W.o.o.t.s.

Parents, friends, teachers and writers packed into Annie Bloom’s Books to see Wilson students read  poetry, prose, and drama written during the previous semester with a WITS writer-in-residence. The classes hosting a writer included Creative Writing, 3D Design, and US History. WITS writer Cindy Williams Gutierrez spoke of creating art from books and writing poems about them. Some of her students read poetry they had written in Spanish. Katie Schneider, the WITS writer in the history classes, shared a piece of work and a story about her own first reading. As always, the student’s pieces encompassed a full range of emotions, with audience members alternately murmuring in dismay and laughing aloud. Thanks to everyone who contributed to this reading!

On a freezing Monday night, students from Cleveland took the stage in the soft glow of TaborSpace and read their poetry, prose, and scenes from plays. Every seat was filled with parents, fellow students, and the WITS writers who worked with these students during the previous semester (Donna Prinzmetal and Matt Zrebski). The applause for each piece was thunderous, and the room fell absolutely silent as each student shared their work. We at WITS are so impressed by the talent displayed by these students and hope they’ll submit their work to be published in next year’s anthology (hint hint!). Thanks to all who made the reading a great success!

Students in Marie Pearson’s 3-D Design class at Wilson High School wrote puppet shows with WITS writer Cindy Williams Gutierrez and performed their plays (with the puppets they designed) for their next door neighbors at Rieke Elementary.

Are you a young artist looking to engage with your community? The Portland Art Museum’s Artist in Residence Lexa Walsh will be teaching a workshop called Socially Engaged Art Making that encourages students to explore the relationship between art and community.  This is a free 10-week course in which young artists will work in an array of formats, from public art, documentary, alternative education, and others.  The work produced will be influenced by youth culture and final projects will be a collaboration with local community partners.

Interested artists should email a CV outlining why they’d like to be in the course; they should include any collaborative experiences they’ve had.  Applications must be submitted to danae.hutson@pam.org by Feb. 1st.

For more information go to: http://portlandartmuseum.org/page.aspx?pid=439

It was certainly a 21st-century reading at Broadway books on Wednesday night, with students reading their comics projected onto a screen and playing radio pieces they had pre-recorded for broadcast. The pieces were produced in two residencies at Benson High School this past semester: graphic novelist Nicole Georges taught in Dave Mylet’s classroom, and journalist Emily Harris taught in Steve Naganuma’s broadcasting class.

With such interactive pieces, the audience had questions for students about the process behind their creating. Each piece had been inspired by an in-class assignment. One student from Emily Harris’ class told about selecting a “boring” item from a sack and then writing about it, in this case a rock. The subsequent broadcast piece was amazingly textured, with a sensory description of a rock that the audience could virtually smell and feel as the student described it. In Nicole Georges class, students chose “weird” headlines and created a comic about them. Again, students displayed impressive creativity, building a multi-page story around a deceptively simple phrase.

It was certainly an entertaining evening for everyone involved. Many thanks to Broadway Books for hosting and to all those who came and participated!

The December 8 WITS reading for Madison High School students was a great success.  An unprecedented number of Madison students, teachers, families and friends packed the BiPartisan Cafe to join WITS writers John Isaacson and Hunt Holman.  Cheers to the great audience and participants!

Madison English teacher Gene Brunak

On Tuesday December 6, Powell’s City of Books hosted the release party for the 2010-2011 WITS anthology of student writing, No One Carries an Umbrella Here. More than 130 students, family members and other community members came out to celebrate student writers reading their poems, plays, prose and comics from the anthology.

The above photo features Lincoln student Lexi Walker reading “A Voice That Darkened with Age.”  Audience members may have recognized another student writer, Jin Mei McMahon from Cleveland High School, who read a piece titled “Her Logic.”  Jin Mei was this year’s winner of the Glimmer Train Prize for Prose.  She “opened” for biographer Stacy Schiff at her Portland Arts and Lectures event this fall.

Stephen Kennedy reading his comic at Powell's

WITS writers Hunt Holman, Mark Pomeroy and Donna Prinzmetal read pieces for students who were not able to attend the event.

Thank you to all the students, teachers, and writers who contributed to the WITS anthology.  A big thank you to Powell’s for hosting!

Tom Brokaw fields questions from Wilson High students.

Tom Brokaw made time during a busy Portland visit to meet with students from Wilson High School at the new Literary Arts event space downtown. He told the student journalists they are coming of age at a critical time. While the future of print journalism is uncertain, Brokaw said he remains optimistic that “the culture of journalism, that of informing US citizens of what is being said around the world in their name, will not change.” Then he opened the floor for student questions, “or answers.”

One visitor remarked that when listening to coverage of the Pearl Harbor attack, she was struck by the emotion in the correspondent’s voice. Asked to name an event that had a similar effect on him, Brokaw said, “9/11. We were as unprepared for 9/11 as they were for Pearl Harbor. Nobody knew what was coming next.” He remembered being focused on getting through the next hour, and telling the audience what was known, without adding speculation.

Students arrived at the meeting with questions already prepared. They had read in class copies of Brokaw’s book, The Greatest Generation, supplied by Literary Arts’ Students to the Schnitz program. They were on their way to his appearance at the Schnitzer that night. After a lively discussion, Brokaw offered his signature advice to those aspiring to a career in journalism, “Have you thought about medicine?”

Our second year of matching volunteer mentors with high school students at Franklin High School was a great success! Student interest was even higher this year, with 37 students receiving one-on-one help with their college and scholarship application essays. We’re excited to be expanding the program to Madison High School this year, with a mentoring session planned for November 29.

Many of this year’s mentors are enthusiastic returns from the previous event. We also have a great new crop of volunteers who were inspired to help after reading Susie Bartley’s essay in the fall edition of Literary Arts’ newsletter, Words Matter. With backgrounds as lawyers, teachers, psychologists, writers, artists, philanthropists, and doctors, our volunteers bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to share with students.

Despite the blustery, rainy afternoon outside, the Franklin school library was alight with positive conversations. Students answered a questionnaire to spark topic ideas, and mentors worked on helping them craft their experiences and aspirations into thoughtful and unique pieces.

This November, Figment is teaming up with The National Writing Project to sponsor the Junot Diaz Writing Contest, judged by Pulitzer prize-winning author Junot Diaz.  Figment is an online writing community where you can share your writing, connect with other readers, and discover new stories and authors.  

            Junot Diaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, stands out for his masterful, compelling command of voice; his writing is instantly recognizable as his own. This unique and impressive control of tone has inspired Figment to sponsor a fiction-writing contest which encourages each writer to develop his or her own distinct voice.

The contest is open to writers over the age of 13 in the United States and submissions are being accepted through November 30^th, 2011. Finalists will receive signed copies of Diaz’ books, and the winner will receive a special Oscar Wao Prize Pack You can read the contest rules in full, here.

The theme of this contest is Creating The Narrative Voice, and Figment offers three different prompts to choose from, all geared toward the development of a strong narrative voice:

First Person:
Without naming or describing your narrator, write a story in which you make the narrator’s age, personality, and philosophy/outlook on life evident through his or her voice.

Second Person:
Write a story about an ordinary day in the life of an extraordinary person, such as the president, supermodel, or a homeless boy. Narrate the story entirely in the second person.

Third Person:
Write a story in which you describe a person using only attributes generally considered negative (for example a character who is usually late, sloppy, and mean), but through the voice of your narrator, make that character likable.

In addition to selecting the contest winners, Junot Diaz will be writing a post for the Figment blog about how best to develop your tone, as well as answering your questions on the Figment forum. Post your questions for Junot Diaz here!

This contest is a wonderful opportunity for young writers to share their work in a supportive and stimulating forum, and have the chance to learn from an established and beloved author. To read more about the contest and submission guidelines, or to learn more about Figment, visit their website at www.figment.com.

Good luck to all contestants!

—Acacia, WITS Intern