FREE Author Visits for Underserved High Schools

As many of you know, I spent twenty years working with high school students in a theatre program I built from the ground up myself and that was very close to my heart. That’s the reason, when I started to write, that I knew I wanted to write for and about young adults. Since becoming a full-time writer, I’ve been lucky enough to stay connected to my teaching roots by leading workshops with teen readers and writers at high schools around the country. These schools pay me enough to cover my travel expenses (generally gas and sometimes a hotel room when distances are long), any supplies for the workshop, plus enough money to fairly compensate me for my time.

However, a thing that has become more and more clear to me over the past four years is that only expensive private schools and the very top one or two percent of public high schools in the very wealthiest areas can afford these school visits. (Ask me how many times I’ve been to Jenks vs. how many times I’ve been to a Tulsa school…) There just is zero money available to schools (high schools, in particular) in poor, or even middle-income, areas to bring in authors. Although I genuinely love the school visits I get to do, it’s bothered me for a long time that I’ve only been able to speak to kids in the best and richest of schools in the most affluent areas. Those kids are awesome, but they already have such a leg up in life.

In recent years, it has become more and more obvious how desperately this country needs young people who can think, reason, and learn. And that starts with young people who are readers!

Prompted by my fears about the state of schools and education in the three states I consider to be my home bases, as well as fears about the fate of our country and democracy in general (especially at this very moment), I've decided to try to make a little bit of a difference in one way I know how...as an author reaching out to young readers.

We know that interacting with an author can change a teen’s whole attitude about reading, which can change their whole attitude toward school and learning in general! And, of course, meeting and talking with an author can be absolutely life-changing for young people dreaming of being writers themselves. And the world DESPERATELY needs more readers and writers right now, especially those from traditionally underserved and marginalized communities!

Because of that, I’ve decided to dedicate the spring semester of the 2025 school year toward offering FREE school visits to high schools in lower and middle-income areas. I’m specifically starting this spring with schools in Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Florida.

Those are my three “home” states, and they are all states I will be spending time in this spring surrounding the release of my fourth book. They are also states that are currently dead-set on decimating resources and funding for both public education and the arts.

Ideally, I’d be able to find grants and funding from state arts councils and organizations, but in all three of my home states, that kind of funding has been almost entirely eliminated, while school budgets have also been slashed, making it even more impossible for less-than-wealthy schools to afford things like author visits. (Look at what DeSantis has done to arts funding in Florida, if you'd like a good scare.)

My plan is to start off small this semester as a trial run. The goal is to offer twenty-five FREE workshops to high schools in those three states with a plan to do at least fifteen in Florida, where I currently live, and to offer five in Oklahoma and five in Arkansas while I am visiting those states in March for the release of WHEN THE BONES SING. Although in-person visits are definitely best, I am also committing to doing at least twenty more FREE virtual school visits for schools in those three states!

Based on my past experience, I expect the average cost for me to do an in-person school workshop will be around $300 per school including travel expenses and providing young adult books by a variety of authors for participants. I'd love to provide each student I work with a book to take home with them. Although I think I can get authors to donate some of those books, I certainly won't be able to get them all donated.

My best estimate is that meeting that goal would come with a price tag of around $6,000 for travel expenses within three states plus books for students.

I will be donating my time to these workshops and I’ll pick up as much of that cost as I can, but I won’t be able to cover the whole expense if I make my goal of scheduling 25 free in-person school visits.

For this reason, I’m reaching out to friends and family. I know most of you are huge supporters of public education, reading, and the arts.

I’m starting off small to get a sense for how this will work best, but eventually I’d like to move forward by organizing a more formal program and involving other authors. I already have several authors I'm working with and several more that want to be a part of this!

But to start, my goal for next spring is just to raise enough to cover workshops in twenty-five underserved schools in three states hit hard by funding cuts for education and threats, as well as being under attack from book-banners and other forces determined to limit the free and healthy exchange of ideas and information. We will see where this goes from there!

I’m planning to put out a call to interested schools in all three states in early October, but before I do that, I want to make sure I have funds to help me cover at least some of that estimated $6,000 in expenses.

I’ve set up a separate account for this project, and I’ll be keeping track of everyone who helps out so I can keep you all updated on the plans and the schools I’ll be visiting this spring!

If you’d like to donate enough to cover the $300 approximate cost of one school workshop (or more than one!), that would be so wonderful, but please know even a little help is appreciated. The cost for each book provided to participants will be around $13, so even that little amount would help me get this project off the ground by providing a book! And, of course, if you can’t help out right now, I totally understand (I know things are very tight for everyone at the moment!) and I definitely appreciate you!

If you can help out in other ways, by providing any guidance or suggestions for moving forward, or if you can send me email addresses for contacts at underserved city high schools or high schools in rural areas of Florida, Oklahoma, or Arkansas, that would be wonderful too!

Thanks so much for taking time to read this!