WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE WORLD STOPS? Young Writers Project and YWP alumna Adelle Brunstad are working together to document the COVID-19 pandemic through the eyes of YWPers. We are collecting your candid reflections of the strangest period of our lives in words, photos, and art. Share your observations, moments, realizations, frustrations, laughter, sadness, fears, hopes -- whatever you're thinking, feeling, seeing. When this is all over, we will create a digital book documenting the coronavirus days. Check in here for all updates about the project. Where to start? The COVID-19 challenge for writing and COVID-Art for photos and art.

HOW TO GET INVOLVED:

• Keep doing what you're doing! We've already gathered some amazing work from across the site. (See April issue of The Voice!) Keep going!
• Add your commentary to the Social Distancing Journal (use SDJ in your posts) in tiny writes.
• Submit your work to our COVID challenges, found in one place under the Community Journalism Challenges, including the original and most active one, COVID-19. Watch for new prompts and respond as often you like.
• Stop in here anytime and we'll keep you updated about the project.
• Questions? Contact Adelle Brunstad by private message through the site; or Susan Reid, Reid on the site or [email protected].

KUDOS! The idea for a Social Distancing Journal came from Treblemaker in tiny writes back in mid-March: "We should do a 'social distancing journal' where every day or so we'll just continue a thread of comments about what we've discovered... such as talking to inanimate objects - can't wait until they answer... including the cat."
And it took off from there. Ever since, YWP writers have added to the SDJ thread in tiny writes. "Guys I love these social distancing journals. Imagine people in fifty years finding them somehow and reading about what our lives were really like during the quarantine." - NiñaEstrella