In mid-June we returned to Gambier for the adult workshop. Forty-five writers came to create fiction with Nancy Zafris (KR fiction editor) and Jane McCafferty, to compose poems with David Baker and Maurya Simon, or to craft nonfiction with Rebecca McClanahan. June 17-24 was an intensive but rewarding week of creativity with breaks to dine or listen to group readings before writing yet again.

The day after the adult writers left, our wild and wonderful Young Writers arrived bursting with energy for three daily workshops plus evening readings in addition to ultimate Frisbee and dance parties. Due to demand, KR ran two YW sessions this year (June 25-July 8 and July 16-29), selecting one of every three applicants for full enrollment of sixty students per session and dispersing approximately $34,000 in scholarships. Students came from thirty-eight states as well as Japan and Korea. These high-school students generated plays, poems, fiction, sci-fi stories, performance poetry, and published an anthology of their work while on campus. They also read from their work to the entire group, which, according to one student “turned out to be more rewarding in the end than it was terrifying in the beginning.” There were many tears and hugs upon departure, but this newfound community of writers can keep writing to each other through a dedicated KR Forum page. In cyberspace, 2006 might be an endless summer…