4/7-4/21: Highly-Acclaimed Writing Workshops (Ages 9-13) Come to Brooklyn! (Cobble Hill)
Reply to: event-633012508@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-04-07, 12:02AM EDT
Writopia Lab (www.WritopiaLab.org) is a non-profit organization that offers creative writing workshops in Manhattan and in Brooklyn (123 Columbia Street) for students ages nine to 17 throughout the summer. Visit our website at www.WritopiaLab.org to see our SUMMER schedule, history, mission, and reviews.
(Phone: 212-706-1239)
HOW WE WORK:
Workshops meet daily for five or 10 days; Each workshop enrolls a maximum of six participants and is led by a published, award-winning writer and experienced teacher; The workshops, organized by genre and age group, are peppered with original and fun writing exercises, but the primary focus is always on writing and completing excellent pieces. (Workshops for our youngest writers, ages 9-10, focus on developing creative expression, completing at least one short piece, and having fun!)
THE RESULTS
Each participant leaves the workshop with at least one polished piece of original writing. (Imagine finally finishing that story?) Twice a year all participants are invited to read their work in public at Barnes & Noble or at Bryant Park!
In 2008, one of our writers won a Regional American Voices Award (one of five, out of 1,800 entries), 30% of our writers won gold keys, and another 20% won silver. Eight of our writers won National Awards, too! Our writers have also been published in teen journals and local papers. Last year, Writopia Lab's director, Rebecca Wallace-Segall, led the Abraham Joshua Heschel School's creative writing program, and her students won more regional and national awards in the Scholastic writing competition than any other school in New York City.
Celebrations
Each semester culminates in a public reading at Barnes & Noble or at Bryant Park. During this exciting event, writers share their work with friends, relatives, and with others who come in response to listings in various media. This May, we will be hosting our first annual grand celebratory reading at Bryant Park on May 18th from 12:00pm-3:00pm. If you'd like to receive a formal invitation to that event, please send a note to Jeremy@WritopiaLab.org.
"The summer workshop was an amazing experience! While expressing your creativity and building your skills, you were chilling and laughing the whole time! I am so glad I was a part of it... My work began to transform to art."
--Milana
2008 Scholastic National Gold Key Winner,
Memoir
2007 Scholastic Regional Gold Key Winner,
Memoir
Age 15, The Beacon School,
"Rebecca helped me tackle a topic that I rarely even discussed with friends....There were some private sessions where Rebecca and I would just talk. I expressed what was bothering me about writing my memoir and she quelled my concerns, making me feel comfortable about being honest. It has been an absolute pleasure and a privilege to work with Rebecca, and I will definitely be back for more workshops."
--Leanna
Scholastic American Voices
Award Winner and National Silver Key Winner, Memoir, 2008 and
Regional Silver Key Winner,
Short Story, 2007., Age 14, The Abraham Joshua Heschel School
Rebecca Wallace-Segall
National Director, Writing Instructor
Rebecca @ WritopiaLab.org
Teaching History
Rebecca founded WritopiaLab in April 2007, currently directs the national organization, and teaches writing workshops in New York and occasionally in Greenwich, CT. Rebecca has won multiple teaching awards including the 2008 National Gold Apple Teacher Award for "submitting the most outstanding group of submissions on the national level" in the Scholastic Art & Writing event. Previously, Rebecca established the creative writing program at the Abraham Joshua Heschel Middle School on the Upper West Side of Manhattan as a consultant. While she was there, the program outperformed every other school in the city (including every elite public and private institution) in Scholastic's prestigious Art & Writing Awards competition. She was awarded recognition from The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards as an "outstanding educator" in 2006 and 2007. (Writopia won Scholastic's official endorsement in 2007.) Rebecca was also nominated by students and selected to be entered into the 11th Edition of Who's Who Among American Teachers.
Rebecca has taught at SUNY Albany, New York University, The Katherine Gibbs School, and at Gotham Writers’ Workshop. In 2002, she had the pleasure of working with young writers in New York City public schools for the first time as a resident writer with the Teachers & Writers Collaborative. By 2003, she was working at the Heschel School, planting the seeds for a unique and successful creative writing program there. She also participates in the judging of several national youth writing competitions (in which her students are not involved).
Writings
Rebecca began writing for publications in 1997 as an intern at The Village Voice. Over the next ten years, she contributed five cover stories (and other pieces) to the Voice, served as Senior Editor at Psychology Today Magazine, contributed op-eds and thought pieces to The Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post, The Nation, and New York Newsday, and contributed to dozens of other magazines and newspapers including New York Magazine, Salon.com, and Spin. She won Salon's "Best People Story of the Year Award" for "Love Labor’s Flossed" and received recognition for other pieces as well. In 1999, she became a Journalism Fellow at Brandeis University. In 2003, she entered the world of comedy writing, and began writing and performing sketch comedy around NYC. She won a “Best Sketch” competition at the Upright Citizens Brigade in 2006. A full-length comedic screenplay she co-wrote is currently being represented by The Dorothy Palmer Agency.
Rachel Ephraim
Fiction and Memoir Writing Instructor and Writopia Brooklyn Outreach Coordinator
Rachel @ WritopiaLab.org
Rachel Ephraim teaches Writopia's youngest writers, ages 9-10, and is spearheading the establishment of Writopia Brooklyn. Rachel earned an undergraduate degree in creative writing, screenwriting, and film production at Boston University and is currently writing a young adult novel. She has worked on the PBS children's show, "Zoom"; as a production editor of the academic press, "Peter Lang Publishing"; and as a casting assistant for cult favorite indie director, Todd Solondz. She also regularly contributes articles to online publications on food, music, and nightlife. We are especially thrilled by the plethora of fun, inspiring, and useful writing exercises Rachel brings to Writopia Lab's writing workshops.
- Location: Cobble Hill
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PostingID: 633012508