FARMINGTON — A group of teenagers arrived early for the nonfiction workshop, chatting at great length about the release of “Go Set a Watchman” by Harper Lee.
That’s right. Teenagers — unattended and uncoerced — talking about Harper Lee, “To Kill a Mockingbird” and Atticus Finch’s potential portrayal as a racist in the new book, which was released Tuesday.
In the weeklong University of Maine at Farmington Longfellow Young Writers Workshop, high schoolers and recent graduates from across the state and across the country came to the campus for an intense week of learning about and executing various writing styles.
Students spent the first couple of days discussing genres such as fiction, nonfiction, poetry and screenplay with published authors and UMF faculty before picking three of the four to focus on for the rest of the week. Guests and faculty members who are published authors give evening readings for the students.
The students get to tour the offices of publisher Alice James Books in Farmington and go swimming and kayaking on Wilton’s Wilson Lake.
The program is in its sixth year, hosting students primarily 15 to 17 years old.
“The idea was to mimic what happens at a serious writing workshop for anybody, but to do it for high school kids,” said Shana Youngdahl, assistant professor of English and co-director of the workshop. After completing the program, students are eligible for two credit hours toward their degree if they attend UMF.
Youngdahl said that while enrollment is open, fellowships that are offered to pay some if not all of the all-inclusive $800 tuition are competitive and require writing sample submissions.
Youngdahl said that while some of the teens arriving may be away from home for the first time and are scared at first, by the end of the week, “it’s like they’ve all found their tribe.”
“You know, a lot of times being interested in creative writing and writing is a solitary thing. It maybe draws quieter people, and it’s rare that you get over 30 of them all together in the same place at any high school in Maine especially,” Youngdahl said.
She said it’s the first time many of the students have been around so many like-minded individuals.
“It’s really wonderful to watch the friendships that they make and the communities that develop over the course of the week,” she said.
Jessica Leibowitz, of Pittsfield, graduated from Nokomis High School in June. This is her second year attending the program. She said one of the things she loves about it is the friends she’s made. “We talked a lot, and it helped me grow as a writer,” she said.
Carol Dawn Rush, 17, graduated from Sumner Memorial High School in Sullivan this year, and this is her first time attending Longfellow.
She said the number of writers she’s exposed to helps her to think about her writing in a different way.
“You’re being put into genres of writing that you don’t generally write,” Rush said. She said she thinks of herself as a fiction writer, but now that she’s taken a nonfiction workshop, she sees new possibilities.
In the afternoon nonfiction group, Gretchen Legler, author of “On the Ice and All the Powerful Invisible Things: A Sportswoman’s Notebook,” led the class through an eight-minute “free write” in which students were challenged to keep their pens moving the entire time.
Most students hunched over their notebooks, scratching furiously, while another lounged, head in hand while penning her story. Yet another cradled her notebook in front of her as she wrote.
All were encouraged to tell their stories aloud as listeners extracted notable bits from the writing.
Themes of conflict and commonality emerged as students read. Each was able to see how they began to orchestrate their own story within the exercise.
Douglas McIntire — 861-9252
dmcintire@mainetoday.com
Twitter: @CD_McIntire
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