Appalachian Writing Project

Serving Teachers, Students, and the Communities of Southwest Virginia Since 2001

Founding Director: Amy Clark, Ph.D. Professor of Communication Studies and Director, Center for Appalachian Studies 

Co-Director: Hope Cloud Lyons, M.A.  Professional Development Coordinator and Secondary Educator, Eastside High School 

For the most up-to-date information and news, check our Facebook or Teacher's Studio pages.

Who We Are:

• An organization of educators from all levels in all subject areas and majors centrally located at UVA’s College at Wise in the Center for Appalachian Studies
• We are members of the National Writing Project, the nation’s largest network of teacher-leaders
• Our site is one of eight sites in the state of Virginia
• Our members are called “Teacher Consultants”(TCs) and include teachers, professors, administrators, librarians, and guidance counselors 

What We Do: 

• Professional Development: Our Teacher Consultants are trained to provide professional development workshops in our intensive summer institutes on best practices in teaching writing and literacy-related pedagogies to educators at all levels and in all disciplines across Southwest Virginia.
• Research: We write grants and conduct research studies in our public schools, so we can offer educators the most up-to-date research based tools for teaching.
• Young Writers: We offer opportunities and scholarships for student writing camps through our Young Writer’s Program.
• Community Outreach: We coordinate readings and writing workshops with published authors for everyone to enjoy and collaborate with other organizations to bring literacy programming to our communities.