Welcome to Dr. Danielle Pieratti, the New Connecticut Writing Project Director!

 

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Danielle Pieratti, an accomplished poet and translator with a growing national reputation, will take on the directorship of the Connecticut Writing Project (CWP) for the 2025-26 academic year.  She has been offered a Visiting Assistant Professor/CWP Director position through an emergency “audit” hire process in the wake of the passing of Dr. Jason Courtmanche, our beloved CWP Director for the past 17 years.

Danielle has high-school teaching experience in Connecticut (2012-2022) and has worked with Jason Courtmanche and other CWP leaders to run Writing Retreats and Saturday Writing Workshops for the CWP from 2014 to the present.  She completed her PhD in the UConn English Department in March of 2025. Additionally, Danielle has an MFA from Columbia University and an MS in Secondary Education from SUNY Albany.

In Memoriam

Dr. Jason Courtmanche  –  April 15, 1969  –  November 27, 2024

Hawthorne is quoted as saying, “I have not lived, but only dreamed about living.”  That can never be said about Jason. He lived his life to the fullest, savoring every moment, every person, and every word.  Life is not fair.  Jason had so many more students left to inspire and far too many more books to read and words to write.  No matter how long Jason had lived, it would never have been long enough, but he did live, and he lived well.  We, all the people upon whom he had an impact, will remember him—with deep love and respect—always.  Click here for a full Jason Courtmanche – In Memoriam piece.

Connecticut Student Writers Recognition Night at Jorgensen Auditorium, May 15, 2025

On May 15, 2025, the Connecticut Writing Project-Storrs celebrated our student writers with our Connecticut Student Writers Magazine Recognition Night, an annual event that invites students and teachers recognized by our yearly student writing contest to a celebratory reading of student work at UConn’s Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts. Thirteen student speakers from grades K-12 read their winning writing pieces from the stage. 

This year, with over 750 in attendance, we welcomed keynote speaker Alicia D. Williams, a highly acclaimed author known for her poignant and impactful middle grade novels and picture books. Williams is the author of Mid-Air, which was longlisted for the National Book Award. She is also widely recognized for her Newbery Honor-winning novel, Genesis Begins Again, which also received Kirkus Prize honors, was a William C. Morris Award finalist, and for which she won the Coretta Scott King – John Steptoe Award for New Talent. In addition to her novels, Alicia D. Williams has penned several beloved picture books, including Jump at the Sun, Nani and the Lion, and The Talk, the latter of which was a Coretta Scott King Honor book. You can view Alicia’s keynote for another of our recent CWP Scholastic Art & Writing virtual celebration here.

We are delighted to share that, as part of our CWP-Storrs network, you will be able to order Alicia’s books at a 20% discount using a special code at checkout, with free shipping on orders of $40 or more for a limited time (terms apply). This discounted book offer will be available starting on TBD.  We are awaiting details from Alicia’s publisher and will update this information as soon as it is available.

The 2025 CT Student Writers magazines (CSW 2025 Elementary Volume and CSW 2025 Secondary, No. 2) are stored electronically as PDFs and are available for download from our CWP CT Student Writers webpage.  The lists of all Gold, Silver, Honorable Mention and Teacher Awardees are in the back of each volume.

Support CWP!

Teacher-Writer magazine Fall 2024 is available for download – click on the cover below:

Teacher-Writer Chapbook

The 2025-26 Connecticut Scholastic Writing Contest

Scholastic Art & Writing Contest

Letters About Literature 2024-25 Finalists and Winners – click on the link below

LAL 2024-25

Letters About Literature Student Writing Contest 2025-26

Click on this link for information about submitting to the 2025-26 Letters About Literature Student Writing Contest for grades 4 through 12:  https://education.uconn.edu/letters-about-literature-contest/

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  • Where did I go? September 14, 2024
    Some of you know but many of you probably do not. I am on medical leave with cancer, so I have not been posting here. However, if you enjoy my writing and are interesting in following my journey, you can read my daily posts here: https://www.caringbridge.org/site/6718471c-5f44-36cd-9793-70a91a950d52?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web&utm_content=copylink_leftmenu_php
    Jason Courtmanche
  • How do you see yourself contributing? November 16, 2023
      I’ve had a few very interesting interactions with young students lately. Just yesterday I was interviewed by a first-year student from my colleague Inda’s class, and it turns out he lives in Madison and had my cousin Brian for math at the middle school and my former student Josh Young twice for English, sophomore […]
    Jason Courtmanche