Each year, local nonprofit organization Deep Center runs creative writing literacy workshops for select young people in public middle schools.

These students work after school to learn the craft of creative writing with the help of volunteers — mostly local professional and semi-professional writers.

The students work for 11 weeks to produce anything from short stories to poetry, ranging in topics from hilarious, comedic fiction to real, dramatic personal life events.

But something this good can’t be contained within the walls of a classroom, which is why Deep Center publishes a collaboration of student work in a book, and twice a year these talented young authors read their published work on stage at an event called Deep Speaks.

“For anybody who goes to the event or has the pleasure of reading one of the books, they will be amazed at what they don’t know about Savannah and about what young people think,” says Dare Dukes, executive director of Deep Center.

Although every public middle school in Chatham County offers language arts or English courses, some kids are more concerned with writing according to state standards instead of being comfortable with being creative.

“Kids are asked to write a lot in school, and often what happens during instruction is they get so concerned with writing something correctly that they lose the joy that comes with the creative part of writing,” Dukes says.

“We try to meet them where they are — at their joy — so they can reengage with writing as storytelling and as a way to connect with their own authentic stories and voice.”

The invitation to join the workshops is treated as a scholarship and is rewarded to the students as an honor.

However, the writing program is not considered a gifted program, and teachers work with the organization to recruit a broad range of students.

“We tell the teachers, when they’re recruiting, to pick a blend of students — some might need remedial help, some might be creative types who have no creative outlet and some might be students who are smart but kind of bored because they aren’t being challenged,” Dukes says.

This year, the program has about 150 students, so not all of them will participate.

But the authors who are reading are chosen by their peers in the program, as well as the volunteers who mentor them, allowing the students to also play the role of writing critics.

To the young authors, it’s an exciting honor to be on stage, in the spotlight, reading their published work to an eager crowd.

“It’s one of the most diverse cultural moments of the year in Savannah in terms of age, in terms of ethnicity and in terms of geography — like some of these kids go to school way on the southside and literally have not been to downtown before,” Dukes says.

“So when you get all of those people and different kinds of stories and perspectives on one stage, it’s always surprising. You realize there’s a lot of different stuff going on in Savannah that you didn’t necessarily realize was going on.”