Kurmaskie, Joe

Project: Takes students on a literary adventure without leaving their zip code. Residencies focus on creating characters and story arcs: using a topic that students are studying to create group or individual narratives; using students' interests to get them to own a story with a beginning, middle and end; introducing the five steps to lively characterization through interactive exercises. Joe always incorporates his own stories in a dynamic performance to help students see and learn in a lively way. He shows them how to take any situation or activity and make it an exciting adventure. Everyone has stories inside them; Joe draws these out of every student in a fun way--leaving them excited about writing and surprised at the results. For 2005-2006, Joe has added a residency focusing on his 4000-mile, cross-country bicycle adventure--towing his two young sons from  Portland, Oregon, to Washington, D.C. He will use it to teach the curriculum list above.

A journalist for such publications as Backpacker, Men’s Journal, Bicycling, and The Oregonian, Joe is the Random House author of the Associated Press Award winner for outdoor writing, Metal Cowboy: Tales from the Road Less Pedaled and Riding outside the Lines.  Joe has been called "a modern day Mark Twain on two wheels" (The Los Angeles Times) and "David Sedaris trapped in the body Lance Armstrong."  He uses his travel adventure tales to springboard into character, dialogue, pacing, story structure and more.