A year-round book festival dedicated to great conversations with today's best writers.
We don’t think art should be expensive. That’s why, in the fall of 2012, we’re kicking off a first-of-its-kind program, our Front Street Writers Program, which is an exciting partnership with Traverse City Area Public Schools (TCAPS).
This program will provide more opportunities for students to engage with NWS and hone their writing craft under the tutelage of some of the most talented writers in the country—our NWS guests. “Having such an experience when I was a teenager,” says Doug Stanton, “literally changed my life. I’ve never forgotten how fortunate I was to be taken seriously by practicing writers at such a young age. What we do on the City Opera House stage in Traverse City, Michigan a couple of times every month feels like the Oscars and NPR rolled into one—rapt audiences listening to writers talk personally about great stories. The Front Street Writers Program will be a legacy program that we hope shapes the creative economy and our students’ futures.”
Writing creatively, imaginatively, and powerfully is the number one skill we can teach students, who will tell the stories of the 21st century. It’s our hope that one of these students will be our guest at NWS in another ten years, when they come back to the Opera House stage as a published author! This first-class creative writing residency program will be available for free to area TCAPS high school students.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: English Language Arts 11 or English Language Arts 12
1.5 credits (full year course)
Front Street Writers Program is designed specifically for students who are interested in studying writing as a craft and pursing writing as a potential profession. Students will be taught in a workshop setting by a professional writer with a Master of Fine Arts degree and a TCAPS instructor.
The program is open to independent, highly motivated students who have proven in 9th and 10th grades to have an aptitude for and love of writing. This full-year course will meet outside the standard school day, and students will need to provide their own transportation to the writing center downtown. Students will be required to develop a comprehensive and peer-critiqued writing portfolio, submit to student publications, and read their work at an exhibition open to the public. Visiting authors, workshops, and access to the networking of the National Writers Series are all benefits of choosing this exciting and innovative option to the traditional high school English course.
For more information, contact your school counselor who will give you more scheduling and program information.
