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), with the assistance of Ringer librarian Kendra Perkins.
2020 participants: Please check the blog section further down the page for some updates that will be posted after the meetings. Click on the post titles to see more information.
The 2020 program was held on Wednesday afternoons (2:30 to 5:00 p.m.) in June and July.The 2020 program was held over Zoom, using invitations, passwords, and a waiting room to ensure that only the participants were in the Zoom meetings.
Although the 2020 program was held online, the program is limited to local teens (within the Brazos Valley), and the program size is limited to 12 to 15 participants. For 2020, we asked for a short writing sample (one paragraph to one page) rather than simply taking the first dozen applicants.
The 2020 program was limited to fiction and poetry. A lot of the work will need to be done on your own.
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.
2020 participants have submitted their manuscripts, which are being edited and compiled into an anthology. Any 2020 participant who has not yet submitted their work should immediately contact Kendra Perkins and Molly Blaisdell. Prior to publication, manuscripts will be sent back to their authors for proofreading. Each participant will receive a free copy of the anthology, and a copy that can be checked out will be added to the library collection at both Ringer and Mounce. There will be a virtual party near the end of October, in which each participant will read a short sample of their work.
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. The 2020 title will be The Isolated Generation, and the book will be available in the fall.
For more information, contact Kendra Perkins at kperkins@bryantx.gov or (979) 764-3416.
