Chapter 510 Celebrates Nice Life, More Becoming, a New Book by Westlake Young Writers!
Last month, our Westlake Middle School writers celebrated the book release of their group publication, Nice Life, More Becoming.
This anthology of poetry and prose was the final project of our Westlake creative writing and bookmaking program during the 25-26 school year. This nine-month intensive supported Westlake ELL students with their English proficiency. With the support of Chapter 510 mentors, teaching artists, and translation tools, students wrote pieces in both English and their native languages.
The book is a culmination of memoir and poetry, with six different home languages represented—Spanish, Arabic, French, Mandarin, Amharic, and Vietnamese.
The anthology was published as a limited edition run of 100 books, each one handmade by Anna, Chapter 510's resident book arts teacher. The book was illustrated by local children's book author and illustrator Rob Trujillo with a foreword written by Pour-Khorshid, professor at the University of San Francisco.
The celebration of Nice Life, More Becoming, took place at the Westlake Middle School library, home of our Westlake Writers’ room and MC’d by our creative writing teaching artist Belinda Bellinger.
The Westlake community and Chapter 510 staff gathered during lunch to celebrate our writers, who signed copies of the book and answered questions about their stories and the processes behind them.
The event concluded with a few of our student authors on the mic reading their work in their home languages.
“It was inspiring to witness this year’s cohort move through each of the stages of the writing process, from the anxiety of not knowing where to start and feeling like they didn’t have stories to tell, to the sense of motivation and excitement as they competed with each other to see who could write the most words in their memoir, ” shared Naseem, Chapter 510’s Program Coordinator.
For many of our authors last year, this was their first experience with creative writing and book arts. They entered an unfamiliar space with remarkable bravery, and completed the program with a newfound joy in writing and a pride in the stories only they could tell.
“I felt nervous about writing before Chapter 510’s program. That changed after this program,” reflected one of the young authors, Luis. “I like the book. I like everything about it. I feel good and happy about it… I feel proud of {my} story,” Luis shares.
For the 2026-27 school year, we’re back with a new cohort of DELD students writing memoir and poetry, plus two new lunch programs open to all Westlake students. We are thrilled about this expansion at Westlake Middle and the opportunity to write and create with more young people, and we look forward to the stories that emerge!
