Poetry. Fiction. The poems and short stories collected in this volume are the outcome of fifteen years of an amazingly successful experiment: asking accomplished writers to teach workshops in juvenile detention facilities, homeless shelters, inner-city schools, and schools for newly arrived immigrants. Follow these teacher-artists in the National Writers Corps on their journey into the halls and streets of America's diverse neighborhoods as they enrich the lives and creativity of their students--and find their own voices changed in the process. As one writer-teacher puts it: "Writing in community gathers us around the proverbial campfire and reminds us why we do this: because hearing stories helps us make sense of the world, and because telling them helps us make sense of ourselves."

Author City: KALAMAZOO, MI USA

Chad Sweeney was born in Norman, Oklahoma. He is the author of AN ARCHITECTURE (BlazeVOX, 2007) and A Mirror to Shatter the Hammer (Tarpaulin Sky, 2006). Chosen for Best American Poetry 2008 by Charles Wright, Sweeney's work has appeared in journals such as Barrow Street, Crazyhorse, New American Writing, Verse, Colorado Review, Hunger Mountain, Black Warrior Review, Passages North, RUNES, and AMERICAN LETTERS & COMMENTAR. He edits Parthenon West Review with David Holler, and is the editor of Days I MOVED THROUGH ORDINARY SOUNDS (City Lights, 2009), an anthology of poetry, fiction and memoir by the teaching artists of the national WritersCorps. With Mojdeh Marashi, Sweeney translated a book of Iranian poetry, Arghavaan, Selected Poems of H.E. Sayeh, for which he was awarded a grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission. He earned a B.A. in English from the University of Oklahoma and an MFA in poetry from San Francisco State University. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in literature/poetry at Western Michigan University, where he teaches creative writing and serves as assistant editor for New Issues Press. He lives in Kalamazoo with his wife, poet Jennifer Kochanek Sweeney.

Reviews and Other Links
Jeffrey Cyphers Wright @ The Brooklyn Rail