Area students will present their original creative writing at the launch of the 2010-11 anthology of Seattle Arts & Lectures’ Writers in the Schools program on Sunday, September 25, 2011 at 5:00 at Benaroya’s Recital Hall.

The anthology, titled Our Beautiful Robotic Hearts, represents the “best of the best” from the 27 sites in our 2010-11 WITS program, which included public elementary, middle and high schools in Seattle, Kent, Shoreline, Port Townsend, on the Lummi Nation Reservation, and at Seattle Children’s Hospital. The 137 students featured in the anthology represent just a fraction of the stunning and insightful creative writing produced this past year by the 4,400 K-12 students WITS served.

“Our beautiful robotic hearts,” writes 11th grader Holly Garland from Port Townsend High School in the title poem, “beat in harmony.” Much like a class of students, the community of a school, or the ecosystem of our Puget Sound region, the poems, stories, memoirs, and comics within the pages of this collection stay true to their extraordinary selves even as they pulse in unison. Each student published in the collection will receive a complimentary copy of the anthology at the launch, and each school in the program receives a classroom set of 30 copies. After learning of her son’s impending publication, one mother wrote, “my son loved working with Ann at Sanislo Elementary, and developed a love of poetry that I'm certain will last his lifetime. Thank you, too, for undertaking the huge task of publishing the anthology. My son is so pleased to have his poems included.”

The anthology launch reading and celebration will begin at 5 p.m. at the Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall in Benaroya Hall, on Sunday, September 25. Fifty students whose work is published in the anthology will read their writing, and afterwards, students will sign copies of the anthology and celebrate with refreshments donated by Cupcake Royale. The event is free and open to the public.