Classes for Youth
Young writers have myriad opportunities to launch, explore, consume and create great writing at Hugo House. Our conservatory-model instruction encourages students to read as writers, to critique established work and the new work of their peers and to take risks with their writing while exploring voice and language. In our classes, open writing circles, open mics and literary events, we strive to create an innovative creative writing space for all.
All Hugo House classes, workshops and field trips are taught by professional, published writers who are also experienced teachers of the craft. Teens on the Youth Advisory Board help curate our teen course offerings, MC the monthly teen open mic, Stage Fright, and may apply for the youth writer-in-residence position during their sophomore, junior or senior years.
For more information on programs for youth at Hugo House, or to register for a teen class, call 206-322-7030 or email margotcase@hugohouse.org.
Hugo Classes for Teens are Saturday workshops for teen writers who want to delve into particular subject areas such as the short story, the novel, free-form poetry, zines, spoken word, reviewing, flash fiction, screenwriting, playwriting and creative nonfiction, to name just a few. For current course descriptions and teacher bios, click here.
“I wanted to polish my short story skills and learn more about how stories are put together. (The class) shocked me—by how amazing it was!! The discussions and feedback were wonderful.”
Write Time
Write Time is a free, weekly drop-in writing circle for students in grades 9-12, led by Hugo House writer-in-residence Karen Finneyfrock. Bring something you're working on, or just come ready to write.
Date/time: Every Wednesday, 6-7 p.m
Download a poster here, and let your students, classmates and friends know about Write Time!
Stage Fright is an open mic night for writers age 14 to 20. Since 1997, Stage Fright has been the place to speak out! Writers share poetry, fiction, journals and songs and enjoy the work and camaraderie of their peers. Snacks, candlelight and a fearless MC round out the evening.
Writers: grades 8-12
Date/time: the second Wednesday of every month, 7:30-9 p.m. (July 8, Aug. 12, Sept. 9, Oct. 14, Nov. 11, Dec. 9)
Tuition: free
Download a poster here, and let your students, classmates and friends know about Stage Fright!
Scribes summer creative writing camp is an intensive two-week writing program for middle and high school students. Applications for Scribes 2010 are now being accepted. The early registration deadline is January 15, 2010; regular registration is April 15, 2010.
For more information about Scribes, click here.
Youth New Works Competition
As part of the Hugo Literary Series, Richard Hugo House seeks poems, short stories or personal essays of no more than 1000 words. The theme is Gods and Monsters, and the winner will receive $100 and an invitation to read at the third Hugo Literary Series event at Richard Hugo House alongside poets Linda Bierds and Terrance Hayes, novelist Garth Stein and the music of BloodHag.
The theme: All manuscripts must reflect the theme, Gods and Monsters, using the prompt below as a jumping-off point:
From the crucifixes hanging above our beds to the Bogeymen hiding under them, gods and monsters have always occupied considerable real estate in the human psyche. But sometimes a mattress and box spring are all that separate the two. Gods of all faiths have dispatched locusts, hail and frogs, induced famines and instituted curses. And who was really the monster in Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein"--the poor, misunderstood creature whose hideous exterior masked a very human heart, or the man who usurped God's role by creating him? Today the line dividing the godly from the grotesque is blurrier than ever as technology hands us godlike powers--cloning! Bio-engineering! Artificial Intelligence!--opening possibilities that Mary Shelley couldn't have imagined. But just because we can do something doesn't mean we should--what happens when, as Joseph Conrad described it, our "inner evil" equals our "outer good"?
Entry restrictions: The Youth New Works Competition is open only to students enrolled in grades 9-12. To be eligible to win, you must be able to attend the Literary Series event at Richard Hugo House on February 19, 2010.
Submission format: Typed, double-spaced, pages numbered, in 12-point standard font, no staples. On top right of every page include name, address, phone, e-mail, grade and school.
Submissions are due by January 11, 2010, to youth@hugohouse.org or by post to: Youth New Works Competition, Richard Hugo House, 1634 11th Ave., Seattle, WA 98122.
Download a poster here, and let your students, classmates and friends know about the Youth New Works Competition!
Field Trips
Bring your class to Hugo House for an hour of creative writing instruction followed by a reading on our Cabaret stage. We provide the prompts, the paper and the spotlights. You bring the talent. For more information on curricula or to schedule a visit, contact Margot Kahn Case, youth programs manager, at margotcase@hugohouse.org or (206) 322-7030 ext. 108.
Join Our Mailing List
Sign up for Hugo House's youth mailing list and receive announcements about classes, events, publishing opportunities and contests for kids and teens.
Interested in teaching a youth class? Find more information here.
Waiting to Ignite
By Clare Lilliston, Scribes '08
I am the Clare moth
flying with pale tissuepaper wings.
I am a tangle of flutter and breath,
gliding up the draft as if I were
levity incarnate.
If you put me on your tongue
I will melt, grainy and quick, like spun sugar.
If you put me in your palm
I will stay, flat and quivering
as if I have nowhere else to go.
My heartbeat tells me to follow
heat and brightness,
to kiss the light deep,
to love it until it fills me
with crackle and singe.
So I do this.
I bathe myself in fluorescence;
I serenade lightening bolts.
I long to be a sunspot
or a forest fire ember.
But this is not my birth
and so it will not be my life.
Thus, I remain.
I am the Clare moth,
Patiently waiting to ignite.
