News - - Oakland University

Monday, November 2, 2009

Member News

Congratulations go out to MBWP TC John Jeffire. John placed 7th out of 100 top finalists in the 78th Annual Writer's Digest Screenwriting Contest for his adaptation of his novel Motown Burning.

Please join us in also congratulating Cornelia Pokrzywa who has recently been awarded a $2000 Building the Civic Net grant. Cornelia's grant will help to create a “Rochester Oral History Archive,” a publicly available digital archive of oral histories from Rochester area residents ages 55 and older. Oral histories will be collected by both researchers and volunteers using portable digital voice recorders and then uploaded to the web. Prompts to guide participants in the project will be written by Meadow Brook Writing Project Teacher-Consultants, and the ROHA website will be built and administered by MBWP Teacher-Consultants and Oakland University student researchers. MBWP is thrilled to partner with Cornelia and Building the Civic Net to create this important archive.

On November 21, the Renaissance City website (edited by our own lovable John Jeffire) will have its official launch party at Maxwell's Arts and Treasures in Garden City. Festivities commence at 7 p.m. and will feature music, poetry, and food. Local NWP member Mauriya Kay and her band Pandora’s Box will be one of the featured bands. For more information, contact John at jjeffire@cvs.k12.mi.us.

Our MBWP Leadership Team is attending the annual National Writing Project Meeting in November. This year's meeting will take place in Philadelphia and includes a Public Forum on "What Kids Learn When They Create with Digital Media" and workshops on a range of topics, including "Language and Dialect Diversity in the Writing Classroom," "Writing in the Digital Age," and "Connecting Writing in High School and College."