Class

Writing a Better World for Ages 12 to 14

Welcome back to Summer Youth at Open Book! Join us for a week of writing and all day creativity!

-Session 1: Alternate Histories for Ages 12 to 14 with Amily Sailer
In this workshop, the students will collaborate on a group novella that takes place in an alternate history. We will discuss examples of alternate histories in excerpts of novels and TV shows, like Nisi Shawl’s Everfair, Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Years of Rice and Salt, Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, and the show For All Mankind. Students will work together to choose a "point of divergence," when the course of history could have changed, and create a new timeline for their alternate history. Then they will write their own 3 - 5 page stories that take place in the shared timeline. On the final day of class, we will read and workshop each other’s stories for craft and continuity, and the teacher will send out the final anthology at the end of the course. The course offers a chance to experiment with worldbuilding techniques in a historical context. It also provides a creative outlet for students to use historical research and consider sequences of cause and effect in plot.

-Lunch & Enrichment: We'll break for lunch with more activities that will inspire us to express ourselves while having fun! We may explore Gold Medal Park to seek creativity outside the classroom! Please bring a packed lunch.

-Sesson 2: Beyond Text: Visual Experiments in Writing for Ages 12 to 14 with Courtney Ludwick
As writers, we rely on image all the time: in metaphor, in description, in our characters, in the worlds we create on the page. But how might we use image beyond text? What happens to our writing when we embrace experimentation and lean into hybrid forms—into forms that use both text and image?

Working within a hybrid tradition, first we will explore how contemporary writers have used visual experimentation in revolutionary ways—discussing examples of new media, visual poetry, experimental fiction, erasure, and collage, among other forms. Then, we will turn to generating our own work. Students can expect to write new material, break apart traditional genre conventions in order to (re)construct hybrid works, and to, quite literally, rip up magazines and old books as we experiment with a wide variety of texts and media. Centering innovative “play,” this is a generative workshop for students working in any genre who want to investigate new forms, practice experimental writing practices, and explore the intersections between image and text, art and writing.

Aspiring writers, grab your notebooks and pens, and let’s write at the Loft!