For all interested young writers attending middle or high school in the Prince William County and Northern Virginia areas, I plan to run a series of creative writing & college essay writing mentorships over the summer of 2009.
What is a creative writing mentorship?
I originally planned on hosting a series of creative writing camps over this summer, but due to the excessive amount of red tape and fees I instead decided to pursue this route. You can think of a creative writing mentorship as piano lessons without the piano, applied to creative writing. Students will be able to work one on one with a qualified mentor, developing their craft through weekly (or however often you choose) lessons and exercises. The beauty of a creative writing mentorship is that you will be able to set the frequency of lessons, which day(s) and time(s) they occur, what kinds of writing will be pursued, and for what duration of time.
Who may be interested?
Rising 7th-12th grade students in the Northern Virginia area, with a keen interest and some experience in creative writing (or, a desire to write a knock-out college essay), who are willing to devote a portion of their summer to the art.
What can I expect?
Participants will learn about important techniques and strategies for writing in their specific genres; respond to independently-tailored prompts, activities, and games; interact with pre-existing, published texts; share work with a mentor to receive honest and valuable feedback; engage in the process of revision; submit revised work for publication; and finally share work with parents, friends, and other students in a culminating “coffeehouse” reading.
What kinds of writing will I do?
Ultimately, the student will determine what type of writing her or she wishes to pursue, but some examples of possible genres of study include: poetry, short fiction, novel, creative non-fiction, writing script for the stage or screen, writing the college essay, and children’s literature. Your choice of subject matter may range from fantasy to revolution and counterculture in writing (think Walt Whitman, the Beats, etc.), from writing from personal experience to writing from folklore, fairy tale, and dreams. (And of course, anything else.)
Where, how much, and when?
Much like piano lessons, the creative writing mentorships will be run from my private home, which is located between Woodbridge and Manassas in Northern Virginia. (I will provide an exact address for those who show interest.) The cost of such a mentorship will be $15 per instructional hour, but please note that students will also be responsible for the cost of book(s) (varies–buy used!). Mentorships may run any time between May 15th and August 15th. As stated above, students will be able to set their own schedules and the frequency of lessons.
Who is running the mentorships?
My name is Sarah Crossland and I am currently a second-year student at the University of Virginia studying creative writing and folklore & mythology as an Echols Scholar. I graduated from Woodbridge Senior High School’s Center for the Fine and Performing Arts (CFPA) program with a concentration in Creative Writing in June of 2007, with the honors of being the CFPA Valedictorian, in the top 1% of my class, and twice-named the Creative Writing Student of the Year. In 2007 I received the national-level Silver Award for my portfolio in non-fiction writing from the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards at Carnegie Hall in New York. I was also selected as a nationally-recognized writing finalist for the NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) Achievement Awards in Writing for a general writing portfolio, and received an award for Excellence in the Arts from the National Society of Arts and Letters as well. Junior and senior years of high school, I served as Editor-in-Chief of my school’s nationally-award-wining literary arts magazine, Eddas, and was a member of the Quill and Scroll Honor Society. I am currently a member of numerous collegiate honor societies and just recently launched a new literary-arts magazine for the UVA community called Glass, Garden. I also plan to attend the Sweet Briar Creative Writing Conference for poetry this spring. I have worked with the CFPA Creative Writing auditions, the Northern Virginia Writing Project’s Student Summer Institute, and I just recently hosted a Winter Creative Writing Camp for college-aged writers. Finally, I must say that I am an upbeat, inspired person, ready to burn a lot of creative energy.
How do I begin a mentorship?
Please send me an e-mail to crosslandcreativecamps@gmail.com as soon as possible (as I will only be able to take on so many students), expressing your interest in pursuing a creative writing mentorship. Please also include any experience you may have had with writing, what genres or styles you are interested in working with, and if possible when you wish to engage in lessons. Thank you!
