W.o.o.t.s.

In November, The Nature of Words, a literature based non-profit serving the High Desert region of the Northwest, will begin accepting entries in poetry, fiction, literary non-fiction and nature writing for the 2012 Rising Star Creative Writing Competition. The Nature of Words aims to foster appreciation of the literary arts through a variety of programs for students and adults. Their programs include an annual literary festival in November featuring readings by acclaimed authors, Words Without Walls, a creative writing in the schools program, The Storefront Project offering drop in creative writing workshops to students, and the Rising Star Competition.

The Rising Star Competition gives The Nature of Words a chance to celebrate the young authors in the community. The contest is open to students 19-25, and the winners in each category will be honored at the Rising Star Competition Award Ceremony, invited to the literary festival in November where they will get to attend a workshop with a guest author, published in the Nature of Words Anthology and will receive a cash prize.

This contest is a great opportunity for young writers to share their work in a public forum, engage with the literary community in the Northwest, and possibly get published!

For more information about the Rising Star Creative Writing Competition and The Nature of Words, visit:

www.thenatureofwords.org or email mailto:programs@thenatureofwords.org

Next weekend, October 8th-10th, Wordstock will kick off their annual book and literary festival here in Portland. Wordstock is a non-profit organization that celebrates and supports writing in the classroom and in the community. The festival, one of the largest of its kind in the nation, showcases the literary achievement of contemporary writers.

This year, the Wordstock schedule includes eight current and former WITS writers and affiliates. Among the WITS writers featured are Ismet Prcic, Emma Oliver, Elyse Fenton, Carmen Bernier-Grand, and Mary Rechner, former WITS writer and current WITS Program Director. In addition, Wordstock will feature John Morrison, a poet and former WITS Program director, and Cecilia Hagen, a WITS Summit participant who will be doing a poetry reading. Nancy Sullivan, Librarian at Madison High School, and the President-Elect of OASL, the Oregon Association of School Libraries will speak on the panel “Banned” with Mary Rechner.

Ismet Prcic, a current WITS writer, will be reading from his debut novel, Shards, which tells the story of a young Bosnian who flees his war-torn homeland. Of his process transforming the reality of his experience into fiction, Prcic writes: “what I noticed was that, over time, I had started to exaggerate. My story became more and more dramatic, my role in it more and more heroic, and these strangers — who didn’t know what a wuss I am in real life — believed me. I asked myself what is the difference between story and this so-called reality?”

Joining Ismet Prcic in the ranks of WITS writers featured at Wordstock is Elyse Fenton, a new WITS writer. Elyse will read from her poetry collection CLAMOR, which won the 2010 University of Wales Dylan Thomas Prize, Cleveland State University Press First Book Award and the Texas Institute of Letters‘ Bob Bush Memorial Award. The collection poignantly captures her experience as a “war bride” after her husband joined the military as a medic in the Iraq war, and showcases Fenton’s elegant, candid style in poems such as “Gratitude”. On the literary blog, How a Poem Happens, Elyse writes: “Many of the poems in Clamor were borne of these fragments of communication—shards, really, because of the way they refracted experience, the way they stuck beneath the nail beds and refused to be dislodged.”
Join us this weekend at the Oregon Convention Center for the Wordstock Festival, to hear from Izzy, Elyse and many other gifted writers associated with the WITS program.

See the complete Wordstock schedule online at:

http://schedule.wordstockfestival.com/

—Acacia, WITS intern

MLC student Peter outside the Schnitz last Thursday.

Literary Arts kicked off its new “Students to the Schnitz” program by welcoming 65 students from Bianca Espinosa and Stephen Lambert’s Great Books class at Metropolitan Learning Center in Northwest Portland. Funded by the generosity of Literary Arts’ patrons, “Students to the Schnitz” provides complimentary books, transportation and tickets for Portland Public High School students to attend each of our Portland Arts & Lectures events this year.

The MLC students read Accordion Crimes, Annie Proulx’s novel which follows a single green accordion as it is handed down through generations of immigrants to the United States. It sounds like a perfect fit for the Great Books class, as teacher Stephen Lambert described it. They’re studying power, race and culture, as they’re reflected in books from around the world. The topic of their last paper was to select a cultural artifact from one book (such as an accordion, perhaps?), and write about how it affects, and is affected by, those forces.

When you come to see Stacy Schiff next month, keep an eye peeled for MLC students. They’ll be back again, and their peers from Wilson, Franklin, Lincoln and Madison will be joining us throughout the year.

At the WITS Orientation in early September, new WITS writer Sarah Jaffe read from her response to a writing prompt about what she loved and hated about high school: “I remember that I loved picking out my own classes once I got to high school. And how you didn’t have to just be popular or unpopular any more. And I remember lockers.” As the seven new WITS writers went around the room and shared pithy anecdotes about their high school experiences, everyone laughed, reminded of both the excitement and the frustrations of adolescence.

Fifteen returning and seven new writers gathered for the WITS Orientation at p:ear, a community center which serves homeless youth through arts and education. At the start of each season, Literary Arts holds an orientation for the writers in the program to discuss effective strategies for working with high school students, and to provide an opportunity for the new writers to meet the returning writers in the program, with whom they can exchange feedback on their successes and challenges as they progress through their residencies.

The orientation, led by program director Mary Rechner and program assistant and former writer in the schools, Joanna Rose, was fun and informative, providing writers with informational tools and resources they can utilize as they face the various rewards and challenges of teaching creative writing to young adults. Joanna Rose shared some of her most memorable successes and “greatest mistakes”, from her many years of working as a WITS writer. Both new and returning writers doubtlessly took away valuable information and the encouragement to ask for help from the WITS program and their talented peers.

This year, Literary Arts welcomes Sarah Jaffe, Katie Schneider, Arnie Seong, Devan Schwartz, Elyse Fenton, Amanda Gersh, and Emily Harris to WITS, along with 15 returning writers. You can read their bios at:

http://www.literary-arts.org/wits/writers.php

-Acacia, WITS Intern

Our report for the 2010-11 WITS program has just been released and is available to read online.

Click here to read and learn more about what we’ve been up to this past year!

We’ve just made all of our digital chapbooks–past and present–available online through Issuu.com, an online reader. These are tons more fun to read than ordinary PDFs (they actually look and feel like books!), so please check them out!

To view our library, you can visit our profile at http://www.issuu.com/literary-arts.

Our annual WITS Summit was held in Hood River, Oregon, this year and the attendance and enthusiasm were at their highest yet. The Columbia Gorge Arts in Education hosted the event, and participants came from organizations around the state, including Fishtrap, The Nature of Words, professor Marjorie Sandor and four students from Oregon State University’s MFA program,  Wordstock, Writers in the Schools, Write Around Portland, Young Writers Association, and we had a special presentation by Sara Exposito, a professor at Lewis and Clark College.

In the morning, each organization shared what they’ve been working on over the past year. Nearly everyone spoke of having their contributed income from grants and endowments decrease, but at the same time a few had secured new sources of income and were expanding their programs and/or hiring staff. Many organizations had experimented with new strategies and residencies over the past year, and they shared their triumphs and challenges. Some orgs had more volunteers than they could use, while others were hoping to get more applicants for writers-in-residence programs (which is good news for Oregonian writers!). Overall, the day was filled with conversation about how arts education is adapting, growing, and doing phenomenal work despite financial challenges.

Exposito’s presentation on teaching creative writing to Latina youth—or any marginalized student population—was insightful and touched on struggles that many artists-in-residence have faced. She shared her experiences with teaching writing, and the importance of creating a safe space for students to write in and finding mentors who care about the students.

As always, the exchange of ideas and strategies at the WITS Summit was invaluable. Many organizations are forging new partnerships in their communities, diversifying their funding streams, and raising awareness of the services they provide to their local communities. Some were exploring online writing courses to increase rural access. Others were doing teen writing camps, scholarships for students to writing retreats, monthly radio readings and themed classes for students. All were passionate about reaching out to all students, no matter their background or geographic location. It was nothing short of inspiring to hear how hard everyone works!

The highlight was hearing presenters share individual stories of how their work has changed lives. It was a good reminder of the importance of arts education and why everyone works so hard at their nonprofit or school. At the end of the day, it was great to feel connected to so many people who are actively working to nurture creativity throughout Oregon. Thanks to our presenters, our host, and all our participants. We’re excited to see what everyone accomplishes in the upcoming year!

We even had a lunchtime stroll in the beautiful Gorge!

Here’s the opening part of a great article that Mark Pomeroy wrote about his time at Marshall High School, which is closing soon:

A  week from graduation, she walks into her English class, sits down and looks to the overhead screen for the day’s prompt: “Neighborhood.” For a minute she quiets herself, pen in hand.

With each passing day, school seems both closer and more distant. Surges of memory — her teachers, her classes these past four years, all the hallway conversations, the languages. The halls used to be more crowded, livelier, but now some of her classmates show up every other day, if that.

Her teachers tell them they matter, no one is abandoning them. They can’t take it personally, that’s the thing. Life’s not always fair. And they know it’s true, and also, enrollment was on the low side compared to other high schools.

Still — this place is theirs. For some kids, it’s home, where they can come to know that people will pay attention to what they’re thinking. Where they can find a few moments of calm. Where they can eat.

“I live in the wilderness of the economy,” she writes on the first line of her paper.

To read the entire article, click here.

Mark applauding an author's work at a student reading.

As a follow-up to our fall essay mentoring event at Franklin High School, last week we reconvened juniors and the mentors who had helped them. In the fall, students brainstormed topics and mentors helped them begin working on an essay for their college and scholarship applications. This time, students came with an essay they had been working on in Ms. Susan Bartley’s English class.  The mentors dug in and helped with grammar, word choice, and specific writing techniques. Even with so much hands-on work, the conversations went beyond structure and into the far-reaching territories of voice, subject, and students’ concerns about choosing a university. At the end, students and mentors left with ink-smudged fingertips and hopeful smiles. Many thanks to all those involved!

In our final WITS reading for Spring 2011, Franklin and Portland Night High School students read to a (packed!) audience at BiPartisan Cafe. It was one of our largest readings yet, and it was wonderful to see so many friends and parents attending. Each student, teacher, and writer did a fantastic job, and we’re already excited to put together an anthology of this past year’s highlights! Thanks to all!