Workshops

Young Authors Give Back

In the spirit of paying-it-forward, four YA authors will tour the nation in hopes of inspiring young writers. Erin Bowman, Sarah J. Maas, Susan Dennard, and Kat Zhang were brought together by the literary community, and felt a need to give back by reaching out to these aspiring writers. The authors built their careers by putting passion onto paper at a young age, and now aim to share their advice and experiences. The tour offers free one-on-one workshops and hosts book signings at local bookstores and libraries in seven different cities, giving the community’s youth a chance to ask questions and discuss the written word.

Join the authors on their adventures through their blog at at www.youngauthorsgiveback.tumblr.com.

The tour will make a stop at 826CHI on Wednesday, June 12th.

Story Hour | June

Join us for storytime! We will read a beautiful and amazing picture book, discuss the story, and create a fun craft related to the book!

Elementary School Writing Camp I

826CHI is excited to offer a new session of summer writing camp! Join 826CHI staff and volunteers for four sessions of high-energy writing activities including: poetry, silly stories, superhero adventures, and other surprises. Students will develop new skills and refine old ones.
 

High School Writers Camp

Spend a week with 826CHI and an amazing assortment of professional writers from across the city. Over the course of one week, students will meet and interact with at least eight authors from novelists, to poets, to journalists, to songwriters, and more. Students will also work to complete their own piece of writing which they will present at a reading at the end of the week. The piece will also be published in a small chapbook featuring all students involved.

Tra-la-la! Songwriting for Secret Agents

Welcome, Agent 826. Your mission is to write a musical jingle for the Boring Store and 826's other locations (Exhibit A: Seattle's Space Travel Supply Co. Exhibit B: Boston's Sasquatch Research Institute. Etc.) We are looking for secret agents who are (or want to be) poets, singers and/or musicians. In this class, we will start by writing lyrics and then move into creating a melody and music. Bring an instrument, if you play!

Middle School Writing Camp I

Join 826CHI staff and volunteers for four sessions of writing projects. Students should be ready to improve their writing techniques and learn new ones through creative projects including: poetry, short stories, comics, funny essays, and journalism. Over the course of the week, students will explore new forms of writing and finish the camp by making a book of their own writing. Students need to attend all sessions of this class.
 

Creative Mix-Up

It's time to curate all that creativity you've got in your brain! In this workshop we will be seeing where the world of art intersects--exploring pop songs about plays (FYI: T Swift is a totally big fan of Shakespeare), poems about famous paintings, and more-- while making our own art across genres in the form of collage, prose, poetry, and (if you've got an instrument or a voice to share!) music. It will culminate in a pop-up gallery to show off to your friends and family!

Crafting & Writing Letters

"Can you imagine a world without Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, or, gasp, your cell phone? How would you have talked to your friends, or planned a sleepover, or gotten picked up from your mom after school?

Once upon a time, people used to communicate solely through hand written letter, sent through the mail, messenger, or sometimes even by horse. Learn about this lost art, how to craft one for yourself, and send your own beautiful letter with a local stationery designer.  (your grandmother will be so happy!)"

Coming Soon to a Theater Near You: The 826CHI Film Critic Brigade

Are you a Siskel or an Ebert?

Uncover your inner critic as we discuss what makes a great movie during this three-week workshop. We'll screen a handful of short films, write some impassioned capsule reviews, and give our fellow critics the opportunity to change our minds. The reviews will be compiled into an official 826CHI film guide.

Plus, we'll probably eat a lot of popcorn.

Elementary School Writing Camp II

826CHI is excited to offer a new session of summer writing camp! Join 826CHI staff and volunteers for four sessions of high-energy writing activities including: poetry, silly stories, superhero adventures, and other surprises. Students will develop new skills and refine old ones.
 

Animation Station

Before computers, there was stop motion animation, with The Nightmare Before Christmas and the Wallace and Grommit movies as prime examples. The Animation Station workshop will use hands-on experiences to explore concepts of animation, including making flip books. After some practice with the techniques, students will advance to computer assisted stop motion animation to create short projects with legos and clay figures and sets the students design and make. At the end of the final session, students will present their pieces in an informal Open House for family and friends.

Intro to Blogology

What is a blog? Is it a species of amphibians? Is it wart that grows behind your ear? Is it heavy? Is it appropriate? Wait. Is it an online platform in which you can make yourself heard, publish your work, and be the difference in this ever-changing world? Join the blogosphere and learn how you can get learn about how to write for the Internet as safely as possible. At the end of this class, you'll have your own website to write on and motivate your work. No prior blog experience necessary, but the more social media you use, the better!

Writing in Code

Welcome to the team, Agent! Now that you've passed your full round of background checks and Admiral Moody has signed off on your security clearance, it's time you learned the basics of secret agent communication. In this one-day workshop, we'll craft secret messages and then encode them in a variety of different ways including Caesar shift, book code, pencil cipher and space code. That ought to get you field ready in no time.

Middle School Writing Camp II

Join 826CHI staff and volunteers for four sessions of writing projects. Students should be ready to improve their writing techniques and learn new ones through creative projects including: poetry, short stories, comics, funny essays, and journalism. Over the course of the week, students will explore new forms of writing and finish the camp by making a book of their own writing. Students need to attend all sessions of this class.
 

College Application Essays Are Weird

If you plan on applying to college any time soon, you're likely going to need to compose a college application essay. And those things are weird; they require you to be humble while simultaneously speaking to your strengths. Should you feel stressed about writing one of these 400-700 word pieces, sign up for a workshop on the college application essay. We'll discuss the genre, read some samples, and give you time and space to draft your essay before you get tangled up in a new school year.

#Famous

Over three weeks, students will write a set of original very short stories (under 1000 words) with a focus on taking celebrities and well-known figures and placing them out of their element. We will cover the full process of writing fiction, from conception to publication. These pieces will be workshopped and revised, and eventually assembled into a chapbook for participants to take home.

How to Cook a Wolf

Named after a classic book by MFK Fisher, this workshop will present an assembly of junior Top Chef talent with challenges geared toward developing creative writing skills. Students will analyze critical writing on food and then fill in food reviews Mad-Libs-style, praising and panning different dishes while focusing on metaphors and similes. Then, they’ll write a short essay about their favorite food, with emphasis on how family and neighborhoods influence cuisine. Finally, a guest chef will present them with some mysterious samples; after taking tasting notes and discussing the dishes, they’ll divide into groups and create a menu for a new restaurant based on what they just ate.

Campfire Tales: How to Write a Scary Story!

Summertime means it's time to sit around the campfire (or imaginary campfire) with friends and family to share a good, old-fashioned spooky story - think spiders, ghosts, or a creepy haunted house! Students will learn how to write their own classic scary story to tell in the dark through creating atmosphere and suspense in their writing. We will look at the wildly loved "Goosebumps" tales for children, "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" and others. Students will write 1 final polished story to be presented the last day of class.

Refresh Your Writing!

Over the course of this week, students will work one-on-one with 826CHI staff and volunteers to complete a short memoir. Throughout the week, we'll focus on writing basics to build students skills as they enter high school or work toward graduation and college applications. While we welcome writers of all levels, looking to refresh their writing skills, this workshop will be especially geared toward reluctant or struggling writers.
 

Neither Snow, Nor Rain, Nor Heat: Making up stories about people we don’t know.

For fifty cents and a smidgen of time, anyone can write and send a story. Postcards! In this workshop, we'll be writing, reading, and responding to snail mail from all over the world. Whether it's creating stories based on postcards, or writing our own, many smiles and yucks will be had. Snacks: Possible. Fun: Definite.

Let’s Go! Where No One Has Gone Before

Anybody can write a travel guide for St. Louis or Disneyland. Those places already exist. BORING. We need 826's expert writers to create travel guides for brand new places that they've invented, where no brave souls have gone before... until now. In this class we will create destinations and then write guides for those who come after us, to be compiled into an 826 travel chapbook.

Story Hour | August

Join us for storytime! We will read a beautiful and amazing picture book, discuss the story, and create a fun craft related to the book!