Saadia Faruqi Works with Cole Writers!

The Week

Author Saadia Faruqi met with ten writers from the Cole Summer Writers Institute and one writer from the Voorheesville Public Library on Wednesday, July 17, highlighting a great week at Cole that was marked with lots of laughs and great writing. Ms. Faruqi joined the group virtually and spent the morning discussing her approach to writing, her path to publication, and the writing life. She then answered questions from the group, and led them in a few writing exercises.

Saadia’s session celebrated the 19th year that writers from around the world have joined the Cole Summer Writers Institute. Like prior years, the week was a fun, engaging opportunity for student writers in middle and high school to join together to be creative and hone their craft. Writers worked for the first two days on developing story ideas, creating characters, and focusing on description, diction, and setting, before meeting with Faruqi. On Friday, the group participated in a workshop reading, learned about ways to publish their work, and munched on pizza! The writers interacted with each other by giving and receiving feedback on their pieces.