Distinguished Visiting Writers in the Schools

The Distinguished Visiting Writers Series reaches out to Arizona high school students and their teachers. Social embeddedness is core to the development of ASU as the New American University. Together, the Piper Center and the Young Writers Program (YWP) are working hard to build strong vibrant communities, to stimulate art for a new century and to provide access to great art for Arizona’s k-12 community.

Through the newly strengthened partnership between The Piper Center for Creative Writing and The Office of Youth Preparation’s Young Writers Program, the Piper Center is able to impact hundreds of students and teachers through its Distinguished Visiting Writers in the Schools Series. This program places Piper’s Distinguished Visiting Writers, specifically selected for the k-12 community, out into the schools. It also includes a variety of YWP in-class creative writing residencies which focus on the work of the nationally-known visiting author. Students learn the author’s biography, read and discuss a sampling of the author’s published work, and participate in guided standard-aligned writing exercises led by trained YWP teaching artists. As a culminating event, students attend a public reading specifically for the targeted k-12 community at which they meet the writer, get a private reading and engage in a Q&A session. The students’ own creative work is then published in a classroom anthology and highlighted work will be featured in a special section of 22 Across: A Review of Young Writers (ASU’s k-12 literary journal).

This fall, we are very excited to welcome American Book Award winning poet Kimiko Hahn as part of the Distinguished Visiting Writers in the Schools Series. YWP teaching artists and ASU MFA students will facilitate in-class standard-aligned creative writing residencies for 130 students at La Joya Community High School. In the month prior to the event, YWP teaching artists will introduce students to Hahn’s biography, implement an original YWP creative writing curriculum, and lead students in writing workshops. This student-generated poetry will be published in a classroom chapbook and considered for publication in 22 Across: A Review of Young Writers.

On October 15th, Kimiko Hahn will visit La Joya Community High School in the Tolleson School District for a private author reading, Q&A, and signing for the 130 high school students followed by an informal round table discussion with the classroom teachers.

Last fall the Piper Center and the Young Writers Program hosted a reading by U.S. Poet Laureate Charles Simic at Burton Barr Library in Phoenix. Five area high schools participated in the event which included a series of creative writing residencies. Over 230 high school students and their teachers were able to attend the special reading and talk by Mr. Simic at the library. Other past Young Writers Program events have brought Piper Center Distinguished Visiting Writers such as Rigoberto González, Sonia Sanchez (left), Aimee Nezhukumatathil,  and MacKenzie Bezos out into the schools to work with students and teachers. Click here to see other past YWP events.

Sean Nevin
Director, Young Writers Program