K-State Young Writers' Workshop

What seemed like a whirlwind week of writing and fun culminated today in an impressive display of talent from our 14 young writers this afternoon at their graduation celebration. The young writers spent most of their final workshop day preparing for the reading. They began with a short field trip to the Campus Creek Amphitheater … Continue reading Is It Over Already?

Today’s workshop began with a British secret agent accusing an old cowboy of murder—and the ABCs—as the young writers practiced generating productive dialogue in an improv exercise. Sitting in a circle, every other person assumed the role of either secret agent or cowboy. One person began the dialogue with a line starting with the letter … Continue reading Let’s Talk it Out

Guest speaker and mystery writer Linda Rodriguez got down to the nitty gritty of being a writer this afternoon, debunking (and confirming) stereotypes about writers while sharing many of her personal experiences during a very informal discussion with the young writers this afternoon.    For example, although she thinks it is true that many writers … Continue reading Keeping It Real with Linda Rodriguez

The word of the day was “efficiency” as we shook things up at the Workshop by exploring different forms of writing. The young writers began their day with the Beach Museum’s “Open A.I.R.,” or Artist-In-Residence, Calder Kamin, and her exhibit Kamin’s interactive exhibit focused on prairie animal species, including extinct megafauna, or large mammals. In … Continue reading Mastodons in the Twittersphere

Ande Parks, today’s guest writer, introduced yet another form of writing during the afternoon session: comics. Ande has quite the resume as both a writer and artist. He has been in the comic book industry for nearly 20 years and has worked for every major American comic book publisher. He inked many popular titles including … Continue reading KAPOW! Ande Parks Talks Process and Comics

It was all about character this morning at Day 2 of the Young Writers’ Workshop. The young writers channeled the energy of last night’s storm as they tried on the shoes of a wide cast of characters, from pop stars and super heroes to monkeys, penguins, and thunderstorms. Led by Lexiyee, they walked around the … Continue reading Walking, Improv Acting, and Writing Into Character

Guest writer Natasha Ria El-Scari continued the character theme, but encouraged the writers to think about themselves as characters. “You can bring exactly who you are to your writing,” Natasha said in her presentation. After energizing everyone with a dance party to “Happy” by Pharrell Williams, Natasha shared some touching poetry from Malika Booker’s Pepperseed and talked … Continue reading Bring Who You Are

There was singing, sharing, dancing, and drumming this afternoon with our guest speaker, Richard Pitts. Pitts is a professional storyteller and drummer who performs throughout the state. He is the Director/Co-founder of the Wonder Workshop Children’s Museum in Manhattan. He also studies and writes about the Underground Railroad in Kansas. He has written two books: A Self-Guided Tour … Continue reading Letting Go of Yourself with Richard Pitts

A woman who can’t die for 70,000 years becomes president and gains access to a window from which she can see the entire world. What could go wrong? So began the very first Young Writers’ Workshop. As the 14 participants and three instructors got to know each other’s names, they crafted a story that began … Continue reading What could go wrong?

As usual, the summer is going by way too quickly. The good news: our very first Young Writers’ Workshop is now right around the corner!  We hope the participants are as excited as we are for the workshop to begin. To help alleviate the anticipation (or perhaps add to it), here’s a glimpse of the … Continue reading Meet the 2014 Staff