A Celebration Of Young Writers

LITCHFIELD — The IMPAC-CSU Young Writers Program is organizing a Celebration of Young Writers, which will include workshops for secondary school teachers. The public is also welcome to attend.

Co-sponsors include Connecticut Commission on the Arts and Litchfield-Morris Rotary. The event will be Saturday, November 3, from 10 am to approximately 1:30 pm, at La Cupola Ristorante, 637 Bantam Road (Route 202; telephone 860-567-3326). La Cupola has been a major sponsor of the Young Writers Program for several years. Rotary members will help set up the event as a service project.

Traditionally, the Young Writers Program sponsors festivities featuring readings by poets and writers in anticipation of the deadline for the next Young Writers Competition. Training for teachers is a new facet of the event, which also includes musical entertainment.

Amy Ma, the Statewide Poetry Champion for 2001, Jennifer Steele, the Middlesex County Poetry winner, Lindsey Bowman, the Middlesex County Prose winner, and Martha Kwasnik, the New Haven County Poetry winner, will be among the young writers reading at the event.

The Mary Davis Jazz Quintet, featuring alto saxophonist Steven Brookes, will perform as an extension of the workshops. The quintet’s session will include a brief presentation, led by Litchfield Schools Superintendent John Tindall-Gibson, regarding the way in which music engenders better learning.

Entry forms for the 2002 competition are being mailed to all public, private and parochial secondary schools in Connecticut. Students must be between ages 13 to 18 during the school year to be eligible. The entry deadline is February 1, 2002.

The presenters for the teacher workshops are poet and publisher Faith Vicinanza and Southern Connecticut State University Professor Megan Macomber. Mrs Vicinanza, a Master Teaching Artist for the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, was among those nominated this year to be Connecticut’s Poet Laureate. Her company, Hanover Press, has published more than 20 poets including Sandra Ebner of Litchfield, the late Poet Laureate Leo Connellan, and CSU Professor Vivian Shipley.

Professor Macomber has taught creative writing at Southern since 1987. Ms Macomber graduated from Princeton University and received her MFA and PhD from Cornell University. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in many publications and journals.

A minimum $10 donation is suggested for the teacher workshop and music session. The workshop presenters are working pro bono; $10 will cover the cost of refreshments including coffee, Italian cake and hors d’oeuvres. Checks may be made out to IMPAC-CSU Young Writers.

Any proceeds from larger donations for the event will be split among a Rotary College Scholarship program, Rotary International charities and the Young Writers Program.

To register, contact Andy Thibault at 860-567-8492 or 860-567-8865 by Thursday, October 26.

Following the workshop and music sessions, the Litchfield-Morris Rotary will convene its regular weekly meeting at noon. The young writers will be the featured guests, and the public is also welcome to take part in this portion of the program. Cost of lunch is $15, and checks should be made out to Litchfield-Morris Rotary. Lunch will be a choice of Pasta Primavera, Chicken Marsala or Sole Florentine, and include salad.

The event is shaping up as follows: Coffee and other refreshments available at all times.

Session I will be the workshops, from 10 to 11 am. Session II, from 11 am to noon, will be the presentation on music followed by a performance by The Mary Davis Jazz Quintet as teachers, community members and young writers discuss the topic informally.

Session III will be lunch readings by young writers. This will acquaint teachers with young role models who have developed and demonstrated certain levels of expertise. The final session will begin at noon and last approximately 90 minutes.