Volume 1, Issue 1 (2018) Nac/SFA 2018 Barrio Writers

Introduction

We are absolutely thrilled to press “publish” on this inaugural edition of the Nac/SFA Barrio Writers online journal, with creative writing produced by our local youth during the Summer 2018 Barrio Writers workshop. It has taken us quite some time to decide how to manage future publications, to settle on using SFA’s ScholarWorks as the platform for our chapter’s annual publications, and to learn how to use the ScholarWorks system. We are excited that the online outlet we have chosen will allow for a more timely publication schedule and potentially increase the “reach” of contributing youth’s work to audiences beyond what we previously could when working with print-only publishing.

Being a part of the Nac/SFA Barrio Writers group is genuinely a highlight of our professional careers and one of the things we look forward to most every year. 2020 will mark our sixth year; we continue to be amazed by the work our local youth produce during the weeklong workshop. We marvel at their creativity, their informed opinions, their willingness to speak out and advocate for the marginalized and the vulnerable, their understandable and earnest desire that the adults in our community and in the world listen to their voices, their hope that we can, collectively, do better, and their expectation that we must, we simply must actually do better. We have no other choice.

Please enjoy their wise, impassioned, beautiful words in this first issue. We continue to offer Barrio Writers, a weeklong writing workshop that is offered to participants ages 13-21 years old completely free of charge, because we believe in our local youth and want to support them as they develop their voices and grow into adulthood. You can support them and our program by donating money to help us run the workshop (contact sfabarriowriters@gmail.com), by donating snacks and other supplies as identified every May on an Amazon wish list we publish, and/or by purchasing Barrio Writers books at your local independent bookstore (i.e., in Nacogdoches, that’s The Bosslight at 123 E. Main Street) or by purchasing books online at www.libromobile.com