Consistent with Pingry’s strong reputation in the arts, the 10th Annual Creative Writing Festival was kicked off on March 30, 2007 at an assembly featuring five poets and two fiction writers. The Festival, sponsored by the Justin Society and organized by English teacher Dr. Susan Dineen, was designed in the style of the Dodge Poetry Festival at Waterloo Village with the intent of fostering creative writing at Pingry.
The featured writers read short excerpts from his or her works during the morning assembly and then held workshops in a variety of writing genres for the participating students in the afternoon. This year’s writers were: Kazim Ali, a poet, performer and teacher; Jacob M Appel, short story writer and attorney; Abe Chang, poet, musician and songwriter; Natalie Danford, novelist and editor; Major Jackson, poet, teacher, and finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; Genine Lentine, poet, finalist for the Campbell Corner Poetry Prize, and assistant to the former Poet Laureate of the U.S.; and B.J. Ward, poet, teacher, and recipient of the Pushcart Prize for Poetry.
The afternoon sessions enabled students to attend workshops and readings, and even have lunch with the authors. The fiction workshops, which included 45 students, were broken into two groups. One group was led by Mr. Appel, and the other was directed by Ms. Danford, each of whom shared his or her personal strategies for drafting a story. The poetry workshops, “Writing the Poem,” taught by B.J. Ward, and “Tuning the Poem,” led by Major Jackson, demonstrated how a simple subject matter can translate into a great poem. In addition, Mr. Ali shook things up with a dynamic discussion during a Greek Drama class, and Mr. Chang joined a Form III class, where he encouraged the students to submit their poems to him for review.
Students had the opportunity to comprehend a great diversity of writing styles and become inspired by the subject matters discussed. As Dr. Dineen said, “We hope that by including many different voices in the festival, there will be something for everyone.”
© 2007 The Pingry School
