Greenville Wordsmiths will present a new, free writing program for youth ages 9 – 14 in Greenville in 2016. The “Saturday Writing Club” will allow a diverse group of pre-selected students to work one-on-one with volunteers, educators, and artists twice-monthly to play with words and to publish a professional-quality collection of their own stories and poetry. The Humanities CouncilSC supported this program with a Fast-Track Literary Grant.
Greenville Wordsmiths began in 2012 and was inspired by Dave Eggers’ TED Talk “Once Upon a School.” The vision of the organization is that all children in Greenville County, regardless of social class, address, or learning difference, will be able to communicate their ideas confidently to a variety of audiences.
The Saturday Writing Club program is designed to increase students’ confidence in their unique voices through one-on-one feedback and encouragement from a caring adult, authentic publishing experiences, and a safe creative environment for experimentation and play. The six-month program will end with a book launch on June 4, 2016 at M. Judson Bookstore where students’ families, friends, and educators will celebrate the student participants’ hard work.
Adrienne Burris, Director of Greenville Wordsmiths, said: “Writing has become a terrifying assessment tool, not an art through which children (and adults!) can discover their voices. We want to reclaim the magic of the written word.”
For more information about Greenville Wordsmiths and the Saturday Writing Club, please visit the website at http://www.greenvillewordsmiths.com.
The mission of SC Humanities is to enrich the cultural and intellectual lives of all South Carolinians. Established in 1973, this 501(c) 3 organization is governed by a volunteer 23-member Board of Directors comprised of community leaders from throughout the state. It presents and/or supports literary initiatives, lectures, exhibits, festivals, publications, oral history projects, videos and other humanities-based experiences that directly or indirectly reach more than 250,000 citizens annually.
