Masters of Fine Arts students in the West Virginia University Creative Writing Program will conduct a poetry-writing workshop for students in grades 6-8 at West Preston Middle School in Preston County on March 13 and 14. The workshop is part of CTB/McGraw-Hill’s annual Student Art Project.

Selected student poems will be featured at the “Arts Alive!” celebration in Charleston on April 26.

Mary Ann Samyn, associate professor of English and the Bolton Professor for Teaching and Mentoring, will lead the workshop. She is the author of five full-length collections of poetry and two chapbooks. Her poems have appeared in Field, Colorado Review, Kenyon Review, The Journal, Third Coast, Verse, Mid-American Review, Pleiades and elsewhere.

Keisha Hopkins Kibler, a National Board Certified teacher in English Language Arts and a 21st Century Model Classroom Teacher for West Virginia, is coordinating the project for West Preston Middle School.

“Working with young writers is always rewarding,” Samyn said. “The graduate students and I are excited to meet the students at West Preston Middle School and help them write poems about what they know and love about West Virginia.”

Ellen Haley, president of CTB/McGraw Hill, describes the annual Student Art Project as “a community outreach program that celebrates the talent and artistic achievement of students in classrooms across the country. Aligned with CTB’s founding mission ‘to help the teacher help the child,’ our Student Art Project highlights our desire to support all students as they discover their artistic gifts. We enjoy the opportunity to provide classrooms with art classes and resources that allow students to express their talents and find joy in art.”

In West Virginia, the Student Art Project included an art workshop in Putnam County under the guidance of Jim Sarno, an artist from Monterey, Calif., and the upcoming poetry workshop in Preston County. Both the visual art and the poems will be focused on West Virginia’s landscape and heritage.

Professor Jim Harms, chair of the Department of English, described the workshop as “an enormously exciting opportunity for our creative writing program.

“Our MFA students under the guidance of Professor Mary Ann Samyn will have the chance to engage in an important service activity while gaining additional experience as teachers of creative writing,” Harms continued.

“The Department of English is always looking for ways to connect to the larger community and to reaffirm its commitment to the people of the state of West Virginia. We’re very grateful to CTB/McGraw-Hill for inviting us to take part in this project.”

For more information about the event, contact Mary Ann Samyn at 304-293-9730 or maryann.samyn@mail.wvu.edu

-WVU-

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