Room Nine and Shorecrest student authors featured at WITS events

Imagination into Ink -- the 2010 WITS Student Readings and Celebrations presented by Writers in the Schools (WITS), a program of Seattle Arts and Lectures and The Seattle Public Library, will feature local students reading their poetry and prose. Wednesday, May 26, showcases elementary and middle school students and Thursday May 27, features high school students.

The program will be held at the downtown Seattle Central Library, 1000 4th Ave, Seattle 98104, on Level 1 in the Microsoft Auditorium. Both events begin at 6 pm and are free and open to the public.

Included are students from Shorecrest High School and Room Nine Community School, an alternative K-8 program in Shoreline Schools.

Shorecrest High School students being honored are Ashley Stroschein and Emma Smith. Ashley is in Andy Barker's class and Emma is in Jennifer Etter's class. Both girls worked with WITS writer-in-residence Peter Mountford (pictured, right.  Photo by Cheryl McKeon).

Teacher Andy Barker says "Ashley is a passionate writer. She is currently working on a number of fiction projects, including a novel about vampires."

Writer-in-residence Peter Mountford comments on his students:

Emma is an extraordinarily gifted writer in 9th grade, who's been writing her whole life. She's currently working on a novella about a young pregnant widow in mid-nineteenth century France, who was disowned by her wealthy parents for falling in love with a lower-class boy, but due to the harsh circumstances of her life now, must return to plead for re-inclusion in the family. In Emma's words, "The story follows the path of their reconciliation and Elodie's struggle with her grief." She skillfully excerpted a passage from that longer work to build a stand-alone short story.

Ashley, as Mr. Barker noted, is a dedicated writer already. She's very adept at revision -- notoriously difficult for young writers to master -- she managed to expertly compress one section of her story and expand another so that the pacing would work better. Her short piece tells of a cursed immortal, pining for mortality, who encounters a witch in a graveyard. The witch offers to grant her mortality and she rushes to accept, so the witch kills her and, in a subtle twist, the now mortal/dying character's final moments are not filled with relief at getting what she's wanted for eons, but with fear of the unknown. 

Previously, Shorecrest student writer Lucia Wyss was honored at a WITS Literary Luncheon. See story.