T229.
Write On! Literary Centers on Fostering Sustainable Youth Communities
Thursday, February 8, 2024
3:20 pm to 4:35 pm
How do we balance agency and boundaries within youth writing programs? How do we create, or allow our students to create, sustainable creative youth communities? Panelists from Grubstreet, The Muse Writers Center, and The Porch will discuss the nuances of creating spaces that balance teen writers’ growing need for creative and personal autonomy with the need for guidance and boundaries, as well as the importance of giving students the tools to create their own creative communities post-graduation.
Participants
Susan Page Deutsch is the events and community program manager, as well as a youth teacher at the Muse Writers Center. She is the winner of the 2022 Anne Meek Prize for Poetry and was formerly an intern and fiction submission reader at New England Review.
Jessica Grace Kelley is a novelist and the youth program manager at The Muse Writers Center in Norfolk, Virginia. Her novels have won several awards including the YA Molly Award, the Emma Merritt Award, and the YA Authors.me Contest. Jessica is currently represented by Christa Heschke at McIntosh & Otis.
Travon earned an MFA in poetry and an MA in literature from McNeese State University, while also holding a BA in English with a focus on secondary education and ethnic and gender studies. He currently serves as the manger of youth programs at GrubStreet.
J. Joseph Kane is the director of youth programs for The Porch, a Nashville-based creative writing nonprofit. Before moving to Tennessee, Joe taught poetry in Detroit Public Schools through the Inside Out Literary Arts Project. He has an MA in poetry from Central Michigan University.
