Writers Week introduces students to careers in writing

The PTSA is sponsoring Writers Week this week. Twenty-five years ago, Writers Week began with teachers inviting a handful of authors to speak in front of three or four classes. It has now evolved into a tradition of having over 30 writers of all kinds present for the entire English Department.

Writers Week is an annual event that brings local authors to English classes to discuss their work with students. It also involves a community read where a local author is highlighted and gives an evening presentation. Brian Copeland will speak in the Eagle Theatre tonight at 7:30 p.m. about his book “Not a Genuine Black Man.” Parents, students and the community at large are encouraged to read it beforehand. At the presentation, Copeland will read an excerpt from his novel and autograph copies afterwards.

“‘Not a Genuine Black Man’ is a very timely and pertinent book for the students to read about diversity,” Writers Week Committee Co-Chair Debra Strichartz said. “It really speaks to issues at LAHS.”

Writers Week was started in 1985 when senior Tracey Cullinan passed away from cancer. In remembrance of their son, his parents created a fund for teachers to apply for classroom assets. Having writers come and speak was one of the ways teachers decided to use that money. In the years following, they continued to fund visiting authors. When the funding finally expired, the PTSA stepped in to finance what had now become Writers Week.

According to Writers Week coordinator and English teacher Galen Rosenberg, the purpose of Writers Week is two-fold. Writers Week should encourage interested students and show that it is possible to make a career out of writing. However, Rosenberg said that for the students not considering writing professionally, Writers Week also helps to emphasize the importance of writing skills to any profession and the value of everything they are learning in English class.

“Often the writers are entertaining, informative, engaging, funny, serious or wacky,” Rosenberg said. “The Stanford Stegner Program and the Knight Fellows give us access to some very young but up-and-coming people. I’ve had people speak at LAHS in my classroom who I’d never heard of, and then five years later they were bestselling authors. We get to see them in their rookie year.”

To honor the 25th year of the event, the organizers have done a broader outreach to the community than they have in the past. Parent Mary Rye made a video promotion that was shown in classrooms during the announcements. The video includes material on the history of the event and will be shown at the evening program. Additionally, the coordinators have reinvited some guests from years past.

The adults who put together Writers Week hope students participate in order to gain valuable insights from the visits of the week.

“You don’t wake up necessarily being destined to be an author,” Strichartz said. “[Students benefit from] the exposure to how people put their thoughts together and come up with a poem or how they set up the schedule of their day to write a novel. Everybody has a very different way of doing it, coming up with the same end result.”