The Vachel Lindsay Association is pleased to offer a growing number of educational programs for the greater Springfield community. We are active in hosting children’s poetry events, bringing regional writers to the Springfield area, providing area educators with continuing education opportunities, and offering a wide array of workshops for writers of all ages and levels of experience.

VACHEL LINDSAY ILLUSTRATION CONTEST

Elementary students from kindergarten through sixth grade who live in and around the Springfield area are invited to create an illustration of a selected poem by Vachel Lindsay as part of a celebration of National Poetry Month. The contest begins each year in March and ends April 30.

Click here for a contest flyer and this year’s poems. Click here for complete contest rules.

WRITING WORKSHOPS

Aspiring writers in the greater Springfield area are invited to participate in an ever-changing series of writing workshops led by local authors and educators. Offerings include half-day craft workshops held in some of Springfield’s most impressive historic homes: the Dana Thomas House and the Vachel Lindsay Home. In addition, daylong and multi-week explorations of craft and contemporary writing are frequently scheduled.

History Comes Alive for teenagers each July at a 2-week writing camp that runs from 9 a.m. to noon on Mondays through Thursdays. Students are asked to read selected material and create new writing in both poetry and fiction based on writing prompts. All campers are encouraged, but not required, to participate in a public reading of their new work in August as part of the Poets in the Parlor series.

You can download the 2019 registration form here.

TEACHER RESOURCES

The Vachel Lindsay Association is pleased to offer a teacher’s guide to Vachel Lindsay’s A Net to Snare the Moonlight. This guide offers comprehension questions and a writing activity for each poem included in this collection of some of Lindsay’s best poems for children. The complete Teacher’s Guide can be downloaded here.

Teachers in the greater Springfield area should contact the VLA via email if they are interested in:

• Having a visiting writer come to your classroom to read from and discuss their work.
• Scheduling or attending a continuing education workshop on Vachel Lindsay’s life and works; creative writing for all ages; or contemporary poetry and fiction.
• Having a local writer visit your classroom to offer creative writing activities.