Local Cultural Council Grant for The Write Stuff

North Adams, MA, February 26, 2007—Inkberry has been awarded a Local Cultural Council Grant for The Write Stuff, a reading and writing program geared to middle school children in North Adams. The grant from the Cultural Council of Northern Berkshire, a division of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, will provide partial support for the program, which was launched at Silvio O. Conte Middle School in the Fall of 2006.

Inkberry, Conte Middle School, MCLA, the North Adams Public Library, and the North Adams Transcript are partnering to offer the on-going reading and writing program focused on enhancing the current reading and writing curriculum through creative writing, service learning, mentorship, tutoring help, and public performance.

The program offers multi-genre creative writing workshops to 6th and 7th graders at Conte Middle School as part of their exploratory arts curriculum along with MCAS help centered on reading comprehension. MCLA students majoring in English and education, assigned by the college’s Center for Service and Citizenship, are on hand to assist Inkberry-appointed creative writing instructors and to lead reading comprehension sessions during the school day.

Students from Conte Middle School who participate in the program will be given the opportunity to read from their work at the North Adams Public Library as part of a Student Authors Night, portions of which will be published in The North Adams Transcript.

For additional information regarding The Write Stuff or other Inkberry programs, contact Inkberry by phone at (413) 664-0775 or visit www.inkberry.org.

About Inkberry – Inkberry promotes the literary arts in the Berkshires with events and community partnerships that celebrate and support writing and reading. Inkberry is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.