Hugo Classes for Kids

Hugo Classes for Kids develop and inspire independent, young writers in a safe and positive atmosphere. Once a week during three ten-week sessions in fall, winter and spring, 25 children between the ages of 8 and 13 gather at Richard Hugo House—where they work with volunteer mentors in a welcoming community setting outside of school or home. Each meeting includes a story, a snack, and plenty of writing practice.

Classes for Kids are not after-school tutorials or homework-help programs. Rather, they are "studio model" artistic workshops where young writers spend time talking, reading, writing, revising and performing— in short, practicing the skills of literacy to explore their imaginations and the world.

Classes for Kids Spring 2009
Every Tuesday students will meet with a professional writer to read and write around a theme. Every session ends with a published anthology and a community reading in the Hugo House Theater. The 10-week session is $50, with tuition assistance available to all.

Spring term: Writing to Save the World
Writers are always saving things, changing things. We write on behalf of things that can't speak—animals facing extinction, trees being cut down. We record events so that they won't be forgotten—a city destroyed by a hurricane, a grandparent's life story. In this class we'll practice our powers of persuasion, putting our passion on the page to save, to remember and to create our world.

Instructor: Karen Finneyfrock
Meets: Tuesdays, April 7 – June 9, 3:30-5 p.m.