Tampa Bay Area Writing Project
Nurturing a community of writers, young and old, novice and expert, students and teachers.
For our Middle School Short Story contest, we took a little inspiration from Bon Jovi and asked writers to give us a story that included the words "You're halfway there..." Our winning story, is far from living on a prayer.…
Read More One Bad Nightmare by Cameron Brown, Winner of Middle School Write-Ahead Short Story
Below is the winner of our Middle School Poetry Write-Ahead Contest, Nature of the Earth by Lindsay Paulson. This category asked entrants to create a Found Poem. Nature of the Earth by Lindsay Paulson One can see no thing as beautiful…
Read More Nature of the Earth By Lindsay Paulson, Winner of Middle School Write-Ahead Poetry
For our Elementary Short Story Write-Ahead competition we asked our youth writers to "write a short story about the grossest thing you ever witnessed (or heard about) at school. Here’s the trick: don’t just gross me out. You have to…
Read More Yuck! by Muryum Firoz Winner of the Elementary Short Story Write-Ahead Contest
Below is the winner of our Elementary Poetry Write-Ahead Contest, Recess Time by Sarah Henderson. The competition prompt asked students to consider how "slides, swings, and monkey bars, literary devices are a writer’s playground. Write a poem about an actual playground…
Read More Recess Time by Sarah Henderson, Winner of Elementary School Poetry Write-Ahead Contest
The 2019 TBAWP Youth Writers Conference yesterday was a huge and resounding success! Just look at some of our authors and attendees gushing on twitter! There were more, but you get the idea! The day was also a success for…
Today Mr. Eric visited camp and asked the kids an important question: What do you do if you are an author and you want to get published? There were some great responses, such as paying to publish it yourself and…
"All the leaves are brown and the sky is gray" is not just the famous first lines of the song California Dreamin' by the Mamas and the Papas. The lyrics launched many a poem and narrative today, and all of…
Read More Day 8 at St. Pete I.C.E. Writers: Music and Lyrics
"When your why is big enough, you will find your how," according to motivational speaker Les Brown. Well, kids have known that for ages because that is often their favorite word to repeat in the car, on vacation, in the…
Read More Day 7 at St. Pete I.C.E. Writers: Asking Why Leads to How
Characters really let their true colors fly when they are writing a review about a horrible product. Our quick write this morning launched our characters from last week's monologues into a whole new mode -- expressing their thoughts about terrible…
Read More Day 6 at St. Pete I.C.E. Writers: Brainstorming Blast
"Close your eyes, and just listen to my voice. There is a door in front of you. Open it. What do you see when you walk through to the other side?" Today we began by visualizing spaces through a mindfulness…
Read More Day 5 at St. Pete I.C.E. Writers: Kicking it with Poetry, Dashes, and Parentheses