TEENS Publish is a free 8-week summer creative writing (and/or illustrating) program for aspiring writers and illustrators who are currently in 7th-12th grade. This program is led by author Molly Blaisdell (who also writes as Cece Barlow).
The 2020 program wilt take place on Wednesday afternoons (2:30 to 5:00 p.m.) in June and July, and the first week of August.
This year’s program will be held over Zoom. We will be using invitations, passwords, and a waiting room to ensure that only the participants are in the Zoom meetings.
Depending on safety guidelines, there may be an opportunity later in the summer for people to come into Ringer Library and sit at a distance (one person per table), although Molly might still be participating via Zoom or Skype. Anything in person is still to be determined.
At this point, we are trying to determine the interest level in the 2020 program. Contact us during the month of May 2020 to ask questions and/or to express your interest in this year’s program.
If interested, please contact Kendra at kperkins@bryantx.gov to let us know that you are considering participating. When you email, please specifically address whether you (teen and parent) will be okay with virtual meetings.
Although we will at least primarily be meeting online, this program is limited to local teens (within the Brazos Valley), and the program size is limited to 12 to 15 participants.This year, we will be asking for a short writing sample (one paragraph to one page) rather than simply taking the first dozen applicants. Do not send unsolicited attachments. If interested, email Kendra for more information. We will let you know when and how to send information and writing samples.
This year’s program will be limited to fiction and poetry. A lot of the work will need to be done on your own. Exact details of how we will do the critique sessions is still to be determined.
Teens complete one polished piece by the end of the 8-week program. Each participant chooses whether that will be a short story, the first few chapters of a novel, or poems. Upon approval of the editor, each participant will have one polished piece published in the TEENS Publish anthology (each person is limited to 3000 words or 12 pages). After first publication, all rights revert to the authors.
Anthologies from each year are available to check out from the Young Adult (teen) Fiction section of the Ringer Library (College Station) and the Mounce Library (Bryan). Searching for Teens Publish in the library catalog will pull them up, and the call numbers all start with Y-F Teens. The 2015 title is The New Generation. The 2016 title is Words Were Spilt. The 2017 title is Chaotic Creativity. The 2018 title is An Overwhelming Surplus of Skittles. The 2019 title is Not Just Ink and Paper.
There is a blog at the bottom of the page with updates from a previous year (oldest post at the bottom). There are some useful writing links.
