Teen writing program

The IU Center for Rural Engagement continues to offer enrichment to Washington County despite the COVID restrictions. Their newest venture, in partnership with the IU MFA creative writing program, is hosting a free virtual writing workshop for teens in collaboration with the Salem Public Library and other local libraries across the region. 

The program entitled, “Nevertheless, Live: Writing Our Living Through Poems and Stories,” starts on Tuesday, June 23, and participants will be able to join an instructional session each Tuesday from 1 to 2:30 p.m. for six weeks, as well as participate in smaller mentoring sessions as it fits their schedule. 

In this class, participants will write their lives through poems, fiction, and nonfiction, honoring our distinct emotional truths, experiences, and perspectives. Each week, in classes led by two instructors and a rotating cast of experienced and award-winning writers, the class will engage the world through readings, exercises, experiments, and writing prompts. 

Participants will draw and write, wonder (and wander) in the direction of their own unique experiences — the sorrow and the joy alike, which have shaped them into who they are. 

“We’ll celebrate ‘the noise and whip of the whirlwind’ of our wild imaginations and what is wild within us and around us. By the end of our summer you will have written a body of work to call your very own,” said Catherine Bowman, director and instructor, who will lead the team of Indiana University Master of Fine Arts instructors for this series. 

“We will learn through play, collaboration, and imitation, in a fun and safe environment, and gain some high school and college skills at the same time. We will foster and encourage specificity, inclusivity, and collaboration in our writing.”

Advanced registration is required for this course that will run via Zoom, each Tuesday, starting June 23 and ending, July 28. Small mentoring groups will be available on Mondays and Wednesdays. Register by going to https://sites.google.com/iu.edu/nevertheless-live/home.

According to Kyla Cox Deckard, director of communications for the center, “We’ve hosted a very successful virtual workshop for adults for the past seven weeks that focused on writing during troubled times, so we are thrilled to add this teen-focused workshop to the offerings.”