refugee project

Lazy Cat (oil pastel) by Tutu Lin, 13; published in the July/August issue of Stone Soup A note from Laura Moran Hello all, I start this week’s newsletter with exciting news! Refugee Project contributor Parwana Amiri, has just published her collection of poems, We will fly higher. Parwana is a young refugee poet from Herat Province, Afghanistan. Her book is available at Barnes & Noble and other major booksellers. Congratulations on this exciting achievement, Parwana! I imagine the majority of our readers will receive this week’s newsletter on the cusp or at the start of a new school year! I can also imagine the myriad of emotions that accompanies this time of year. Indeed, I don’t even have to imagine—the air is thick with nerves and excitement in my house as my daughter is about to begin her first year of high school and my son is set to enter the third grade, both in new schools. Whether you are excited or nervous, or a bit of both, I hope you had a fun and restorative summer. One of the highlights of my summer was teaching Anthropology of the Everyday as an offering of Stone Soup’s Young Author’s Studio Camps hosted in collaboration with Society of Young Inklings. It was inspiring work to see what students came up with as they set out to explore and think critically about their everyday lives and environments. I am so excited to be working with our new Refugee Project collaborating organization, Humanitarian Service Team, to offer elements of this workshop to young people in Nakivale Refugee Settlement in Uganda this fall. Following the workshop, we hope to provide an opportunity for young writers in both sessions of the course to share their work with one another. I look forward to telling you more about it soon! Until then, best of luck with the start of your school year, and while you’re feeling that tangle of emotions that comes with new beginnings, why not take a moment to write a poem about your experiences? As always, if you like what you’ve written, we hope you consider submitting it to Stone Soup. Best wishes,   From Stone Soup July/August 2023 The Sun’s Sister by Katja Muckle Eizenberg, 9 I am the sun So big and bold My seeds leave me When I’m old I stand and sway watching them fly away to freedom Bobbing in the breeze And finally landing in the shade beneath The trees But now it is Spring And I am blooming bright Now it is Summer and I am still a lovely sight Fall is here and I look like the moon All of my seeds will leave me soon Soon is here as they blow away Soon is here as one little one stays The moment is here The moment is sad but happy Bad but good The moment is here as the last seed blows away The moment is here as I close my eyes And enter a long winter’s sleep Click here to read more from the July/August issue… Don’t wait until it’s too late! This fall, we’re offering an all new course: Novel Writing! Class begins Saturday, September 16th at 11:00 a.m. Pacific time, and seats are filling up quickly, so register today! Join us this fall for Novel Writing, a multi-week, virtual course instructed by writer, translator, and professor Conner Bassett that will teach you how to write a novel. We will focus on the basic techniques and tools of good storytelling: voice, description, setting, character, plot, conflict, and dialogue. The course will consist of brainstorming activities, in-class writing exercises, readings, and workshops. By the end of our time together, you will have a complete novel draft. Register now! Stone Soup is published by Children’s Art Foundation-Stone Soup Inc., a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit organization registered in the United States of America, EIN: 23-7317498.