Paddlestar Galactica, the ping-pong tournament event supporting 826DC’s programs, returns on Saturday, April 27th, 1 PM to 4 PM at SPIN DC! Learn more and sign up here.

Introducing “You Will Be Able to Say a Thousand Words”

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This November, 826DC is thrilled to publish our very first compendium: a collection of the best of the best from our first five years. To celebrate the release here on the blog we will be posting a weekly podcast consisting of selections from the book, read aloud by students, volunteers, staff, and other friends of 826DC. So find a comfy spot and get ready to listen, savor, and share the words of our most inspiring young authors. This project is made possible in part by support from AT&T Aspire.

You Will Be Able to Say a Thousand Words collects the best writing from 826DC’s first five years of running fun and unique writing-based programs. Spanning genres and styles, students ages 6-18 imagine dangers on the high seas, struggles with bullying, and mourn loved ones. From advice to their former selves to advice for the reader, students begin a journey that starts on the page and ends in the boundlessness of the imagination.

You can purchase a copy here.

 


This week we kick off the podcast with a foreword by Mike Scalise, who witnessed the small beginnings of what would grow to become the 826DC of today.

Mike Scalise is the author of the memoir The Brand New Catastrophe (2017), which received the Christopher Doheny Award from the Center for Fiction. His work has appeared in The New York Times, the Paris Review, the Wall Street Journal, Indiewire, and many other places. He’s received fellowships and scholarships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Corporation of Yaddo, the Ucross Foundation, and he was the Philip Roth Writer-in-Residence at Bucknell University. Scalise was 826DC’s initial programs manger, and now sits on the center’s advisory board.