The "Do the Write Thing" program challenges students to reduce violence and its impact on their lives. All across America, students are rising to the challenge of doing something to end youth violence. The Do the Write Thing Challenge gives middle school students an opportunity to examine the impact of youth violence on their lives. Through classroom discussions and writings, students communicate what they think should be done to reduce youth violence. In addition, they make personal commitments to do something about this problem. By emphasizing personal responsibility, the DtWT Challenge also educates adults about the causes of youth violence. Local community groups promote the program at the grassroots level so that teachers, school administrators, parents, coaches, and young people can bring youth violence into the open, where it can be examined and talked about in a constructive way. When students accept the Challenge, they become messengers for their own thoughts and ideas, which are ultimately more powerful than violence. We say to students, "Accept the Do the Write Thing Challenge. Who knows where it will lead?" In this case of the students highlighted within these pages, their commitment has lead to publication of their moving essays, poems, short stories, and plays. We present to you the writings of the 2015 Do the Write Thing's National Ambassadors, who hail from all across America: from Miami to Los Angeles; Houston to Boston; Utah, Montana, and New York; from Chicago to Atlanta; and many cities and communities in between.

The “Do the Write Thing” program challenges students to reduce violence and its impact on their lives.All across America, students are rising to the challenge of doing something to end youth violence. The Do the Write Thing Challenge gives middle school students an opportunity to examine the impact of youth violence on their lives. Through classroom discussions and writings, students communicate what they think should be done to reduce youth violence. In addition, they make personal commitments to do something about this problem.By emphasizing personal responsibility, the DtWT program also educates adults about the causes of youth violence. Local community groups promote the program at the grassroots level so that teachers, school administrators, parents, coaches, and young people can bring youth violence into the open, where it can be examined and talked about in a constructive way. When students accept the Challenge, they become messengers for their own thoughts and ideas, which are ultimately more powerful than violence. We say to students, “Accept the Do the Write Thing Challenge. Who knows where it will lead?”In this case of the students highlighted within these pages, their commitment has lead to publication of their moving essays, poems, short stories, and plays. We present to you the writings of Do the Write Thing's National Ambassadors, who hail from all across America: from our very first program site of Washington, DC; to the gulf coast in New Orleans; to Los Angeles, Colorado, and Montana; from Chicago to New York; and many cities and communities in between.

The "Do the Write Thing" program challenges students to reduce violence and its impact on their lives.All across America, students are rising to the challenge of doing something to end youth violence. The Do the Write Thing Challenge gives middle school students an opportunity to examine the impact of youth violence on their lives. Through classroom discussions and writings, students communicate what they think should be done to reduce youth violence. In addition, they make personal commitments to do something about this problem.

The author of Write to Restore shows survivors of sexual abuse how to heal through journaling and personal writing. Writing Ourselves Whole is a collection of essays and creative writing encouragements for sexual trauma survivors who want to risk writing a different story. Each short chapter offers encouragement, experience, and exercises. When you can find language for the stories that are locked inside, you can change your life. Talk therapy can only go so far for the millions of Americans struggling in the aftermath of sexual abuse and sexual assault. Sexual assault survivors can heal themselves. Sexual trauma survivor communities (and their allies) have the capacity to hold and hear one another's stories—we do not have to relegate ourselves solely to the individual isolation of the therapist's office. What you’ll learn inside Writing Ourselves Whole: How to reconnect with your creative instinct through freewriting How freewriting can help you reclaim the parts of yourself and your history How “restorying” the old myths about sexual trauma survivors can set you free If you have read books such as Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones, or Louise DeSalvo’s Writing as a Way of Healing, you will want to read Writing Ourselves Whole. Praise for Writing Ourselves Whole “A raw, powerful, necessary, wise and practiced guidebook to the revolutionary practice of finding the words, language and voice to transform suffering.” —Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues “Rich, intelligent, passionate, intimate, honest and encouraging . . . This book is a treasure trove!” —Ellen Bass, author of The Courage to Heal

"This book contains a compilation of writings by middle-school students who were selected as the top 10 finalists of the 2023 Do the Write Thing program. This book will be shared across the community in recognition of all of the students who accepted the challenge to share their voices and help create a safer, more peaceful society"--Page 3.

The spirit of our times can appear to be one of joyless urgency. As a culture we have become less interested in the exploration of the glorious mind, and more interested in creating and mastering technologies that will yield material well-being. But while cultural pessimism is always fashionable, there is still much to give us hope. In The Givenness of Things, the incomparable Marilynne Robinson delivers an impassioned critique of our contemporary society while arguing that reverence must be given to who we are and what we are: creatures of singular interest and value, despite our errors and depredations. Robinson has plumbed the depths of the human spirit in her novels, including the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning Lila and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Gilead, and in her new essay collection she trains her incisive mind on our modern predicament and the mysteries of faith. These seventeen essays examine the ideas that have inspired and provoked one of our finest writers throughout her life. Whether she is investigating how the work of the great thinkers of the past, Calvin, Locke, Bonhoeffer--and Shakespeare--can infuse our lives, or calling attention to the rise of the self-declared elite in American religious and political life, Robinson's peerless prose and boundless humanity are on display. Exquisite and bold, The Givenness of Things is a necessary call for us to find wisdom and guidance in our cultural heritage, and to offer grace to one another.