Writers for Readers reaches its goal

It was a storybook evening, and the outcome was perfect.

Literacy Kansas City, UMKC and the Kansas City Public Library joined forces to put on “Writers for Readers.” The event, with a sellout crowd sitting down to dinner at the Central Library, secured enough contributions to hire UMKC creative writing graduate students to work with beginning readers.

Literacy Kansas City students, UMKC alumni, public library staff and event sponsors settled in for a presentation by authors Edmund White and Michael Carroll. The pair are prize-winning writers – White a noted novelist, playwright and creative writing professor at Princeton; and Carroll a short-story writer and novelist.

Starting next year, the graduate students will give instructions on how to write a memoir or describe a life event. Being able to tell one’s story encourages new readers to have a focus and work harder.

Sponsors for the event included Jeannette Nichols, Hufft Projects, JE Dunn, Black & Veatch, Waddell & Reed, Patricia Cleary Miller, Marilyn Hirthler, The Pembroke Hill School, The Kansas City Public Library, UMKC, UMKC Honors College, and UMKC English Department. Many community members and UMKC alumni bought their own tables in support of the cause.