The National Writing Project needs your help! And a giveaway!

You have all heard me write about my love for the National Writing Project, one of the most successful educational reform organizations in the US, a site that honors teachers, and students, enriches their lives in teaching, improves literacy education (not to mention test scores) and, crucially, keeps many fantastic teachers in the profession who are disheartened and on the verge of leaving.

Well, the National Writing Project, which includes the Great Bear Writing Project which I direct, is in jeopardy and needs your help.

The current administration has proposed that funding for the NWP be consolidated with that of five other literacy programs under a new competitive program (sound familiar, Race to the Top?).

At the very least this would mean, starting with Fall 2011, ZERO direct funding for the National Writing Project network and NO funding for any local site in a state that chose not to compete or was unsuccessful in competing for this funding.

In other words, the National Writing Project and the Great Bear Writing Project as we all know it could completely disappear.

Fear not. The government threatened to do this very same thing about 10 years ago. The NWP was looking at EXCTINCTION. But guess what? People came OUT OF THE WOODWORK to protest this proposition. They wrote letters, emailed and called their legislators to urge them to support direct funding of the writing project. They encouraged their significant others, friends, administrators and parents to do the same. Legislative assistants all over Washington wondered, “Who are all these people and why do they care so much about the National Writing Project?”

But it worked. We saved the National Writing Project!
Unfortunately, we need your help again.

At the bottom is a letter you can use to email your legislators about saving the writing project. All you need to do is copy and paste it into a snail mail letter or an email to send to your senators and representatives in Washington. Or, you could use it to call them, asking for your support.

You can just cut and paste the letter as is with your signature—this would be a HUGE contribution. But if the Great Bear Writing Project has had a personal impact on you, it would be wonderful if you took the time to add your story to the letter. As we all know at the Writing Project, STORIES MATTER!

You can find all the information you need to contact your US representative here and your US senators here.

Anyone who writes or calls and emails me at stephv@uca.edu to tell me (tell me who you contacted and when) will be entered in a drawing to win one of three hardcover copies of Mary Pipher’s wonderful bookWriting to Change the World. Appropriate, don’t you think?

We can do it again. We can save the National Writing Project!!

Bye, y’all,
Stephanie

Dear
I am writing to urge you to support the National Writing Project, one of oldest and most successful school reform programs in education, as it faces losing its federal funding.
The NWP, a proven, highly successful national infrastructure, is currently at risk as a result of the administration’s proposed strategy to consolidate it with five other literacy programs which would only offer funding to state agencies competing for it with new, unproven programs.
The National Writing Project has a thirty year program of success in improving literacy among students by profoundly supporting the professional development of their teachers.
Specifically, direct funding for the National Writing Project supports:
1. The national goal of helping students graduate prepared for college and career-ready;
2. Tens of thousands of teachers prepared to serve as a professional development resource to their colleagues and local schools;
3. A national improvement and reform infrastructure with demonstrated practices that support the success of local writing projects sites in providing high-quality professional development to local schools.
4. National programs and initiatives that extent and strengthen the work of local sites and that support site leaders in enhancing their work and sharing knowledge across the network.
The National Writing Project accomplishes all of this because it is a highly developed and effective national infrastructure that includes broad reach, local usability and established quality. Without direct funding, the infrastructure of this crucial program is in jeopardy.

Thank you for your time and your support.
Sincerely,

Philip Gross wins the T.S. Eliot Prize!

Yes, folks, wordamour was thrilled to learn that UK writer Philip Gross has won the prestigious TS Eliot Prize in poetry, one of the grand dames of literary prizes.

Because it could not happen to a better writer, a writer’s writer, who Wordamour has had the pleasure of working with (he was my generous editor for the essay, “Storming the Garret,” which appeared in the issue of Writing in Education he guest edited), of attending conferences with (Great Writing 2007), of reading with her children (my oldest was a great fan of his book, Marginaliens; he is also a wonderful children’s writer) and who she looks forward to working with on the editorial board of Professional and Higher.

You can read about him and this wonderful news here.

Three Cheers for F Street Review!

F Street Review, a fine new blog I just discovered through Google Alerts, has published a great list of of top 100 Creative Writing Blogs. I’ve benefited from a lot of similar lists in the past, and there are some old favorites here, like Practicing Writing, one of the best online resources for writers out there. But there are a lot of new blogs too; I added about 7 to my google reader, including F Street itself. So don’t delay, check it out!

Accepted!

Reader, they accepted the book!

Now, before the real work begins, the work of actually finishing it by June 1 and making it the most articulate argument I can, a brief sigh of celebration.
I have been working on this book since 2006 and it is in many ways, the culmination of so much I have wanted to say, needed to say, that needs to be said, written, on creative writing in higher education. No more worrying that someone is going to beat me to it (well, maybe a little), the relief that this might have the potential to move things in a positive direction.

The end is in sight, I can see it. It’s going to happen.

Bye y’all.
SV

A Good Email Day**

Two great messages in the email Friday.  My response to Rosalie Morales Kearns has been accepted to appear in the Interchanges section of CCC, College Composition and Communication.  Morales Kearns published an article about teaching creative writing there last summer with several good points that also, unfortunately,  ignored the scholarship of oh, the last 15 years in creative writing pedagogy.  I’d say more but you’d be better off waiting till the response comes out.

I’m glad CCC’s was gracious enough to accept it, as opposed to other publications–not naming names, AWP, that “don’t accept responses to their articles.”  C’s Editor Kathleen Blake Yancey is wonderful to work with, by the way.

Also, an essay I wrote a few years ago, “The Girl in the Ivory Blouse,” has also finally found a home in anthology about women’s relationships forthcoming from Emerging Edge Publishing.   In it’s way, it’s a tribute to my late, great aunt so I’m glad it’s going to be published. It’s been ignored by a couple of magazines, Victoria among them, that don’t seem to think it’s necessary to put an SASE to good use.

Waiting to hear on two other essays that are out there floating around.  I hear on Monday whether my book proposal, Rethinking Creative Writing in Higher Education: Programs and Practices that Work, has made it to the next acceptance stage at a new publisher of a Creative Writing series in the UK, Professional And Higher.  After I made it through the last stage, the editor shared that I was the only writer who had made it to that point so far.  

A good email day, I’d say. I’ll keep you posted.

Bye y’all,

SV

Books Christmas 09: Giving and Receiving***

Wordamour tries to do her part each holiday season to serve as a one woman stimulus package for the publishing industry.  Here’s a peek at books I gave and books I received this Christmas

Received:

Everything I Needed to Know I Learned From Children’s Books by Anita Silvey A charmer. Lots of notables weigh in.

How to Do Biography Writing a biography is definitely in the “someday” category for me; after all, they are often my favorite reads.

Eat this, Not That
The skinny, pun intended, on what’s good to eat and what’s not.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society A wonderful book.

I also got a $50 Barnes and Noble card in November as part of an award and promptly “gave” myself some books, namely:

Handmade Home by Amanda Blake Soule (author of the SouleMama blog and of The Creative Family).

Blogging Bliss by Tara Frey Nice ideas, great eye candy.

Kneadlessly Simple by Nancy Baggett Can’t wait to try the foccacia.

The Last 100 Days by John Toland  Last 100 days of WWII in Europe. This is out of print, I’m currently knee deep in it, for my NaNoWriMo novel.

Given:

Everwood by Neil Schusterman–The sequel to Everlost my 13 year old was pining for.

Pop by Gordan Karman.  I even got it signed.  For the above 13 year old.

Odd And the Frost Giants-by Neil Gaiman  Upon finishing The Graveyard Book together, my nine year old wondered, “What else has Neil Gaiman written?” I know–out of the mouths of babes.

That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo  For my husband, a big Russo fan. Signed.

Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper. Also for my husband, who blogged about it on his blog, here.

Mike Mulligan and His Steam Engine by Virginia Lee Burton  For a certain four year old who’s a big machinery–and Burton–fan. Gotta love a classic like this one.

The Big Book of Goldenbook Stories For the Burton fan’s sister, a certain  flaxen haired two-year- old who longs to be Ariel but looks more like Cinderella.

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running: Haruki Murakami For my marathoning husband.

**Yes, I’ve been MIA for a couple of months.  Long couple of months, long story, nothing serious, but I’m back and have many posts in the hopper. Thanks for your patience.

Peeking at the Govs Bookshelves

Wordamour and her husband were recently incredibly fortunate to have received from an unknown benefector (ok, our incredibly gracious and generous Dean)  two ticket’s to the Porter Fund Literary Prize dinner at the Arkansas Governor’s Mansion.   Roy Reed was the winner of the annual prize, with Arkansas poet Miller Williams winning a lifetime achievement award.  It was also the 25th anniversary of the award.  An exciting evening; lots of literary luminaries, a look at the Gov’s mansion and even at the bookshelves of his public study.  Of course, they were all books about Arkansas or by Arkansans.  I’m sure his private study is a little more varied.  Here’s a peek:

I’ll leave you with one of the poems Williams read, a famous one,

The Caterpillar

Miller Williams

Today on the lip of a bowl in the backyard
we watched a caterpillar caught in the circle
of his larvel assumptions
my daughter counted
27 times he went around
before rolling back and laughing
I’m a caterpillar, look
she left him
measuring out his slow green way to some place
there must have been a picture of inside him
After supper
coming from putting the car up
we stopped to look
figured he crossed the yard
once every hour
and left him
when we went to bed
wrinkling no closer to my landlord’s leaves
than when he somehow fell into his private circle
Later I followed
barefeet and doorclicks of my daughter
to the yard the bowl
a milkwhite moonlight eye
in the black grass
it died
I said honey they don’t live very long
In bed again
re-covered and re-kissed
she locked her arms and mumbling love to mine
until yawning she slipped
into the deep bone-bottomed dish of sleep
Stumbling drunk around the rim
I hold
the words she said to me across the dark
I think he thought he was
going in a straight line.

 

Bye y’all,
SV

Kansas City, MO- Bookstore City

We hit Kansas City, MO a few weeks ago, during fall break. One of our absolute favorite places, it’s so beautifully laid out. Especially gorgeous in the fall; there’s a reason why they call it the “Paris” of the Midwest.

Of course, we had to hit the bookstores. We were staying in the Westport District, where we got to check out Spivey’s Rare Books and the Halfprice Bookstore, both up the street. Wordamour discovered Halfprice Books, a chain of bookstores absolutely stocked to the gills with books and charm, last September in Berkeley. Believe me, anytime you’re in a city with a Halfprice Books, it’s worth the trip. Of course, we came out with a bagful.

But the highlights were Prospero’s Books, a gorgeous used and new bookstore in town and Reading Reptile, an absolutely magical world of a children’s bookstore in the Brookside shopping district. I’ve been to a lot of children’s bookstores and this has to have been one of the best. If you’re ever in KC, you’ve got to check these two out. Bye for now, y’all! SV
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Reading Reptile

Bonus photo of our new kitten,  Lucky, working with me.

Bye y’all,

SV

Three-Legged NaNoWriMo-A New Game!

While I was writing today, the right front leg from the chair I sit at (the white one in all the pictures from the previous post) suddenly just. . .fell off. I didn’t fall to the floor or anything but it did feel kind of odd.

But then I discovered that my own right front leg actually serves as a very good replacement. That is, I still feel pretty comfortable–not about to tip over or anything. Which just goes to show you that certain chair legs are better to lose than others–the back left one, for example. Don’t think that loss would work out so well.

So the next few days will be spent determining if I actually need to replace this chair before I start NaNoWriMo on Sunday. Speaking of which, you can now sponsor me in my novel writing endeavors. I’m aiming to raise $100 towards the organization and its efforts to support young writers.

If I finish, and someone say, sponsored me at say, a penny a word, that would only be 5.00. C’mon, consider it–what’s a fiver or a tenner when it comes to getting young kids writing?

You can sponsor me here.

Bye y’all,
SV

NaNoWriMo–Getting Ready to Roll

Yep, I’m doing NaNoWriMo this November.  At first I was just going to tell y’all that this blog was probably going to get quiet next month (not like it hasn’t happened before) but I’m going to try and lay in some posts in the draft box before Nov. 1 so I can pop a few up here and there as I go.  

This week has been all about getting ready.  Getting my work space ready, clearing a spot on my cluttered home desk (I may be the only person I know with five full pencil cups–anyone else want to fess up?) for the babyDell and the coffee.   

Honestly, the biggest bribe for this whole thing (besides the prospect of actually getting a draft done) may be that I will allow myself all the coffee I want.  Love the stuff; limit myself to two hearty mugs a day.  Usually.  Not this November.  I suspect it may be the sole thing getting me out of bed at 5:00 am. At first anyway. 

Lining up all the books I’ve been using to research my subject.  From what I understand, I’ll be writing so fast, I might not be able to do much more than glance at them, maybe touch them if I’m lucky.  But it’s good to know they’ll be there, waiting for me to delve into after it’s all over, when I’m revising.

What’s in this black box?  Yes, well, wouldn’t you like to know?  It’s related to the novel, but its contents are secret right now.  Another reassuring presence.  Besides, secrets can be very motivating.

According to NaNoWriMo’s founder, Craig Baty, one should not have a bed visible in one’s writing space–nor a cat (see upper corner) demonstrating its benefits.  Unfortunately, my writing space is also a guest bedroom/daybed I normally purpose for reading and napping.  I should be able to resist it, though.  I know going near it would be a disaster.  If resisting turns out to be a problem, I could always cover it with tacks or something.

And the picture wouldn’t be complete without Garfield, our older cat, quite bereft these days now that we have acquired a kitten. Normally Garfield isn’t interested in attention from anyone but my husband but he’s become very needy lately, even asking me for some lovin’.

I feel lucky, I have had plenty of 2008 winner Monda Fason’s advice to shore me up and let me know what’s what.  Nervous but hopeful. That’s me. 

Bye y’all,
SV