This August, 25 Baltimore teens will gather for a 5-day, sleepaway Writing Studio at Mar-Lu-Ridge Camp & Retreat Center in Jefferson, Maryland. While students' days will be filled with workshops, the study of literary devices and root words, hikes, and literary scavenger hunts, all students will focus on writing several stories and/or poems to be published in the Studio Anthology. The Anthology will be published by Minuteman Press, a Baltimore-based press that publishes the literary magazines of Writers in Baltimore Schools.

Writers in Baltimore Schools (WBS) is a program that provides low-income middle school students with a vibrant environment for literary development through in-school, after-school, and summer creative writing workshops taught by Baltimore college students and writers.

Since 2008, WBS has served over 400 Baltimore City students through 30 in-school workshops, 23 after-school writing clubs, and 4 multi-day summer programs. WBS has showcased student work through publication of two issues of Baltimore by Hand (a literary magazine), Baltimore Tales (a book), and numerous open mic events. In 2010, two WBS students won Baltimore's Words on Wheels poetry contest. The students' winning poetry was displayed on Baltimore buses for a year. In 2011, the Theater Club's original play "The Prom Date" was selected to appear in Wide Angle's Youth Media Festival. Terrell Kellam, now a junior at City College High School, is WBS's first alum to have a story published in a professional literary journal (Seltzer, an online literary zine).



Want to learn more about Writers in Baltimore Schools? Visit online: http://writersinbaltimoreschools.org/