Rural Teen Writing Contest Series | Episode 0

I’m so excited to be kicking off the series where I talk about this year’s winner of the Literacy In Place Rural Teen Writing Contest! Before I get to talking about Allison Strange’s story “Fate for a Cat” I wanted to do a special episode where I talk about why this thing even exists – where the idea came from and why it’s so important to me.

In this week’s episode, I discuss the reasons I started the #LiteracyInPlace Rural Teen Writing Contest and give some backstory on how it got started. I’m joined by the voices of authors who contributed to the RURAL VOICES anthology as well as those who made videos in support of teasing the first cycle of the contest.

Texts mentioned on today’s show:

• * Amplifying rural voices: Defining, reading, and writing rural stories. Montana English Journal – Chea Parton : https://scholarworks.umt.edu/mej/vol43/iss1/3/
• * Rural Voices: 15 Authors Challenge Assumptions About Small Town America – Nora Shalaway Carpenter : https://bookshop.org/a/86567/9781536226065 (affiliate link)
• * Fate for a Cat – Allison Strange : https://literacyinplace.com/2023/02/07/fate-for-a-cat-by-allison-strange/
• * Heart of Texas Writing Project – https://sites.edb.utexas.edu/htwp/
• * Building Adolescent Literacy in Today’s English Classrooms – Randy Bomer : https://bookshop.org/a/86567/9780325013947 (affiliate link)
• * Hidden Gems: Naming and Teaching from the Brilliance in Every Student’s Writing – Katherine Bomer: https://bookshop.org/a/86567/9780325029658 (affiliate link)
• * For a Better World: Reading and Writing for Social Action : https://bookshop.org/a/86567/9780325002637 (affiliate link)
• * Rethinking the “Adolescent” in Adolescent Literacy – Sophia Sarigianides and Robert Petrone: https://bookshop.org/a/86567/9780814141137 (affiliate link)