WitS Report

When they ask, he GOES!!
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WitS participant, Cliff Chandler with a teacher and her class at Inman Middle School.

My life as an author has taken me to many places in the last year and I am happy to say that I am still traveling with my novel, The Paragons. I have met so many interesting people and been the guest of several book clubs, but nothing has impressed me as much as the event I participated in at Inman Middle School in Atlanta.

The event was Inman Middle School’s 11th Annual Writers Workshop. The school invites professional writers from many fields to participate in the program. I met an architect and several participants from the electronic media, but our focus was on writing.

I participated in four sessions in which the students were from the 7th and 8th grades. What impressed me most was their ability to interpret the writing process. This is without a doubt a result of their talents and the wonderful work of the faculty.

At the beginning we discussed the writing process. It was followed by a question and answer session, after which the students wrote. They were terrific. I found at least four future poets, two reporters, a historian and a designer. My conclusions are based on their contributions in the short period of time which they were given to write.

But more than anything else, I left the school with a sense of hope. In their offerings there were signs of the tragedy on September 11th, but there was also the energy and drive of youth. It was wonderful, so wonderful that I felt I needed to share the experience with the rest of you.

Cliff Chandler
Author of “The Paragons”

Cliff Chandler first connected with Georgia Writers when he became a nominee in the Poetrty category of the Georgia Author of the Year Awards (GAYA). That was in 1995. Not long afterwards Cliff became the first POD leader in Macon, where he served diligently for four years. He was also a regular columnist in GW News/Mag for several years before he withdrew to finish his first novel. “The Paragons” was in the First Novel category of GAYA last year, and there seems to be no stopping him... He’ll be in in the running again in 2002 for his latest novel,“Vengeance is Mine” and number three is on the way. He GOES!

Want to participate in the WitS program? E-mail us at: WitS@georgiawriters.org                                   Home