Richmond Young Writers

Summer Sessions 2010

2010-03-09T08:59:00.000-08:00

Summer sessions run Monday-Friday from 2-5 pm at Chop Suey Bookstore in Carytown. Young writers will have the opportunity to explore the craft and fun of creative writing through a variety of imagination-stimulating prompts, journaling, people-watching and more.

Special workshops with professional writers will be held on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 3-5 pm. Each week will culminate in a reading of student works-in-progress at the Byrd Theatre at 4:30 pm on Friday afternoon.

Session 1, Ages 10-14
June 21- June 25
Character (Slash Coleman) ** Surrealism (Mike Dulin) ** Poetry (Shann Palmer)

Session 2, Ages 10-14
June 28-July 2
Journalism (Chris Dovi) ** Zine Making 101 (Liz Canfield) ** Fiction (Michele Young-Stone)

Session 3, Ages 10-14
July 5- July 9
Character (Slash Coleman) ** Poetry (Shann Palmer) ** Journalism (Chris Dovi)

Session 4, Ages 14-17
July 12- July 16
Fiction (Michele Young-Stone) ** Surrealism (Mike Dulin) ** Zine Making 101 (Liz Canfield)

Zine Making 101

2010-03-09T08:55:00.000-08:00

Zine Making 101: The Art of DIY Publishing.

This workshop shows participants how to create their own publications, from generating ideas, to layout and production. Zines (pronounced "zeens") are handmade, usually photocopied, publications that have a small print run. Zine writers vary in age from 13-63 and zine topics are equally diverse. We will talk about zine history and construct our own group zine. Workshop materials will be provided.

Liz Canfield has an MFA in Creative Writing/Poetry from VCU and her poems appear in thINK and diode. She teaches at VCU as an Assistant Professor in the Women's Studies Department. She is one of the organizers for the Richmond Zine Fest and organizes the Von Gribley reading series at Chop Suey Books. Her interests include DIY publishing, activism, and feminist theory. She is currently working on her PhD in VCU's Media, Art, and Text program.

Bringing Your Characters to Life

2010-03-09T08:53:00.000-08:00

Bringing Your Characters to Life
Why do you recall certain book characters vividly? Why do you feel as if you have lived alongside them? A careful look at the character voices and character description will help you understand why you love them. Slash Coleman will show you the meaningful ways that authors bring a character into a story and how you can use these tools in your own writing to bring your stories to life.

Slash Coleman is a comedian and author best known for his award winning one man show, The Neon Man and Me, which ran Off-Broadway and is now a PBS special. Nominated for the Virginia Governor's Award in the Arts, his shows have been produced throughout the United States.

Everybody Has a Story

2010-03-09T08:51:00.000-08:00

Everybody Has a Story: Storytelling Through Journalism
The most important news story is nothing if it isn't also a good yarn. Students will learn the basics of journalistic storytelling; the importance of compassion and empathy for their subjects, and how details - the little observations we take for granted, but that mean so much to a narrative - bring a subject to life and make the reader a part of the story.

Chris Dovi is an award-winning newspaper reporter who has covered Richmond's politics and people for more than a decade, always with an eye - and ear and nose - to making people a part of even the most yawn-inducing story about county budget debates. After all, behind every boring budget is a person whose life is changed for better or worse by bottom-line numbers. Dovi has been a staff reporter for The Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Daytona Beach News-Journal and Style Weekly, and has provided content to numerous other publications in Virginia, Florida and nationally, and is personally responsible for creating logjam traffic conditions for a full week on the otherwise untravelled Pocahontas Parkway by spinning a whale of a tale about Indian ghosts, mysterious toll booth apparitions and phantom drag racers.

Surrealism

2010-03-09T08:49:00.000-08:00

Surrealism
"The man that cannot visualize a horse galloping on a tomato is an idiot” Andre Breton – surrealist poet and writer

Surrealism is an art movement born of the strange and unusual. The notion of surrealism conjures up worlds unlike anyone has envisioned before. To create with this style is to prize the random, the accidental, and the absurd. Surrealistic writing comes from letting go of the controlling of words and ideas. Through the use of surrealism miraculous surprises will emerge from the random combination of words, sentences and visual images. We will work with a variety of techniques to break down any ideas you have about how the world exists. Through uncontrollable writing and word games a new language will begin to develop. In a sense you will be reinventing the world through language.

The Master Plan of a Captain Forever Lost at Sea
Mike Dulin is an anthro-journalist/poet/playwright/conceptual artist living north of Richmond, Virginia on an art-farm known as Dudetown. Along with writing poetry and composing journalistic pieces exposing culture and environment relations; Dulin is also the producer, writer, and director of an independent, surrealist theatre group called PunkSinatra. His work focuses on communication and understanding across all boundaries -- mainly through the use of common cultural symbols.
Dulin is also a visual art critic for STYLE weekly, a program leader with ART180, and an instructor of English Composition at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College.

Poetry

2010-03-09T08:47:00.000-08:00

Poetry Workshop
We'll take an idea, find the best words we can, and write a poem! And then write another, only this time we'll make it rhyme or make it outrageously tall or screaming red with orange polka dots- there are so many ways to put words on paper! We will read a few famous and not-so famous poems, than write and read our own. This workshop is all about discovery: how we say things, how we tell our stories, how we share our thoughts in new ways.

Shann Palmer is a professional writer/musician/teacher. Published online and in print, she has won contests such as Writer’s Digest Chapbook Contest, Poesia, and the Poetry Society of Virginia. Recent poems appear in Night Train, Shakespeare’s Monkey Review, and Ocho. Her teaching experience includes creative writing classes and supervision of literary magazine at Orchard House School and Trinity Episcopal, and other workshops.

Fiction Sampler

2010-03-09T08:45:00.000-08:00

Fiction Sampler
Using a variety of writing prompts, this fiction workshop will investigate characterization through scenes and dialogue; point of view—trying new ones; and audience awareness (we’re not simply journal writers, and it doesn’t matter how something really happened.) We’ll take chances and have fun. We’ll learn the difference between telling a story and allowing one to unfold. First and foremost, we’ll learn through sharing our writing.

Michele Young-Stone’s debut novel THE HANDBOOK FOR LIGHTNING STRIKE SURVIVORS was published by Shaye Areheart, a division of Random House, April 2010. She is revising her second novel, ALL THINGS BEAUTIFUL, and working on a third. A graduate of VCU’s MFA fiction program, Michele lives in Virginia with her husband and son.

2010-02-03T08:07:00.000-08:00

RICHMOND YOUNG WRITERS, Summer 2010

Spend a week creative writing with professional writers! Explore the ins and outs of group and individual writing exercises through journaling, people-watching, character development, zine-making poetry and prose.

Each session of Richmond Young Writers will meet from 2-5 pm at Chop Suey Books in the heart of Carytown. Three professional writers will teach special workshops on Tuesday-Thursday each week, culminating in a live reading at the Byrd Theatre on Friday afternoon.

Stay tuned for updates about each specific writer and workshops!

Session 1: June 21- June 25, ages 10-14

Session 2: June 28- July 2, ages 10-14

Session 3: July 5- July 9, ages 10-14

Session 4: July 12- July 16, ages 14-17

2010-01-24T12:59:00.000-08:00

Richmond Young Writers Announces the 2010 Core Values Tour

What is the “2010 Core Values Tour”?
The program was created by nationally renowned and award-winning storyteller, Slash Coleman. It is a 45-minute storytelling concert that combines personal stories and songs with the Core Value Initiative that was adopted by the Chesterfield County School Board in 1999. The initiative is based on the book Educating for Character (by Thomas Lickona1992, Bantam).

Who is it for?
The concert is appropriate for families, teachers and children of all ages. It works especially well with students in grades 6-12 by igniting interest in the four core values: respect, responsibility, accountability, and honesty.

What will it do for kids?
2010 Core Values Tour encourages kids to reach for more in the areas of personal
and academic achievement.

Who is eligible to book the free event?
All public schools, libraries, community centers, arts organizations, and non-profits(including churches and synagogues) are eligible for this free program. To receive additional information about this unique opportunity visit http://www.slashcoleman.com or e-mail info@slashcoleman.com.

Watch here!

2009-07-21T08:16:00.000-07:00

Register now for Richmond Young Writer's
Fall Edition!

Fall Session 1
Tuesday, September 22- October 20

4 :00 - 5:30 pm at Chop Suey Books in Carytown
Ages 10-14
$120 per session

With guest fiction teacher, Andrew Blossom
and guest poetry teacher, Shann Palmer

2009-07-20T05:53:00.000-07:00

Fiction Writing with Andrew Blossom

Andrew Blossom is the editor of the literary magazine “Makeout Creek.” He earned his master’s degree in fiction writing from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2007 and an undergrad degree in African-American studies from the University of Virginia. He works part-time at Chop Suey Books and Video Fan, teaches fiction workshops at the Visual Arts Center and is one of three editors of Richmond Noir, a collection of short stories set to come out next spring.

2009-07-19T05:55:00.000-07:00

Poetry with Shann Palmer

Shann Palmer is a professional writer/musician/teacher. Published online and in print, she has won contests such as Writer’s Digest Chapbook Contest, Poesia, and the Poetry Society of Virginia. Recent poems appear in Night Train, Shakespeare’s Monkey Review, and Ocho. Her teaching experience includes creative writing classes and supervision of literary magazine at Orchard House School and Trinity Episcopal, and other workshops.

2009-07-13T18:59:00.001-07:00

Richmond Young Writers, Session 4

Liz Wolfe

2009-07-13T18:48:00.000-07:00

The Apple

Skin shiny steel, the color of rosy cheek; Flesh crisp and tender and flakey, Just to be savagely torn. Now blemished by toothmark, Skin hangs and bruises exposed, As tender flesh darkens by air.

Thousands

Thousands of footprints echo in time. Past's cold iron cage enclose those behind bar. Vessels soon sink or else meander ashore, molded by ocean wave's pound. Skeletal limbs haunt this earth. No matter, we still devour. Barriers put end to life and become so many, swallow strife. Thousands of footprints still echo in time.

Addie Gottwald

2009-07-13T18:47:00.001-07:00

Lillian Rand

2009-07-13T18:46:00.001-07:00

2009-07-07T06:01:00.000-07:00

Richmond Young Writers, Session 3

(more stories to come!)

Myra Ahmad

2009-07-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

The Best Gift Ever: A Fairytale

I went out of town to see what my older sister had done to the Kingdom. Since I was only three years old, I didn't have much power. It was my 3rd birthday so all of the Kingdom had been decorated to my liking. Everyone thought that I was sleeping in the royal bedchamber that I shared with my older sister who was still sleeping. I couldn't believe that no one passing on the street noticed there was a princess in the road!

I was happy to be out of the castle because the castle was probably full of talk of my royal gift. But I had to return because my older sister would probably wake up soon and I didn't know what would happen if I was discovered to be missing. My parents would probably have my favorite nanny hanged. I was back at the castle just in time to pretend to wake up. I was surprised to see my nanny holding what is known as the Pooh-Land game. Pooh was a famous play that I had seen numerous times. This game was an uncommon but it was all that I had wanted. I jumped up and down saying, "Thankoo! Thankoo ery muck!"

2009-07-07T05:59:00.001-07:00

Lee Blackmer

Hannah Bracey

2009-07-07T05:58:00.000-07:00

Kevin (Zikai) Chen

2009-07-07T05:57:00.000-07:00

A Fairytale

Once upon a time there was a little fairy that lived by the sea. All he wanted for Christmas was a magical go kart that could fly in the air. So his Dad bought him one with $2,000 insurance. He drove to Mexico and lived by the beach. The End.

Kia Garrett

2009-07-07T05:56:00.000-07:00

Eliza Goodpasture

2009-07-07T05:55:00.000-07:00

Dell Hudgins

2009-07-07T05:54:00.000-07:00

Exquisite Corpse

Once upon a time in the 1500s a ship set sail. Upon that ship was a royal family- a princess, two little princes, a king, and a queen. They all hated each other. The queen was part of a conspiracy against the king and the king was part of a conspiracy against the queen. The king and queen both wanted to sing. So they went on American Idol. And there they met Simon, Paula, and Randy who weren’t very nice to them. Their first time on stage was horrible and they got sent back. Later they tried So You Think You Can Dance and it was equally as awful. So they started doing the Macarena out in the street whenever they felt like it, usually when someone was playing BAD electric guitar. Everyone laughed and pointed and cussed them out.

Aven Jones

2009-07-07T05:53:00.000-07:00

My Character

Adrian lay in her bed, having the nightmare she had every night; the nightmare of when her mother left.

Adrian was only 4 years old on that stormy night. She was wearing her favorite pink princess dress, when her mother, crying, headed for the door. “Daddy,” Adrian questioned. “Why is Mommy crying? Why does she have a suitcase? Are we going somewhere? Where are our suitcases, Daddy? Where is Mommy going? Mommy, take me and Daddy with you!” Her father held her back as her mother headed for the door. “Mommy, where are you going? Mommy?” Those were the last words Adrian said to her mother. Her mother didn’t reply, she just closed the door. “Mommy is going away for a while, Princess” her father said with a note of sadness in his voice. Adrian started crying, getting tear-stains on her dress. She ran toward the window just in time to see the taxi take her mother away forever.

When Adrian woke up, she felt tear stains on her cheeks. Why was she crying? It had been 9 years since her mother left. She shouldn’t feel bad. She didn’t want anyone to know that she was still sensitive about her mother leaving, so she just whipped away the tears.