W.o.o.t.s.

Local graphic artist and WITS writer Nicole Georges will be contributing illustrations to Portlandia’s “Most Portland Thing Ever” contest. The show’s creators picked five submissions from many and asked Nicole to provide illustrations to accompany the hilarious Portland stories. Read the whole story here.

On the afternoon before her lecture at the Schnitz, the 2012 Everybody Reads author Heidi Durrow returned to her alma mater for the first time since she graduated from Jefferson High School. “I have so many memories here,” she said as we walked through the auditorium.

In the sunlit band room, Durrow met with nearly 60 students who had read her book, The Girl Who Fell from the Sky, and were prepared with questions. She answered each of them with an openness and warmth that quickly won over her audience, until there were raised hands throughout the room. Often she turned the questions back to the students, and when three students shared three different insights, she smiled and said, “Yes! Those are three correct answers!”

Durrow spoke of her own experiences growing up in North Portland and feeling awkward, bookish, and “not pretty” in high school. She said she wanted to write a coming of age story for anyone who didn’t fit in, saying that each of us have something to offer.

When one student asked, “What message about race relations were you trying to convey?” she replied that there was no message, except that things are more complicated than they first appear. She said her job as a novelist and artist is to ask questions. “I don’t believe in labels anymore,” she said. “Sometimes I call myself Danish and African-American. Or I tell people I’m Afro-Viking.” The audience laughed. “I want a T-shirt for that,” she said.

Another student asked how Durrow knew when her book was done. “It was finished multiple times,” she replied, and then explained how it took 12 years and 48 rejections before she won the Bellwether Prize and was published.

At Reynolds, when several of the students in a classroom of 25 claimed that they weren’t writers, Durrow pointed out that many of them probably consider themselves storytellers, even if they don’t write them down. “And the beauty of writing fiction is that we get to make it up as we go,” she said.

In both schools, Durrow spoke of the confusion and insecurities that plague most young people, no matter what their background. She cautioned against looking to labels to feel worthwhile. “You have to assign yourself the value you want in the world,” she said. “Don’t leave it up to other people.”

WITS writers and cartoonists John Isaacson and Nicole Georges have contributed art to an upcoming series of comic books recounting Oregon’s illustrious history. Oregon History Comics Vol. 1-10 recounts historical topics near and dear to Oregon’s heart, such as: the Vanport Flood, the streets of Chinatown, and the damning of Celilo Falls. The release will be celebrated with a party at Powell’s on Burnside on March 4th at 7pm complete with a slide show presented by the author of the series, Sarah Mirk, and a trivia contest (with prizes!). Some of the participating artists will be in attendance and original artwork from the series will be on display.

For more information on the Oregon History Comics and the release party go to: http://dillpickleclub.org/2012/03/04/oregon-history-comics/

On the heels of a sold-out show at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall on February 7, renowned New York-based storytelling group The Moth brought its MothShop workshop to Benson High School. Four Benson students met with The Moth producers to prepare their own stories for performance before an audience of their peers. For those who aren’t fans yet, the Moth trains professional and non-professional performers to tell a true story from their own experience without notes or props. (Tuesday night’s MainStage audience heard from, among others, a New York City police detective whose career-making drug bust was interrupted by the attacks of September 11, 2o01, and a young woman who watched her immigrant father create and lose two businesses, before she stepped in to help him save the third.) On a Friday afternoon, Benson students heard about how their peers responded to the death of a loved one, how they rose up to meet the challenge of a robotics scrimmage, and how one young girl took sweet revenge for her older brother’s prank.

One of many illuminating moments in rehearsal came when a student asked The Moth producers, “Why are you here?” This young man said that he was here so that his story of handling grief could be an inspiration to other people who find themselves in the same situation. So why, he wanted to know, had The Moth producers come? Their reply was simple: “To meet all of you. Who you are is great. And it should be out there for everyone to see, because each of you has an experience, whether it’s programming a robot or winning a prize at improv comedy camp, that nobody else in this room has had. Without this workshop, we would never have met you all. We would never know what it’s like to do those things. And when you tell your stories to the audience, who knows? Maybe nobody in that room has had the experience, either. And then you’ve all come a little bit closer to knowing each other.” The exchange epitomized how The MothShop builds community, and brings young people closer to one another, and adds to the value of their own experience.

    Hello to all of our W.O.O.T.S. readers. My name is Acacia     Blackwell, and I, along with Kaitlyn, work as an intern with Writers in the Schools. I am currently a senior at Lewis and Clark College, majoring in English with a concentration in Creative Writing. My own writing, inspired by my lovably neurotic family, the landscape of my Pacific Northwest upbringing, and my experiences traveling abroad in India and Nepal, is limited so far to the short story form. But, perhaps, a novel someday…? I plan to apply to MFA programs in the next couple of years.
I got connected with Literary Arts at the suggestion of my writing professor, and joined the team in January of 2011.
My work centers mainly on assisting with setting up writer residencies, helping with our student anthology readings, and helping to arrange both the print and digital anthologies of student work that we put out each year.
However, I have also had some wonderful opportunities outside the office, such as attending lectures and author visits, sitting in on Tom Brokaw’s visit with a few Wilson students, and helping out with the Oregon Book Awards.
My experience at Literary Arts in the last year has been wonderful.
I have had the opportunity to work with the incredible staff, and be a part of an arts organization that has had and continues to have such an immense impact on this community.
I look forward to continuing to work with WITS this semester!
Acacia Blackwell

 The fourth annual Youth Nature Writing Contest at Lewis and Clark National Historic Park is calling for submissions from young nature writers in grades 9-12. The contest is open to all Oregon and Washington high school students.  Submit your 500 word non-fiction essay about a hiking experience you’ve had. It could be a muddy hike, an exciting fall, or simply the overwhelming beauty found on the trail–as long as it’s true and is about hiking. Cash prizes will be award to the first three winners and fourth and fifth place will win new water bottles for your outdoor adventures. Entries are due by midnight, March 31st.  Essays will be judged by OPB reporter and blogger, Cassandra Profita, an award-winning journalist with degrees in journalism and environmental studies.

Tap into those sensory details: pine needles under feet, the smell of resin, the crash of the ocean, woodland creature scurrying across the forest floor–write your experience with nature! All contest details, rules, and how to enter can be found at

 www.nps.gov/lewi 

Click on “Youth Nature Writing Contest” for more information

Hi! I’m Kaitlyn the PSU WITS intern.  I’m a second year student in the Fiction MFA program.  My thesis is my main focus of study right now which means I am (supposed to be) writing a lot. I’ve gotten to take some excellent workshops and seminars about the craft of writing.  My fiction has appeared in VoiceCather 5 & 6, and Void Magazine.  As an Oregon native, my writing is frequently inspired by the small town the Willamette Valley that I grew up in.  I’ve been a long time admirer of the WITS program and am so excited to be a part of it this term. I’ll be helping to put together the end-of-year anthology and you might see me in the classroom as an observer or assisting one of the insightful WITS writers.

Beyond writing I am also a dancer, dance teacher, and choreographer. I love seeing how the two art forms intersect, how you can tell a story through movement.  I’m hoping to grow as a writer, reader, and teacher through my experience with WITS. See you around!

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.