Fiction Writing Course Offered For Young Adults

Registration is open for the C.H. Booth Library Creative Writing Group for Young Adults course in fiction this winter, for youth in grades 6 through 8.

The group will meet from 6 to 8 pm on five Tuesday evenings, January 3, 10, 17, 24, 31, with February 7 as a make-up date, if necessary. All sessions will allow time for writing and sharing short stories in progress, as well as one-on-one communication between adults and young people.

There is no fee, but there is a limit of ten students. Participants are expected to attend all five sessions, and preference is given to Newtown students and residents. Sign up online at www.chboothlibrary.org or call 203-426-4533. For more information, speak to Margaret Brown, young adult librarian.

Wally Wood, teacher, author, and Newtown resident, with assistance from Wendy Wipprecht, a committed volunteer assistant in the Creative Writing program and fiction editor of The Newtowner, as well as teen mentor, Emily Ashbolt, will lead the writing group.

This is Mr Wood’s eighth year as a mentor with the young adult writers. Mr Wood has also taught writing to teens and adults in the Connecticut and New York State prison systems since 1993. He has a master of arts degree in creative writing from the City University of New York and published his first novel this past summer.

“We’ve found that the students are stimulated by hearing the works of their peers,” he said. “The goal of the class is to help the students create their own stories and find their own voices. We will spend roughly a third of the time writing, a third of the time reading our work aloud, and a third of the time discussing the works and fictional technique,” said Mr Wood.

Creative Writing for Young Adults is an ongoing program at the C.H. Booth Library, funded by the Friends of the C.H. Booth Library. Sessions throughout the year focus on different genres: poetry in the fall; fiction in the winter; mysteries and thrillers in the spring. During the summer, there are two groups in the writing camp divided by age, writing in a variety of genres. Enthusiastic young writers are invited to participate in this opportunity to develop their style in a relaxed group setting with guidance from experienced authors and teachers.