The Telling Room is a nonprofit writing center in Portland, Maine for children and young adults. We believe that children are natural storytellers and we seek to build confidence, strengthen literacy skills and inspire new creativity in written language forms.
We work with people who may be reluctant to write as well as those who already identify themselves as writers, including: children and young adults who are a part of Maine’s growing community of immigrants and refugees, those with emotional and behavioral challenges, students struggling in mainstream classrooms, homeschoolers enthusiastic to join a creative community, and passionate young writers who benefit from support beyond what their schools are able to provide.
Our programs encourage young people to experiment with different methods of creative writing; we love to pair words with other art forms like photography, music and film.
Our open hours are Wednesdays from 1:30-4:30pm throughout the school year. Bring a piece of writing you’ve been working on, some homework, or come to be inspired. Visitors are free to work on their own, in groups or with one of the Telling Room’s fantastic volunteers.
Since our founding in 2004, we have served 5,000 students from all over the state, published five major anthologies of student work with over 4,500 books in print, and grown into a full-fledged nonprofit organization. To learn more about our organization, free workshops and other goings on at The Telling Room, please visit www.tellingroom.org.
