Register For Free Youth Writing Workshop Saturday

Young writers between the ages of 8 to 13 are invited to attend a free writing workshop at the this Saturday from 1 to 3 p.m. Participants will play writing games and get advice from other young writers about how to get published.

Organizer of the workshop, Heather MacLeod of Oakland, is a former third grade teacher and librarian who now teaches private writing classes for children in the East Bay and leads children's writing camps at the University of California. Her goal in holding the March 10 workshop is to bring together young people who want to write so they can inform and inspire one another.

 “It’s really a celebration of young writers,” said MacLeod.

At the event children can bring along an example of their own writing and put it on a display table. During the event parents and children attending the workshop will write appreciative comments about the writing samples. "Bringing a sample of their own work is completely optional," said MacLeod.

One of the highlights of this Saturday’s workshop will be a presentation by editors of Our Words Magazine. The publication, by and for children, has an editorial staff exclusively comprised of 10- and 11-year-old East Bay writers.  

Our Words Magazine published by and for children

The magazine contains poetry, non-fiction articles, personal narratives and fiction stories. It is self-published quarterly by the children themselves and is currently sold for about $4 per copy at . in Alameda and Diesel Books in Oakland. Its spring edition will go on sale in early April and the deadline for children to send submissions to be considered for its summer issue is June 1. (Submissions can be emailed to ourwordsmag@gmail.com.)

Kate Van Riter, 10, who lives in Oakland's Diamond District and is homeschooled, is on the magazine’s editorial board and was one of its founders along with Anais Saunders, 11, of Albany, also a homeschool student.

Other children on the current editorial board include Maya Zhu, 10 of San Leandro who attends Aurora School in Oakland and Yusef Zaloukh, 10 of Berkeley who attends Cragmont School.

The idea for the magazine was born when Kate and Anais attended a fair together and happened to see a magazine created by children published on a CD and decided they wanted to launch a similar print publication.

Now the duo and the rest of their editorial board hold regular meetings to critique writing submissions sent to them by other children and determine what will appear in the magazine. “The meetings themselves are pretty amazing,” said Maya’s mother, Leslie Salmon-Zhu of San Leandro, “they run them more professionally than some businesses I’ve known. They have agendas and offer honest appraisals of each writer's works.”

The magazine is designed completely in-house by the children with publishing software. The first edition was printed with a small loan from Kate’s mother, Kristine Wyndham. But, the loan was paid back after the first printing sold out and the magazine is now entirely self-supporting.

Each of the child writer/editors brings something different to the magazine.

Kate started writing in second grade and writes realistic fiction stories about children and their actual lives. (She wrote a 20,000 word novel in November which is still in development that she hopes to have published).

Anais writes poems and short stories with fantasy themes and says her goal is to inspire other kids to also write.

Maya began writing books two years ago. She wrote a children’s fiction book with her sister Bella, 11, and her friend Jona Wool-Baum, also from San Leandro. Maya has also completed another book about a girl facing an usual medical mystery, Synesthesia, a neurologically based condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway.

“My advice for other children is to write what comes to you, don’t write a certain way,” said Maya.

Anais said when she is reviewing writing submissions from other children she is looking for “really nice stories that are very descriptive. I’m definitely not looking for gore,” she said.

Kate said overall the editors are seeking a diversity of submissions, “We’re looking for various themes from children of different ages." She said usually they have 25 to 30 submissions for each edition but that number may increase as word of the magazine spreads.

Other opportunities for child writers this summer

MacLeod will be leading upcoming summer writing workshops offered by the .  She will offer two programs through the foundation’s new summer camp,  “Fantasy Fiction Camp” for fourth through seventh graders and an “Extreme Writing Camp” for second through fourth graders. She recommends parents interested in their children attending these camps keep checking the foundation's website here.

To register and attend Saturday's workshop

The Alameda Free Library is located at 1550 Oak Street, Alameda. The workshop will be held in the library’s Regina K. Stafford Meeting Room.  Parents are welcome to attend and observe the event. If you wish to register for the workshop please call MacLeod at 510 459-3452 or e-mail her at macleodphd@gmail.com.