The NWS Literary Journals, Northwords and The Bluff, are culminations of work completed each school year in our after-school creative writing classes for students in third through twelfth grades.

Students are guided by instructors toward a final project, which is workshopped, refined, and published in one of the two journals separated by age range. 

Students then participate in a public reading at the end of each school year, giving them the opportunity to express their unique voices and experience the full lifecycle of delivering published work to their audience.

NWS hires teaching artists–professional writers who have dual careers as educators–to instruct these classes outside of the regular school day. These out-of-school learning opportunities are free for every child, always, and develop key critical thinking skills, resilience, and confidence. 

Northwords is an annual publication of works from students in elementary through middle school, and The Bluff is a publication of works in middle through high school. NWS makes the journals available for purchase at our annual literary journal launch party, in person at our offices, and online via Amazon.