Publishing Young Authors, Inc.
The nonprofit that supports the Write On!
After School Writing Clubs

Publishing Young Author’s Mission:
Developing and inspiring new writers, readers, teachers and leaders.

• Publishing Young Authors changes children’s views about writing by:
  Developing students’ confidence and life skills through writing, illustrating and publishing books.
• Training educators, parents, and volunteers to teach writing through outcome based processes

Origin of Publishing Young Authors

In 2001 a writing club was voluntarily started at Taft Elementary School in Boise, Idaho. Heather Glass, a certified teacher, started the club to pursue her passion to teach writing and to also be involved in her community. Ten students were expected to sign up, but surprisingly, 43 children piled into the room to try their hand at writing. Heather spent the year documenting her process so people could start writing clubs in other schools to fulfill this unexpected felt need with children. She wrote her first book about running an after school writing club in 2002 and began writing grants to expand the program into more schools. In 2005, she formed a nonprofit called Publishing Young Authors, Inc. to continue the expansion of after school writing clubs. Publishing Young Authors has supported the growth of almost 70 participating schools with nearly 2000 children who have been involved in an after school writing club.

Publishing Young Author’s Purpose

Currently, the main purpose of this nonprofit is to support the Write On! after school writing club program. The Write On! writing club is a 14-week program where students learn creative writing skills and write, revise, illustrate and publish hardbound books. The writing club’s goals are to teach students to write more descriptively and to increase their interest in writing which can result in positive lifelong outcomes. Before and after writing samples taken from nine different writing clubs have shown a 335% increase in an ability to produce visual images in students’ writing thus proving that children are learning to write more descriptively. It was also proven that the Write On! Writing Clubs increased students’ interest in writing as 98% of the students surveyed, reported that they would return to writing club the following year and 92% said that after being in writing club, they were now more interested in writing.

Youth Book Donation Program

Publishing Young Authors also supports another program resulting from the Write On! Writing clubs.  Junior high and high school students (usually graduated writing club members) donate their time to mass-produce books written by the 4th- 6th grade writing club members. These books are then distributed into the community. The student volunteers pick 20-30 of their favorite books to publish each year. They research teachers, shelters, schools and other situations in need of children’s literature books. They then publish and distribute books to the requested areas. Student volunteers have published and distributed nearly one thousand books in the last two years. This component provides meaningful leadership opportunities, impacting community service, and productive volunteer work for older students. This aspect of the program could not function without the financial support of Publishing Young Authors financing the book publishing materials.

Program Operation

If a school chooses to participate in a Write On! after school writing club funded by Publishing Young Authors, several factors are necessary. The teacher hired by Publishing Young Authors must follow the program as it is designed to operate. The school must agree to have their students pay a small tuition, agree to buy a set of student’s books for their school library and allow the writing club teacher to present the program directly to the students. A school must also be located in the Treasure Valley area in Idaho. To sponsor a writing club, Publishing Young Authors pays $1400 per school to cover the writing club instructor’s training stipend, teaching materials and operational costs.  

Publishing Young Author’s Funding  

Publishing Young Authors get its funding from local and regional grants, book sales, student tuition and personal donations.

Sponsorship

If you are interested in sponsoring a writing club in a school or making a donation to Publishing Young Author’s Foundation Inc. Please contact Heather at heather at writeonteachingmaterials.com. ("at" is replaced by @).