We have moved many of our offerings online! We hope you will join us.
Literary Arts is honored to have accomplished poets, journalists, novelists, essayists, and playwrights teaching creative writing to high school students in the Writers in the Schools program. This month, the public will have the opportunity to hear from a selection of WITS writers-in-residence as they share their own pieces. The event will include readings by
Come celebrate the next generation of writers during our Writers in the Schools end-of-residency readings.
Celebrate the next generation of writers during our WITS end-of-residency readings
Wilson High School students have spent the past semester crafting original creative writing pieces under the guidance of experienced writers. The students will be reading these pieces aloud for peers, family, and community members. Come support and hear the fantastic work they've done!
Hear students read the impressive and original creative writing pieces they produced during the semester-long WITS residency at Madison High School.
The WITS Alliance hosts a happy hour and reading at Literary Arts.
Celebrate Portland’s youth poets during our eighth annual Verselandia! poetry slam. Students perform original work in front of a panel of judges and a live audience.
Listen to Lincoln High School students read their original writing, crafted during their semester with a professional writer in a WITS residency.
Roosevelt High School students worked with professional writers for ten weeks on original creative writing pieces. Come hear them read their work in the cozy Cathedral Coffee.
Literary Arts’ Youth Programs presents the first annual Verselandia! East Side Slam. Cheer on high school students in your community as they perform original poetry in front of a panel of judges. Students from participating East Multnomah County high schools will be competing at this event. Following the same rules as national poetry slams,
Hear Franklin students read their original creative writing in the company of friends, family, and community members, as they celebrate the end of their Writers in the Schools residencies.
Listen to original writing from Grant High School students as they wrap up their Writers in the Schools residencies. This year's host classes include Writing for the Arts and a Digital Media course.
Gresham High School students read their inspiring and original creative writing, celebrating the end of their Writers in the Schools residencies.
Hear students from Grant High School share their creative writing during this live reading event! These students participated in our semester-long Writers in the Schools (WITS) creative writing residencies. Each residency is unique, tailored to support, deepen, and extend existing curriculum, and to contribute to student achievement in reading and writing. WITS teachers will also
Culmination of the Wilson High School Writers in the Schools (WITS) residencies. Listen to Wilson students read their original creative writing to peers, parents, and community members.
This 90-minute creative writing workshop is a laid-back session taught via Zoom that is open to high school students at all skills levels interested in writing. Students will be guided through fun, imaginative writing exercises and flex their creative muscles with plenty of time to chat with fellow writers. Limited to 20 students. All genres.
2020 Verselandia! will no longer take place live. Please join us online for #Virtualandia!
This course consists of three consecutive 90-minute workshops that will take place from noon - 1:30 p.m on May 14, May 21, and May 28, 2020 and will be taught via Zoom, by writer Jules Ohman. The workshop is open to high school students at all skills levels interested in writing fiction. Students will be
Youth Programs of Literary Arts is thrilled to debut the first virtual iteration of our annual WITS End of Year Reading to celebrate the work and contributions of the adults working behind the scenes to bring Writers in the Schools to life—our WITS writers, teachers, and partners. This event will be hosted by WITS Program
Join Portland public high school students as they read from their work featured in the 2019–20 Writers in the Schools anthology, The Seeds to Plant the Future. Pre-order your copy of the book here! (Ships December 2020) To view this event, go to: https://www.pdxbookfest.org/daily-live-stream/ If you have not done so already, you will need to register for
In this workshop we’ll identify and then banish fears, generate new work on the page and examine ways the writer’s notebook can help to focus our attention, capture stories and make sense during unsettled times. We’ll look at poems by Claudia Rankine and Emily Dickinson and watch New York birder Christian Cooper nerd out on
Young writers will find an ordinary object, indoors or outdoors, that can magically transform into a portal to an altered universe! We’ll sketch it out and add descriptive words. Then we will use a guided visualization and literary models like The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Wildwood to help create a scene. It
For most of us, this year has made it hard to say all the things we want to share with family and friends who don’t live with us. Even if we get to stay in touch with texts or Zoom or TikTok, there are always more stories to tell! In this class, we’ll write about
Join Writers in the Schools (WITS) as we close out this year in community for our annual WITS Writer Winter Reading. Although we'd normally gather in the library at Literary Arts, we invite you to cozy up from the comfort of your own spaces and listen to literary excellence at this virtual reading held via
Writers in the Schools (WITS) has served public high school students with creative writing residencies in Portland, and more recently Gresham, since 1996. Published local writers collaborate with classroom teachers to lead an immersive semester-long workshop series designed to further class themes, curricula, and student interests. Each residency culminates with a public reading, ordinarily held
Writers in the Schools (WITS) has served public high school students with creative writing residencies in Portland, and more recently Gresham, since 1996. Published local writers collaborate with classroom teachers to lead an immersive semester-long workshop series designed to further class themes, curricula, and student interests. Each residency culminates with a public reading, ordinarily held
Writers in the Schools (WITS) has served public high school students with creative writing residencies in Portland, and more recently Gresham, since 1996. Published local writers collaborate with classroom teachers to lead an immersive semester-long workshop series designed to further class themes, curricula, and student interests. Each residency culminates with a public reading, ordinarily held
Writers in the Schools (WITS) has served public high school students with creative writing residencies in Portland, and more recently Gresham, since 1996. Published local writers collaborate with classroom teachers to lead an immersive semester-long workshop series designed to further class themes, curricula, and student interests. Each residency culminates with a public reading, ordinarily held
This workshop will take a look at the ways poetry and pop culture intersect. We will practice inhabiting the voices of fictional characters, historical figures, and celebrities when tackling important themes in the work we create – from the likes of Mario to Frida Kahlo, Beyonce to Jon Snow. Led by Julia Gaskill, this workshop
Learn about the slam poetry process, #Virtualandia, and ask any questions you have whether it's about form, performance tips, or inspiration sources. This Q&A session will be led by local experts in slam poetry—Jacque Dixon, an educator and coach for our Brave New Voices team, and Jordan Wolmut, 2019 Verselandia! grand slam champion and Brave
You've got the words, so how do you say them? This workshop will provide the author different methods for how to bring out the best performance out of themself and their poem. We’ll read and discuss a few poems, practice some fresh techniques together, and have plenty of time for questions. -- RSVP HERE: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/virtualandia-2021-workshop-and-qa-sessions-tickets-142756002045
Get 1:1 support from slam experts during 15-20 minute sessions whether you need support with writing, revision, performance, or anything else. Co-hosted by Jacque Dixon and Julia Gaskill. -- sign up here: tinyurl.com/virtualandia-feedback-21 -- Feedback sessions are free and open to all #Virtualandia students. These will be hosted via Google Meet. For questions about feedback
Get 1:1 support from slam experts during 15-20 minute sessions whether you need support with writing, revision, performance, or anything else. Co-hosted by Jacque Dixon and Alex Dang. -- sign up here: tinyurl.com/virtualandia-feedback-21 -- Feedback sessions are free and open to all #Virtualandia students. These will be hosted via Google Meet. For questions about feedback
Refine your performance chops in anticipation of #Virtualandia! and more at this workshop co-led by two amazing slam poets—Jacque Dixon, an educator and coach for our Brave New Voices team, and Jolly Wrapper, third place Verselandia! 2018 winner and Brave New Voices poet. Topics may include projecting your voice with confidence, extending metaphors, transitioning themes,
Get 1:1 support from slam experts during 15-20 minute sessions whether you need support with writing, revision, performance, or anything else. Co-hosted by Julia Gaskill and Alex Dang. -- sign up here: tinyurl.com/virtualandia-feedback-21 -- Feedback sessions are free and open to all #Virtualandia students. These will be hosted via Google Meet. For questions about feedback
Click to read the event program #Virtualandia! 2021 is an exciting opportunity for students from eligible Portland metro area high schools to take part in a dynamic virtual slam poetry competition, and to win prizes like the title of #Virtualandia Slam Champion and corresponding $1,000 Visa gift card. Up to 300 youth poets will submit original work
Thursday, June 17: Writers in the Schools End of Year Celebration 5:00–7:00 p.m. | Free | Register in advance Join Writers in the Schools classroom teachers and writers-in-residence in celebrating the culmination of an incredibly challenging and fruitful 2020-21 school year filled with moments of creativity and community-building. Writers and teachers will take to the mic
Ever see a work of art and you want to tell the artist or the piece: I love it, or I don’t get it, or I don’t see myself in this at all? You can! In this workshop, we’ll talk back to art. Look at examples of other artists and writers who have done the
“It was about time that I realized that searching was my symbol, the emblem of those who go out at night with nothing in mind, the motives of a destroyer of compasses.” –Julio Cortazar. In this workshop, we will try destroying compasses, writing about travel in a way that isn’t just about going places and
In this science fiction seminar for high school students, Matt Smith will teach students how to start brainstorming their stories. The nature of the genre often demands a lot of imagination, and the function of the class will be to show students how to make this part of the process fun and exciting. Students will
Each year, Literary Arts’ Writers in the Schools (WITS) program publishes an anthology of exemplary student work. Connections in 1s and 0s showcases poetry, prose, drama, and comics written by high school students from Portland’s public high schools in 2020-21.
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