REGISTRATION PART ONE: Please fill out the online student registration form here or at the bottom of each class description below: Fill out my form!.
REGISTRATION PART TWO--PAYMENT: Each session of camp is $150. Payments may be made online through Paypal or by sending a check to Richmond Young Writers/ 1202 Hillside Avenue/ Richmond, VA 23229. All checks should be made out to Richmond Young Writers. Cancellation requests must be submitted two weeks prior to the class start date in order to receive a refund (minus a $25 processing fee.) Cancellation requests received less than two weeks before the class start date will receive a credit towards a future class.
THE WRITING WEEK: Each week, young writers will explore the craft and fun of creative writing through a variety of imagination-stimulating prompts, journaling, brainstorming, people-watching and more. On Wednesdays, a professional writer will guest teach a special 2.5 hour workshop. During the course of the week, young writers will have the opportunity to contribute to The People's Library Project, creating books that will be added to the permanent collection of the Richmond Pubic Library. At the end of the week, each young writer will make a short recording of his or her favorite work which will be edited into a video that we'll post on the RYW blog!
PLEASE BRING: Please bring a water bottle and a journal. Pens, pencils, spare journals and paper and a light snack will be provided during each session of camp. If your child gets extra hungry, please pack an extra snack!
LOCATION: Camp will be held in the upstairs art gallery of Chop Suey Books, located at 2913 West Cary Street in Carytown, directly across the street from the Byrd Theatre. Get directions to Chop Suey!
SCHOLARSHIPS: Full and partial scholarships are available on a first-come/first-served basis! Students who wish to be considered for scholarships should send a paragraph in their own words about why they like to write to richmondyoungwriters@gmail.com.
QUESTIONS? COMMENTS? Please email richmondyoungwriters@gmail.com, Valley Haggard at valleyhaggard@gmail.com or call Valley Haggard at 804-822-1680.
Session 1A: June 17-21
10 am- 1 pm, WEREWOLVES and VAMPIRES v. ZOMBIES and ALIENS with Julie Geen, ages 11-13
Guest author: Phil Ford
2 - 5 pm, STORY SAFARI with Valley Haggard, ages 8-10
Session 2A: June 24-28
10 am- 1 pm, STORYCRAFT: SHORT FICTION with Bird Cox, ages 14-17
Session 2B: June 24-28-- FULL!
2-5 pm, FRIENDS, FOES & FREAKS: CREATING UNFORGETTABLE CHARACTERS with Valley Haggard, ages 11-13
Guest Author: Dennis Danvers
Session 3A: July 8-12-- FULL!
10 am- 1 pm, THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE SQUIGGLY with Bird Cox, ages 8-10
Guest Author: Spencer Turner
Session 3B: July 8-12
2-5 pm, STRANGER THAN FICTION: MINING YOUR LIFE with Valley Haggard, ages 14-17
Session 4A: July 15-19
10 am- 1 pm, FURIOUS FICTION with Bird Cox, ages 11-13
Session 4B: July 15-19
2-5 pm, MAGICAL CREATURES with Julie Geen, ages 8-10
Guest Author: Meg Medina
Session 5A: July 22-26
10 am-1 pm, ALL-YOU-CAN-WRITE BUFFET with Bird Cox, ages 8-10
Session 5B: July 22-26
2-5 pm, LANGUAGE LAB with Valley Haggard, ages 11-13
Session 6A: July 29- August 2
10 am-1 pm, STORYCRAFT: LONG FICTION with Bird Cox, ages 14-17
Session 6B: July 29- August 2
2-5 pm, IMAGINATION FLASH: TAPPING INTO YOUR SENSES TO PAINT A PICTURE WITH WORDS
with Ali Goldstein, ages 8-10
with Ali Goldstein, ages 8-10
Session 7A: August 5-9
10 am-1 pm, WORLD BUILDING with Bird Cox, ages 11-13
Session 7B: August 5-9
2-5 pm, THE LITERARY MIX TAPE: FINDING THE BEAT ACROSS GENRE with Ali Goldstein, ages 14-17
Registration Form: Fill out my form!
Please scroll down for additional information about each camp week and guest author!
Session 1A: June 17-21
WEREWOLVES AND VAMPIRES v. ZOMBIES AND ALIENS
10 am- 1 pmwith Julie Geen, ages 11-13
Dragons, Unicorns, Faeries, Wizards and Wonder! Create your own world with your own fantastical creatures. We will go a little wild making our own worlds out of words and populating them with creatures from our imaginations.
Guest author: Phil Ford
STORY SAFARI
2 - 5 pm
with Valley Haggard, ages 8-10
Did you ever want to write a story from the point of view of your own pet or invent a new species of animal altogether? Animals of every stripe will inspire us to create feathered characters, furry stories and poems that can breathe underwater in this animal-centric writing camp. We’ll take inspiration from the earth’s mammals, reptiles and amphibians as we invent new creatures of our own.
Ginjer L. Clarke writes fun, fact-filled nonfiction beginning readers about weird, wonderful animals. Her books, most of which are part of the Penguin Young Readers series, have sold a combined total of almost 3 million copies worldwide since 2000. She loves that her job entails visiting zoos and aquariums, reading lots of books, and even watching TV for research. Ginjer is a graduate of James Madison University and lives in Richmond , Virginia
Registration Form: Fill out my form!
Session 2A: June 14-28
STORYCRAFT: SHORT FICTION
with Bird Cox
10 am- 1 pm, ages 14-17
This is an all-angles, all-perspectives college-style writing workshop, and we’ll be exploring the process of writing as well as enjoying the raw stuff of it. Crafting fiction in a roomful of other creative people with whom you get to share it is an inspiring experience, and one that propels your writing to the next level. Each writer will craft a collection of short stories, stream-of-consciousness prose, fictional letters and other short works.
Guest Author: Virginia Pye
Virginia Pye, author of River of Dust
FRIENDS, FOES & FREAKS: CREATING UNFORGETTABLE CHARACTERS
2-5 pm
with Valley Haggard, ages 11-13
Who makes up your personal cast of characters? Hybrid humans, hilarious heroes, headstrong heroines, bad guys, worse gals, flying centaurs, eccentric uncles, amazing aunts? Drawing on a combination of fantasy and reality we’ll borrow inspiration not only from ourselves but the world around us to create believable and impossible characters and creatures, populating worlds both familiar and strange.
Guest Author: Dennis Danvers
Dennis Danvers has published seven novels, including Circuit of Heaven (New York Times Notable, 1998), The Watch (New York Times Notable, 2002; Booklist 10 Best SF novels, 2002), and The Bright Spot (under pseudonym Robert Sydney). First novel Wilderness has recently been re-issued with a sexy new cover. Recent short fiction has appeared in F & SF, Realms of Fantasy, Electric Velocipede, and in anthologies Tails of Wonder and Richmond Noir. A story is forthcoming in Lightspeed. He teaches fiction writing and science fiction and fantasy literature at Virginia Commonwealth University Richmond , Virginia
Registration Form: Fill out my form!
Session 3A: July 8-12-- FULL!
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE SQUIGGLY
10 am- 1 pm,
with Bird Cox, ages 8-10
Character creators! We’ll be writing AND drawing in the class so that we can fully imagine the perfect good guys, bad guys and weird guys for a collection of short stories. And we’ll be doing some trading, too – you’ll get to draw as you listen to someone else dreaming up a character, and challenge someone to draw your own creative vision! And then, of course, we’ll steer them through lots of adventures…
Guest Author: Spencer Turner
Spencer Turner is an original founder of the Virginia Center for Latin American Art (VACLAA) which seeks to raise awareness of Latin America through art. Otherwise, there's this guy, right, his ID says, Spencer L. Turner, and he's worn a lot of hats over the years. You know, dishwasher, retail associate, customer service agent, building contractor, administrator, minestrone eater.And if you asked folks to describe him, after the look of disgust passes from their face like an ephemeral stench, they might rant off things like, distracted, dumbfounded, derelict, neerdowell, lacking sufficient refinement, gregarious to a fault. But in all his years there was nothing that he felt defined him more than "dealer in dreams". So after 30 some odd years he realized that his endless searching for some stray pixel of the truth (and his keys, for cryin' out loud!) left him with the realization that what he'd come to value most was a puff of smoke blown into disappearing rings.
Registration Form: Fill out my form!
Session 3B: July 8-12
STRANGER THAN FICTION: MINING YOUR LIFE
2-5 pm
with Valley Haggard, ages 14-17
We will borrow the techniques of fiction to cull moments and write stories from our lives, drawing on dreams, memories and observations to write with a fascinating blend of truth and imagination. Using prompts designed to blast through writer’s block we will explore the ways our own perspectives and insights lead to the stuff of narrative poetry, personal essay, memoir and fiction.
Guest Author: Patty Smith
Patty Smith is a writer of fiction and nonfiction. Her short fiction has appeared in TheTusculum Review and So to Speak: a feminist journal of literature and the arts. Her nonfiction has appeared in the anthologies Tied in Knots: funny stories from the wedding day (Seal Press); One Teacher in Ten: Gay and Lesbian Educators Tell Their Stories (Alyson Publications.); and Something to Declare (University of Wisconsin Petersburg , VA.
Registration Form: Fill out my form!
Registration Form: Fill out my form!
Registration Form: Fill out my form!
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Registration Form: Fill out my form!
Session 4A: July 15-19
FURIOUS FICTION
10 am- 1 pm
with Bird Cox, ages 11-13
We at Richmond Young Writers know how it feels to get in the zone – the zone where you yell at your fingers because they can’t get the words down as fast as you’re thinking them. And yes, we’re also familiar with the opposite of the zone… that place where you seriously consider whether hitting your head on your desk might help jar something loose. This workshop’s all about how to handle both ends of the spectrum in order to get your best work on the page.
Guest Author: Jaime Turko
Once Jaime Turko realized that her creative voice resonated most intensely through the vehicle of the written word, she traveled back through time to revisit past experiences and estranged characters to find the hidden magic that was locked away in ordinary nostalgia. Utilizing memories as the anchor for her fiction, she tells tales of bizarre coincidences and fateful circumstances by weaving together sharp-witted humor and undeniable sadness. She recently completed her first novel and is currently working on a collection of short stories. A VCU alumna, Jaime could joyously reflect for hours on her numerous careers and personal reinventions.
Registration Form: Fill out my form!
Session 4B: July 15-19
MAGICAL CREATURES
2-5 pm
with Julie Geen, ages 8-10
Dragons, Unicorns, Faeries, Wizards and Wonder! Create your own world with your own fantastical creatures. We will go a little wild making our own worlds out of words and populating them with creatures from our imaginations.
Guest Author: Meg Medina
Meg Medina is a Milk-Dud addicted Latina
Registration Form: Fill out my form!
Session 5A: July 22-26
ALL-YOU-CAN-WRITE BUFFET
10 am-1 pm
with Bird Cox, ages 8-10
What do you do when the banana splits, lemon meringues and chocolate eclairs all look good? In this smorgasbord of a genre-sampler, you don't have to choose just one! We'll sample a delicious array of fiction, poetry, memoir, free-writing and surrealism, topped off with a healthy helping of word games and language play. We'll also explore techniques for blasting through the wall of writer’s block into the ocean of our creative imaginations.
Guest Comedian: Jason Lefton
Jason Lefton is the founder and creative director of Richmond 's finest laser studio, BIG SECRET and has a blast improvising with the Richmond Comedy Coalition. He's unusually good at catching things with his feet and was once talked into skydiving in Wollongong , Australia
Registration Form: Fill out my form!
Session 5B: July 22-26
LANGUAGE LAB
with Valley Haggard
2-5 pm, , ages 11-13
Monstrous metaphors. Scintillating similes. Ridiculous rhymes. Lonesome lyrics. Weird words. Genre Games. Take advantage of our fully stocked language-lab to invent and dissect words and stories in a whole new way. Warning: side effects may include spontaneous laughter, exploding narratives, surreal sensibilities and an acute sense of humor.
Guest Author: Herschel Stratego
Herschel Stratego is a local songwriter, comedian, DJ and ukulele aficionado. Richmonders can hear him sing his own songs (sometimes improvised) and his original material for performances, while paying homage to influences from various mediums: Randy Newman, Ray Charles, Kitty Wells, David Letterman, Mark Twain, From Young, Shelley Berman, Richard Pryor and Steve Martin--among others…many others.
Registration Form: Fill out my form!
Session 6A: July 29- August 2
STORYCRAFT: LONG FICTION
10 am-1 pm
with Bird Cox, ages 14-17
This is an all-angles, all-perspectives college-style writing workshop, and we’ll be exploring the process of writing as well as enjoying the raw stuff of it. Crafting fiction in a roomful of other creative people with whom you get to share it is an inspiring experience, and one that propels your writing to the next level. Each writer will craft the building blocks of writing (character sketches, plot timeline, detailed ‘embroidery work’) as we dig deep into creating a longform piece of fiction.
Guest Author: Maya Smart
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Maya Payne Smart, an advisory board member of James River Writers, is a professional writer who has contributed hundreds of articles to newspapers, magazines and websites, including Black Enterprise and CNNMoney.com. She also helps writers master the business side of the craft through coaching and courses. She received a B.S. degree in Social Studies from Harvard University and a master's degree in editorial journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Maya has served on the board of the Society of American Business Editors.
Registration Form: Fill out my form!
Session 6B: July 29- August 2
IMAGINATION FLASH: TAPPING INTO YOUR SENSES TO PAINT A PICTURE WITH WORDS
2-5 pm
with Ali Goldstein, ages 8-10
Want to make your writing flash with detail and life? This class will be like looking through a pair of binoculars to bring a picture into focus -- except we'll be using words. Students will explore the sensory details that orbit around them to jump into their imaginations and create vivid writing. From fantastical to realistic writing, they'll see how taking a snapshot with words helps them discover the life exploding in a single moment.
Guest Author: Rachael Cohen
Rachael Cohen is an artist, educator, and the Project Director for Stuff Redux, Richmond
Registration Form: Fill out my form!
Session 7B: August 5-9
Registration Form: Fill out my form!
Session 7A: August 5-9
WORLD BUILDING
10 am-1 pm
with Bird Cox, ages 11-13
This is fiction… with a twist. We’re not going to dive into our stories until each participant has created an entire world—dystopian society? parallel universe? microcosm in a droplet of water?—from the ground up. We’ll be fleshing out individuals, cities, rules, quirks and similarities/differences between that world and our own, selecting a few juicy details and digging into your choice of a collection of short stories or a longer piece of fiction.
Guest Author: Lana Krumwiede
Lana Krumwiede is the author of a middle-grade science fiction novel, Freakling (Candlewick, 2012), and its sequel which will be published October 2013. She’s an avid reader of children's literature with a fondness for fantasy and science fiction. She's also a former elementary school teacher and a big fan of board games. Lana lives in Chesterfield
Session 7B: August 5-9
THE LITERARY MIX TAPE: FINDING THE BEAT ACROSS GENRE
2-5 pm
with Ali Goldstein, ages 14-17
There's a music to good writing and in this course we'll get to the beat of it. Students will find the pulse of what makes for page-turning fiction, compelling non-fiction, and breathtaking poetry: writing with heart. They'll journal and write non-fiction to explore the emotions and details that tell their own story and then learn to bring this heartfelt writing into their fiction to create characters the reader believes in. Exercises in poetry will combine their explorations in non-fiction and fiction to teach students how language evokes character, place, and transformation.
Guest Author: Tess Shebaylo
Tess Shebaylo has been blogging since 2003 and works as Director as Support at Tumblr. She's loved writing since she was a kid and has had work published in various print and online media for years -- everything from investigative pieces to music reviews to essays on etiquette. She lives in Church Hill with her husband, Dan.
Registration Form: Fill out my form!
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