When 10th-grader Maiya Stover was drafting her poem for a school writing assignment earlier this year, she felt confident with the writing process and the flow of how she was telling her story to readers.
The hard part, she said, was writing about her personal journey with her faith and the vulnerability she felt sharing with others that she had questions about her relationship with God.
But she said she pushed through the "scary" writing process because she "wanted to see what people get" from her story. She rewrote her poem "Faith Without Doubt" eight times over the course of the school year.
On June 10, Maiya and her 10th grade classmates at Phelps Architecture, Construction and Engineering High School in Washington, D.C., read their poems at a book launch for "Now I See with Open Eyes," an anthology of 68 professionally published poems.
With a prompt of "the life I choose," the Phelps 10th graders spent the past school year drafting and self- and peer-editing their work, which culminated with the book release event at D.C.'s Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library.
The assignment challenged students to stretch their writing skills through self-discovery by communicating about topics that interest them. Students wrote poems on topics as varied as attending a basketball game, moving to a new school and remembering birthday memories or falling for a first crush, experiencing grief, and being abused. When students read their poems at the book launch, some were visibly nervous, while others hammed it up on stage.
For Maiya, who began writing in her free time during the COVID-19 pandemic and aspires to have a career in writing, the process of publishing her poem made her realize that "the scarier it feels to write, the better the writing is.”
The joy and power of writing
The students' writing project began in fall 2024 with studying narrative poetry, making journal entries and listening to different genres of music.
For the book project, the school, which offers college prep and vocational courses, collaborated with 826DC, a local chapter of a national youth writing and literacy nonprofit. The organization's staff and volunteers visited the school one week each month to help students with the writing process through individualized student assistance and to support classroom literacy instruction.
The 14-year-old organization has helped other D.C. schools with their young authors’ book projects in the past. It has also supported youth literacy through short-term and long-term writing residencies at schools and through after-school writing labs.
"One of the things that I love about our work is the idea that we need to give young people an opportunity to experience the joy and the power of writing," said Robyn Lingo, executive director of 826DC.
One of the most impactful aspects of the book writing project, Lingo said, is that students get a chance to choose what they want to write, giving them agency and authority over their work. Another benefit is that there's a tangible book at the end of the project, and students will always be able to refer to themselves as published authors, she said.
The book is available at libraries in the District of Columbia and is for sale in local bookstores and online. The cost of publishing 300 copies of the book came from grants, donations and local government contributions to 826DC, and proceeds from the book sales will continue to help support the nonprofit.
"I want every young person in our city to know that they matter, that their story matters, that what they have to say to the world and what they want to share is important, and people want to hear it," Lingo said.
A lesson for the teacher
Nkosi Crawford, whose poem "Unexpected Struggles" was about the challenges of coming up with a topic and writing his poem, said he enjoyed the challenge of making his poem rhyme, even though it made the assignment harder.
Despite the struggles during the writing process, he now feels like he could "turn literally anything into writing."
D.C. Councilmember Zachary Parker, who represents the area that includes Phelps ACE High School, stopped by the book launch event. Parker said the city, like many communities across the country, is making literacy an instructional priority.
Encouraging students to take ownership over their writing and to share stories about topics they care about, "will make them lifelong readers and appreciate writing in the long term," Parker said. He also said the writing process helps spark students' creativity. "And when a young person unlocks creativity, I believe that just inspires them to explore their own hopes and dreams."
The Phelps 10th graders weren't the only ones who gained valuable lessons through the book project. Their teacher, Erica Sansing, said the year-long writing journey strengthened the relationships with her teen students, who she calls "brilliant" and "amazing."
Sansing said she makes it a priority to know her students holistically, "but I feel like this gave me such an opportunity to know them in a deeper, more personalized way. It broke down the classroom wall. It broke down that barrier between the classroom and the real world."
