Adirondack Center for Writing hosts event to help students with their writing
Feb. 25—SARANAC LAKE — Teenagers can get their write on at "Teen Night" on Friday, March 3, from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. in order to draft, revise, and send their writings to "Wild Words: Adirondack Teen Writing Anthology."
The Wild Words anthology, a collaboration between Visiting Writer Erin Dorney and the Adirondack Center for Writing, (ACW) is part of the Creatives Rebuild New York (CRNY) Artist Employment Program.
CRNY, a project of the Tides Center, is a three-year, $125 million investment in the financial stability of New York State artists and the organizations that employ them.
'UNIQUE VOICES'
Dorney will work with ACW over the next two years on a variety of projects designed to encourage creative writing and readership throughout the Adirondack Park.
"Seeing your words published in print means a lot to any writer," Dorney says.
"For teens living in the North Country, this is a great opportunity to share their unique voices, experiences, and identities with a wider community of writers and readers. ACW believes teens have lots of important things to say, and we're excited to read through the submissions that come in."
PRO EDITORS
As the March 10 deadline approaches to submit writing to the anthology, ACW wants to support teenagers who aren't sure what to write, what to send, or how to send it.
ACW will have editors present to help teens get writing, make edits to their work, and get it submitted before the deadline.
Teachers and mentors are welcome to bring groups of students to Teen Night as well. Registration is encouraged but not required. Walk-ins welcome.
Snacks and pizza will be served at 5 p.m.
NEW OUTLET
"Wild Words" is a brand new, yearly print publication. It's a place for teens living in the North Country to publish their creative writing, including poetry, short stories, memoirs, personal essays, sci-fi, and fantasy.
Any teen (age 13-19) living in the North Country is eligible to submit writing (10 pages max) for consideration in the anthology, which will be published in the spring of 2023.
"Our goal was to we're thinking there's some students who are not finished with their submissions or they're not sure what to submit or possibly they've never sent writing to a thing before and therefore they are intimidated by the process of submitting," Tyler Barton, communications manager, says.
"They don't get how to use the form and things. We just wanted to do an open workshop where teens could come here and get some assistance whether it's in writing a new piece, editing a piece that exists, learning how to submit the piece or selecting what to submit. Some students have reached out, too, and been like, I have a story, I have an essay, I have a poem, I don't know what to submit. Can you help me?"
UNDER THE WIRE
ACW is pitching Teen Night as a study or cram session.
"The deadline is right around the corner," Barton says.
"Come here and get it figured out. We've gotten a good number of submissions so far, but we would love to get some more before we start actually putting the book together. This is our last kind of big push before the deadline."
ACW has developed an online toolkit for teachers and organizations interested in sharing this opportunity with members of their communities, which can be found online at www.adirondackcenterforwriting.org/wildwords Submissions are due by midnight on March 10, 2023.
A public book launch for the anthology is scheduled for April 22, 2023 at ACW in Saranac Lake located at 15 Broadway.
Free copies will be distributed to contributors and locations throughout the North Country, with additional copies available to be mailed for a small fee to cover shipping.
Email: rcaudell@pressrepublican.com
Twitter@RobinCaudell
