Students meet with professional writers for ten classes each fall. Classes meet from 4 p.m. until 6:15 p.m. on Wednesday afternoons at Birmingham-Southern College, starting in October and concluding in December.

Students who are interested may participate in an additional month of virtual class geared towards entering their work in state and national writing contests.

There is no charge for the program. There are no grades. Instead there’s plenty of individual attention, a great deal of feedback, and a focus on each student’s particular talents.

Each Wordsmiths class is divided into vocabulary, lecture, group exercises, and short writing projects. Students experiment with different types of writing, from poems to fantasy to historical fiction to personal essay. At the end of the year, all students contribute to a class magazine.