NYWC is one of the largest community writing organizations in the country. NYWC creates opportunities for formerly voiceless members of society to be heard through the art of writing. We provide free, unique and powerful creative writing workshops throughout New York City for people from groups that have been historically deprived of voice in our society, including at-risk and disconnected youth, the homeless and formerly homeless, the incarcerated and formerly incarcerated, war veterans, people with disabilities, cancer and major illness, immigrants, seniors and others.  Since emerging in 2002, NYWC has won awards from the Union Square Awards and Petra Foundation, and received program grants from local and national funders including Time Warner, the Pinkerton Foundation, Independence Community Foundation, Hot Topic Foundation, the Kalliopeia Foundation, the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, the NY State Council on the Arts and others. Our workshop participants have been featured on The New York Times Blog, WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show, The Huffington Post,  and NY1 Noticias in stories about NYWC.

Our free summer workshops for young people in Fort Greene Park are featured on the NY Times website.  About 40 young people aged 7-17 are writing with us every Saturday in the park, culminating in the 2010 Fort Greene Park Summer Literary Festival on Saturday, August 21 at 3 PM.

More poems by our amazing young writers will be featured in the weeks to come.

7/28: Cold by Lyric Joseph, Age 12.

7/27:  One Night on Planet Nile by Sam Holdengraber, Age 8.

7/26:  My Spider, by Tayon Regist, Age 7.

7/23: Barbie vs. Ladybug, by Anwen Burns, Age 8.

Dig Deep is NY Writers Coalition’s online literary journal, which features writing from NYWC Workshops.

This issue includes fourteen pieces from eight workings, including The 14th Street Y, Bayview Correctional Institute,  Brooklyn Public Library Bedstuy Branch, Brooklyn Public Library Sunset Park Branch, CIDNY, The Creative Center, Imani House, and Prime Time workshops.

Click here to read it!

Saturday, August 21st at 3 p.m.!

We are proud to announce the return of our popular Fort Greene Park Summer Literary Festival. Six weeks of outdoor creative writing workshops for young people (ages 7 to 17) will culminate in our 6th annual free outdoor reading. This literary festival will feature NYWC’s young writers from the workshops reading alongside six poets who have appeared at the Calabash International Literary Festival and in the anthology So Much Things to Say: Kwame Dawes, Gregory Pardlo, Willie Perdomo, Carl Hancock Rux, Patricia Smith, and Cheryl Boyce Taylor. This exciting event brings several generations of writers together to build on the rich literary traditions of the neighborhoods surrounding the beautiful Fort Greene Park.

The event will take place at the monument in Fort Greene Park.   continue reading…

Check out NYWC’s newest publication: The Outside Voices, Poems and Stories by Imani House Kids at P.S. 282. Featuring  young writers ages 7-11 from NYWC workshop at the Imani House after-school program.

Read an excerpt.