The following article was published in 2011 by Bay Area Parent magazine. Read full details about the TeenSpeak Novel/Multimedia Workshop here.

Teen Workshop Brings Out Creativity

Audrey, 13, works intently on a story at a workshop. (Photo by Carrie Chen)

A one-of-a-kind workshop is offering teenage writers the kind of opportunity usually available only to adults: a weekend retreat devoted to story crafting.

Young novelists from across the state are invited to the TeenSpeak Novel/Multimedia Extravaganza, a hands-on experience that will be led by five arts professionals, including Jill Wolfson, author of several young adult novels and the editor of Bay Area Parent.

Participants will read and discuss each others’ writing and break into groups to make a short film and design a model theater for a book or movie.

The young writers will receive optional faculty critiques of their
writing and enjoy outdoor adventures and hikes in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains.

“I am so excited for this chance to be working with a small group of driven, talented teen writers,” says Mandy Robbins Taylor, one of the teachers and herself a student in the MFA program of Writing for Children and Young Adults at Vermont College of Fine Arts.

“I firmly believe that in order to raise children to be passionate, innovative adults, we need to encourage and educate kids in their creative endeavors.”

The workshop takes place at Camp Koinonia in Corralitos on Jan. 22-23, and enrollment is on a first-come basis, limited to 15 adolescents, ages 11 to 19… [For more information, click here.]

— Sara Solovitch

The following 2013 article appeared in a blog by Children’s Writing graduates of Vermont College of Fine Arts.

“QUIRK AND QUILL” INTERVIEW:
Founding Director, Nancy Sondel

Every October, a select group of middle-grade and young-adult writers, editors, and agents gather on the coast of California just south of Santa Cruz to participate in a weekend writing retreat to workshop manuscripts. It is also where writers dream of finding an agent and editor who fall in love with their manuscript. It was at PCCWW, the Pacific Coast Children’s Writers Workshop, where my dream editor, Erin Clarke, Executive Editor at Knopf of Random House, first read Lara’s Gift and later acquired it.

A BIG thanks to the brainchild of PCCWW, Nancy Sondel, who devotes a good chunk of her energy to ensure a solid workshop experience for writers hoping to improve their craft… See the full interview.

— Annemarie O’Brien, author of Lara’s Gift (Knopf/Random House)

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