New Website Engages Youth in Creative Writing

(TORONTO)—Diaspora Dialogues has launched a new microsite to engage youth in creative writing. The site, part of a larger project funded by Canadian Heritage’s Canada Interactive Fund, will bring together youth from the Greater Toronto Area and beyond to explore how writing can create a sense of community engagement and personal growth.

Young Writers from the Edge, one of the core programs of Diaspora Dialogues, offers a constantly expanding series of artist-run workshops for youth with an emphasis on high-needs neighbourhoods. Every year, professional writer-mentors lead a series of approximately 100 workshops in priority Toronto neighbourhoods that have included Malvern, Jamestown and Crescent Town. Mentors teach fiction, graphic novels, spoken word poetry and drama; youth participate in intensive writing workshops, culminating in public readings of their work. The program gives young writers an opportunity to be heard, and the new microsite gives them an opportunity to stay connected to the writing community and each other.

Participants of Diaspora Dialogues youth workshops will continue developing their writing skills online, and they’ll have the opportunity to blog about their writing experiences, while the site will also be able to reach youth in neighbourhoods where no writing workshops are available. To be moderated in part by a youth advisory group, the site offers the tools to nurture creativity and assist young writers interested in exploring the writing process.

For more information, visit diasporadialogues.com.

About Diaspora Dialogues
Diaspora Dialogues supports the creation and presentation of new fiction, poetry and drama that reflect the complexity of the city through the eyes of its richly diverse writers. Publishing and mentoring activities, as well as a monthly multidisciplinary performance festival, help encourage the creation of a literature that is vibrant and inclusive, while bringing these works to a wide audience.

Diaspora Dialogues is supported by Maytree, Canadian Heritage, Ontario Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council, the George Cedric Metcalf Charitable Foundation, Ontario Trillium Foundation, RBC Foundation, and TD Bank Group.

For further information, contact:
Natalie Kertes
(416) 944-1101, ext 250
natalie@diasporadialogues.com
diasporadialogues.com