Students hone creative writing skills during summer workshop

July 15, 2010 – School may be out for the summer, but that doesn’t mean learning stops for Voorheesville Central School District students.

This week (July 12-16), seven middle school and high school writers spent each morning together at the Cole Summer Writers Institute at Clayton A. Bouton High School, honing their writing skills and creativity.

Under the direction of Institute Director Brian Stumbaugh, students participated in fun and engaging writing activities and guided exercises. Students were provided with laptops to capture their work.

The students were introduced to local novelist Elizabeth Brundage who offered a one-day workshop which explored developing a character. During part of her session, Brundage spread out several photos and asked each student to select one that inspired them. Students were then asked to write 10-15 words on each of 10 or so index cards about the photo and share their character with the group. Brundage said she was impressed with the details and language the group used to describe their photo and pressed students a little further to think how they could take some of their ideas in a direction that challenges their character.

Brundage holds an MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she received a James Michener Award. Before attending Iowa, she was a screenwriting fellow at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. Her short fiction has been published in the Greensboro Review, Witness magazine, and New Letters. Her first novel, The Doctor's Wife, written in 2004, was considered "..a compelling read" by The Boston Globe, and her second novel, 2009's Somebody Else's Daughter, was a book that revealed Brundage, according to novelist Wally Lamb, as a "storyteller supreme." Her third novel, A Stranger Like You, will be released this August.

To culminate the students’ efforts and hard work throughout the week-long program, all of their completed work will be published in the online edition of The Blackbird Review—the district’s literary magazine.

The Cole Summer Writers Institute is supported by the Voorheesville Central School District and the Karen J. Cole Educational Trust, which is led by John Cole in support of local educational projects in Voorheesville and Bethlehem.

Pictured above: Class of 2010 graduate Mitchell Joyce designed the commemorative poster for this year’s Institute.
 

Enjoy this photos taken during the July 14 session led by local novelist Elizabeth Brundage: