Teen Writers’ Symposium 2023
Presented in partnership with the CSU Department of English.
Teen Writers’ Symposium Returns May 6th!
May 6, 11:30am-3:30pm
@ CSU’s Mather Mansion
2605 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, OH 44115
Grades 6-12
FREE
Featuring guest writers Quartez Harris, Helen Maynard, Philip Metres, DM Pulley, Marie Vibbert, Laura Maylene Walker, and Annie Zaleski!
Join Lake Erie Ink at Mather Mansion to meet and learn from local writers! This year’s event will feature a meet and greet with the authors, a writer’s panel, and workshops led by the authors and LEI staff. Lunch will be provided.
Event Schedule
11:30am-12:15pm
Meet & Greet with writers’ and participants.
12:20-1pm
Writers’ Panel, moderated by Hilary Plum
1-2pm
Workshop 1: 3 workshop sessions in different genres, taught by writers
2-2:15pm
Break
2:20-3:05pm
Workshop 2: 3 workshop sessions in different genres, taught by writers
3:10-3:30pm
Closing reading by participants, to share pieces from workshops.
Guest Writer Bios
Quartez Harris
Residing in Cleveland, Ohio, Quartez Harris was once a second-grade teacher in Cleveland Public City Schools. Harris is the Ohio Poetry Association’s 2021 Poet of the Year. Harris is the author of We Made It To School Alive, a full-length collection of poems published by Twelve Arts Press, and Nothing, But Skin, a poetry collection published in 2014 by Writing Knights Press. He is the first recipient of the Barbara Smith Writer-In-Resident at Twelve Literary Arts and a 2020 Baldwin House Fellow. His poetry and ideas have been featured in The Plain Dealer, Ideastream, and City Club of Cleveland. Harris is represented by McKinnon Literary Agency. His works in progress are two picture books and a middle-aged novel.
www.quartezharris.com/#/
Helen Maynard
Broadcast Journalist with extensive experience working in local and network television news, sports, and talk radio. Convention and Special Event planning expert. Multimedia storyteller skilled in, News and Promotional Writing, Avid, Final Cut Pro Editing, Video composition, Social Media content. Mentor, trainer, student advocate. Love to help non-profits – always a supporter of the community, social services and our youth. Political junkie. Lifelong chocoholic.
Philip Metres
Philip Metres has written numerous books, including Shrapnel Maps and Sand Opera. Winner of Guggenheim and Lannan fellowships, alongside three Arab American Book Awards, he is professor of English and director of the Peace, Justice, and Human Rights program at John Carroll University, and core faculty at Vermont College of Fine Arts M.F.A. program.
www.philipmetres.com
DM Pulley
Before becoming a writer, D.M. Pulley worked as a Professional Engineer rehabbing historic structures and conducting forensic investigations of building failures. Pulley’s structural survey of a vacant building in Cleveland inspired her debut novel, The Dead Key, the winner of the 2014 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. Since then, Pulley has sold over a half a million books worldwide, and her work has been translated into eight different languages.
www.dmpulley.com
Marie Vibbert
www.marievibbert.com
Laura Maylene Walker
Laura Maylene Walter is the author of the novel Body of Stars. Her writing has appeared in Poets & Writers, Kenyon Review, Slate, The Sun, Ninth Letter, The Masters Review, the Horse Girls anthology, and many other publications. She has received grants, awards, or fellowships from Tin House, Yaddo, the Ohio Arts Council, the Ohioana Library Association, the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, the Chautauqua Institution, and Art Omi: Writers. Laura is the Ohio Center for the Book Fellow at Cleveland Public Library, where she hosts Page Count, a literary podcast.
Annie Zaleski
Annie Zaleski is a Cleveland, Ohio-based author, journalist, and editor. She’s an award-winning writer with profiles, interviews, and criticism in a variety of publications. Bylines include Rolling Stone, NPR Music, The Guardian, Salon, Time, Billboard, The A.V. Club, Vulture, The Los Angeles Times, Stereogum, Cleveland Plain Dealer, and Las Vegas Weekly. She also contributed liner notes to the 2016 reissue of R.E.M.’s ‘Out of Time’ and Game Theory’s 2020 collection ‘Across The Barrier Of Sound: PostScript.’ Released in 2021, her volume on Duran Duran’s ‘Rio’ is built around extensive original reporting, including interviews she conducted with band members and others involved with the success of the album.
www.anniez.com
If you are a teacher or educator and would like to register a group, click here.
Thank you to our Teen Writers’ Symposium sponsors: