Kansas State University

MANHATTAN — Letting imaginations run wild will be encouraged at Kansas State University's upcoming Young Writers' Workshop, where students entering the eighth, ninth or 10th grades will get expert help on commanding language to create original, inventive works of writing.

The workshop, hosted by the English department, will be July 7-11 at the university's Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art.

Aspiring young poets, authors, storytellers and more will take part in the week of creative immersion. They'll meet with published writers, including slam poets, graphic novelists, oral historians and novelists, who will share advice on how to get ideas and how to get the writing process going. Students also will learn why these writers have made their careers in the profession.

"The opportunity to meet with a diverse group of writers shows students there are all kinds of ways you can express yourself through words," said workshop director Katy Karlin, an associate professor of English at Kansas State University. "The young writers will not only get insight into the creative process, but learn how writing can become a way of life."

Karlin is assisted by J. Hunter Gilson and Lexiyee Smith, both master's students in English; Kristin Selby, master's student in English, program assistant; and Lacey Brummer, master's student in English, program intern.

Fourteen young writers have been selected for the workshop through an application process. Karlin says the experience should benefit the participants in the coming school year.

"We hope that students will return to school with a greater confidence in their own creative powers," Karlin said, "and that they can apply that confidence to all aspects of their studies."

Each day the workshop will begin with a group breakfast followed by warm-up exercises and writing workshops. Participants will then get to write and share their creations. After lunch, they will visit with guest writers. Then it's more writing time and wrap-up exercises. On July 11, the workshop will conclude with a graduation ceremony and a reading by the participants.

"We are delighted to provide this opportunity to aspiring writers,” said Karin Westman, department head of English. "This program is part of our department’s strategic plan to engage the community in the art of writing and to foster diverse literary voices from an early age. We are grateful to our alumni donors, Helen and Duke Dupre, and our other sponsors, so we can offer this program at no cost to the student participants."

Along with the Dupres and the English department, the workshop is sponsored by Kansas State University's Tilford Group, the K-State Libraries' Dow Center for Multicultural and Community Studies and the Beach Museum.

For more information about the program, visit:http://www.k-state.edu/english/summer/youngwritersworkshop.html.