Spooky writing workshop at Choctaw Cultural Center

The Choctaw Cultural Center will offer a chance to learn tips and tricks on writing spooky stories from an award-winning Choctaw author this fall.

Tim Tingle will be at the Choctaw Cultural center on October 29, 2022, conducting a workshop on how to write spooky short stories. The workshop will run from 11:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and will be geared towards 8th-12th graders.

Tingle says it’s important to get kids involved with storytelling and writing early.

“So much of who we are and what we’re going to be for the rest of our lives is determined in these grade levels. If you’re going to be a reader and a writer, then you need to start early,” he said.

Tingle says the workshop will encourage kids to participate actively. “We’ll start with people thinking of ideas of things that have happened to them, of frightening things, and then let their imagination play.

Then we’ll show how that beginning can work itself into a story,” said Tingle.

Tingle received his master’s degree in English Literature at the University of Oklahoma in 2003, focusing on American Indian studies.

While teaching writing courses and completing his thesis, “Choctaw Oral Literature,” Tingle wrote his first book, “Walking the Choctaw Road.” It was selected as Book of the Year in both Oklahoma and Alaska.

Tingle has traveled the world, completing eight U.S. Department of Defense speaking tours. During this time, he performed stories for children of military personnel stationed in Germany. He also spoke at the Library of Congress and presented his first performance at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

As a visiting author and performer, Tingle reaches audiences numbering over 200,000 annually. His first children’s book, “Crossing Bok Chitto,” garnered over twenty state and national awards and was an Editor’s Choice in the New York Times Book Review.

Attendance is limited to 20 kids. For more information on this and other upcoming events, visit choctawculturalcenter.com.