A coffee shop is the best place to write. At least according to some writers. It was certainly the best meetup spot for a group of student writers from Chandler over the summer.
Started by English teacher Pam Anderson, the Author’s Cafe met four times this summer at Manvel Avenue Coffee Company to share their writing, discuss books, and to share conversation and stories.
Anderson said she was inspired to start the club the previous summer after she had a very focused class.
“They were just that great and they were so much fun. And I just got this idea in the springtime. I thought that it would be really neat if I could keep them writing. So, I asked them, ‘You guys, would you like to do something like a writers workshop over the summer,” she said.
This year, she opened it up to more students, specifically those going into the eighth, ninth and 10th grades. Last year, Anderson gave the students prompts that they would use to write their pieces for meetings. But this summer, she allowed them to write whatever they want.
Freshman Karyss Campbell said she joined the club because she genuinely enjoyed writing and getting to see her friends.
“I think that feelings are so hard to express, but in poetry, you say stuff without actually saying it. You kind of manipulate your works to portray how you feel.
“I think that’s very freeing and the forms of expression are often looked over,” she said. “It makes my soul happy.”
Eighth grader Hartley Burchardt, who also took part in the club, said she likes telling stories and Burchadt added that it’s an important way to connect.
“It’s just, to connect with yourself - continue connecting with yourself - and to just really write about how you feel so you don’t feel rusted over,” she said.
Sophomore Rhett Hailey took part in last summer’s program as well as this year. He started it to keep up with writing and said he learned a lot.
“This summer, the thing that I feel like I learned the most was sort of my style in writing. I felt like I matured a lot in how I write and identified. You know, some people prefer to write narrative or fantasy and some people prefer poetic stuff, and I was sort of struggling with identifying what was my writing style,” he said.
Hailey added that it was a good opportunity to be exposed to different people’s writing styles and test out his own. He also said he was grateful to Mrs. Anderson for starting the club and encouraging students to push themselves.
“Miss Anderson… helped me to really build up that confidence and build that maturity in my writing and that was definitely, I definitely attributed a lot of that to her and also to just the opportunity she’s given,” he said.