The LMWP hosted its first Invitational Summer Institute in 2003, and I came on board in 2006 as a participant, in 2007 as a co-leader, and in 2008 as Director. Every summer, teachers keep me real. They remind me how dizzying a life in K-12 classrooms can be, and they kick my sense of humor up a notch. For all of us, the pandemic was a kick in the gut. We were astonished and exhausted by the rapid changes we were forced to undergo, and the LMWP took a summer off, not sure if gathering in digital spaces could still be called the LMWP. Over the four years since, we’ve inched back into routines and made new ones.

To see what the LMWP is up to in 2025, come visit us on the digital campus of Grand Valley State University at www.gvsu.edu/lmwp . We’re running youth writing camps and hosting another Invitational Summer Institute. If you want to be one of the invited ones, email me at ellisl (at) gvsu.edu. Happy writing, Lindsay