12th Street Online is the web branch of the literary journal, 12th Street. Its first issue was published and sold at Barnes and Noble in the Spring of 2008. 12th Street is produced every year by students enrolled in the Riggio Honors Program: Writing and Democracy. This honors program is an innovative sequence of writing workshops and close-reading seminars designed to offer a balanced and substantial literary education. The core of the program is a curriculum of writing workshops (fiction, nonfiction, poetry) and literature seminars, culminating in a thesis project. There is also an ongoing series of public readings, literary forums, lectures, symposia and panel discussions. All students of the Riggio program receive a $4000 scholarship upon completing the course. The program is structured to create and foster a community of undergraduate writers through regular student readings and other peer-group activities, including 12th Street, edited and published by New School undergraduates. By the completion of the course, it is hoped that its students have enhanced their skills as writers, and have better tools to read, being able to delve into a word-by-word analysis of a text without pause.