Free Teen Writers Workshop offered

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Stressed about writing college essays?  At a free Teen Writers Workshop on Saturday, August 28 entitled, How to Write Winning Essays for College and Scholarships, you’ll get the inside scoop on writing eye-catching essays from one of the most popular professors at the University of Florida, Dr. Kevin McCarthy, professor emeritus of English and Florida Studies.

The workshop, which is open to teens and home-schooled students in Grades 9 to 12, will be held from 9 a.m. to noon in the Lagoon Room of the Environmental Learning Center, 255 Live Oak Drive in Vero Beach.  The program is funded by a generous grant from Suzanne Bertman and sponsored by the Laura Riding Jackson Foundation, College Application Consultants, and the Charlotte Terry Real Estate Group of Alex MacWilliam.

Registration is required and seating is limited.  To register for the August 28 workshop, please call Pam Proctor at (772) 231-2221. Visit www.teenwritersworkshop.com for more information.

Over the years, Dr. McCarthy has been a fixture at the Teen Writers Workshop, a nationally recognized program that offers high school students a series of half-day seminars with professional poets, novelists, journalists, playwrights, and nonfiction book writers.  Since its founding in July, 2000 under the direction of Charlotte Terry and Pam Proctor, the program has conducted more than two dozen workshops reaching more than 1400 high school students in six counties. Along with this year’s grant from Suzanne Bertman, past support has included grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the State of Florida’s Division of Cultural Affairs, and the Cultural Council of Indian River County.

Dr. McCarthy, a prolific author and teacher, has circled the globe to spread his expertise as a writer and grammarian.  He earned his B.A. in American Literature from LaSalle College in 1963, his M.A. in English from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill in 1966, and his Ph.D. in Linguistics from UNC in 1970. He taught in the Peace Corps in Turkey for two years, in Lebanon as a Fulbright Professor for one year, in Saudi Arabia as a Fulbright Professor for two years, and as a professor of English and Linguistics at the University of Florida for 33 years.

Dr. McCarthy boasts 48 published books, in addition to 43 articles in scholarly and popular journals and more than 300 talks to schools and academic groups. For 18 years, he served as the Executive Director of the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Society. Since retiring from the University of Florida in 2005, he has twice taught writing workshops in Hanoi, Vietnam, and has twice taught English as a foreign language in Spain. He continues to research and write nonfiction books about Florida, with his most recent including histories of Cedar Key, Lake City, and the Suwannee River.

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