Dear Emily, 

As the days stretch a little longer and the earth begins to bloom again, we welcome this season of renewal with open hearts. Whether you’re leaning into rest, finding moments of stillness, or simply noticing the beauty around you, we hope spring brings you exactly what you need. 

As many of you head into spring break or pause in your own way, we’re sending wishes of renewal, reflection, and restoration your way. 

A quick reminder: our next WPWP Network Meeting will take place on Monday, April 14 at 6 p.m. on Zoom (click here to add to your calendar). I hope you’ll join us for important updates, a look ahead at upcoming events, and space to share your ideas, perspectives, and hopes for the network. 

I look forward to seeing you soon. 

With care, 

Dr. Khirsten L. Scott


Director, Western Pennsylvania Writing Project

As always, thank you for taking the time to receive and review this newsletter. We are grateful to be in community with you. Feel free to share this information with others.

If you have any updates, ideas, and/or concerns, we’d like to hear from you. Email us at wpwp@pitt.edu.

Thank you to all who attended our Professional Writing Workshop, A Port in the Storm, led by Lucy Ware and Hannah Lewis. 

It was a truly meaningful occasion—a chance to connect around writing on the profession and writing as profession. Together, we reflected, responded, and thought alongside poetry. 

Here’s a found poem drawn from our opening writing prompt. May it echo some of what we carried into that space—and what we continue to carry forward. 

 

Found Truths 

 

I’m living my life like it’s golden, 

go home and write a page tonight. 

Let that page come out of you— 

then, it will be true. 

 

Don’t worry about a thing, 

because every little thing 

is gonna be alright. 

 

One day we’ll all be free, 

but do not go gentle 

into that good night. 

 

The art of losing 

isn’t hard to master— 

but still, 

we try. 

We write. 

We shine. 

Today marks the start of an exciting new chapter in the Western Pennsylvania Writing Project’s history! After celebrating 40 years as a site of the National Writing Project we are beginning a new partnership with the University of Pittsburgh's University of Pittsburgh Library System (ULS) to formally archive and preserve our site’s rich history. This is an incredible opportunity to catalog and make accessible decades of work — for future educators, education policy scholars, and anyone invested in public and institutional education experiences. Whether for dissertations, policy briefs, or articles, we hope this archive becomes a resource that helps our work continue to grow, inspire, and inform.  

Special thanks to Zach Brodt from the ULS Archives and Special Collections and to our amazing administrator, Emily Conklin, for supporting this work. We look forward to sharing more updates as this exciting process unfolds.  

If you’ve been part of WPWP’s story — as a teacher, fellow, student, or partner — we’d love to hear your favorite memory or moment! Send your stories and memories to wpwp@pitt.edu!   

May can be a hectic but hopeful time as warm days and long evenings invite us outside and we gather with loved ones to celebrate graduations, mothers, and more. Let's remind ourselves to pause daily and take stock of it all.  

 The WPWP is proud to invite you to participate in our May daily writing challenge! You can use this slide or the attached documents to choose a prompt each day, or you can write on a topic of your choice. Please share any writing you'd like on the WPWP May writing challenge padlet. A few sentences, a bulleted list, even a word each day is all you need to aim for--all writing is real writing, and all writing "counts."  

We will gather together virtually on Wednesday, May 28 at 6 p.m. to share some of the writing we've done in May, and to hear from others. All are invited, whether you "completed" the challenge or not.

📅 May 3 from 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.

We will meet at Randyland, 1501 Arch St, Pittsburgh, PA 15212, at 10 a.m. The marathon will conclude with a read-around from 12:30pm-1pm at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, located at 1230 Federal Street.  

Writing marathons began in the early 1990s with the Southeastern Louisiana Writing Project and have been adapted for use in National Writing Project Institutes, classrooms, literary festivals, and writing groups throughout the country.  

During a marathon, small groups or individuals travel through different landscapes, writing and composing along the way in any genre they like, drawing inspiration from their surroundings and also from their fellow writers.  

June 4: Summer Meet Up and Book Exchange
June 23 – July 1: Young Writers’ Institute (Add to calendar)
July 9 – August 1: The Summer Institute
September 13: September Writing Marathon (Add to Calendar)

📅 Friday, April 18 at 7 p.m.

Join the August Wilson Center for Poetry Unplugged: Always August on April 18! This special evening will feature nationally renowned and award-winning spoken word artists as they take the stage to speak truth to power in the spirit of August Wilson, infusing humor, romance, justice, and equality into their performances. In collaboration with the August Wilson Center, the WPWP would like to invite you to use code “AWCEDU” to access tickets for $20.00!

If you have an event or opportunity to share with the WPWP community, let us know! We’d love to feature it in our next newsletter.

We are continually enhancing our communication methods by addressing any gaps in contact information. Please complete this contact form if you haven’t already. We encourage you to share it with others who might be interested in re/connecting with the WPWP network.