“Teach the children. Rejoice as they learn to love this green space they live in.”
-Mary Oliver
The Avalon Writers Cabin will be a place to publish and celebrate young writers. Since Avalon’s inception, we have seen an influx of young visitors to the preserve. We love to hear your voices on the trails -and now to see them on the page. Ancient and contemporary writers alike have been inspired by the sea, sky and forest. The Writers Cabin will carry on that tradition by giving our next generation of nature writers a place of their own.
Please check out our summer workshop below.
This immersive writing workshop will be facilitated by Suffolk County’s Youth Poet Laureate Ella O’Connor and Writers Cabin Coordinator Doug Elliot. A rising senior at Ward Melville High School, Ella is a seasoned veteran at the Writers Cabin and will lead participants through several observational exercises in the preserve, as well as many explorations of the craft of writing in and about nature. Contact Doug Elliot at avalonwriterscabin@gmail.com for more information.
Congratulations to our contest winners!
1st place-Maria Gavrilov – “Hesitant Spring”
2nd Place-Caroline Qian – “Dirt”
3rd Place-Amira Abdallah – “The Devil of May”
Check back soon to read these entries.
4th Annual Nature Writing Contest! Please see guidelines below.
We are excited to be hosting our 4th annual creative writing contest. Please submit your works or original prose or poetry with nature as its central theme or setting. You can look over past issues in our flipbooks below for ideas. Read on below for some specific guidelines and samples of poetry about the natural world that we like.
Contest guidelines:
-Works should be original.
-Poem length is unlimited but should be nature-based.
-Prose should be limited to 750 words.
-Submission deadline is May 1.
-Writers should be between the ages of 13-17.
-All entrants will have their work published in our annual contest issue.
-Please use the handy “submit” button below to submit your original work.
-Email Doug at avalonwriterscabin@gmail.com with any questions.
Awards:
1st place- $125
2nd place-$100
3rd place-$75
Take a look at these titles for inspiration-
Spring Snow by Arthur Sze – Poems
Birches by Robert Frost – Poems
A Sunset by Ari Banias – Poems
Prairie Spring by Willa Cather – Poems
Spring Storm by William Carlos Williams
Cherry blossoms by Toi Derricotte
Instructions on Not Giving Up by Ada Limón
A Blessing by James Wright – Poems
Spring is like a perhaps hand by E. E. Cummings
Our Publications
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