December 4, 2026
10 am – 2:30 pm Eastern Time • Online
Join us for the third session of the Storytellers Spotlight Series,
an online event celebrating authors whose writing has earned a cherished place in our classrooms.
Registration will open in September.
Storytellers Spotlight 2026
Reading Orwell Now: Why We Write
This December, we turn to the work of George Orwell, whose prescient novels are taught across grade levels. First published in 1949, Nineteen Eighty-Four holds particular relevance in today’s classrooms. “This remarkable novel stands out not only because of the cautionary tale it tells but also because it sharply discerns the power of language,” observes Elif Shafak. “Words can heal, words can hurt. They can build or destroy.”
Beyond prompting readers to ask timeless questions about truth and power, free speech and misinformation, Nineteen Eighty-Four speaks to habits of mind that we hope to cultivate in our students. In “Why I Write” (1946), Orwell describes his “desire to push the world in a certain direction, to alter other people’s idea of the kind of society that they should strive after.” Reading Nineteen Eighty-Four alongside selections from his essays and journalism, we will consider how Orwell separates information from real understanding, and how rigor and a sense of play can sharpen our thinking. Working together, we will take up Orwell’s call to value, teach, and practice clear and engaged writing.
Texts: Nineteen Eighty-Four, “Why I Write,” and other selected works by George Orwell
Registration & Fees
Registration will open in September!
Hear it from our participants
“I always appreciate the way IWT provides space for me to be a student again, and to slow down my thinking process.”
—2025 Storytellers Spotlight participant