Students, teachers take up the pen
LCSD Publishes Literary Review
[Posted May 14, 2008]
Lincoln County School District has announced the publication of “Sea to Sitka: An Anthology of Student and Teacher Memoirs from the Lincoln County School District.”
The public is invited to celebrate this special literary endeavor at a launch party set for 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 21, at the Newport Visual Arts Center. Admission is free and books will be on sale for $5.
“I want to encourage everyone interested in reading good writing to come out and hear the contributors read,” said LCSD teacher Matt Love, editor of the anthology. “The stories are wonderful and this is an excellent way to support students and teachers.”
“Sea to Sitka” features 40 memoirs written by LCSD students and teachers and the stunning photographs of Lincoln City photographer Ralph Elliot, who donated the use of the images.
“This is, I believe, the only joint student-teacher literary review produced by public school district in Oregon,” said Love. “We have something truly historic here.”
The anthology’s origin dates to the spring of 2007, when seven professional writers conducted a series of week-long writing workshops with several hundred students from Waldport, Toledo, Taft and Newport High Schools.
The writers encouraged the students to produce a short memoir as an outcome for the workshop. Many of these pieces were then submitted to the Lincoln County High School Literary Contest sponsored by Writers on the Edge. Later that summer, two writers from the Portland-based Community of Writers led 28 LCSD teachers through a week-long writing workshop where the teachers were required to produce a personal narrative.
As coordinator of the district’s writing improvement initiatives and a judge of the contest, Love had the opportunity to read all the student memoirs and teacher narratives.
“Quite frankly, I was astonished at the quality of many of the pieces,” said Love. “I felt the best writing deserved a larger audience and a literary review seemed like the best way to accomplish this.”
Thanks to a grant from the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz and support from LCSD’s Director of Curriculum and Instruction Sandi Williams, “Sea to Sitka: An Anthology of Student and Teacher Memoirs from the Lincoln County School District” became an 84-page reality with a press run of 300 copies.
All proceeds from sales of the anthology will go toward publishing additional school literary reviews in the county. For details, call Love at 503-812-1524.
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