Dear Emily, 

As we move into our summer season, we’re excited about all the opportunities ahead! Thank you to everyone who joined us for our recent network meeting—it was our most well-attended gathering yet. We shared personal and professional wins, explored new programming ideas, and brainstormed workshop initiatives…and of course we had time to write! Our next Network Meeting will be Tuesday, September 9th 6 - 7:30 p.m. Stay tuned for updates on ways you can stay connected and involved.

In the coming months, we’re looking forward to a writing marathon, a writing challenge, a book swap, and more. Check out the newsletter below for all the details. We hope to see you out in community with us!

If you have opportunities you’d like to share with the network, please send them to us at wpwp.pitt.edu. I’m especially looking forward to our Summer Institute, Young Writers Institute, and all the meaningful connections we’ll continue to build over the coming months.

Thank you for being part of this vibrant community.

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.

🤔 What: Month-Long Asynchronous Event 
📅 When: Virtual Share-Out Gathering held on May 26, 2025 at 6 p.m.

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!

📅 UPDATE: Postponed

As a proactive approach to tomorrow's weather forecast, the writing marathon will be postponed. We are mindful of folks still recovering from the effects of Tuesday's storm, including property damage and power outages.

The new date will be announced in a future communication.

🤔 Where: The Library on Carson, 2302 E Carson Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15203 
📅 When: Wednesday, June 4, 2025 from 4:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.

Join the WPWP for an evening of networking and connection as we celebrate the end of the school year and the beginning of summer break! In the spirit of preparing for summer reading, we encourage you to bring a book that you have read to swap with a fellow educator. The evening concludes at 6:30 p.m., however the Library on Carson will host trivia at 7 p.m. All are welcome to stay!    

🤔 Where: Pitt Homewood CEC, 801 N. Homewood Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15208 
📅 When: Tuesday, June 17, 2025 from 5 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. and June 18, 2025 from 9 a.m. - 12 p.m.

School of Education Faculty and staff, Dr. T. Elon Dancy, Dr. Sabina Vaught, and Tonia Green invite educators to participate in The Educators Assembly (funded by the Grable Foundation). 

Whether you want to deepen your instructional approaches, strengthen student relationships, or explore collaborative learning strategies, this experience is for you! 

ACT 48 credit hours are available. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to Tonia Green at tag129@pitt.edu. Please feel free to share this opportunity with your network! 

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)

📅 When: May 20 – 23, 2025

Looking for new ways to meet people, experience arts and culture, and give back to your community? Then volunteering with City of Asylum is for you, and there's no better time to start than during the Bridges City of Asylum Pittsburgh Creative Summit.

Through volunteering, you'll get the chance to support world-renowned authors, musicians, activists, and leaders. You'll enjoy other perks as well, like a free City of Asylum t-shirt and a 20% discount on any purchases you make at the City of Asylum Bookstore during the Summit!

Email Alexis Jabour at contact@cityofasylumpittsburgh.org to become a volunteer today!

🤔 What:Virtual Event Offered by the University of California, Irvine 
📅 When: May 14, 2025 06:30 PM EST 

From March 2019 through March 2025, the School of Education at the University of California, Irvine received grant funding from the U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences (IES) to establish and operate the WRITE Center, a national research and development center dedicated to improving academic writing outcomes for students at the secondary level. The culminating project of the center was to convene a group of experts in the field to participate in a summit to explore what we know from research about the current state of writing instruction in U.S. secondary schools and to make recommendations for future research that is needed to bring the most effective evidence-based practices into the classroom.  

Join us as we share the ten recommendations from the WRITE Center Summit and look at practical examples of how implementing these recommendations can improve secondary writing instruction.

In Honor of National Black Authors Day
📅 When: May 3, 2025 from 12 p.m. - 5 p.m.
🤔 Where: Emerald City, 213 Smithfield Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222 

Join us downtown at Emerald City to celebrate Black authors! Enjoy engaging with vendors, a workshop focused on self-publishing, a panel discussion, and a book signing by celebrated American author Sharon G. Flake.  

This is a free event and open to anyone, especially aspiring writers who are looking to take the next step! No registration needed.  

Contact sam@greenwoodplan.com to become a vendor!

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 the contact form below if you haven’t already. We encourage you to share it with others who might be interested in re/connecting with the WPWP network.