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 National Book Critics Circle Award–winning author delivers a collection of essays that serve as the perfect “antidote to mansplaining” (The Stranger). In her comic, scathing essay “Men Explain Things to Me,” Rebecca Solnit took on what often goes wrong in conversations between men and women. She wrote about men who wrongly assume they know things and wrongly assume women don’t, about why this arises, and how this aspect of the gender wars works, airing some of her own hilariously awful encounters. She ends on a serious note— because the ultimate problem is the silencing of women who have something to say, including those saying things like, “He’s trying to kill me!” This book features that now-classic essay with six perfect complements, including an examination of the great feminist writer Virginia Woolf’s embrace of mystery, of not knowing, of doubt and ambiguity, a highly original inquiry into marriage equality, and a terrifying survey of the scope of contemporary violence against women. “In this series of personal but unsentimental essays, Solnit gives succinct shorthand to a familiar female experience that before had gone unarticulated, perhaps even unrecognized.” —The New York Times “Essential feminist reading.” —The New Republic “This slim book hums with power and wit.” —Boston Globe “Solnit tackles big themes of gender and power in these accessible essays. Honest and full of wit, this is an integral read that furthers the conversation on feminism and contemporary society.” —San Francisco Chronicle “Essential.” —Marketplace “Feminist, frequently funny, unflinchingly honest and often scathing in its conclusions.” —Salon