Welcome to the WritersCorps online store. All items are produced by our students and teachers. Proceeds support our free student programming. All prices include shipping and handling. Payments are handled through PayPal, which accepts credit cards.
For more information or help during the checkout process, call us at 415-252-2546. Happy shopping, and happy reading! To find out how else you can help WritersCorps, visit here.
Tales From Downtown High School - Ghost Stories - $14
Edited by Carrie Leilam Love
Written by WritersCorps students at Downtown High School
2012
WritersCorps students from Downtown High School share the creepy and spooky sides of their imaginations in “Tales From Downtown High School.” In these pages you’ll find a talking skeleton, a creature living behind the walls of a high school cafeteria, a girl with a blood-lust for rodents, love that survives death, and more to scare you in a good way. The stories in this comic book were illustrated by local artist Ara Jo.
Be Your Own Hero - Comic Book - $14
Edited by Carrie Leilam Love
Written by WritersCorps students at Downtown High School
2012
“Be Your Own Hero” is a comic book about unusual superheroes trying to make the best out of their teenaged lives. In these stories laziness and helpfulness can be superpowers. The stories in this comic book were illustrated by local artist Bryon T. Edwards.
Mission Soul Cookbooks - $14
Edited by Roseli Ilano
Written by WritersCorps students at Mission High School
2012
Take a world tour of recipes and poems from students at Mission High School. Food can bring people together and for these students, it brings back memories of their home countries in scents, flavors and words.
Love Poems to the City - Original Bus Shelter Posters - $75 each or $175 for Set of 3
“Love Poems to the City” is a series of posters featuring writing by our students in celebration of San Francisco. Each poster features a different poem excerpt about San Francisco. The posters were displayed at bus shelters on Market Street from November 2011 to June 2012. Very limited quantities of the original posters from the Market Street bus shelters are now available. Each poster is 47.25″ wide x 68″ tall.
Own a piece of San Francisco youth spirit. (Click on the images above to view a larger size.) Please note: the condition of the posters vary and and we have extremely limited quantities.
Love Poems to the City - Poster Set - $27 (limited quantities!)
2012, Set of 3 posters
Don’t have room for the original bus shelter posters? We have posters for you, too. Limited quantities of 11×17 replicas of these posters are now available. Each poster features a different poem excerpt about San Francisco. (Click on the images above to view a larger size.)
Greetings From San Francisco - Card Set - $14
2011, Set of 3 cards
Share your love of San Francisco with friends far and wide with this limited-edition card set based on the poster series. Each 5×7 card features a different poem excerpt.
Wishes Postcard Set - $10/$16
2011, Set of 12 or 24 cards
WritersCorps students in an after school program at a San Francisco elementary school wish good things for the world. Each postcard features one 6-year-old student and his or her wish for the world. Use these postcards to send good wishes to a friend!
Sold in sets of 12 or 24, each set contains no duplicates. Postcards are 4×6 inches and printed on recycled matte paper.
City of Stairways: A Poet’s Field Guide to San Francisco - $20Edited by Milta Ortiz, Written by the WritersCorps Apprentices
2010, Softcover, 120 pgs, full color, WritersCorps Books
Part travel guide and part literary anthology, this book is packed with original poetry, photography, artwork, maps, and tips on the places to see and be seen in San Francisco. “City of Stairways” offers an intimate look at some of the most memorable sites and neighborhoods in San Francisco, and gives residents and visitors alike a unique, vibrant perspective on being a youth in an urban environment.
In keeping with the dimensions of the city, the book is 7 by 7 inches. It also includes anecdotes about San Francisco by local luminaries such as writers Daniel Handler and Lorna Dee Cervantes, San Francisco Giants pitcher Jonathan Sanchez, performer Paul Flores, and Craigslist founder Craig Newmark. Your purchase will include a limited-edition postcard set featuring images and excerpts from City of Stairways, while supplies last.
Preview an excerpt from “City of Stairways”
Write/Walk - Set of 11 Posters - $45 (limited quantities!)
Edited by Carrie Leilam Love
Written by WritersCorps students at Mission High School
2010
This beautiful poster set features 11 original poems from our Write/Walk walking tour and poster project. Printed on matte poster stock, each poster measures 11 by 17 inches and features poems by WritersCorps students at Mission High School. Illustrated with striking silhouettes against vibrant colors, these posters stand out wherever they are placed. Your purchase includes a guidebook which features reproductions of the posters as well as additional writing from Mission High School students.
To see all 11 posters in larger sizes, click on this link.
Days I Moved Through Ordinary Sounds: The Teachers of WritersCorps in Poetry and Prose - $22 $12 SALEEdited by Chad Sweeney, Foreword by Martin Espada
2009, Softcover, 240 pgs, City Lights
“Days I Moved Through Ordinary Sounds” documents 15 years of an amazingly successful experiment: asking accomplished writers to teach creative writing workshops in juvenile detention facilities, homeless shelters, inner-city schools and centers for newly arrived immigrants. Here is a collection of memoir, poetry and prose from many of the talented people who formed the ranks of the national WritersCorps. Readers can follow these teaching artists on their journey into the halls and streets of America’s diverse neighborhoods, as they enrich the lives and creativity of their students — and find their own voices changed in the process.
Jump Write In! - $25
Creative Writing Exercises for Diverse Communities, Grades 6-12
Edited by Judith Tannenbaum & Valerie Chow Bush
2005, Softcover, 176 pgs, Jossey-Bass
At last, a collection of tested lesson plans created by WritersCorps teachers. “Jump Write In!” represents more than 10 years of creative writing exercises with great model poems by WritersCorps youth.”This book provides powerful material for every teacher’s toolbox,” says Herb Kohl, author, teacher and director of the Institute for Social Justice and Education.
See the Table of Contents
Read a sample chapter: Icebreakers and Opening Games
Tell the World - Hard Cover - $20
Foreword by Sherman Alexie
2008, Hardcover, 144 pgs, HarperTeen
“Tell the World” is a collection of writing by WritersCorps students across the country. With a range of voices and diverse perspectives, “Tell the World” gives an honest glimpse into the lives of young people today. With a foreword by award-winning author Sherman Alexie, two essays by WritersCorps teachers, and writing prompts, this book shows how poetry can allow us to tell the world who we are, where we’re from, what we love, and why we hope.
Read some poems from “Tell the World.”
Tell the World - Signed Hard Cover - $30Foreword by Sherman Alexie
2008, Hardcover, 144 pgs, HarperTeen
We have a limited number of hard cover copies of “Tell the World” that have been signed by Sherman Alexie. Order now before they’re all gone!
Solid Ground - $12 SALE
Edited by Judith Tannenbaum, Foreword by ZZPacker
2006, Softcover, 216 pgs, Aunt Lute Books
“Solid Ground” is a collection of more than 130 poems by WritersCorps youth, in commemoration of the centennial of the 1906 Great Earthquake of San Francisco. Fast forward 100 years from that tumultuous quake, and listen to the voices of today’s young writers as they speak of dislocation and upheaval in these unstable times. Their writing is proof of poetry’s power to help all of us find solid ground.
Read some poems from “Solid Ground.”
City of One: Young Writers Speak to the World - $14Edited by Colette DeDonato, Foreword by Isabel Allende
2004, Softcover, 240 pgs, Aunt Lute Books
In this award-winning collection of poems about peace, young people bring their freshness to an old yet urgent subject. Because the poets are young, because they are newly discovering their own voices, their poems fly up like kites, free of cliches. These brave poems help us find our way to our own imaginings of peace.
Where Were You - $13 $7 SALE
Edited by Katharine Gin
2005, Softcover, 64 pgs, WritersCorps Books
An anthology of poetry and images by WritersCorps students from 2004 to 2005, representing the best work of the school year. WritersCorps invited photographer and writer Katharine Gin to work individually with hundreds of youth in the course of four months, and this book showcases their photographs as well as their writing.
Jump - $15 (limited quantities!)Edited by Valerie Chow Bush, Introduction by Jewelle Gomez, Photographs by Ed Kashi
2001, Softcover, 192 pgs, WritersCorps Books
An anthology of poetry and prose by students who participated in WritersCorps from 2000 to 2001, this book is a celebration of youth. The poems in this book burst with energy, whatever the form or topic. Beautiful black and white portraits of the students taken by Ed Kashi accompany the poems.
Smart Mouth - $15 (limited quantities!)
Introduction by Justin Chin, Cover by Joe Sorren, Comics by Gabrielle Gamboa, Anson Jew, Derek Kirk Kim, Nina Paley & Spain Rodriguez
2000, Softcover, 156 pgs, WritersCorps Books;
“I cannot imagine what it’s like to be a young person in America these days,” writes Justin Chin. “There is so much chaos and strife, so much to make sense of and to articulate. Yet the writers in “Smart Mouth” speak defiantly, loudly, and smartly in the face of the dominant babble. They are fearless enough to articulate this simple but indomitable fact: This is my life and it matters because I matter.”
What It Took for Me to Get Here - $15
Introduction by Dorothy Allison, Cover by Margaret Kilgallen, Photographs by Rick Rocamora
1999, Softcover, 144 pgs, WritersCorps Books
The writings in “What It Took for Me to Get Here” are beginnings, road maps to the future.” With an eye-catching cover by Margaret Kilgallen, and photographs by Rick Rocamora, this anthology by WritersCorps students takes us on a journey through the neighborhoods of San Francisco and the lives on young people.
Same Difference: Young Writers on Race - $15 (limited quantities!)
Introduction by Victor Martinez, Cover by Rigo
1998, Softcover, 153 pgs, WritersCorps Books
An affirmation of diversity, a celebration of the mix and multitude of ethnicities, cultures, colors, flavors and lifestyles of the San Francisco Bay Area, this is a collection of writing by gifted young people who strongly define themselves and in doing so, reveal to us who we are.
