One of the exciting things to come out of the recent Stonecoast alumni reunion was a new project called Stonecoast Writing for Social Change. Three of us – Jeff Kass, Amy Alvarez and Elli Meeropol – met to begin the work. Like many of you, we are compelled by injustices of our world to use writing as a tool for social justice, and that’s what this project is about.

The goal of the Writing for Social Change Project is to create opportunities for the Stonecoast community to use our passion for and skills in writing and reading to create social change locally and globally by:

• Collecting the stories of Stonecoast alumni, faculty and students involved in projects that use writing to empower targeted or vulnerable members of our communities, or to promote social change in other ways. Sharing these stories with the Stonecoast community along with resources, and encouraging other alumni, faculty and students to become involved with writing-related social change activism,
• Deepening the commitment to writing for social change (race, class, gender, environment) in the MFA curriculum by offering ongoing residency seminars, workshops, and readings, facilitating third semester projects and internships for social change, and preparing writers for careers with underserved communities.

If you’d like to join our working group on the project, please email Elli at ellenmeeropol@verizon.net before August 5, 2012.