What would happen to the goose who flew home for New Year’s Eve or the maple that refused to drop its leaves? Join Write On and the Ridges Sanctuary on January 11 from 12:30–3pm for an afternoon of imaginative writing using the natural world as a springboard! We’ll begin by thinking about the cycle of a year and how an animal or a natural element (tree, rock, shoreline) might experience the changes of temperature, weather, and light within that time frame.
From there, students will be encouraged to write stories, comics, or poems about what would happen if there were breaks or changes in that cycle, focusing in particular on winter time. Students will discover the importance of drawing on the five senses for writing and spend some of the workshop outdoors finding their material and activating their senses.
While this workshop is designed for middle-school students, older writers of any age and experience are welcome, as solo writers, writing teams, or intergenerational writing teams!
Register: Though the program is free, participants are asked to register. To sign up, please call The Ridges at 920-839-2802.
Participants are invited to return for a similar workshop to be held on Saturday, June 6, to write a second piece or add to their first story, but with the sights, sounds, and smells of a new season in their mind!
Jill Stukenberg grew up in Sturgeon Bay and spent her college summers working in Fish Creek. She is now Associate Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, where she teaches composition and creative writing. Her stories have been published in The Collagist, Midwestern Gothic, Wisconsin People and Ideas, and other magazines. She advises a student literary journal, helps organize the Central Wisconsin Book Festival, and for the last eight years has been co-headmistress of Wizarding Academy, a Harry-Potter themed academic day camp for 4th through 9th graders.
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