We are thrilled to announce the 2022 Just Buffalo Writing Center Youth Fellows, selected by novelist and final judge Gabriel Bump: Liam Cobb of Buffalo, NY and Angelina Tang of East Amherst, NY. Congratulations, Liam & Angelina!
Presenting a selection of three poems by 2021 JBWC Youth Fellow Sophie Zhu. Says Sophie, "I hope you keep three phrases in mind while reading these poems: the act of being human, a video game of syllables, Wolfgang Tillmans, and your people."
Presenting The Inbetween, a chapbook of poetry and art by 2021 JBWC Youth Fellow Millie Rae Rodriguez-Spencer. "Not only was this my first completed project," says Millie Rae, "but an enriching introduction to the Buffalo literary and poetry community that in turn ignited my passion for creating art again."
JBWC Youth Ambassador Danny Merlino reflects on connections with the work of cartoonist & graphic novelist Alison Bechdel in this guest blog ahead of their JBWC workshop "Trends, Fads, and Phases: In Color!"
JBWC writer Zelda has two poems out in the newest issue of Illustoria, a print magazine for creative kids & their grownups. Learn more about the yodeling goats Zelda dreamed up, the writers and books she's inspired by, and her NaNoWriMo goals for this year.
Hope Blooms From Shattered Roots is a digital collection of writings presented by Just Buffalo Writing Center in connection to The Civil Writes Project (2021), featuring work by young writers and artists living in WNY. Just as the journey towards justice must be a collective effort, this collection features collaborations between young artists and activists from a variety of organizations and projects around the city, and beyond. Editors: Richie Wills & Robin Jordan Book Designer: Mathieu Liu
We are so excited to announce the 2021 Just Buffalo Writing Center Youth Fellows: Millie Rodriguez-Spencer and Sophie Zhu! “These are two prolific writers with strong voices attuned to an informed listening and responsibility to community,” said final judge Christina Vega-Westhoff.
Recently, Albright-Knox's Future Curators visited the Just Buffalo Writing Center and invited us to compose pieces in response to their newest exhibit, The Presence of Absence. Explore their virtual gallery (or see the exhibit in person at WNY Book Arts or Buffalo Academy of Arts & Technology) and use the following list of prompts the Curators provided to guide your writing.
As a way to archive the many writing prompts we use at the Just Buffalo Writing Center, we are going to more frequently post writing prompts created by young writers, teaching artists, and others. This prompt takes inspiration from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Hans Christian Andersen’s Thumbelina. In particular, think about the scene in Alice in Wonderland when Alice shrinks and then grows very large. Notice her transformation of perspective, how she is forced to look at the world in a different way, abruptly!
"Families hide their ghosts." In this short story by 2020 Just Buffalo Writing Center Youth Fellow Fiona Stewart, a family's unspoken truths come to haunt teenager Jesse Kim as she hides a truth of her own.