Whole Lotta Teaching Going On

One of the very few plusses to leaving my job as Program Director of the AJC Decatur Book Festival was the fact that summer would no longer be the absolute busiest time of my life. In the past, from April-September I’ve been able to think of nothing but the festival, and all the details necessary to get 300+ authors to Decatur. This year, for the first time, I have a little more flexibility, and that means –much to my delight– that I’ll get to do a lot of one of my favorite things in the universe: teaching writing to young people.

Here’s a list of the great programs I’m involved with in June and July. There are still slots in a few of them, so check ‘em out!

June 5, 19th & 26th at the Decatur Public Library, thanks to Georgia Center for the Book, I’ll be teaching 12-15 year-olds some of the basics of really good story writing!

On June 11th, I’ll be talking to the amazing 9th-12th grade writers signed up for the Atlanta Young Writers Institute summer writing intensive. This is a terrific organization right here in Atlanta, so if you don’t know about it, check it out!

June 30th-July 13th, I’m thrilled (and really nervous) about getting to participate as an instructor in an absolutely incredible summer writing program for young women at Smith College. (Their library holds the Sylvia Plath AND the Virginia Woolf collections!!)

Another terrific program for local young writers (entering 11th and 12th grade) is also being held at Ivy Hall (of Savannah College of Art and Design) July 24th-26th.  My workshop will be focusing on creative nonfiction this time, which will be a fun change. And there’s a public reading on Friday night!

Of course before we know it, it’ll be time for school to start up again, but for now, popsicles, summer dresses, reading good books, and spending the hours working on good writing sounds pretty good to me! Hope you all have a lovely summer ahead for yourselves, too!