This year, the Northern Shores Storywork Project, under the direction of Professor of English Kel Sassi, is hoping to bring a bit of the beauty of Marquette onto the page at the annual Michigan Council for Teachers of English (MCTE) conference.
Since its 2024 relaunch, the Northern Shores Storywork Project has hosted a number of professional development opportunities. Sassi, previously the director of the Red River Valley Writing Project Site in North Dakota, said that these writing project sites are affiliates of the National Writing Project, but also operate on their own as grassroots groups that respond to the needs of teachers, students and community in their area. Last year, for example, the Northern Shores Storywork Project put on a decolonizing meal in collaboration with the Center for Native American Studies.
This year, the writing project is focused on immersing students in the culture of their particular place. One way Sassi plans to do this is by bringing a bit of Marquette down to Michigan State University in East Lansing at the MCTE conference on Friday, Oct. 16.
“I’ve been focused on bringing the writing project into the MCTE conference,” said Sassi. “I’m hoping our writing project folks will come down.”
Sassi is the current president-elect of MCTE. She will be the second president to come out of the U.P., after Kia Richmond, also an NMU Professor of English, in 2011.
Sassi chose the theme for this year's conference, “Writing/Righting Our Place: Grounding Our Teaching Practices Where We Live.” The conference is bringing in 75 presenters from around the state to talk about bringing place into the classroom. Additionally, at the pre-conference on Thursday, all the National Writing Project sites across the state will host a roundtable presentation.
“Our writing project site tries to engage teachers in things that reflect the uniqueness of our place,” Sassi said. “And we live in such an inspiring place for the arts.”
Beyond the conference, Sassi also expressed her excitement about the writing project's affiliation with the Scholastic Art & Writing Award. Before Northern Shores Storywork Writing Project became affiliated, there were only eight students across the Upper Peninsula who entered their work for national recognition. Sassi notes this as an issue of accessibility and equity in rural areas. Since becoming an affiliate, teens in the UP have had greater access to the benefits a national award like this can provide. This prestigious award has honored people like Sylvia Plath (1947), Robert Redford (1954), Ken Burns (1971) and Amanda Gorman (2015). Last summer, two teens in Negaunee were recognized nationally, which Sassis said “is really exceptional.”
“It’s been really fulfilling to serve as an affiliate for that program,” she added.
Visit https://mymcte.org/event/mcte-fall-conference-2026/ for more information on this year’s MCTE conference, and https://www.nwp.org/sites/northern-shores-storywork-writing-project for more news about the Northern Shores Storywork Writing Project.