Highlights Foundation

In conjunction with the Highlights Foundation, longtime editor and publisher Stephen Roxburgh launches a new program of practicums for writers and artists. Roxburgh's first two offerings will be Editing for Writers, February 12—15, 2009, and Classic Models for Writers and Artists, April 16—19, 2009.

For each practicum, Roxburgh will select six applicants to work within an intimate setting at the homeplace of the Founders of Highlights for Children. These intensive practicums have been designed for writers and artists serious about their craft who want to identify problems in their work, develop strategies for improvement, and put those strategies into practice with the supervision and guidance of a highly experienced editor and publisher.

Classic Models for Writers and Artists will provide concrete models from classic children's literature targeted toward improving each participant's writing, thereby contributing to a deeper understanding of genre and craft. Group discussions will focus on general aspects of writing. One-on-one meetings will focus on each participant's work. Throughout, the emphasis will be on the craft of writing. Each participant will be given a customized reading list for further study.

Editing for Writers will show writers how to see objectively in order to edit their own work. The practicum will focus on the participants' work and developing skills critical to evaluating the work, from word selection to sentence structure, from paragraph building to character development to plot structure. Group discussions will focus on common aspects of writing embodied in all the participants' work. One-on-one meetings will focus on each participant's writing. Throughout, the emphasis will be on the craft of reading critically and writing.

Stephen Roxburgh has been involved with children's books and publishing for more than thirty-five years, first as an academic, then as senior vice president and publisher, Books for Young Readers, at Farrar, Straus, and Giroux; and as the president and publisher of Front Street Books, a small, independent press he founded on April 1, 1994. In 2004 Front Street was acquired by Boyds Mills Press, where Stephen was publisher until September 2008.

Roxburgh has worked with such authors and artists as Felicia Bond, Nancy Eckholm Burkert, Brock Cole, Carolyn Coman, Roald Dahl, Donna Diamond, Madeleine L'Engle, Martine Leavitt, Patricia McCormick, An Na, Marilyn Nelson, Adam Rapp, Alvin Schwartz, George Selden, Uri Shulevitz, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Garth Williams, and Margot Zemach.

Stephen lectures and publishes widely on children's literature and children's publishing. He is on the faculty of the Highlights Foundation. For many years he was on the faculty of the Radcliffe Publishing Program, the Stanford Publishing Program, and the Columbia Publishing Program.

For more information and an application, visit HighlightsFoundation.org. Please feel free to share this e-mail with others who might find it of interest.


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Highlights Foundation, Inc.
814 Court Street
Honesdale, PA 18431
Phone: (570) 251-4500
E-mail: contact@highlightsfoundation.org
www.highlightsfoundation.org