The Florida Center for the Literary Arts at Miami Dade College promotes reading and writing throughout the year by consistently presenting high-quality literary activities open to all in South Florida.

• Visiting Writers: The Center works with established and emerging writers from Florida and elsewhere. Through Center programs, they help Miami Dade College students, pupils in Miami-Dade County Public Schools and diverse members of the community deepen their understanding of literature and sharpen their creative writing abilities.

• Classroom Collaborations give the Center the opportunity to work alongside Miami Dade College professors to choose authors whose books are appropriate for special topics classes. The Center then brings those authors into the classroom, where they discuss their work with students.

• The Center’s open-to-the-public reading series, Write Out Loud!, previously known as the Spoken Word Café, presents some visiting and local authors.

• Creative Writing Workshops offer writers in our community the chance to share their work with a supportive, yet critical community of writers whose goal is continual development. All workshops are non-credit and open to everyone in the community.

• The Center’s literacy-focused initiatives–One Book, One Community; One Picture Book, One Community; First Readers; El Club de Lectores; and The Big Read, a nationwide reading initiative powered by the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Arts Midwest–encourage an appreciation for books with the goal of fostering dialogue in the community and enhancing the reading skills of children and adults.

• Miami Book Fair International, the largest and finest event of its kind in the U.S., has taken place each fall for the past 23 years. In addition to readings by more than 300 authors from all over the world and the sale of thousands of books in many languages, the Fair offers book-centered fun for children, the chance to explore the culture of many nations at the International Village, panel discussions and creative writing classes in English and Spanish.

• The close relationship between theatre and literature prompted the Center to embrace Prometeo, a community theatre founded more than 34 years ago at Miami Dade College’s Wolfson Campus with the mission of preserving the Spanish language and Hispanic culture through the theatre. Prometeo Theatre enjoys the distinction of being the only one of its kind in the nation that offers a quality theatre program in Spanish. Courses and workshops in acting, voice and speech, movement, playwriting, makeup and other stagecraft are offered throughout the year. This fall, Prometeo is launching a two-year professional training certificate program in theatre arts.

• Each spring, the Writers Institute offers four days of intensive workshops on poetry, fiction, nonfiction, publishing and more. These are complemented by readings and festive gatherings. Once again, Teens: Write On!, the Center’s creative writing program for 13 to 18-year-olds, will be part of the Institute.