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Post date: Nov 20, 2018 7:57:10 PM
Did you type on one of the manual typewriters at Festival by the Lake? Have you tuned into an episode of The Journey of a Story series? Maybe you attended one of the quarterly Writers and Illustrators Meet & Greets or picked up a copy of The Club Chronicle @ Wakefield Boys & Girls Club from a budding journalist? Whatever form it took, chances are you have seen or heard about The Room to Write (TRtW) nonprofit organization with its passion for the written word and support for local writers and illustrators. Looking ahead, The Room to Write, in collaboration with Barnes & Noble, is excited to demonstrate how it intends to fulfill its mission on Monday, December 10th starting at 6:30 PM. Local writers and illustrators, both traditionally and self-published, will gather at the Barnes & Noble in Peabody to showcase, sell and sign their books. This event will include three complementary elements:
· Writers and Illustrators Meet & Greet (socializing & networking opportunity)
· Pop-up Local Bookshop (local artists need visibility & support selling their art)
· Book Fair Fundraiser (a percentage of the sales will be donated back to The Room to Write)
“The more writers we meet, the more we learn about what writers need.” Founder and Director, Colleen Getty, is enthusiastic about the organization’s progress. “There are so many talented writers, published and unpublished, in the North of Boston area and surprisingly there is no designated, physical space North of Boston that is connecting local writers of all ages, genres and abilities with each other and with their audience in such deliberate and accessible ways as The Room to Write is doing.”
One of those deliberate ways has been The Journey of a Story series created and produced in collaboration with Wakefield Community Access Television (WCAT). The interviews are available on public access television and YouTube, then released on a monthly basis as individual podcasts through iTunes, Google Play and Stitcher. Ryan Boyd, Senior Producer and Editor for WCAT stated, “The Room to Write is a gift to local writers. Whether you’re just starting out or already published, Colleen has created a place for you to come and share your talents, gain advice, and (as we all experience) get some much-needed support. It is an invaluable source for writers and readers alike.”
In addition to WCAT, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Stoneham and Wakefield has been instrumental in their support of The Room to Write from the very beginning. It would have been a much bigger challenge to host weekly writing hours or to facilitate monthly critique group meetings without the physical space provided after Club hours by the Club. TRtW also sponsors a weekly Newspaper Club and just launched a homeschool program called Brown Bag Lunch & Lit with the Wakefield Club. The Boys & Girls Club has been an extremely generous and responsive community partner—and a great springboard for TRtW’s youth programming. Wakefield Club’s Director, Bethany Riley, explains, “We love working with The Room to Write. Part of our mission is to help our members to find their own voices and The Room to Write is an awesome organization that sets a great example of this for our kids. ”
This past spring The Room to Write became an official 501(c)(3) nonprofit with the mission being to provide those who want to write, love to write, and need to write with a quiet, communal and supportive space within which they are able to write.
Those who write are often spread out, isolated and creating on their own. The very young, the seniors and everybody in between should have access to the support, the community and the space to work the craft of writing in its many forms. Young people need to learn to communicate effectively and express themselves creatively. Our seniors need to know that their stories are worth telling and that there is a collective effort to share them and people who value them.
The Room to Write definitely has the “Write” part well established. Now it is time to set down some roots and locate “The Room” where writers North of Boston can connect and call home.
For more information about TRtW's Book Bash on Monday, December 10th, visit our event page here.
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