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.
We are thrilled to announce the winner of the 2021 Poetry Fellowship: Porsha Olayiwola of Boston, MA. Olayiwola will visit Buffalo this August for a writing residency and perform at the Aug. 28 Silo City Reading Series event.
After a year of sheltering in place, LIT CITY is on the move. Just Buffalo Literary Center invites Western New Yorkers of all ages to tell us: What Moves You? Write a poem or piece of short prose that speaks to the power of words to move you. Just Buffalo Literary Center is partnering with the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA) to share our love of words with the wider community. Select pieces will be featured on sidewalks, bus shelters, subways, and maybe even a bus or two! Let’s cover this LIT CITY in words—your words. The call for submissions has now closed. Thank you to all who submitted!
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!
We are thrilled to announce the nine artists, organizations, and community groups receiving a total of $15,000 to support events aligned with this year's Civil Writes Project, celebrating Black writers and seeking pathways toward justice through the literary arts.
"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.
Teaching artist Albert Abonado sets the table for an exploration of food as rich material for poems in Eat This Poem on March 20. Albert took the time to chat with us ahead of the workshop about the uses of food in favorite poems & movies; the themes of his poetry collection, JAW; and sustaining a sense of community in Zoom world.
JBWC Youth Ambassador Emma DeRose was invited to share her poem "a letter to sensitive girls" at Erie County's Women's History Month kickoff celebration on March 3, hosted by the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library.
Call for Young Writers Calling all young poets, storytellers, songwriters, and citizens (ages 12-19)! What brings you relief—if even for a moment—during these difficult times? Whether in the form of a poem, spoken word piece, speech, essay, or original song, Ujima Company, Just Buffalo Writing Center, and Squeaky Wheel invite you to take part in Water in the Desert, a multimedia exploration of the concept of “hope in a time of despair.”