(PHOENIX, Ariz., Aug. 5, 2003) – Where has the underground writing community gone? What can you do to bring it back? What can you do to find your own voice and use it to not only liberate yourself, but to liberate others?

On Saturday, Aug. 16 beginning at 9 a.m., the Phoenix College Creative Writing Program will offer a free workshop entitled: Writing as a Tool for Social Change. Workshop instructor and member of the Arizona Artists’ Roster in Creative Writing, Laraine Herring, will encourage participants to see how language can be used to motivate and change the world.

Writing as a Tool for Social Change will allow participants to see how one’s talent to speak out can affect change.

"Be ready to experiment with words, dialogue with fellow students and create social art," said Herring.

Herring is a member of the Phoenix College Creative Writing faculty and is a certified grief recovery specialist. Her fiction collection, Monsoons, was published in 1999 by Duality Press and her novel, Lay My Sorrows Down, won the Barbara Deming Award in 2000. She is currently working on a new novel and a non-fiction book about writing and loss. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has been widely anthologized.

The workshop will be held in the B Building - Room 159. To register, please call 602-285-7347.

###