Below you will find a downloadable version of our Young Writers Program Press Kit, teacher testimonials, newspaper and magazine articles about our programs, and NaNoWriMo statistics. We created this page to help parents and educators make an informed decision about facilitating National Novel Writing Month, and to help press representatives learn more about who we are and what we do.
Information for Educators, School Administrators, and Parents
Download this packet of information to find out more about our program. This document includes a two-page informative letter about our program, FAQs for educators, and our favorite testimonials and articles about the YWP. You can print out copies to pass along to your school administration or to other educators who you think might be interested in our program. You can also send copies home with your students along with this letter so parents know what their kids will be up to this fall.
For the Press
Download this year's press release here. To read articles previously written about the Young Writers Program, scroll down to the "Press Clippings" section below. To find out more specific stats about NaNoWriMo keep on scrolling to the "Stats" section. For a detailed history of NaNoWriMo and the Office of Letters and Light, check out the History page on the main site. If you'd like to interview NaNoWriMo Young Writers Progam Director Tavia Stewart or any member of the staff, please drop us a line!
Teacher Testimonials
“What We Learned in Battle Creek Michigan” (Middle School)
By Luke Perry
Battle Creek, MI (2007)
"A Whole Novel?!" (High School)
By Sarah Richards
Westminster, CO (2007)
Teacher Testimonial (Seventh Grade)
By Meredith Cortes (2005)
Parent Testimonial
By Mary Roper (2005)
Why NaNoWriMo is a Great Teaching Tool
By Jennifer Rae Atkins (2005)
Teacher Testimonial (Eighth Grade)
By Kaarin Greene (2005)
Teaching NaNoWriMo
By Daniel Moulthrop (2003)
Press Clippings
2009 Stories
Bucks County Courier-Times
"I want them to think of themselves as authors. If they do that, their whole life changes. They take ownership of their work and gain confidence in all kinds of areas." 10/09
Parents Express
"NaNoWriMo and the YWP provides an excellent outlet for kids to write whatever story they want to write, on their own terms without having to worry about grammar or making sense - it truly is all about meeting the word count." 10/09
School Library Journal
"Students stay focused on helping one another persevere, and the contest becomes a social experience. 'We had a little community,' says Newman. 'When one person finished, it made us all want to finish, too.'" 9/09
Edutopia
"Initially, 12 kids were going to participate. Then the word spread, other teachers liked the concept, the principal gave permission to set aside the regular curriculum temporarily, and 115 kids wrote novels." 2/09
2008 Stories
The Holland Sentinel
"Devon Davis, 10, of Holland Township, is in his second year with the Young Writers Program in which children set their own word goal. Devon aimed to write 6,500 words about dogs, but ended up writing 7,000 words. The writing helps him in school, including the MEAP test. 'Now I’m really good at it,' said Devon." 12/08
Open Pages
"NaNoWriMo (the "wri" rhymes with "rye") stands for National Novel Writing Month. And it's easily one of the most fun, exciting exposures to writing a child can have." 12/08
Battle Creek Enquirer
"Brandon Bloomfield has an easy cure for writer's block: warlocks." 12/08
Marietta Times
"NaNoWriMo. It's one silly little word with a lot of other words behind it - 50,000 words, to be exact." 11/08
The Journal Star
"Students, web designers, dentists and people all over central Illinois are gearing up for the National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, challenge, which starts Nov. 1." 10/08
National Writing Project
"Lynn Jacobs, a teacher–consultant with the Northern California Writing Project, leapt into National Novel Writing Month in 2007 to fulfill her lifelong dream of writing a novel. The experience not only informed her writing process, but her teaching as well." 8/08
2007 Stories
Antelope Valley Press
"Here's a novel idea. Give portable keyboards to 31 fourth-graders and give them
30 days to write a 6,000-word novel and see what happens." 11/07
The Jakarta Post
"With a kamikaze writing approach that forces writers to lower their expectations, take risks and write on the fly, 16 Indonesian children succeeded in writing "novels" with a combined total of 118,110 words in a month-long writing competition in November." 11/07
Chicago Public Radio
F. Scott Fitzgerald spent eight years writing Tender Is the Night. Finnegan's Wake took James Joyce seventeen years to complete. But this November, some Chicagoans are joining a global community of writers trying to finish novels in just 30 days as part of National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. Audio clip & transcript 11/07
2006 Stories
Writing for Teens Magazine
“Sometimes the thing you want to do least is write, and sometimes the thing you want to do most is write. Either way, NaNoWriMo is a race to the finish, so you have to write.” 05/06
Home Education Magazine
“As a homeschool mom with dreams of writing, but a reality of writing grocery lists, lesson plans, and notification letters to the school superintendent, I was intrigued when I heard about National Novel Writing Month.” 05/06
The Washington Post
"If this growth rate is constant and participation is cumulative, then every American will be writing a novel in November 2027. We'll be a country made entirely of boozing, tortured authors." 11/06
Boston Globe
"Amiya Seligman, also 10, was about halfway through her 8,000-word story about a land of magical creatures, a baby who's reincarnated every 5,000 years, and an epic battle between good and evil." 11/06
National Public Radio
"To help you along, we've asked fiction writers from all genres for the essence of noveling: how they write, how they overcome writer's block and their best written sentence. Each weekday this month, we'll publish another novelist’s thoughts. Check back for novelists as varied as Neal Pollack, Rita Mae Brown and Joyce Carol Oates." 11/06
The Utne Reader
"Forget the archetypal image of the brooding writer buried in a heap of crumpled paper. There will be no time for perfectionism or procrastination in November as a projected 75,000 would-be novelists attempt to pound out 50,000 words in 30 days." 11/06
Are we missing something? Send the link to ywp@nanowrimo.org with "Press Clipping" in the subject of the e-mail.
Read more on the NaNoWriMo main site.
Statistics
Founded by: Freelance writer Chris Baty and 20 other overcaffeinated yahoos in 1999.
Now run by: The Office of Letters and Light, an august 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Oakland.
How NaNoWriMo got from there to here: It's a funny story, actually.
Annual participant/winner totals for our main program:
1999: 21 participants and six winners
2000: 140 participants and 29 winners
2001: 5000 participants and more than 700 winners
2002: 13,500 participants and around 2100 winners
2003: 25,500 participants and about 3500 winners
2004: 42,000 participants and just shy of 6000 winners
2005: 59,000 participants and 9769 winners
2006: 79,813 participants and 12,948 winners
2007: 101,510 participants and 15,333 winners
2008: 119,301participants and 21,683 winners
Annual classroom/participant totals for our Young Writers Program (note that many students participate offline and/or using pen and paper so these numbers are an approximation):
2004: 12 classrooms and 747 young writers
2005: 29 classrooms and 1,537 young writers
2006: 256 classrooms and 8,887 young writers
2007: 366 classrooms and 13,907 young writers
2008: 621 classrooms and 22,000 young writers
Number of official NaNoWriMo adult chapters around the world: Over 500
Number of NaNoWriMo manuscripts that have been sold to big-time publishing houses: 18 and counting
Number of words officially logged by participants during the 2004 event: 428,164,975
Number of words officially logged by participants during the 2005 event: 714,227,354
Number of words officially logged by participants during the 2006 event: 982,564,70
Number of words officially logged by participants during the 2007 event: 1,187,931,929
Number of words officially logged by participants during the 2008 event: 1,643,343,993
Contacts
You can contact local participants in your area to come speak at your school or library by checking out our Contact Page to see if your area has a Municipal Liaison. These goodly folks are the volunteer chapter heads for the area, and they would love to come help you talk your kids into the seemingly crazy novel-writing adventure!
If you have more questions about our program please contact us!
