Write Out

Write Out is a community writing collective that partners Central New York writers, artists, and university students with youth-focused after-school programs to provide students with time and space to write, create, and share their own stories—on their own terms. Since Write Out’s launch in July 2020, the program has collaborated with public-facing community organizations to run creative writing workshops that support literacy and communication skills while providing students with a joyful literary experience. Young writers are given the opportunity to explore and share their stories with audiences in Central New York and beyond. Write Out students share their work through readings open to the public, regularly have it published, both in print through the annual production of a chapbook and online in locations such as SUNY-ESF’s student-run online literary journal Unearthed, as well as the Environmental Storytelling CNY website, and help turn their work into public art installations. Since Write Out’s founding, the program has worked with more than 800 young writers from the ages of 5–18.

Your donations will help Write Out empower youth to more fully realize their already profound cultural agency and develop a lifelong love of reading and writing outside of school by providing them with the necessary time, space, and mentorship. By encouraging students to tell stories and make meanings across languages and modes, Write Out challenges assimilation discourses focused on overcoming cultural and linguistic differences. Our program believes in the co-production of knowledge with Syracuse-area students, teachers, artists, writers, and community organizers.