Sharing Favorites, Book Binding & Final Reading: Day 5 of the 2025 Young Writers’ Workshop

5 days of hard work, 5 days of creative expressions... and we're done!!! It rained showers of creativity today at the UMB hall of the Beach Museum! Friends and families of our creative writers, faculty of the English department, and other friends all gathered to experience the fruit of our young writers’ diligent work all … Continue reading Sharing Favorites, Book Binding & Final Reading: Day 5 of the 2025 Young Writers’ Workshop

Magic Making, Playwriting… and more writing! – Day 3 of our Young Writer’s workshop

If you were to describe your day in colors, what color would it be? Green for productivity, gray for calmness, or purple for the pride you have in your accomplishments? Yellow for a warm sun glow? Yesterday, I told you that today was going to be a lot of writing; well, here we are! We … Continue reading Magic Making, Playwriting… and more writing! – Day 3 of our Young Writer’s workshop

Visual Thinking, Writing Persona, Character Building, & Collage Poetry: Day 2 of 2025 Young Writers’ Workshop

We started Day 2 of our workshop with a session on Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS). I bet that, at least once, you have seen an artwork described it as “beautiful.” Other times, you might have felt the artist just made scribbles for elementary schoolers; or maybe you’ve had a mix of both experiences! This morning, … Continue reading Visual Thinking, Writing Persona, Character Building, & Collage Poetry: Day 2 of 2025 Young Writers’ Workshop

Map-Making, Imagery building & Dragonalia: Day One of the 2025 Young Writers’ Workshop

We kicked off Day One of our young writers’ workshop today! Dr Karin Westman, the head of our English department at K-State, opened with a brief introduction, thanking the donors who made the workshop possible for their generosity. The director of the workshop, Dr. Ania Payne, welcomed everyone and eased us off into our opening … Continue reading Map-Making, Imagery building & Dragonalia: Day One of the 2025 Young Writers’ Workshop

Final Day Photo-Reel

Last week’s Young Writers’ Workshop was a huge success, and we wanted to give one last thank you to all the awesome, ambitious young writers that participated this year. As a wrap-up post, here are just some of the pictures taken at Friday’s successful reading: The young writers receive a final, well-deserved round of applause. Until next year! ~ … Continue reading Final Day Photo-Reel

The End Of A Journey

This moment was a week in the making. The pieces had been written. And rewritten. And revised, and probably rewritten again. Now it was simply the writers, their completed (and astounding) work, and a sleek wood podium behind which they would complete their journey as participants in the Young Writers’ Workshop. As they did yesterday, … Continue reading The End Of A Journey

Oh, The Places They Went

With their big public reading just a day away, the young writers are officially in prep-mode. Pens went to paper in nearly every activity as they begin to polish what they’ve been working on all week. But before they reach their final destination of sharing their work with family, peers, and other members of the … Continue reading Oh, The Places They Went

Who I Am

Everyone loves a good villain, and our young writers are no exception. This statement came into focus as our young writers tackled their third large group activity, which incorporated the idea of “collective storytelling.” Instructor Carmen Schober led the writers in three attempts to “tell one big story together.” The writers prefaced each round by … Continue reading Who I Am

Words, Words, Words

The word of the day for our young writers? Words. Whether big or small, foreign or familiar, words provided the foundation for Day 2 of the Young Writers’ Workshop. And rightfully so: We need words to tell stories, after all, and as our young writers became acquainted with new ways to tell stories during the … Continue reading Words, Words, Words

The Hero’s Journey

“The notebook is an extension of your hand.” These wereamong the opening remarks made by Program Director Katy Karlin on this first day of the Young Writers’ Workshop. Twelve pairs of eyes peered up at Katy before glancing back to the notebooks they’d selected and begun decorating moments before. If the excitement of this year’s … Continue reading The Hero’s Journey