Young Writers find Voices in "Writing Our Stories". To the scores of many fine new books offered by publishers across this country every fall, the Alabama Writers' Forum has added its own tradition of new releases. Young voices from "Writing Our Stories: An Anti-Violence Creative Writing Program" are debuted in anthologies published as the culmination of this thriving juvenile justice and literary arts partnership.

Each October, autograph parties celebrate the new anthologies on each campus where the program takes place. Our photo essays (click on links
at left) tell the stories.

The Alabama Writers' Forum and the Department of Youth Services have collaborated on the "Writing Our Stories" curriculum guide. It has been researched and published with the help of a generous grant from the Children's Trust Fund. The guide is a resource for both new and experienced teachers of creative writing.

"Writing Our Stories" takes place through a cooperative arrangement between the Alabama Writers' Forum and the Alabama Department of Youth Services (DYS). Funding for the project, which includes nine months of instruction, as well as in-service training and anthology editing, is provided by DYS, the Alabama State Council on the Arts (ASCA), and, for the first this year, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). ASCA and NEA funds provide for visiting writers to visit all three campuses as part of the "Alabama Voices" writers-in-communities program, jointly sponsored by the Auburn University Center for the Arts and Humanities and the Alabama Writers' Forum.

Photos by Jay Sailors.