ABOUT

Scioto Literary is an organization born from a formative experience had by its founder, Amanda Page. At age sixteen, Amanda attended a weeks-long generative creative writing workshop with the poet, Diane Kendig. A handful of Scioto County high school students gathered at the Southern Ohio Museum & Cultural Center to write poems about art. They explored the current exhibition, as well as parts of the permanent collection. Diane shared poems from her book, And a Pencil to Write Your Name…, and gave them bookmarks that featured her poem and an artist’s accompanying work, and which was displayed prominently on the sides of buses in New York City. For any aspiring writer and/or artist, access to working artists makes a big difference in the ability to imagine what is possible. Amanda’s time with Diane opened up a whole world that she did not know existed. Had she not learned that life as a working artist was possible, Amanda’s life would not be the fully realized one she’s worked so hard to establish.

That is the spirit of the support that Scioto Literary aims to provide for writers and storytellers in the tri-state area. Through the organization, Amanda provides access and experiences that both deepen the imaginative capacity of individual artists, but also the community made by those artists living and working in this particular corner of Central Appalachia. Besides professional development opportunities, Scioto Literary creates celebrations of both writers and their work as they tend to their words in the foothills and beyond. Writers of all ages and genres are welcome, at any stage of their career.