Workshops for Youth

Youth Workshops: These programs are perfect for schools, libraries, and youth organizations who would like to encourage the young writer. The workshops are offered for groups of no more than 40 youth in one workshop.  A full-day of workshops, such as a school visit, may include up to three, small group sessions of 45-60 minutes. In these programs, youth participate with hands-on-writing exercises, sharing, and the sessions often include integration of contemporary children's and young adult literature.

Mindy's favorite age to work with is grades 7th-9th. The workshops work best for grades 6th-12th.  Please e-mail Mindy at mindy@mindyhardwick.com for more information about scheduling and pricing for all workshops.

Youth Writing Workshop

Writing from Life Poetry-How can we draw on our life experiences to write powerful poems which impact others? This session draws on Mindy's experience working with teens in Denney Juvenile Justice Center. It is best for small groups and works well with at-risk populations grades 7th and above.

Writing from Life: Flash Fiction-Flash Fiction. It's short. It's fast. And it's fun. In this workshop, Mindy will lead us through a series of exercises which "mine our memories" for ideas. Then, we'll take those rich ideas and turn them into pieces of flash fiction. Recommended for grades 8th through high school and/or adult workshops.

Collage Poetry-Explore the world of poetry through this fun, hands-on poetry workshop. We'll look at some artistic collages and read poetry written by young people found in poetry books such as: Paint Me Like I Am and Tell the World. Then, we'll write our own poems inspired by quick and easy collages that we create. This workshops works best with small groups in libraries or after-school community based clubs. It would also work well in creative residencies with week-long settings.

Publishing for Young Writers: You've written a story and polished it until each sentence sparkles. Now you're hoping to publish your work. But where do you begin? This workshop will show the young writer how to prepare a manuscript to submit for publication along with learning how to write a query letter and story synopsis. Young writers will learn about contests and publication resources designed just for youth and discover what resources are available on the web for young writers. This workshop is great for parents, educators and youth to attend together.

Writing a Supernatural Story:  Ghosts, vampires, surreal stories that scare. Come explore the world of the supernatural short story. This session is based on Mindy's supernatural short stories, "I Believe," and "Hand on the Door." We'll try our hand at some writing exercises designed to help you find the ghost lurking in the corners of your stories!

Summer Adventures:  Do you have an exciting summer adventure to share? Maybe you solved a mystery at camp, rode the waves of a hurricane, or wiped out on a jet ski. This session is based on Mindy's short story, "Hurricanes"  published in Summer Shorts: A Short Story Anthology. Writers will find ideas for how to write their own summer adventure stories based on magic seashells.

Voice and Originality: Keys to Getting Your Writing Noticed-What is "voice?" What is originality? How can you make your writing stand out in a contest or competition? We'll look at writing by award winning children's authors to explore how to move beyond the ordinary and find voice. Writing exercises and story sparks will also be provided. This session works best as a small group. 

Revision: Seeing Our Stories Again and Again-Revision. The word no one likes to hear. But without revision, we do not have strong stories. This workshop looks at revision as a three part process. Students will explore revisions in a story's structure, dig deeper into character, and fine tuning words and sentences. This session works best as a small group.

Artist Characters-Students will look at some of the tools writers use to create a character. In particular, we will focus on the artist character. How do writers bring their characters to life? Why do we care about a character? What makes a character believable? As a part of this workshop, students will write and create their own character.

Teacher-In-Service Workshops

A ninety-minute presentation on the craft of writing for children, children and/or young adult literature. Mindy is an adjunct faculty for Seattle Pacific University, and teacher in-services can be made available with clock hours with advance notice to Mindy. (At least two months)

Writing From Life Experience: This workshop draws on Mindy's experience facilitating a poetry/writing workshop with youth in juvenile detention. Educators will learn how to ask students to draw on life experience and try their hands at a few poems themselves. A good workshop for educators or counselors working with at-risk populations.

Teaching the Young Adult Short Story: This workshop looks at integrating current young adult short stories from collections such as Necessary Noise, On The Fringe, and The Color Of Absence into your curriculum. The workshop focuses on the teaching of writing by using the young adult short story.

Integrating the Picture Book Into the Secondary Classroom: This workshop looks at how the picture book can be used in the secondary classroom. The workshop focuses on using non-fiction picture books and biography picture books as a means to supplement a current unit. The workshop also examines how the picture book can be used to teach good writing skills such as structure and word choice to students, and touches on the partnership between art and writing.

Integrating Young Adult and Children's Literature into the Secondary Classroom: This workshop looks at the integration of children's literature into the secondary classroom as a means to supplement the classics, help struggling readers, and most importantly, as a means of teaching writing to students.

Children's Literature: How Do You Find Out What's Good and What You'd Never Teach? This workshop examines the criteria reviewers use for determining good books. We'll look at books which empower our female learners, books which appeal to our boy learners, books which appeal to reluctant learners, books which appeal to students at-risk, and books which appeal to the highly capable. Teachers will be given a resource of how to find good books for their classroom.