On July 5, 1988, twenty-two teachers from across North Alabama gathered at Ernest Stone Performing Arts Center to begin the first Summer Institute of the National Writing Project at Jacksonville State University. From 1988 until the 2010s, the JSU Writing Project continued to offer an annual workshop for local teachers to hone their composition skills.

The National Writing Project, with headquarters at the University of California at Berkeley, was based on the concept that teachers are the best teachers of other teachers. Participants in the JSU groups came from various disciplines and grade levels with the intention of sharpening their composition and teaching skills through the process of writing and revising. They gave presentations of successful teaching strategies, kept logs of each day's activities, read current research on writing, and worked in small groups, editing and revising their compositions. Each participant contributed original work for inclusion in an anthology which was compiled and printed by JSU each year. The anthologies for 1988-2014 can be viewed in this collection.