Southern Fried Scribes, an eight-week creative writing program funded through Kickstarter, will offer free writing and literacy workshops to high school students in the Black Belt region.

The founders of the project, creative writing MFA candidates Jessica Masterton and Matt Jones, are hosting the classes through their micropress, Field Tiger Press. Masterton and Jones are also involved with the UA Creative Writing Club, which offers area high school students the opportunity to explore creative writing with guidance from MFA candidates. The program will allow students to have similar writing opportunities during the summer months.

“In the summer months, especially in these Black Belt counties, there’s a lack in some of the areas of arts, so we’d like to take the experience we have with the club and our micropress and bring it out there,” Jones said.

Jones and Masterton currently plan to take the Southern Fried Scribes program to Hale, Greene, Pickens and Tuscaloosa counties. In each county they will host a two-week workshop that will included three-hour sessions Monday through Thursday.

In addition to giving artistic access to Black Belt students, the program is also intended to help students gain confidence in their reading and writing abilities, particularly those in areas with low literacy and graduation rates.

“[We want] to help them gain confidence,” Masterton said. “That’s a huge thing because a lot of these kids aren’t confident in reading or writing abilities and aren’t necessarily going to be super open. They may have had bad experiences being at a low reading level in high school and being frustrated by writing. You have to have confidence to even have any interest in picking up a book if you feel like you can’t read it.”

Masterton and Jones are funding the project through Kickstarter.com, a website that allows individuals to back projects like Southern Fried Scribes. Their goal for Kickstarter is to raise $5,000, which will cover travel costs, class materials and the publishing of an anthology of the student’s works entitled “Meat and Three: Emerging Voices from Alabama.”

“The whole point of the anthology would be to get voices out there,” Jones said. “We want to publish these kids not only so they can showcase their work and see their printed words being read by friends, family and peers across Alabama, but to let other people read what these students have to say, too.”

Kickstarter offers graduated donation amounts. For SFS, backers can donate from $5 to $750. Backers will receive writing-related perks for various donations. Depending on the amount a backer donates, he or she could receive a PDF of “Meat and Three” or detailed feedback from Jones and Masterton on essays or manuscripts. For $750, Jones will shave the initials SFS into his hair on camera and post the video online.

By using Kickstarter to fund the program, Jones and Masterton took a risk because if they do not raise their goal by May 2, backers will not be charged and they will not receive the money. However, they say the risk has pushed them to promote the fundraising campaign and connect with supporters both in and outside the Tuscaloosa community. So far, they have raised over $3,000, with less than a month left in the campaign.

“[The campaign] been a lot of trial and error and looking at other people’s Kickstarters and talking to people.” Masterton said. “It’s a big learning process.”

If a person can not financially donate to the SFS Kickstarter campaign but still wants to support it, Masterton and Jones suggested sharing the campaign through social media and blogs.

“Reposting on social media has been really beneficial for us, too,” Jones said. “Not that we can tell direct results, but any time you repost [the campaign] or tell a friend or family member you’re getting it to that many more people who might know someone else. The biggest web or network we can build would be really great.”

For more information about Southern Fried Scribes or to donate to their Kickstarter campaign, visit fieldtigerpress.com.