Bulletin News

10/07/2009 

SUNY Cortland’s Seven Valleys Writing Project (SVWP) will offer “Four Cups of Coffee,” a walking and writing workshop to be held on Saturday, Oct. 24, on the Commons in downtown Ithaca, N.Y. The event, from 9-11:30 a.m., is free and open to the public.

The program is intended to inspire thoughts about writing creativity among the area’s school teachers and administrators, said David Franke, SVWP co-director and a SUNY Cortland associate professor of English and professional writing. “Four Cups of Coffee” is the first of many planned workshops around the region.

“Aspiring and accomplished writers will lead participants in a caffeine binge and writer’s walk among four stellar coffeehouses in the downtown Ithaca Commons area,” Franke said.

The workshop starts at the large pavilion on the Ithaca Commons, where those attending the workshop will receive a map to the city’s local coffee bars.

“Participants are encouraged to bring only weather-appropriate gear, writing materials and a willingness to risk spontaneous inspiration as we write new material and get a chance to read it at an 11:30 a.m. open mic at the large pavilion on the Commons,” added workshop organizer Eric Pritz, a social studies teacher at Lansing (N.Y.) Middle School.

Since 2008, SUNY Cortland has operated the project as a local branch of the National Writing Project, funded through the federal Department of Education, as a means of helping outstanding teachers across Central New York improve their practice through writing and research.

For more information about the event, contact Pritz at epritz@gmail.com. For more information about the SVWP, visit the Web site at www.cortland.edu/svwp or contact Franke at (607) 753-5945.