Teachers & Writers Collaborative
Encyclopedia
Teachers & Writers Collaborative is a New York City
-based organization that sends writer
s and other artist
s into schools. It was founded in 1967 by a group of writers and educators including Herbert Kohl, June Jordan
, Muriel Rukeyser
, Grace Paley
, and Anne Sexton
, who believed that writers could make a unique contribution to the teaching of writing.
A non-profit organization
, T&W provides workshops for over 10,000 students per year in the New York tri-state region and publishes a catalogue of creative writing titles as well as a quarterly magazine. T&W also sponsors an educational radio show, free after-school programs and literacy initiatives.
Teachers & Writers administers the Bechtel Prize, endowed by the Cerimon Fund in honor of Louise Seaman Bechtel
. The winning essay appears in Teachers & Writers magazine, and the author receives a $3,500 honorarium. Possible topics for Bechtel Prize submissions include contemporary issues in classroom teaching, innovative approaches to teaching literary forms and genres, and the intersection between literature and imaginative writing.
In 2005, it was among 406 New York City
arts and social service institutions to receive part of a $20 million grant from the Carnegie Corporation, which was made possible through a donation by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg
.
Writers who have been a part of this organization include Robert B. Silvers
, Wesley Brown
, Sam Swope
, Stephen O'Connor, Matthew Sharpe
, Sarah Fay, Kenneth Koch
, Phillip Lopate
, Susan Mernit
, Ron Padgett
, Zoë Ryder White, Meredith Sue Willis
, Bill Zavatsky
, Steven Schrader
and Lennox Raphael
.
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
-based organization that sends writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
s and other artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
s into schools. It was founded in 1967 by a group of writers and educators including Herbert Kohl, June Jordan
June Jordan
June Millicent Jordan was a Caribbean American poet, novelist, journalist, biographer, dramatist, teacher and committed activist...
, Muriel Rukeyser
Muriel Rukeyser
Muriel Rukeyser was an American poet and political activist, best known for her poems about equality, feminism, social justice, and Judaism...
, Grace Paley
Grace Paley
Grace Paley was an American-Jewish short story writer, poet, and political activist.-Biography:Grace Paley was born in the Bronx to Isaac and Manya Ridnyik Goodside, who anglicized the family name from Gutseit on immigrating from Ukraine. Her father was a doctor. The family spoke Russian and...
, and Anne Sexton
Anne Sexton
Anne Sexton was an American poet, known for her highly personal, confessional verse. She won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1967...
, who believed that writers could make a unique contribution to the teaching of writing.
A non-profit organization
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
, T&W provides workshops for over 10,000 students per year in the New York tri-state region and publishes a catalogue of creative writing titles as well as a quarterly magazine. T&W also sponsors an educational radio show, free after-school programs and literacy initiatives.
Teachers & Writers administers the Bechtel Prize, endowed by the Cerimon Fund in honor of Louise Seaman Bechtel
Louise Seaman Bechtel
Louise Seaman Bechtel was an American editor, critic, author, and teacher of young children.Bechtel graduated from Vassar College in 1915 and was the first person to head a juvenile book department established by an American publishing house....
. The winning essay appears in Teachers & Writers magazine, and the author receives a $3,500 honorarium. Possible topics for Bechtel Prize submissions include contemporary issues in classroom teaching, innovative approaches to teaching literary forms and genres, and the intersection between literature and imaginative writing.
In 2005, it was among 406 New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
arts and social service institutions to receive part of a $20 million grant from the Carnegie Corporation, which was made possible through a donation by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg
Michael Bloomberg
Michael Rubens Bloomberg is the current Mayor of New York City. With a net worth of $19.5 billion in 2011, he is also the 12th-richest person in the United States...
.
Writers who have been a part of this organization include Robert B. Silvers
Robert B. Silvers
Robert Benjamin Silvers is an American editor who has served as editor of The New York Review of Books since 1963. According to a 2007 Vanity Fair article, "Jason Epstein's assessment of Silvers as 'The most brilliant editor of a magazine ever to have worked in this country' has been 'shared by...
, Wesley Brown
Wesley Brown
Wesley Brown may refer to:*Wes Brown, English football player*Wesley A. Brown, first African-American to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy*Wesley E. Brown, U.S. District Court judge...
, Sam Swope
Sam Swope
Sam Swope is an author and the 2006 Thurber House children's writer in residence.Works by Swope include I Am a Pencil: A Teacher, His Kids, and Their World of Stories, a memoir recounting three years Swope spent teaching writing students at a Queens, New York, public school...
, Stephen O'Connor, Matthew Sharpe
Matthew Sharpe
Matthew Sharpe is a U.S. novelist and short story writer.Born in New York City, but grew up in a small town in Connecticut.Sharpe graduated from Oberlin College in Ohio. Afterwards, he worked at US Magazine until he went back to school at Columbia University, where he pursued an MFA...
, Sarah Fay, Kenneth Koch
Kenneth Koch
Kenneth Koch was an American poet, playwright, and professor, active from the 1950s until his death at age 77...
, Phillip Lopate
Phillip Lopate
Doctor Phillip Lopate is an American film critic, essayist, fiction writer, poet, and teacher. He is the younger brother of radio host Leonard Lopate.-Early life and education:...
, Susan Mernit
Susan Mernit
Susan Mernit is the CEO of Peoples Software Company, a Web 2.0 social media startup devoted to making it easier for people to connect with each other...
, Ron Padgett
Ron Padgett
Ron Padgett is an American poet, essayist, fiction writer, translator, and a member of the New York School. Bean Spasms, Padget's first collection of poems, was published in 1967 and written with Ted Berrigan...
, Zoë Ryder White, Meredith Sue Willis
Meredith Sue Willis
Meredith Sue Willis , is a writer of short stories, novels for adults and for children, as well as non-fiction on the subject of the teaching of creative writing.- Biography :...
, Bill Zavatsky
Bill Zavatsky
Bill Zavatsky is an American poet, journalist, jazz pianist, and translator.Zavatsky has worked as a journalist; his articles have appeared in The New York Times Book Review and Rolling Stone....
, Steven Schrader
Steven Schrader
Steven Schrader is an American writer. In addition to being the author of four books, he served as the director of Teachers & Writers Collaborative for ten years...
and Lennox Raphael
Lennox Raphael
Lennox Raphael is a journalist, poet, and playwright. Has resided off and on in New York City and worked as a reporter in Jamaica before first coming to the United States as a U.N. correspondent. In 1969 Raphael worked with the Teachers & Writers Collaborative at P.S. 26 in Brooklyn, New York...
.