News and Events

Barnes & Noble Bookfair & PS 110 Student Poetry Reading
with NYU Writers in the Public Schools

Please join PS 110M/Florence Nightingale students, NYU Writers in the Public Schools Fellows, and Teachers & Writers Collaborative at our annual Barnes & Noble Bookfair & Poetry Reading from 11-12 on May 18 at the bustling Union Square location at 33 E 17th Street.

Can’t make our bookfair and reading on May 18? Just visit bn.com/bookfairs to support us online from 05/19/13 to 05/23/13 by entering Bookfair ID 110022308 at checkout.

A percentage of your Barnes & Noble purchases will benefit Teachers & Writers Collaborative, which provides creative writing programs to students at PS 110 through its partnership with the NYU Creative Writing Program and its Writers in the Public Schools Fellowship program.

After PS 110 students read from 11-12 on May 18, NYU Writers in the Public Schools Fellows and other graduate students in the NYU Creative Writing Program will read K-12 student work as well as their own. Following the NYU graduate school reading will be a reading from a select number of NYU undergraduate students.

CROSSING BOUNDARIES: Joanna Fuhrman, Linda Morel, and J. Kathleen White

Join Teachers & Writers Collaborative for a multidisciplinary evening of images, words, and music from T&W writers Joanna Fuhrman, Linda Morel, and J. Kathleen White.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013 // Doors open at 6:30, Reading starts at 7:00

It's time to start work on your submission for the 2013 Bechtel Prize, awarded by Teachers & Writers Collaborative and judged this year by Susan Orlean. Go here for submission guidelines.

Join us at the 2013 AWP Conference in Boston, March 6-9. Here is a list of the Writers in the Schools (WITS) Alliance events this year.

WITS Alliance Schedule of Events
AWP 2013: Boston
Hynes Convention Center

All events take place in the Hynes Convention Center unless otherwise noted.

WITS Alliance Booth: #210

Wednesday, March 6

WITS Day of Service hosted by WriteBoston
12-4

WITS Alliance Membership Meeting
Room 209, Level 2
4:30-5:45

Thursday, March 7

WITS Writers on Teaching: A Reading
Lacy M. Johnson, Giuseppe Taurino, Miah Arnold, Stacy Parker Le Melle, Nicole Zaza
Related Panel
Room 102, Plaza Level
10:30-11:45

This reading by new, veteran, and former WITS teachers will explore what it really means to be agents of the WITS mission—to engage children in the power of the written word, to nurture imaginations, and to awaken young minds to the adventures of language. Readers will discuss how WITS teaching can sometimes be at least as revolutionary for teachers as for their students, even having potentially life-altering effects on teaching, writing, and overall worldview.

A Reading from Writers in the Schools [WITS Alliance]
Alise Alousi, Bao-Long Chu, Michael Dickman, Tim Seibles
Room 201, Level 2
1:30-2:45

Four poets will share work by young students as well as their own work. They will discuss the ways in which their work with school children has affected their own writing. Two of the poets will have participated in the AWP WITS Day of Service and will tell about that. Students from the Day of Service project will be invited to the event.

Rowing Your Boat across the Curriculum [WITS Alliance] 
Amy Swauger, Sarah Dohrmann, Margaret Dougherty-Goodburn, Mary Rechner, Terry Ann Thaxton
Room 102, Plaza Level
4:30-5:45
 
From lyrics on the nesting habits of eagles to odes to the ozone layer, teachers are incorporating creative writing projects in science, math, and social studies curricula. From kindergarten to college, instructors are being asked to merge the disciplines. In this session, panelists will share strategies to engage students in creative writing across the curriculum.

WITS Alliance Reception
Room 303
7:00-8:15

Friday, March 8

Founder’s Toolkit: How to Start a Non- Profit in Your Own Backyard [WITS Alliance] 
Long Chu, Allen Gee, Janet Hurley, Lisa Murphy-Lamb, Jerome Vielman
Room 102, Plaza Level
10:30-11:45

If every organization is the lengthened shadow of one person, and if the MFA is the new MBA, then poets and novelists are already equipped with the imaginative drive and divergent thinking necessary to start and operate a successful nonprofit. This panel of founding directors and arts administrators will provide useful information on how to start a literary non-profit. We will guide participants through the process of incorporating one’s passion into a viable project working for public good.

Phillip Lopate Book Signing
WITS Alliance Booth #210
1:30-2:30

Fundraising with Individuals – Crafting the Story [WITS Alliance]
Jack McBride, Kate Brennan, Lee Briccetti, Michele Kotler
Room 102, Plaza Level
3:00-4:15

Non-profits start brainstorm sessions with this phrase: if money were no object. But, money is an object, and not having it is an obstacle. In an economy where revenues and contributions are down, non-profits rely on individual donors. While 70% of all giving comes from individuals, just 5% of donations go to the arts. How do we shape a passion for our work into a message that encourages increased giving? This panel explores ways we craft our stories to win the hearts of individual donors.

Saturday, March 9

Writing to Change the World: Social Justice and Youth Writing Programs [WITS Alliance]
Janet Hurley, Tamiko Ambrose Murray, Glenis Redmond, Christina Shea, Terry Blackhawk
Room 208, Level 2
12:00-1:15

Does the endeavor of creative writing intrinsically encourage the subject of social justice and/or nurture the same? Panelists who work with students, elementary through college age, will discuss the art of teaching youth. They will chronicle the ways in which creative writing often triggers or gives space for idealism in students and empowers a sense of agency. What are the teachable moments and what risks are involved?
 
Where in the World is the Writer in Residence? [WITS Alliance]
Cecily Sailer, Alise Alousi, Tina Angelo, Josephine Jones
Room 102, Plaza Level
3:00-4:15

Although people might agree poets make the world a better place, poetry is often marginalized to classrooms. What happens when we move the poet from the ivory tower into the real world? What if a poet-in-residence could work in the hospital, museum, theater, or science lab? This panel explores how individuals and arts organizations can enliven and deepen the teaching of creative writing through unlikely collaborations. 
  
The WITS Alliance
because writing is revolutionary
witsalliance.org

Tuesday, January 8 • Doors open at 6:30, Reading at 7

TELLING IT SLANT AND STRAIGHT:

Susan Buttenwieser, Vanessa Mártir, and Ibi Zoboi 

T&W writers Susan Buttenwieser, Vanessa Mártir, and Ibi Zoboi will share differing perspectives written in differing genres about love and loss, the beautiful and the heinous. Susan Buttenwieser will kick off the evening with a short story; Vanessa Mártir will jostle you with excerpts from her memoir, A Dim Capacity for Wings; and Ibi Zoboi will make your imagination soar with a piece from her YA fantasy novel.

Tuesday, January 8

Doors open at 6:30, Reading at 7

The Center for Imaginative Writing

at Teachers & Writers Collaborative

520 Eighth Avenue, Suite 2020

(between West 36th and West 37th Streets)

 Queries: 212-691-6590 or events@twc.org 

T&W is now accepting submissions for the 2013 Bechtel Prize, awarded to the author of an exemplary essay on creative writing education. Susan Orlean will select the 2013 winner. Go here for the submission guidelines.

T&W is seeking interns for winter-spring 2013. Please circulate the internship announcement and help us to spread the word: T&W internships!

Tired of looking for that lesson plan you came across on the T&W website a month ago and now want to use in tomorrow's class? Can't remember who wrote the article you loved inTeachers & Writers Magazine, but you know what it was about? Not sure what you're looking for, but interested in browsing some literary arts education resources? Help is on the way.... 

Welcome to the Digital Resource Center (DRC), launching today on the T&W website. This resource makes it easy for you to search material from 2001-2011 issues of Teachers & Writers Magazine. You'll also find teaching ideas and best practices previously located in the "lesson plans" section of the website. And it's all available to site visitors at no charge. 

In early 2013, we'll begin to add material from our partner organizations in the Writers in the Schools Alliance to the DRC. In the coming months, we'll also upload content from older issues of the magazine and from books published by T&W. 

Go to the DRC now, and start searching! 

T&W and the Writers in the Schools Alliance thank the National Endowment for the Arts and Bloomberg Philanthropies for their support of the Digital Resource Center.

 To make a year-end, tax-deductible contribution to help T&W continue to provide resources to support literary arts education and to offer creative writing programs for students and teachers, please go to twc.org/support-tw/donate today.  Thank you, and happy holidays!

The Teachers & Writers offices will close at 3 pm on November 21 for the Thanksgiving holiday. We will reopen on November 26.

Happy Thanksgiving!