People

Allegra Martschenko

Allegra Martschenko headshot

About

Hi, I’m Allegra, a senior in the Architecture Department with certificates in Urban Studies and Creative Writing. Here are the things I love: Young adult literature, consuming ungodly amounts of fairly bad television, sometimes knitting, sometimes being very very bad at games like League of Legends.

I came into Princeton with zero creative writing class time. I mean yeah, I’d read a lot as a kid, so I’d tried to write, and wanted to be an author, but what I had produced was weak and unstructured. I knew how to type words; I didn’t know how to tell a story. I took a class because I wanted to try, and luckily that’s all you need: to be willing to try. Writing is a learned skill, not just some great and innate talent; if you want to get good at it, you absolutely can.

You don’t have to end up getting a certificate from the Lewis Center or dedicating your life to its programs. No matter your major I think it’s worth it to just try out a class. Creative writing workshops make you better at editing and writing essays, making your papers compelling stories, looking at the world as if everything in it, every ordinary and extraordinary thing, is a story worth pausing on. That’s pretty important, I think. Life needs joy.

Anyways, like I said I’m a die-hard young adult literature fan and will bring up my favorite novel Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor (read it) in conversations with complete strangers just because. Those books you used to read in middle school/high school? Hunger Games? Divergent? Even…Twilight? I’m still reading stuff like that. I’m still reading for fun; I just now have the skills to also read it for its craft. Hit me up if that’s your stuff, I’m always down to talk about the latest and greatest in YA, debate the merit of YA (it’s not trash!), and talk about navigating free time at Princeton (or navigating Princeton in general). And I’m always, always here to talk about what I’ve learned about how my identity and sense of place intersects with the arts at Princeton.

Class of '20

Program in Creative Writing

Residential College

Forbes