The Mount Madonna School (MMS) high school Creative Writing Reading is an annual event where students, faculty, parents and friends gather together to listen to our student writers read their works. Mark your calendars and save the date! This year it’s planned for Friday, March 20 from 7:00-9:00pm in the Assembly Room at the Upper Campus. Holding an annual Creative Writing Reading evolved from the students’ desire to share this part of themselves with each other and as word got out, with their parents, family, friends and community. In recent years, the audience has grown to some 100-150 people who come to listen and to laugh — and sometimes to cry — as students communicate unfettered revelations of personal experiences and aspirations.
Sharing creativity, imagination, emotions, desires and vulnerability is part of the implicit creative writing curriculum. This event allows the curriculum to shine forth. This year all high school students will attend the event, and most will be sharing their work. ‘I’m thrilled to carry on the tradition started by Melissa Sanders-Self [former MMS English and creative writing teacher] of celebrating the high school students’ literary talents,’ shared high school English and creative writing teacher Haley Campbell.
‘Throughout the year students have been engaged in writing short stories, sonnets, villanelles, sestinas, free verse poetry, play scripts, soliloquys, scary stories, flash fiction, personal essays, songs, and many other forms of writing. Their writing is beautiful, brave, and inspired. Students are encouraged to write what moves them, to not hold back, so please be advised that this event is for mature audiences only.’
The energy generated at the Creative Writing Reading has spilled over into other creative writing achievements: in 2012, MMS students organized to produce a newspaper that included publishing their own literary efforts. Over the past eight years two MMS students have won the Santa Cruz County Poetry Competition three times (one student won twice), another won second place, three have received honorable mentions and every year numerous MMS students’ poems are published in the Santa Cruz High School Poetry Competition Anthology.MMS has also had numerous creative writing students accepted to the California State Summer School for the Arts as California Arts Scholars and some MMS alumni (including Campbell, herself, MMS class of ’02) have pursued college and graduate degrees and careers in English, literature and creative writing.
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Contact: Leigh Ann Clifton, Marketing & Communications,
Nestled among the redwoods on 355 mountaintop acres, Mount Madonna is a safe and nurturing college-preparatory school that supports students in becoming caring, self-aware and articulate critical thinkers, who are prepared to meet challenges with perseverance, creativity and integrity. The CAIS and WASC accredited program emphasizes academic excellence, creative self-expression and positive character development. Located on Summit Road between Gilroy and Watsonville.
