What’s the Anthology Project?

Every year The Telling Room's Anthology Project anchors our diverse and multi-faceted writing and publishing programs across our school-based and out-of-school literary arts education programs. In 2021-2022 we explored the theme of MYSTERY in our newest anthology, Echoes from the Basement! In the past, we have explored the ideas of neighborhoods, place, food, belief, water, time, encounters, color, voices, 20/20, lost & found, and more. For 2022-23, young writers of all ages are invited to submit to our annual statewide Writing Contest and they have a chance to be published in our 2022-23 Annual Anthology—we can’t wait to see what they write!

A big part of the work we do with young people is to provide a framework for thinking about—and writing about—their lives differently, whether in relation to the larger world, their personal history, the future, their community, place, history, nature, and so forth. Writers are observers, witnesses. The theme acts as a great canvas to explore the many ways we encounter our world, each other, ourselves, the unknown, the ordinary, and the extraordinary. There are many possible topics to explore—both for using the issues around the theme itself and also for investigating how writers use themes to craft poems and tell good stories that others will be eager to hear.

Our publications team and program staff identify writing from students across our programs, as well as via our annual statewide writing contest, to be included in our annual anthology. Publishing Workshop students receive a working tutorial in the book publishing industry in an apprenticeship environment as they produce the anthology. In the late spring of each year, a beautiful, professionally bound and printed anthology is released to the community at our annual Big Night—a student showcase event and book launch celebration that always packs the house and receives rave reviews.