Residency Artist - Creative Writing

Amy Greenberg

Columbus, OH  
Email: amyjoy1818@hotmail.com

I am a writer, poet, translator and essayist. The goal of my creative writing and poetry residencies is to engender a feeling of confidence in students about their own abilities as writers. I am happy to facilitate workshops for students of all ages -- from second graders to adult learners, both in and out of school settings. My residencies are designed to show fledgling creative writers and poets -- through a series of writing exercises, interpretations of work, and the creation of an anthology -- that they can produce worthwhile, meaningful writing, while enjoying and having fun in the process. My residencies fully support the school curriculum and the Fine Arts Academic Content Standards, introducing students to a new art form and providing an in-depth exploration of it. I always share samples of my own writing with students, so that they can better appreciate the processes and life of a working writer. In a recent fifth grade fiction workshop, students wrote, edited and rewrote their own original stories, publishing them in an illustrated anthology. They came to understand and confidently use terms of the writing trade, such as denouement, suspension of disbelief, foreshadowing and voice. In a second grade poetry writing workshop, young students interpreted the poetry of established writers, wrote group poems, and created a fully-illustrated anthology of original work.

My artistic endeavors range from writing and publishing fiction, poetry and essays, to translating a variety of written works from Spanish to English. I love to share my joy of writing via workshops and readings. In my own work, I continue to marvel at the power of language, and I respect all the different forms of writing that I practice, as each one affords me with more lessons about language as well as insights into the human condition.

I have been a writer since the age of seven, and have written professionally for 25 years. I received a B.A. from Vassar College, where my thesis was a collection of my own fiction and poetry. I continued to study writing in the M.F.A. programs at Vermont College and The Ohio State University, as well as in writer's workshops in New York City. I worked in the publishing industry for five years, as Promotion Manager for Crown Publishers, and have led private writing workshops in both New York and Mexico City. My work has been published in more than fifty publications. I have served as an Artist in the schools for the Greater Columbus Arts Council since 1992 and the Ohio Arts Council since 1997.