LIBRARIES

Dig into reading with The Rapscallion Club!

THE RAPSCALLION CLUB'S INTERNATIONAL EXPLORATORIUM & CABINET OF WONDER is a super-charged mix of author reading & interactive show-and-tell session with music, sound effects, and artifacts from around the world. Door prizes & giveaways! 45 min. Ages 7 - 12.

Depending on the needs of the institution, a short creative writing workshop (with prompts rooted in the text) and/or a tie-in craft can be included at no extra cost.

As the artistic director of Raconteur Radio, a traveling troupe that stages theatrical presentations of vintage and original radio plays for live audiences throughout the Tri-State area, Dawson has a history of successful collaboration with New Jersey libraries. Click HERE for feedback from librarians.

As the owner and program coordinator of the late and legendary Raconteur, a bookstore known for its vigorous event calendar, Dawson has been engaging young readers and coordinating lively children's programming for almost a decade. The Raconteur (2004 - 2012) has been called a "literary center of gravity," an "avante-garde cultural center," and a "family friendly guerrilla street-theater emporium" by The New York Times; an "amazing" and "incredible institution" by The Huffington Post; a "literary sanctuary" by the London Guardian; a "literary landmark" by Time Out New York; and "marvelous...a museum of oddities" by The Star Ledger.

Dawson is also available for full blown "Write Your Own Adventure!" workshops. Dawson teaches Creative Writing in Middle Grade & YA fiction at Rutgers University, Multi-Genre Creative Writing at the Middlesex Arts High School, and his popular, four week "Write Your Own Adventure!" workshop (for ages 10 - 15)  has been a summer mainstay at the Metuchen Public Library for the last four years

WRITE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE! WORKSHOP (Ages 10 and up)
Taking inspiration from both modern and classic MG & YA books (including his own The Rapscallion Club), and from the lives of the men and women who wrote them, award winning author Alex Dawson provides suggestions that will spark the imaginations of both children and teens, prompting them to pen their own rollicking yarns. Find out how Robert Louis Stevenson found inspiration for Treasure Island in his bowl of porridge, or how J. R.R. Tolkien's amazing fantasy world began with a childhood game of making up words, or how Dawson himself got the idea for his high spirited swashbuckler while visiting his archeologist brother at The South American Explorers Club in Peru. Whether you have an idea you'd like to draft, have a draft you'd like to revise, or think, as many wrongly do, that your life is too ordinary and you have nothing exciting to say, this workshop is for you.

For more information or to schedule an appearance or workshop, contact Alex at raconteurbooks@gmail.com or 732-754-3978.


Dawson with fencers and Mastodon at a recent RC reading.

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