"your word" Teen Creative Writing Residency INsideOUT

August 7

Public Event: "your word" Teen Creative Writing Residency INsideOUT

7 - 9 PM

Public Reception and readings of works-in-progress by teen participants in the "your word" Teen Creative Writing Residency.

This is the culminating public event for Atlantic Center for the Arts' second annual "your word" Teen Creative Writing Residency held July 26 - August 8, 2009 on the grounds of the main campus. ACA's 2009 "your word" residency is an international program offering 21 teens an extraordinary opportunity to explore and expand the power of their individual voices through multi-genre writing workshops with contemporary masters, including Master Writers Terrance Hayes, Ander Monson, Victoria Redel, and the 2009 "your word" Fellow, Arisa White.

Atlantic Center for the Arts' "your word" Teen Creative Writing Residency is made possible through generous support from The Surdna Foundation, Darden Restaurants Foundation, State of Florida Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, Florida Arts Council, National Endowment for the Arts, Atlantic Center for the Arts Volunteer League, Dex Imaging, Graywolf Press, B & M Trees, Charles and Lynn Steinmetz, Doug McGinnis, Patricia Fawsett, Art and Kit Litowitz, Jim and Mari Moye, Ann Christiansen, and J. Michael.

Free; Public Invited; Reservations requested. 386.427.6975

Joan James Harris Theater, Atlantic Center for the Arts

1414 Art Center Avenue, New Smyrna Beach

Information: 386.427.6975

www.atlanticcenterforthearts.org

More information -

ACA's "your word" Teen Creative Writing Residency:

This residency mirrors the quality of ACA's existing artist residency program and contributes to teens' abilities to explore their own identities and relationships to the world, offering educational activities of the highest quality.

In addition to three Master Writers-in-Residence, one "your word" Fellow is chosen annually to provide mentorship to participating teens. The 2009 "your word" Fellow is Arisa White who was an ACA Associate Artist-in-Residence with Sharon Olds in 2006. Arisa White is also a Cave Canem fellow and holds a MFA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Factory Hollow Press published her chapbook Disposition for Shininess in late 2008. She received a Poets & Writers grant in 2008 and was awarded the 2007 Pavel Strut Fellowship in Poetry from the University of Western Michigan for a month-long fellowship in Prague. In 2006 she received the Archie D. and Bertha H. Walker Scholarship from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown.

Bios for 2009 "your word" Master Writers - Terrance Hayes in poetry, Ander Monson in creative nonfiction/memoir and Victoria Redel in fiction:

·          Terrance Hayes, Master Writer in Poetry is the award winning author of "Wind in a Box" (Penguin, 2006), "Hip Logic" (2002), which won National Poetry Series, and "Muscular Music" (1999), winner of the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. About his work, Cornelius Eady said: "First you'll marvel at his skill, his near-perfect pitch, his disarming humor, his brilliant turns of phrase. Then you'll notice the grace, the tenderness, the unblinking truth-telling just beneath his lines, the open and generous way he takes in our world." He has been a recipient of many honors and awards, including a Whiting Writers Award, a Pushcart Prize, a Best American Poetry selection, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. He is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Carnegie Mellon University and lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with his family.

·          Ander Monson, Master Writer in Creative Nonfiction/Memoir, winner of the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize, is the author of three books: "Neck Deep and Other Predicaments," creative nonfiction/memoir (Graywolf Press 2007), "Other Electricities," fiction, (Sarabande Books 2005), and "Vacationland," poetry, (Tupelo Press 2005). Monson is Professor of English at the University of Arizona and a recent recipient of the Christopher Isherwood Foundation Award. His nonfiction has been collected in "The Best Creative Nonfiction Volume 2" and "The Best American Essays 2008." He is the designer, editor, and publisher of "Diagram Magazine," and New Michigan Press.  Of Monson's memoir, Robert Polito, Judge for the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize, said, "Every time I turn to it I'm astonished all over again by the majesty of this book."

●     Victoria Redel, Master Writer in Fiction is the critically acclaimed author of two books of poetry and three books of fiction. Her latest novel "The Border of Truth" (Counterpoint 2007) weaves the situation of refugees and a daughter's awakening to the history and secrets of her father's survival and loss. "Loverboy" (2001, Graywolf; 2002, Harcourt), was awarded the 2001 S. Mariella Gable Novel Award and the 2002 Forward Silver Literary Fiction Prize and was chosen in 2001 as a Los Angeles Times Best Book. "Loverboy" was adapted for a feature film directed by Kevin Bacon. Her most recent collection of poems, "Swoon" (2003, University of Chicago Press), was a finalist for the James Laughlin Award. Her work has appeared in numerous magazines and journals including "O the Oprah magazine," "Redbook," and "Bomb." Redel has received fellowships from the NEA and the Fine Arts Work Center. She is on the faculty of Sarah Lawrence College and teaches in the Graduate Writing Program at Columbia University.