In this workshop, students learn to create and develop characters in order to write a story or a novel. Students learrn how to make a character "real" and how to make him or her leap from the page and begin to speak. Great characters drive great fiction. See how crowded our room will become when it doubles in size through imagination!

Grades: 6 - 8

In this writing workshop we present a mentor who has a special gift for showing young writers how to cultivate creativity by bringing forth story ideas. Through writing fantastical stories, students will become fluent in the elements of narrative structure: problem, obstacle, climax and resolution. At the close of the workshop, students will have the opportunity to share and enjoy their stories.

Grades: 6 - 8

Told again and again family stories reveal people adapting to new cultures and thus provide lush "free writing" material. "Insider-outsider" identities emerge as the student writers become one of the characters in their stories. Free writing focuses on imagination rather than on editing. Students experience confidence in writing on how their own identities emerged.

Grades: 9 - 12

In this workshop we present two mentors who have special gifts for showing young writers how to cultivate their creativity to bring forth story ideas. Through seemingly effortless exercises they help students come up with the elements of fiction: setting, characters, situations, details. They also share the value and the skills of developing stories out loud.

Grades: 6 - 8