Welcome to the Upriver Young Authors Program!
Become an Upriver Young Author!
This program is for kids and teens who love writing or are interested in giving it a try!
Follow the path of creating a story from the idea all the way to holding the published book in your hands while you answer questions from patrons at your very own author event!
For Kids (Ages 7-12)
Write and illustrate your own story! When you’re done we’re going to publish it in a REAL book that you can hold in your hands! If you’re feeling up to it, join us for our very own Upriver Young Authors Event where you’ll sign copies of the book and answer questions about your story!
Sound overwhelming? Don’t worry about it – you’re going to have your very own teen writing buddy! They’re going to be your personal cheerleader and use what they’ve been learning in their part of the program to help you come up with ideas, write them out, and edit them!
Special Dates For Kids:
July 25th 1-3pm: Kids and Teens – Let’s Write Together: Write with the Right Friend.
Kids – it’s your turn! Join your teen writing buddies and brainstorm and begin writing YOUR stories! Your teen writing buddy is there to cheer you on and give you helpful tips on how to find the right story, how to get it down on paper, and spell those tricky words!
This workshop is intended for Upriver Young Author participants who are kids aged 7-12 and teens aged 12-18.
August 8th 1-3pm: Kids and Teens – Let’s Write Together: Write with the Right Friend – Editing Workshop
Alright kids, you’ve written your story and now it’s time to edit and illustrate it! Your teen buddy will help you take your rough draft, polish it up, and turn it into what’s going to be published in the final book! When you’re done with editing, let’s make some illustrations to go with it!
This workshop is intended for Upriver Young Author participants who are kids aged 7-12 and teens aged 12-18.
August 26th 6-7:30pm: Author Event and Q&A for Kids and Teens
Today’s the day! A copy of the book is available at the library for patrons to check out, you have your own copy to keep and maybe a few to give to friends and family. There’s lots of food. A large table. You’re there to sign books for library patrons who want their own copies and answer their questions about how you became a published author!
For Teens (12-18)
Have you ever thought about making a career out of writing? Do you just love writing but have never taken a step to share it with the world? Are you a fanfic writer who publishes on FF.net or AO3 but have never held your work in your hands?
Join the Upriver Young Authors Program!
We’ll be going through the entire process of self-publishing and talking about the differences between that and traditional publishing.
Begin by examining the different forms of writing and identifying which you’d like to do during the program. Brainstorm and workshop ideas with local and published authors, keep writing on your own, and then learn all about professional editing with a published author/editor before moving on to all the details that will take your finished story all the way to physically being in your hands during your own Author Event and Q&A with yourself and your peers as the stars!
Does it sound overwhelming? That’s okay – we promise we’ll break it all down into manageable steps so easy that you’ll be able to turn around and teach it all to your kid writing buddies. By the end of the program you’ll not only be a published author with your book included in our library’s catalog, but you’ll also be a writing mentor – the goal of many an author!
Teen Workshop & Event Schedule
August 5th 1-3pm: What’s With These Book Covers?
August 8th 1-3pm: Kids and Teens – Let’s Write Together: Write with the Right Friend – Editing Workshop
Teens – let’s take what Katherine taught us and use it to help the younger kids get their stories ready for the big event! Help them with spelling, grammar, punctuation, and overall story cohesion. You’re the pro editor now!
This workshop is intended for Upriver Young Author participants who are kids aged 7-12 and teens aged 12-18.
August 12th 1-3pm: Publishing and Advertising
Okay, so we have a finished story. We have a book cover. What’s next? Why, telling the world all about it of course! It’s time to build some buzz around our project. How do you advertise a book? Who’s responsible for the advertising? How do you decide on your advertising budget? Who’s your target audience? Print or Digital? So many decisions!
And how are we even getting physical books in our hands anyway? We’re not a big publishing house and we don’t have that kind of time, so what’s our plan? Self-publishing! And we’ll show you exactly how during the workshop! Then, if there’s time we’ll start talking about how to prepare for our author event!
This workshop is intended for Upriver Young Author participants ages 12-18.
August 19th 1-4pm: Publishing and Advertising Continued, Event Preparation
We are one week away from our big Author Event and Q&A! Let’s check on the results of our published book and make any last minute changes we need. Then we need to finalize all the details for the event – what food we’ll have, how we’ll set it up, what parts of the book we’ll read, and practice reading out loud!
This workshop is intended for Upriver Young Author participants aged 12-18.
August 26th 6-7:30pm: Author Event and Q&A for Kids and Teens
Today’s the day! A copy of the book is available at the library for patrons to check out, you have your own copy to keep and maybe a few to give to friends and family. There’s lots of food. A large table. You’re there to sign books for library patrons who want their own copies and answer their questions about how you became a published author!
Story Prompts: Find Your Voice!
Our theme for our story collection is “Find Your Voice” to tie into 2023’s Summer Reading Program.
While you don’t have to use one of our prompts for your entry, we do encourage it!
If you do decide to use one of the following prompts, don’t forget that you’re allowed to choose your format – fiction/short story, non-fiction/essay, journal entry, graphic essay, comics – all are acceptable!
- The Importance of Words
- Advocating For Yourself or Someone Else
- Why Storytelling Matters
- Expressing Yourself
- Art
- Music/Dance/Performance
- Actions Taken to Change Our Communities/The World
- Speaking Up, Even If You Are Afraid
- My Journal Is My Friend
- I sent a text and here’s what happened next…
- “If only we had actually communicated with each other!”
- Choosing My Words
- The Benefits of Sharing Good Food
- Building Bridges
- Take a favorite quote and turn it into a story
- Combine Fiction and NonFiction
Resources for Writers
The Upriver Young Authors YouTube Playlist
History
The Upriver Young Authors Program is an expansion of our previous Concrete Young Authors Program, a partnership between the library and Miss Roozen’s third grade classes at Concrete Elementary School where students would write and illustrate short stories and library staff would bind them and give them a place in the library’s collection for patrons to check out and take home to read.
Sponsors
2023: American Legion Hall Post #132
