W.o.o.t.s.

Whether it was the hand of destiny that brought me here, or mere luck, as soon as I heard about an opportunity to work for Literary Arts, I jumped on it.  Then, I winded myself by jumping more when I received the phone call letting me know I had been chosen as one of their [...]

Hello, my name is Mel, and I’m addicted to written words. You can laugh, but I’m serious. I have friends who hide their magazines when I come over because I get sucked into the articles and stop paying attention to the conversation. I’ve stumbled into classes or work with puffy, bloodshot eyes and zero attention [...]

When a roomful of creative, intrepid leaders begins talking about their successes in teaching youth about writing, it’s hard to resist their enthusiasm. At the recent WITS Summit, every seat was filled by representatives from organizations working around the state with one goal in mind: nurturing the next generation through writing education. Many shared feedback [...]

In high school, besides conversations with my very best friend (whom I talked to about everything I read, heard, did, and ate, so it doesn’t really count), I never really talked with my peers about books. We’d say whether we liked the novels we read for class or not, and then go over the SparkNotes [...]

I’ve spent the past couple of weeks reading through WITS students’ writing, preparing to pick the pieces for the 2009-2010 anthology. The truthfulness of the students’ work, and the pictures they create move me more than I ever expected, and when I heard Matthew Dickman read in a mosquito-y amphitheatre at Reed in July as [...]

In fall 2008 Billy Pham participated in a Writers in the Schools residency at Benson High School with poet Carlos Reyes. Last year Billy’s poem “Silenced Fantasies” was published in the WITS Anthology A Whole New Subject and chosen by TriMet for the Poetry in Motion program.  You can read Billy’s poem on buses and [...]

Call for entries in fiction, literary non-fiction, poetry and nature essay for writers ages 15-25 Submission Guidelines * The competition is open to writers in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. * Competition genres include poetry, fiction, literary non-fiction and literary non-fiction/nature essay. * All entrants must be a member of one of the eligible age categories: [...]

For the first time ever, WITS started an eight week after school writing club at Beverly Cleary for 6th – 8th graders. Only four 7th graders signed up, but even with such a small class, instructors Joanna Rose and Jenny Chu had a blast! They did everything from free writes while listening to music, pantoum [...]

Over 75 students from SEIS on the Roosevelt campus in North Portland attended the Isabel Allende lecture at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in downtown Portland on May 11.  The event was a partnership between Literary Arts, Powell’s Books and the Miracle Theatre.  Tickets and transportation were provided to the SEIS community through Literary Arts’ [...]

When: May 18, 6:30 pm Where: Midland Library/large meeting room (805 Southeast 122nd Avenue) Who: Students from Marshall Campus (Biz Tech, Linus Pauling and Renaissance Arts High Schools) w/ WITS writers: Natalie Serber & Cindy Williams Gutierrez When: May 20, 7:00 pm Where: Ladybug Organic Coffee Co. (8438 N Lombard Street) Who: Students from Roosevelt [...]