McMullan Writers Workshops
Save the Date 2024 and Recap of 2023
Save the Date: June 24-29, 2024
We will be back in your inboxes soon when registration opens for this summer’s McMullan Writers Workshops (high school, middle school, and adult writer cohorts), but for now, save that date!
As we begin our planning for the 2024 McMullan Writers Workshops, we’re looking back at the monumental success of the 2023 workshops! In 2023, we welcomed inaugural cohorts of middle school and adult writers alongside our flagship high school cohort. We can’t wait to have everyone back on campus in 2024!
Looking Back: July 17-21, 2023
Day one kicked off with check-in, a welcome session, classroom instruction, a reading by Mississippi Poet Laureate Catherine Pierce, and a Craft Talk and Keynote Address with Andrew Aydin. Aydin’s spirited keynote address was bursting with thoughtful reflections on how comic books influenced his childhood, family life, college and professional experiences, and relationship with the late Congressman, John Lewis. Aydin read from the 2013 graphic novel, March, which he co-authored with Congressman Lewis. Aydin was generous with his time by engaging MWW participants in a Q & A session and book signing after his lecture.
The 2023 high school workshop classes were led by writers Nadia Alexis, Jamie Dickson, Shalanda Stanley, Richard Boada, Katy Simpson Smith, and Alison Turner. Millsaps alumna Dani Buckingham directed the middle school cohort, while writer Ellen Ann Fentress engaged the Workshop’s adult cohort.
Shalanda Stanley
Additionally, MWW participants visited several culturally and historically significant institutions throughout the week that included: Big House Books, the Eudora Welty House and Garden, headquarters for the Council of Federated Organizations, the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument, and the Two Mississippi Museums.
In addition to Andrew Aydin, participants received daily guidance through craft talks from seasoned writers including Donna Ladd, C. Liegh McInnis, Thomas Richardson, Elizabeth Miki Brina, and Catherine Gray.
The McMullan Writers Workshops are grateful to the vision of acclaimed writer Margaret McMullan and to our sponsors, the James & Madeleine McMullan Family Foundation, Kane and Betsy Ditto, the Eudora Welty Foundation, and Millsaps College for their generous support.
Send us an email to myww@millsaps.edu to be added to our mailing list and follow us on Instagram and Facebook at McMullan Young Writers Workshop for live updates and upcoming events.
Meet the MWW 2023 Resident Assistants
Founded in 2015, The McMullan Young Writers Workshop has provided hundreds of young writers with a safe, supportive, and immersive environment to enhance their craft. Located on the campus of Millsaps College, MWW has prided itself on meeting writers where they’re at, while doing so in a community-centered space. We couldn’t do it without our incredible Resident Assistants who assist us in fulfilling this annual mission! All current Millsaps students (including some who are also alums of the McMullan workshops!), we’re grateful to Kris Arrington, Bianca Jones, Seraiah Lodge, Clem Richardson, Blair Thomas, Katie Williams, and Brittany Wilson for their leadership. Clem Richardson, current Millsaps Major, noted:
MWW 2023 was an amazing time for me as an RA! Getting to see so many wonderful and brave students write and revise amazing pieces about their life, experiences, or just something they were passionate about was extremely enriching and I am proud of every single one of the Young Writers from MWW 2023! I hope to be back as an RA for many years to come!
Blair Thomas, an alum of the high school workshop and current Millsaps student, stated:
My time at MYWW goes far back for me. I first attended in 2019 …. I thought I was not going to enjoy it, but I really found peace, solace, and myself in writing while there. I went back every year that I could, excluding the covid year. By being an RA, I got a completely different experience. I felt more helpful, and I wanted to provide a space in my group where writers could feel like they could come to me, and I feel like I did that.
Brittany Wilson, another current Millsaps College student and MWW alum explained:
MYWW 2023 was yet another beautiful experience to create with fellow writers from the South! I enjoyed the craft talks the most this year as these were intimate experiences with writers like Elizabeth Miki Brina, Thomas Richardson, and even the keynote speaker, Andrew Aydin. Learning from every person who shares their craft – how willing and vulnerable they are while sharing their experiences and processes to the writers and writing enthusiasts – is an incredible opportunity for writers of all kinds to see where they can add themselves to the narrative of what and who a writer is and can do. An activity-packed, creativity-inclined week that’s worth the time, creative energy, and openness that any writing workshop would want and need for a successful and encouraging environment. McMullan Writers Workshop builds a community of some of the greatest writers in their own rights, in their own experiences, and offers a place of solace, rejuvenation, and originality to the literary visionaries of our time.
Do you have memories you would like to share from your time in the McMullan Workshops? Write us at myww@millsaps.edu so we can feature you in this newsletter!