News / May 2008

Experience what's on the minds of today's young storytellers. Watch the outtakes from the Telling Room's "Story House: Coming to America" project, starring four of our authors.

Telling Room film
produced and directed by Emily Bernhard

To learn more about the Story House project, click here. Aqila Sharafyar, author of one of the stories in the anthology I Remember Warm Rain, has made the air waves, appearing on the National Public Radio show "Day to Day" with help from local radio producer Josh Gleason. Listen to it by clicking here. I Remember Warm Rain, the Telling Room's anthology of 15 local teenagers' coming to America stories is now in its fifth printing! Copies are available at Longfellow Books in Portland and Books Etc. in Falmouth.

The Telling Room has completed its yearlong series of Belief Workshops with immigrant students in local high schools and many hundreds of students throughout Greater Portland who came to tell their stories and craft poems at our Writing Center. Stay tuned to see their work in our forthcoming anthology! These creative writing workshops are thanks to generous grants from the Hudson Foundation, the Beim Foundation, and the Maine Community Foundation.

“Stuff That Matters” Writing Contest
DREAM BIG. GET HEARD. The winners of “Stuff That Matters” are now published. Look for the winning entries, posted on our Stories page.

Come see us at our Writing Center at 225 Commercial Street in downtown Portland. It is the hub for workshops (now wrapping up for the year), tutoring, and storytelling field trips. A group of second graders from the D.W. Lunt School in Falmouth are our newest authors--with us, they collaboratively penned The Adventures of Mr. Spike Wiggles and Meemo the Cat. Come down anytime and check out what we're doing, and, as ever, all of our programming is free.

Want to help us create an innovative and inspiring home for young writers and their stories of new superheroes, screenplays set on the Portland docks, and the best poems you've never read? Click on volunteer or donate to learn how.

What's Happening

Upcoming...
Thursday, June 12
Hurrah! The Telling Room is throwing a book release party! I Carry It Everywhere will make its debut as the 2008 Telling Room anthology--a yearlong project that involved over 400 students and dozens of volunteers and supporters. It's time to celebrate and congratulate. Details to come.

Summertime
Get ready for the Telling Room's inaugural summer camp for young writers! Click for brochure and application.

Ongoing...
The stories and photos of 6th-8th grade students who were part of The Telling Room workshop “Hidden Portland” are featured at the Addison Woolley Gallery, 87 Market Street, Portland, through the month of May.

Tutoring takes place at The Telling Room's Writing Center. Stop by on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 2:30-4:30, for help with any kind of writing you'd like to share.

Spring Workshops:

Saturday: May 3
Flowers, Clementines, and a Duck: Painting a Picture with Words
Painting a still life with words. What do you see from your bean bag chair? Play and draw with the power of words.
A workshop for grades 1-3

Saturday: May 17
City Poetry: Legal Graffiti
Think guerilla word art that covers the city! Pull words from your pockets and make your mark.
A workshop for grades 9-12

Recent Events

Workshop galleries continue! See what the kids of "Hidden Portland" produced this spring here. Also, on a cold Saturday, an intrepid crew of kids took a “Portland Word Walk” with the Telling Room. Workshop leaders CC and Molly led an afternoon session of word play and secret-language sharing at the Writing Center before heading out with pockets full of words to leave their mark on our city. Click here to see the “Word Walk Gallery,” and see if you recognize these Portland landmarks.

See what author George Saunders wrote about us in his blog: "I recently had the pleasure of doing a reading in Portland, Maine. In addition to the fact that it was one of the most responsive and intelligent crowds imaginable, and the reading was held in a truly beautiful space (called, I believe, The Space) there was another great pleasure associated with my visit. That afternoon I had the chance to talk to some wonderful high-school-age writers at a place called The Telling Room..." Read what he has to say about us (we're still blushing) on his Amazon Blog.

Who We Are

The Telling Room is a nonprofit writing program in Portland, Maine, dedicated to young writers and storytellers between the ages of 8 and 18. Our goal is simple: To meet each student's passion for writing with equal enthusiasm, to provide role models for those looking to further their writing, and to privilege the act of storytelling as a vital means of expression and community building.

What We Do

1 - The Telling Room offers free after-school tutoring, storytelling field trips, and writing workshops with professional writers for elementary, middle school, and high school students. [more]

2 - Our Living Writers series brings top-notch poets, fiction writers and journalists to Maine to give round-table craft talks to young writers, as well as public readings for the community at large.  [more]

3 - We support teachers by providing curriculum materials and seminars on teaching creative writing.  [more]

4 - We think young writers deserve an audience! The Telling Room published its first anthology, I Remember Warm Rain, and we're about to launch more work by Maine’s next generation of authors in our second book. Also, young writers who come to our storytelling workshops never leave empty-handed, but rather as a group of published authors.  [more]

Join Us!

Are you a budding playwright / novelist / essayist / screenwriter / poet or just somebody who loves putting words together? Or do you hate writing and want to figure out how to love it instead? The Telling Room welcomes students of all abilities and interests. Please get in touch so that we can keep you informed of our upcoming workshops and events. We love hearing from parents, teachers, community members, and eager volunteers as well!