Book Festival Offers Writing Workshop for Teachers

On Friday, April 16, Alabama teachers grades 6-12 are invited to spend the day with four authors who will appear at the 5^th Annual Alabama Book Festival in Montgomery to learn about creative writing techniques and strategies for their students.

Each year in conjunction with the statewide book event, the Alabama Writers’ Forum produces the Festival’s education outreach program. The workshops are offered free of charge with generous funding from the Support the Arts Car Tag Fund and Vulcan Materials Company, as well as support from Troy University, Montgomery Campus and the Alabama State Council on the Arts.

This year’s participatory writing workshops are designed to introduce teachers to new strategies for integrating creative writing into language arts and English curricula, as well as making use of new media such as blogs and Web site postings in other subject areas.

Poets Sean Hill (author of Blood Ties and Brown Liquor) and DéLana R.A. Dameron (author of the South Carolina Poetry Book Prize-awarded How God Ends Us) will lead the morning poetry workshops. Irene Latham (author of the young adult novel Leaving Gees Bend) will give a reading at the noon hour, and fiction writer and blogger A.M. Garner (author of Undeniable Truths) will lead the afternoon workshop on “Writing for the New Media.”

“We hope teachers will leave the workshop with ideas for new writing lessons and some writing of their own to inspire students,” said Alabama Writers’ Forum Executive Director Jeanie Thompson. “We are fortunate to have writers of this caliber with us to work with our Alabama teachers this year.”

“We have a limited number of slots for the workshops, so teachers are encouraged to register early. All slots are filled on a first-come, first-served basis,” Thompson said.

Registration is required. Print out registration forms online at www.alabamabookfestival. org. Contact the Alabama Writers’ Forum at writersforum@bellsouth.net or call 334-265-7728 for more information.