E-Scholastic Publishing Posted Clips of Our Readers!!

E-Scholastic, the news website for Scholastic Publishing, came to the open mic we co-sponsored with the Scholastic & Writing Awards two weeks ago.

Here are some excerpts from the report of the event on their blog: Before Thanksgiving, new blogger Robert and I got to go to a really cool reading here in New York. The Alliance for Young Artists & Writers: The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards teamed up with the Housing Works Bookstore Cafe and Writopia Lab to have an open mic reading of young people's work. And it was unbelievable...

The open mic was co-hosted by Writopia Lab, which is a workshop program for young writers in New York. In 2008, Writopia Lab students won more national awards from the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards than did any other group of students in the whole country....

Now, despite the fact that it's right around the corner from Scholastic (and that Gossip Girls filmed there once), I had never checked out the Housing Works Bookstore Cafe before. So when Robert and I walked over, I was delighted to find a cute little bookshop. (They even had everyone's favorite wizard on the shelves of the children's section.) In the back, there was an area set up for the reading with rows of chairs (and cookies and brownies for snacks). And you could already tell it was going to be good.

The readers ranged in age from 11 to 17, guys and girls, former winners and first time entrants. And their work covered a range of categories — poetry, journalism, memoirs, and short stories — all of which blew me away, they were so good. I would tell you about it, but I don't have to. We took video so you can see for yourself:






Visit E-Scholastic, to see and hear Writopia writers Victoria, 12, Angelica, 14, Olivia, 11, Ena, 13, and Sarah, 16, read their poetry, fiction, and journalism!


Comments from their website:

Darn! I'm only in 5th grade! I want to enter soooooooooooooooo badly!!!!!!!!

Posted by: BeccaMonkey987 | December 05, 2008 at 05:37 PM

WOW!!! The first girl, Victoria, had a really great short story! And she's only twelve! I'm twelve and I want to be a writer, too! Awesome!!!

Posted by: Madison | December 05, 2008 at 07:06 PM