gretchen’s career memoir, FLYING IN: MY ADVENTURES IN FILMMAKING was published with Post Hill Press. She is at work on several films and her first novel, WILD BLUE. Stay tuned!

Official partner:

 

Community Partner:

 

(All images courtesy of the participants)