Friday, June 21, 2002

WILMINGTON, NC – Thirty-six high school-aged writers from three states arrive Tuesday, June 25, for four days of intensive study with creative writing faculty at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

Mark Cox, chair of the Department of Creative Writing, is delighted with the response.

“Due to limited funding, we did very little advertising for the workshop, so we anticipated only 12 to 16 attendees from the region,” said Cox. “Instead, half the participants are coming from outside the Cape Fear area – from Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Charlotte, Greensboro and even one each from Columbia, S.C., and Key Largo, Fla.”

The interest level reflects well for the decision to offer the workshop, said Cox.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for our faculty and graduate students to help further the creative writing discipline and help these young people hone their craft,” said Cox. “They’ll also get exposure to our Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing programs.”

Students attending the workshops will complete group and individual writing exercises and participate in readings. There will be faculty presentations from UNCW writers Philip Gerard, Dave Monahan, Sarah Messer and Cox, and graduate students enrolled in the MFA program will serve as workshop leaders. Young writers were asked to bring a work in progress as well as examples of their favorite authors to the workshop.

Cox said his long-term goal for the Young Writers Workshop, which is scheduled during the annual jazz camps sponsored by the university’s Music Department, is for it to lead to a summer festival of the arts.

“In time, I’d like to see UNCW host high school students for a full-fledged celebration of the arts. In addition to writing workshops and jazz camps, we could expose students to sessions on film/TV production, dance, theatre and visual arts,” said Cox.

Media are welcome to cover the workshop scheduled for Tuesday, June 25, through Friday, June 28. To arrange to visit a session, contact Mark Cox at 910/962-7063.