At Tube City Writers, our goal is to get everyone telling their stories. To get there, we've done some workshops on writing, looking at different opportunities for storytelling, from using social media to performing at live events. We usually start by looking at or listening to a story, and we discuss how it was constructed. It's very important for people who want to write or tell stories to see how other people make their stories work. It's like getting under the hood, and taking the story engine apart. Then we've been working on our own stories, and workshopping them with our peers. Workshopping is also an important part of story telling, because it's when we get to see what works and what needs some attention.

But that work is worthwhile, because through telling our stories we get to share our world. We get to let people know about who we are, what matters to us, and what we've learned (or what we haven't learned, if that's more interesting). Each of us has a voice, and it's important that we use it.

- Dr. Nicole Peeler