Entertainment & Creative Escape·
How Young Writers Use Digital Creative Tools to Process the World
By Maya Thompson
Literacy · Leadership · Storytelling
Every story has the power to change a life.
We are a non-profit organization helping young writers find their voice through creative writing workshops, mentorship, and community publishing programs.
/ What we stand for
Six commitments. One mission.
1.
Pen in every hand
We provide free creative writing workshops to schools, libraries, and community centers — no fees, no barriers.
2.
Voices we serve
Young writers from underserved neighborhoods, multilingual learners, and adults rediscovering their words.
3.
Trained facilitators
Every workshop is led by a published writer or trained educator who has completed our facilitator program.
4.
Literacy + leadership
Our curriculum pairs writing instruction with leadership development — the page is where confidence begins.
5.
Published in community
Student work appears in print anthologies, online collections, and on this site — real readers, real audience.
6.
100% non-profit
We are a registered non-profit. Every dollar funds workshops, books, and stipends for the writers we serve.
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View all →Why we do what we do
Because a single page can rewrite a life — and a single voice can move a community.
Literacy is the foundation of opportunity. Writing is the foundation of leadership. When a young person learns to put their experience on the page, they discover something no test score can measure: that their voice has weight, that their story matters, that they have a contribution only they can make.
That discovery is contagious. It travels home, into classrooms, into the streets, into the next generation. We exist to keep it travelling.
100%
of our work is free for participants
1+1
one pen, one page — every workshop
∞
stories waiting to be told
501(c)(3)
registered non-profit organization
“One pen, one page, one voice — that is how worlds change.”
Our Promise
Our Founder
Amanda Gorman
Inaugural National Youth Poet Laureate of the United States · Executive Director, ONE PEN ONE PAGE
Education · Equality · Environment
UN Youth Delegate
Author of The One for Whom Food is Not Enough
ONE PEN ONE PAGE was founded by Los Angeles writer and activist Amanda Gorman, who in April 2017 became the first-ever National Youth Poet Laureate of the United States at the age of 19. She published her debut poetry collection, The One for Whom Food is Not Enough, while still in high school.
As executive director of ONE PEN ONE PAGE, Amanda built the organization around a single conviction: that creative writing is one of the most powerful tools young people have to develop literacy, confidence, and leadership. Her advocacy work sits at the intersection of education, equality, and environmental justice, with a particular focus on amplifying the voices of women, youth, and communities historically pushed to the margins of public conversation.
“My writing is always evolving, to fit the moment and time, and to fit the issues.”
Amanda's working trinity — work, love, knowledge — guides both her personal practice and the philosophy of ONE PEN ONE PAGE. She recognizes that lasting change requires more than poetry alone: it requires policy, education, and the patient work of building leaders. ONE PEN ONE PAGE exists to do that work, one pen and one page at a time.