School One's Write Rhode Island program is open to young writers from grades 7 to 12

YOUTH WRITERS

Our Write Rhode Island programming is open to young writers in grades 7-12. From our annual flagship creative writing contest, to after-school classes, to an intensive summer program, we offer students the opportunity to find their voice and explore their creativity, while strengthening their writing skills. Classes change regularly, so check back to see what’s on tap next!

Annual Writing Competition

Each Fall, in collaboration with Goat Hill, School One offers a short fiction competition for Rhode Island students, grades 7-12. Write Rhode Island provides students opportunities throughout the state to work with professional writers and to be published in a high-quality print anthology.

Learn More

Our Lives Now Flash Non-Fiction Program

We are all living in an extraordinary moment. Our normal routines have been dramatically altered. Most of us are at home. Schools are all online. Write Rhode Island! asks the young people of our state to reflect on their experiences and tell us your stories. What are you seeing and doing? How have these changes affected your school and family life? What moments have you observed in the world around you?

We’re launching a flash non-fiction program that invites young people in grades 7-12 in the state of Rhode Island to reflect on their current experience during the Covid-19 outbreak. Submissions need to be 400 words or less. A reading panel will review every submission and propose entries for posting/online publication on the Write Rhode Island! Facebook page, website, and inclusion in the RICovidArchive.org, a digital archive co-managed by the Providence Public Library and Rhode Island Historical .

Send us a flash non-fiction reflection of 400 words or less that recounts some experience or examination of the changes in your daily life.

Submit your short essay online at our Submittable page.

Read the Stories

Write Rhode Island’s Creative Writing Summer Institute

Write Rhode Island’s Creative Writing Institute provides young writers the opportunity to develop their writing skills in a fun, relaxed, and motivating environment.

Students will

Explore genres of writing such as fiction, non-fiction, poetry, playwriting, graphic novel and more.
Develop their writing with the help of experienced teachers.
Be given time to write, write, write.
Publish a high-quality piece of writing.

Some classes run for one week and others are offered over multi-week sessions.

Note: Due to the situation with the COVID-19 outbreak, School One will hold all of our Summer 2020 classes online. Nervous about online learning? Click here to see what our parents and students have to say about our March-April classes at School One.

Scholarships are given out based on financial need.

Request an application, fill it out and send it to Diana at School One. dianac@school-one.org.

Write Rhode Island Creative Writing Classes

CURRENT OFFERINGS

SUMMER 2020

NaNoWriMo for Young Writers

Maryann Ullman

Coming Soon.

As part of School One's Young Writers program this year, students in grades 7-12 can sign up for NaNoWriMo – a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to creative writing. The challenge: draft a novel during the month of November. This free, after school writing program is for students in grades 7-12.

For more information or to participate, please contact Diana at (401) 331-2497 or dianac@school-one.org.

Lit Lab @ School One

Eve Kerrigan and Maryann Ullmann

Coming Soon.

Unique to School One, Lit Lab is a casual, drop-in, fun approach to writing. It’s a place for teens to explore, create and edit their creative writing with guided instruction. Lit Lab is ideal for students who have a project they are working on, or an idea they’d like to develop further. Lit Lab @ School One isn’t a class but a project space. Writers in all genres are welcome.

Introduction to Non-Fiction

Eve Kerrigan

Explore the creative forms of nonfiction—including memoir, personal essay, and micro nonfiction. Class activities will include readings, discussions, and in-class writing exercises. Students will explore the meaning of their names, the family that raised them, their childhood homes and neighborhoods, and favorite objects.

At the end of class, students will have produced a two-page essay or short memoir.

Grades 9-12 | Online | 10 a.m.-1p.m. | August 3-8 | $125 (Scholarships available)

Scholarships are given out based on financial need.
Request an application, fill it out and send it to Diana at School One.

For more information or to participate, please contact Diana at (401) 331-2497 or dianac@school-one.org

Playwriting for Middle School Students

Caitlin Duffy

In this one-week workshop, students will read a wide range of plays and discuss why and how we tell stories. Students will do many solo and group writing exercises that will launch them into writing their own ten-minute play. Throughout the week, students will have opportunities to hear their plays-in-process read out loud and to have one-on-one meetings with the teacher. Students will also practice how to respond to others' work in a critically supportive way.

For students who are interested, the week will culminate in a semi-public play reading, or filmed reading, for family and friends.

Grades 7-9 | Online | 10 a.m.-1p.m. | August 3-8 | $125 (Scholarships available)

Scholarships are given out based on financial need.
Request an application, fill it out and send it to Diana at School One.

For more information or to participate, please contact Diana at (401) 331-2497 or dianac@school-one.org

Storytelling with Photos for Middle School Students

Maryann Ullmann

Create an original story through both photos and creative writing. We will experiment with ideas though framing and staging images, and building a narrative plotline that weaves them together. Expect to get out and explore with your camera (a smart phone camera will do), as well as work on writing prompts to produce a publishable digital project. No experience necessary.

Grades 7-9 | Online | 10 a.m.-1p.m. | July 27- 31 | $125 (Scholarships available)

Scholarships are given out based on financial need.
Request an application, fill it out and send it to Diana at School One.
For more information or to participate, please contact Diana at (401) 331-2497 or dianac@school-one.org.

Storytelling with Photos for High School Students

Eve Kerrigan

Create an original story through both photos and creative writing. We will experiment with ideas though framing and staging images and building a narrative plotline that weaves them together. Expect to get out and explore with your camera (a smart phone camera will do), as well as work on writing prompts to produce a publishable digital project. No experience necessary.

Grades 10-12 | 10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. | July 27-31| $125 (scholarships available)
Scholarships are given out based on financial need.
Request an application, fill it out and send it to Diana at School One.

For more information or to participate, please contact Diana at (401) 331-2497 or dianac@school-one.org.

Playwriting for High School Students

Caitlin Duffy

For students who are interested, the week will culminate in a semi-public play reading, or filmed reading, for family and friends.

Grades 10-12 | Online | 1:00 - 4:00 p.m. | July 20 - 24 | $125 (Scholarships available)

Scholarships are given out based on financial need.
Request an application, fill it out and send it to Diana at School One.

For more information or to participate, please contact Diana at (401) 331-2497 or dianac@school-one.org.

Comic Book and Graphic Novel Incubator for High School Students

Miles Cook

Dream up, plan out, design, and draw comic books or short graphic novels with help from cartoonist Miles Cook. Students will work towards creating a short, self-contained comic story or the first chapter of a longer series. A list of required materials list will be supplied by the instructor and students will need to purchase their own materials.

Students are responsible for their own materials. Material list supplied by the instructor.

Grades 10-12| Online | 11:00 a.m.- 2:00 p.m. | July 16, 23, 30, August 6, 13, 20 | $125 (Scholarships available)

Scholarships are given out based on financial need.
Request an application, fill it out and send it to Diana at School One.

For more information or to participate, please contact Diana at (401) 331-2497 or dianac@school-one.org

Advanced Fiction for High School Students

Katie Dieter

This is a class for students with a project-in-progress or an idea for a creative writing project. Class activities will include readings, discussions, in-class writing exercises, and significant time spent reviewing and workshopping.

This class is open to previous Write Rhode Island program attendees or winners, or by submitting a work sample.

Grades 9-12 | Online | 1-4:00p.m. | July 14, 21, 28, August 4, 11 | $125 (Scholarships available)

Scholarships are given out based on financial need.
Request an application, fill it out and send it to Diana at School One.

For more information or to participate, please contact Diana at (401) 331-2497 or dianac@school-one.org

Fairytales and Fiction

Eve Kerrigan

In each session of this five-week course, we will read and explore fairy tales, folk tales, and myths from the classics to contemporary versions of fairy tales. We will discuss their characteristics - everything from troubled worlds, menacing villains, heroes/heroines to mystical beings. And, of course, we will write our own fairy tales.

The goal of the class is to write and workshop two fairy-tale inspired stories.

Grades 7-12 | Online | 10 a.m.-1p.m. | July 14, 21, 28, August 4, 11 | $125 (Scholarships available)

Scholarships are given out based on financial need.
Request an application, fill it out and send it to Diana at School One.

For more information or to participate, please contact Diana at (401) 331-2497 or dianac@school-one.org

Comic Book and Graphic Novel Incubator for Middle School Students

Miles Cook

Dream up, plan out, design, and draw comic books or short graphic novels with help from cartoonist Miles Cook. Students will work towards creating a short, self-contained comicstory or the first chapter of a longer series. A list of required materials list will be supplied by the instructor and students will need to purchase their own materials.

Grades 7-12 | Online | 10 a.m.-1p.m. | July 14, 21, 28, August 4, 11, 18 | $125 (Scholarships available)

Scholarships are given out based on financial need.
Request an application, fill it out and send it to Diana at School One.

For more information or to participate, please contact Diana at (401) 331-2497 or dianac@school-one.org

Introduction to Fiction for Middle School Students

Katie Dieter

This is a class where you’ll learn the fundamentals of fiction, including character, plot, setting, and theme, as well as workshop your writing with classmates and with the instructor. Class activities will include readings, discussions, in-class writing exercises, and workshopping.

This course is designed for students with just a little experience through intermediate students.

Grades 7-12 | Online | 10 a.m.-1p.m. | July 16, 23, 30, 6, 13 | $125 (Scholarships available)

Scholarships are given out based on financial need.
Request an application, fill it out and send it to Diana at School One.

For more information or to participate, please contact Diana at (401) 331-2497 or dianac@school-one.org

“The challenge for every writer is to draw her reader fully into the character's experience. Scenes are where the action of a story comes alive and invites the reader in. Scenes are where the story is lived.”
– Hester Kaplan, Author and Goat Hill writer

“Writing is like detective work: to reveal the story, you pull at the threads which will force the story to reveal itself. My goal as a teacher is to help you understand how to spot the clues.”

– Mark Fogarty, Writer and GrubStreet Instructor

“We turn to fiction to be transported, thrilled, immersed in the new and strange. Science Fiction and Fantasy takes us to these other worlds, and provides perspective on our own.”

– Amanda Kallis, Writer and School One Faculty

“We’re at a point in the world right now where we need empathy if we’re going to make any kind of progress. This is the best time for theater; it’s the antidote to apathy”.

– Ben Jovilet, Writer and GrubStreet Instructor

“I believe that openness and innovation are integral to teaching. This is certainly reflected in School One’s philosophy.”

– Victor Wildman, Frequency Writers and Creative Writing Instructor

YOUTH WRITERS

Annual Writing Competition

NaNoWriMo for Young Writers

Lit Lab @ School One

Introduction to Non-Fiction

Playwriting for Middle School Students

Storytelling with Photos for Middle School Students

Storytelling with Photos for High School Students

Playwriting for High School Students

Comic Book and Graphic Novel Incubator for High School Students

Advanced Fiction for High School Students

Fairytales and Fiction

Comic Book and Graphic Novel Incubator for Middle School Students

Introduction to Fiction for Middle School Students

At School One, we teach students to think, write, analyze, and create. As a community, we treat each other with care and respect. We appreciate each other’s differences as people and as learners.