Young Writers & Readers September 12, 2011

Dallas Woodburn

September is back to school month. This week in #litchat we’re reaching out to teachers, librarians, and young people who write about and for young people. We’ll discuss resources and curriculum, as well as the best books for teaching the art and craft of writing more than just book reports and class assignments. We’ll feature some young writers who are already stepping into the publishing world through the myriad opportunities available today.

On Friday, September 15, author Dallas Woodburn joins us in #litchat to discuss  Write On For Literacy, a non-profit educational organization she founded to encourage kids and teens to discover confidence, joy, a means of self-expression and connection with others through reading and writing. Write On For Literacy holds writing contests, teaches writing camps, and operates the website to feature book reviews, author interviews, and a forum for young writers to share their work.

In the past nine years, the Write On For Literacy Holiday Book Drive has collected and distributed nearly 12,000 new books to underprivileged children. Write On For Literacy recently published Dancing With the Pen, the group’s first anthology of writing by young people gleaned from workshops and submissions to the organization.

Dallas Woodburn is currently pursuing her M.F.A. in Fiction Writing at Purdue University. She is a 2009 summa cum laude graduate of the University of Southern California with a B.A. in Creative Writing and a minor in Entrepreneurship. She published her first book, There’s a Huge Pimple On My Nose, when she was ten years old, and has been hooked on writing ever since. She is the author of a second story collection, 3 a.m., and is currently working with a literary agent on the sale of her first novel. Woodburn’s short fiction has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has appeared in numerous literary journals including Monkeybicycle, Cicada, flashquake, Arcadia Journal, The Newport Review, and Eclectic Flash. In addition, she has written dozens of articles for publications including Family Circle, Writer’s Digest,  Motherwords, Justine, The Los Angeles Times, and eight Chicken Soup for the Soul books. She is a staff writer for the websites GradtoGreat.com and TweenParent.com and writes the words and storyline of a monthly comic strip for the youth anti-drug magazine Listen.For her volunteer work, Woodburn has been honored with the Congressional Award Gold Medal, the Jackie Kennedy Onassis/Jefferson Award, and most recently the “Best of You” award from Glamour Magazine.

Follow Dallas Woodburn on Twitter: @DallasWoodburn.