On November 1st, New York author Paul Volponi visited Evergreen Park to do creative workshops with the majority of the English department classes. Volponi has written and published thirteen books, all fiction except for his most recent book That’s My Team! The History, Science, and Fun Behind Sports Teams’ Names, which explains how college and professional sport teams got their names. His fiction novels are inspired by true stories during his time teaching at Rikers Island, the main juvenile jail in New York City. A lot of these books can also be found at the library in the LRC here at EPCHS.  

“I had his books for awhile,” Dr. Ward, the librarian, comments on why she chose him to come to the school. He had reached out to her last year about visiting, but money had already been spent on Ellen Hopkins, another author, to come. “He reached out to me again this year, and I thought it was perfect.” 

Volponi often visits schools all over the country to talk about his books and to perform workshops. He claims that everyone has an inner writer, and he does these visits to talk about his writing process and to bring out everyone’s inner writer through his writing workshops. The exposure enables students to notice their own writing capabilities and look at all the different ways to tell a story. 

Volponi spreads the message that everything has a story behind it, but it is up to the person who sees the story to tell it. He encourages people to be inspired and to write books that share unique stories he hopes to see on shelves. The possibilities of how to arrange words and write a book are endless.