After three and a half wonderful years as a co-mentor of the Gaithersburg Teen Writing Club, I have decided to move on to other projects. As I told the kids at our last meeting, they may think that they learned a lot from me, but I probably learned more from them. It truly has been a privilege to work with such dedicated young writers and to watch them learn and grow. Aside from an uncountable number of writing prompts, we also took on introducing authors at the Gaithersburg Book Festival, entering some of their work in the three Emerging Voices anthologies that the Maryland Writers’ Association (sponsor of the program) published, chalk publishing, and much more, including a final group poem in which we each wrote a stanza (although please note that it was not possible to fully keep the original formatting when inserting it into this post):
This Is Why I Write
I write because I found a word
For wind
For breath
I found a word for green and growing things
And another word for battle smoke
I found a word
For stone
For water
For sunlight starlight moonlight
I write because I found a word for world
(stanza by Peggy Ruppel, club co-mentor)
I write because there are no walls
to stop my pen,
It’s my world of infinite freedom
where I can illustrate creations and fantasies
from my own mind,
and the stories can unfold
in an infinite number of ways.
(stanza by Marysol H.)
I write because of
All the special things in the WORLD
And when I write
I’m a magician
And I make magic
Out of all
The special things in the WORLD
(stanza by Comfort O.)
I write because
I believe my thoughts are
made magic through my words
because my hands can mold letters
my lips can’t.
because days I’m feeling low and
down, writing becomes
therapeutic; a microscope
to my mind that can be viewed
for a very limited time.
because I always sound like
myself on paper.
I write because
it is my fix.
(stanza by Josephine O.)
I write because I
see
taste
hear
smell
&
touch,
because I am
happy
sad
joyful
&
angry,
because I
think
&
feel,
& because
this is how I speak my truth.
(stanza by Lucinda Marshall, club co-mentor)
I write because I do
no explanations
no rules
no boundaries but mine
(stanza by Emma D.)
Many thanks to my co-mentor, Peggy Ruppel, who is also leaving the program. We leave the club in the fine care of Henry Caballero, the new club mentor and meetings will resume in the fall.
In June, 2017, I hosted a poetry reading over at the now defunct Chesapeake Framing Crown location, followed by a second reading there in September. In January, 2018, the reading, under the name of 
