Editing POW! Power of Words, 6th ed. and Thrilled To Be Celebrating Connecticut Youth and Teachers Once Again

I'm on day two of editing the wonderful work of student and teacher writers from this summer's Young Adult Literacy Labs and the teacher institute. I set a goal this summer that I would work on POW! Power of Words '19 much earlier than I've been able to with the other publications. Why? I want it in the hands of the writers a lot sooner, and I also need this year to get on top of other writing projects of my own.

What does this look like? 14-hour days of pulling documents from Google and trying to find the names of so many kids who don't put it on their documents.

I am very thankful to our summer teachers, however, who do a marvelous job in pushing young people to get so much text in one or two weeks. The quality of their writing gets better and better as we collaborate to tune the instruction (and themes) so they're inspirational to the kids we work with. I am always amazed by the variety of voice, genre and purpose each writer takes (and the choices they make).

I'm more than halfway done, but there's many pages to go, especially the high school writers who sometimes submit entire books to be published (um, we told you to select your best 500 words!).

I don't sit at a desk, but use my Crandall chair to do the work. Now, more than ever before, I also need my reading glasses. The first thing I have to do is to change fonts....what is it with elementary- and middle-aged kids using Comics and Marker Felt?

It's funny, too, because I'm extremely proud that CWP publishes the writing each year, but I'm more intrigued by the scholarship we are working with to offer the writing opportunities that we do.

180+ young writers and 20 teachers. It's sort of magical, especially because we offer our programs so that everyone can learn with and from each other.

I need to head to campus, however, to begin getting the office in gear. We have been summoned back with news that Canisius can be inhabited once again. This means a move from Donnarumma Ding Dong and the relocation of all the summer supplies. Right now, I am loving the vacant office I use throughout the year. It's just empty and I wonder if I can keep it this way (although my house is saying, "Bring back your books. Bring the books back to the University").

The garage, too, is crying, "Get these crates out of here."

It took me several weeks to move items from room 115, so I imagine it will take me just as long to get them back in. Editing, however, has been a way to procrastinate this move.

Everything evolves at exactly the right time...I'm riding the journey where it will take me.