Want to improve your writing skills? New Writing South is directing the way!

    Towner Writer Squad (班组）for kids aged 13-17

    Led by comedy and TV writer, Marian Kilpatrick, Towner Writer Squad will meet once a month at the contemporary art museum for 11 months, starting 12 October, 2014.

    The FREE squad sessions will include introductions to a wide range of writing styles, from poetry to play writing and lyrics (抒情诗）to flash fiction, to support the development of young writers.

    Application & Selection

    If you would like to apply to be part of the Towner Writer Squad, please send a sample piece of your writing (about 500 words), responding to the title‘LUNCH,'with your name, age, address and e-mail address to: debo@newwritingsouth.com.

    Once all applications are in, you will be invited to an open selection event on 17 September，4-5pm, at the gallery of Towner. This will be an informal opportunity to meet the Squad Leader, Squad Associate and other young people.

    You will also have a chance to get to know the fantastic gallery space and get a taste of what's to come.

    Deadline for applications: 8 September, 2014

    For further information go to: facebook.com/towner or towner.org.uk or newwritingsouth.com

    Any questions 一 feel free to send your e-mail to Towner Writer Squad Associate: whame@towner.gov.uk

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    Beginner Writing Project for kids aged 10-13

    Due to popular demand, a writing project will be started for eager beginners.

    Start time: 6 September, 2014

    Meet every other Saturday，2-4pm, at the Towner Study Centre.

    Study and write at your own pace 一 you do not have to rush 一 as you have a year to go through the project. Practise under the guidance of some experienced writers and teachers who can help you with basic writing skills. Most importantly, build confidence and have fun while writing!

    No previous experience or special background is required. Many others have been successful this way. If they can do it, why can't you?

    Fee: £179

    For more information go to: newtowner.org.uk or generate.org.uk

    How many times a day do you check your WeChat(微信) or QQ? When you wake up? Before bed? A dozen times in between? The technology which was supposed to make our lives simple has taken up too much time. The young people spends more than seven hours a day using technological devices(设备), with an extra hour just text-messaging friends.

    The advantage of technological devices is connection: we are in touch with more people during more hours of the day than at any other time in history. But is it possible that we're lonelier than ever? That's what professor Sherry Turkle observes（观察）in her new book, Alone Together, which clearly describes our changing relationship with technology.

For Turkle, technology isn't offering us the lives we want to live. “We're texting people at a distance,” says Turkle, “We're using lifeless objects(物体) to convince(使确信) ourselves that even when we're alone, we feel together. And then when we're with each other, we put ourselves in situations where we are alone—always on our mobile devices. I call it a storm of confusion(困惑) about what's important in our human connections. That's my biggest worry.”

    Besides, communicating online is not equal to face-to-face communication. Online, you can ignore(忽视) others' feelings. In a text message, you can avoid eye contact(目光接触). A number of studies have found that this generation of young people is less sympathetic(有同情心的)than ever. “That doesn't lead to disaster,” says Turkle, “but the disadvantages still cannot be ignored.”

    I felt excited, curious and nervous at the same time. I was excited because I would be skipping（跳级）two grades. I was curious because I didn't know how high school students were taught.

    However, I was most nervous at the idea that I would be doing high school homework. I had just walked into the class when the bell rang. This wasn't a good start. But the kid in front of me looked very friendly. Luckily, since it was the first day of school, my teacher talked for about half of the period and we just had the rest of the period to start the class. I didn't know what he was saying at first, but when I saw the problems on the paper, I knew what to do. The next day, the kid said hi and I said hi back. We got into a conversation. It seemed that whenever I was talking to my friend, everyone stopped staring at me. Then the class started. It was easy. But I was still uncomfortable because I couldn't look around without meeting others' eyes, so I just kept my eyes on the whiteboard and on my textbook. However, my friend didn't show up the next day, and the eighth graders just kept on staring at me. I didn't know why.

    The next day everything changed. My friend was back to school. I was praised for my homework. Everyone stared at me less. Some started to be a little friendlier towards me. I felt at home at last here. My teachers also seemed pretty nice.

    My First Marathon

    Three weeks before my first marathon, one of my ankles was injured and this meant not running for two weeks, leaving me only one week to train. Yet, I was determined to go ahead.

    I remember back to my 7th year in school. In my first P.E. class, the teacher required us to run laps and then hit a softball. My performance was really terrible. He later informed me that I was "not athletic".

    The idea that I was "not athletic" stuck with me for years. When I started running in my 30s, I realized running was a battle against myself, not about competition or whether or not I was athletic. It was all about the battle against my own body and mind. A test of wills!

    The night before my marathon, I dreamt that I couldn't even find the finish line. I woke up sweating and nervous, but I was ready to prove something to myself.

Shortly after crossing the start line, my shoe laces became untied. So I stopped to readjust. Not the start I wanted!

    At mile 3, I passed a sign: "GO FOR IT, RUNNERS!"

    By mile 17, I became out of breath and the once injured ankle hurt badly. Despite the pain, I stayed the course walking a bit and then running again.

    By mile 21, I was starving!

    As I approached mile 23, I could see my wife waving a sign. She is my biggest fan. She never minded the alarm clock sounding at 4 a.m. or questioned my expenses on running.

    I was one of the final runners to finish. But I finished! And I got a medal. In fact, I got the same medal as the one that the guy who came in first place had.

Determined to be myself and move forward, free of shame and worldly labels(世俗标签), I can now call myself a "marathon winner".

    When I was a boy, our extended, immigrant family would sometimes gather at my aunt's tiny house over the summer. Relatives from all over the country would come in to visit. The adults would crowd together in the living room to talk and catch up on each other's lives. And the kids would be sent out into the front yard to play when dinner was slowly cooked for all of us.

    Those were the days before video games, smart phones, and motorized toys, so we often ended up playing an old game. I remember one of those moments especially. As I was the youngest and smallest of all the kids there, I got caught first and couldn't catch anyone else. My brothers and cousins were all too fast for me, and I grew more and more frustrated. I finally fell my face first into the dirt. I got up with tears forming in my eyes. Then I saw one of my female cousins Susan standing there. She started to run but was going much slower than before. I easily caught up and seized her. Then she turned to me, smiled, and said, I'm it! You'd better run! Iran off laughing with glee while she turned and started to chase others.

    Now I see how her act of kindness that day saved me from sadness and returned me to joy. It didn't matter that we hardly ever saw each other. I know we are family and she loves me.

    In her wonderful book: Box of Butterflies, Roma Downey writes, "We are all one, we all belong to each other, and we are one big beautiful family." Perhaps it is time that we all started to treat each other that way. Perhaps it is time that we shared our love, our kindness, our laughter, and our joy with everyone without fear. Perhaps it is time to finally and forever bring this world together in one big family reunion.

    Daniella was brushing her daughter's long brown hair when she noticed that bunches of it were coming out. That was January 1, 2017. Within 20 days, seven-year-old Gianessa's hair and eyebrows were completely gone, and her doctor said they would never grow back. Gianessa had become one of the 6.8 million Americans with alopecia, a disease that causes hair loss.

    Alopecia isn't painful, but for kids who suffer from it, the acute mental pain comes from standing out from the crowd. For the most part, the students in Gianessa's first-grade class in Salem, Utah, were understanding. But occasionally, she still felt like an outcast(被排斥者). "I did not want her to not feel beautiful," her mother told Today.

    Then the school announced its "Crazy Hair Day" competition in April, and Daniella and Gianessa decided that rather than hiding Gianessa's baldness(光头), they would celebrate it. Daniella bought sticker jewels and decorated her daughter's head with colorful designs. "They just fit her personality," Daniella told CNN. "She's so full of life."

    On the morning of the competition, Gianessa was nervous. Would her friends think it was funny? She had nothing to fear. Gianessa was a hit—and the winner of the crazy-hair competition. Gianessa is now glad she dared to go bare. "I was sad at first when I lost all my hair," she told People, "but now I love being bald. I can do things to my head that other kids can't. I'm thinking now it might be fun to decorate my head with some shiny butterflies and flowers."