NATCHEZ &045;&045; Natchez has 25 newly published authors.

The result of the weeklong Alcorn Writing Project Young Writer’s Camp was a spiral bound book complete with the works, biographies and pictures of all the participants.

The authors, ages 5 to 15, spent each morning this week at the camp perfecting their writing and vocabulary skills. Friday, they received the finished book, complete with pages for autographs.

&uot;Writing, it’s not just for school,&uot; said Jerald Johnson, 15. &uot;You can do it all the time and it helps in school with the state tests and it helps you become more creative. Sometimes your feelings come out in writing.&uot;

Co-director Shirley Cruel said the aim of the program was to beef up the students’ language skills.

&uot;We hone in on some of their weak skills and get them prepared for testing in school,&uot; she said. &uot;Part of the week deals with test probability and they are given learning strategies.&uot;

But for most of the kids, the camp didn’t seem much like school.

&uot;We played with (stuffed) animals,&uot; 13-year-old Michael Johnson said. &uot;We wrote about them and named them. You can describe them in your writing.&uot;

Friday the students put on a program for family and teachers where they read their writings from the week.

&uot;You are going to have to write,&uot; teacher Arella Bacon told the students before the program. &uot;That’s one of the things that’s going to help you achieve in life.&uot;

Charmaine King said she thought what she’d learned this week would definitely help her in ninth-grade next year.

&uot;This is helping us to learn how to write,&uot; she said. &uot;It’s going to help develop my vocabulary a lot.&uot;

King has attended the camp for the last four years, along with several other campers who keep returning.

The program is funded by state, federal and Alcorn State University dollars and is free to the participants.

Adrianna Ward, 10, said her favorite writing project of the week was &uot;I am,&uot; her biography poem.

&uot;Writing is very important, because later in life I’m going to use it,&uot; Ward said.

The writing program started in 1988 and is open to all children interested in writing. ASU also sponsors a writing workshop for teachers in the summer too.