The local community will have a plethora of opportunities to sample the works of Emporia’s next generation of creative writers next month.
The House of Morrow Diverse Voices program, a creative writing course for elementary school students now in its third year, began at Walnut Elementary School and this year expanded to Logan Avenue. Program Director Linzi Garcia, KVOE’s Talk of Emporia guest Friday, says the program is designed to not just build the writing skills of their students, but their confidence and individuality as well.
Garcia says program leadership provides the building blocks of creative writing to the students, but ultimately, they leave the creative process up to the young writers themselves.
As has been tradition since the program began, all of the works created through Diverse Voices will be compiled into a book that will be available for purchase. Both schools will have separate book launches for their collective works, with Walnut’s launch taking place on April 28th and Logan Avenue’s launch being held on May 5th.
Ahead of that time, participants in the program will be showcasing their stories at multiple community events, starting with the April First Friday Artwalk in downtown Emporia on April 3rd. Two days later, students of Logan will be the opening act for the Good Way Gardens Good Way Sunday event at Fremont Park and students will also be showcased during the Emporia State Visiting Writers Series on April 21 at 6 pm on the ESU campus.
Garcia says not only is this a great opportunity for these young people to practice their readings in public, it is also giving them tremendous marketing experience.
For more information on the Diverse Voices Program and upcoming activities through House of Morrow, visit HouseofMorrow.org.
