The Omaha Public Library offers the best story ideas

Adults can join the future Writer’s Workshop: Microfiction to learn more about the craft during an experience led by a member of the Nebraska Writers Collective. These workshops explore topics that were inspired by the 2024 OPL Reading Challenge; however, your work may be beyond the initial prompts. Get creative and practice writing with others! Participants will leave the workshops with a finished piece to share at Stories After Dark events.

Stories after dark is a fun, freewheeling, moderately competitive story for adults. During this storytime, participants tell a five- to eight-minute story based on the theme of the evening. The next Stories After Dark will be held on November 9 at the W. Clarke Swanson Branch. Theme of November: Family. What emoji do you think of when you think of your family? What is the story of your family? Whether it’s a found family, family adventure, military or veteran family, OPL wants to hear about your experiences! If you don’t want to take the stage, come to hear and appreciate compelling stories, cheer on the storytellers, or even volunteer to be a judge.

Opportunities are also available for teenagers to expand their storytelling skills. IN Zing master classesteenagers learn to create their own handmade booklets on a chosen topic. Created by members of the community, magazines can be used to educate, inform and entertain, as well as to promote free speech and expression. Zines can resemble a traditional word-only book or a graphic novel with a mix of words and images. Materials are provided at these workshops, but please bring your ideas, your creativity, and copies of any photos or other illustrations you would like to include in your piece. Final collections can be taken home or presented to the library to represent yourself in it Collection of OPL magazines.

The Writer’s Workshop: Poetry event takes teens through a workshop hosted by a member of the Nebraska Writers Collective. Participants will leave with a finished poem to perform at the annual OPL Teen Poetry Contest on December 7. For the Teen Poetry Contest, participants must prepare two original poems to be performed as a poetry slam or read aloud. Each participant will perform one author’s poem. Top-scoring contestants will advance to the first round to perform a second poem and be eligible for cash grand prizes.

OPL’s local history collections and archives can inspire new creative projects that combine research with storytelling, showing how stories that lived long ago can spark new narratives that resonate with contemporary audiences. A recent collaboration with the MaMo Gallery has produced artwork based on family histories, and the Genealogy and Local History Room has resources to help you expand and fill in the gaps in your ancestral history.

As the Omaha Public Library continues to expand its programs and resources, it is becoming clear that the library is more than just a keeper of stories; it can be a catalyst for the community to create and share their own. Learn more about ways to improve your story on the site ohamalibrary.org.