COMPAS Announces Publication of 40th Anthology of Student Writing

Anthology features writing from more than 100 students from across Minnesota

Saint Paul, MN (November 20, 2019) – Today, COMPAS announces the release of its 40th Anthology of Student Writing, The World in Our Palms. The 105 featured poems, stories, songs, creative non-fiction and spoken word pieces were selected from thousands of writings created by students in grades Kindergarten to 12 who worked with COMPAS literary teaching artists during the 2018-2019 school year.

The World in Our Palms is the latest edition in this long-running series.

Writer Saymoukda Vongsay, a teaching artist in COMPAS’ Creative Classroom program and editor of last year’s Anthology, describes the students’ writing as, “vast in terms of imagination, voice, perspective, conviction, vulnerability, truth, content, and humor.”

The newly published authors span Minnesota’s geography from Roseau to Rochester and everywhere in between. Their writing touches on serious topics they care about deeply to those meant to tickle the reader’s funny bone.

First published in 1978, the 40 Anthologies showcase writings from students across Minnesota.

“It’s fascinating to look back over the decades and see how Minnesota students’ interests and voices stay the same and how they change,” said Dawne Brown White, COMPAS Executive Director. “Across generations, students write eloquently about family, nature, fears, and joys. Many poems and stories touch on themes of immigration even as the homelands students write of have changed over time. And of course no one wrote about social media in the early years.”

On Saturday, November 23, 2019, COMPAS will host a public celebration and reading of The World in Our Palms. The event will be held at the Minnesota History Center in Saint Paul. Students will read their works beginning at 1:00. This year’s Anthology editor, Desdamona, will present the annual Lillian Wright Awards for Creative Writing. Desdamona is a teaching artist in COMPAS’ Creative Classroom program and an award-winning spoken word artist. The awards are presented to students in various age categories who provided the best work. This event is free and open to the public.

The COMPAS Creative Classroom program is one of the largest and longest-running creative education programs in the country. The work included in the 40th Anthology of Student Writing represents the inspired collaboration between seventeen COMPAS literary Teaching Artists, hundreds of classroom teachers and thousands of students across Minnesota.

“COMPAS teaching writers share their craft and form in-depth relationships with students and teachers across Minnesota,” said Creative Classroom Director Julie Strand. “This collection is a powerful sample of our state’s young voices as they build their skills, increase their confidence, and come of age in this world.”

COMPAS is a nationally-recognized provider of arts education programs and has been engaging individuals and communities in creative experiences since 1974. “COMPAS delivers creative experiences that unleash the potential within all of us – regardless of age, location, or ability,” said Executive Director Dawne Brown White. “This anthology showcases Minnesota’s emerging young voices. They are bold, thoughtful, talented, fearless, and writing across the whole spectrum of experience.”

The World in Our Palms digital edition will be available on the COMPAS website after the publication celebration. To purchase a printed edition, call COMPAS at (612) 292-3249 or send an email to emma@compas.org.

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About COMPAS
COMPAS delivers creative experiences that unleash the potential within all of us. We do this by placing professional COMPAS Teaching Artists at sites across Minnesota, reaching people from all walks of life right where they live, work, learn, and play. COMPAS Teaching Artists hail from more than 40 different cultural backgrounds and engage people in a wide variety of artistic experience, including literary, musical, visual and performing art genres. For more information about COMPAS, please visit COMPAS.org.

Press contact:
Joan Linck
joan@compas.org | 651-292-3203