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Youth

Festival Field Trip: Where Young Readers Meet Great Writers!

Five stimulating, thought–provoking events designed for students Grades 9 through 12.

Thursday, September 22
9:30 am to 2:00 pm

Holiday Inn Kingston Waterfront

Teachers—start the school year by introducing your students to some of the Canada’s top writers and thinkers.

Students—come meet the writers, get involved in the issues you care most about, ask questions of the people who write the books that shape your world.

KingstonWritersFest has designed a morning of events geared especially to high–school students. The lineup includes nationally and internationally renowned authors chosen for their ability to connect with teenagers. Sessions aren’t just aimed at students taking English and Writer’s Craft. Students and teachers of Science, Drama, Geography, History, World Issues, Anthropology or Sociology will all find exciting session to stimulate discussion and tie in with your course work back in the classroom.

Festival Field Trip Events, September 22, 2011

Click on an event title to see a full description in a pop–up window or download a PDF document with all the information.

9:30 – 10:30 am

1. War & Peace: Noah Richler & Michael Riordon

2. Words Out Loud: A hands–on writing workshop with spoken–word poet, Lara Bozabalian

Refreshments during break

10:45 – 11:45 am

3. Life Lessons: Mystery writer Y.S. Lee & African storyteller Adwoa Badoe

4. Technology & Wonder: Pre–eminent science writer Wayne Grady & top sci–fi writer Robert J. Sawyer

1:00 – 2:00 pm

5. Native Sons & Daughters: Former lieutenant–governor of Ontario and debut novelist James Bartleman talks native issues with playwright Daniel David Moses

Plus: Young Writers Studio Master Classes (open to teens 15–19)

2:30 – 4:00 pm	Thursday, September 22
Writing the Future with Robert J. Sawyer

11:00 am – 12:30 pm	Saturday, September 24
Creative Writing for Teens with Sarah Yi–Mei Tsiang

3:00 – 4:30 pm	Sunday, September 25
Songwriting with Dave Bidini

Master Class enrollment limited to 30 per class.

Ticket Prices (HST included)

Festival Field Trip Events	$5/$8 at the door
Young Writers Studio Master Classes	$10/$14 at the door

Please Note: The Grand Theatre Box Office charges a handling fee of $2.83 per ticket. Handling fee is reduced for large group ticket purchases.

Tickets go on sale August 18 at the Grand Theatre Box Office. Group tickets are available only by phone (613.530.2050) or in person at 218 Princess Street, Kingston. No online purchases for groups.

For more information, contact:

Angela Saxe	education@kingstonwritersfest.ca
Anne Powers	education-coordinator@kingstonwritersfest.ca

Young Writers Studio
sponsored by

Festival Field Trips
sponsored by

  

In What We Talk About When We Talk About War, Noah Richler explores how Canada’s view of itself has changed from a nation of peacekeepers to a country at war. In Our Way to Fight, Michael Riordon tells stories of non–violent peace activists on both sides of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. How is war portrayed by governments and the media? What is it that stirs citizens to stop fighting and work for peace? Moderated by Jamie Swift.

Spoken word poet and slam artist Lara Bozabalian leads this dynamic hands–on writing workshop in new forms of poetic expression. Working individually and in small groups, students learn the basic concepts and strategies of spoken word and performance poetry through writing exercises, demonstrations, conversation, critique—and readings! An English teacher with the York Region District School Board, Lara expertly guides young writers from the page to the stage. Note: no limit to the number of participants.

African storyteller Adwoa Badoe introduces her first Young Adult novel, Between Sisters. Local author Y.S. Lee presents the second in her YA mystery series The Agency: The Body at the Tower. In these two spellbinding novels, teenage protagonists—an orphan in Victorian England sentenced to be hanged and a high–school dropout moving through the wilds of the urban jungle in Ghana—are saved from desperate circumstances, then bend the rules to rise above their fate and fashion lives of their own. Moderated by Susan Olding.

Robert J. Sawyer, who submitted his first story to a sci–fi magazine when he was in Grade Ten, is now one of the most influential sci–fi writers in the English language, the only Canadian to win the world’s three top science–fiction awards. In Wonder, the third in Sawyer’s WWW Trilogy, a 16-year–old–girl guides the evolution of the Web into consciousness. Sawyer talks about technology, artificial intelligence, and the future of ideas with Wayne Grady, Canada’s pre–eminent science writer and author of Technology, a thought–provoking discourse on the human reliance on machines.

James Bartleman, former lieutenant–governor of Ontario, diplomat, and author explores the longlasting effects of residential schools in his debut novel, As Long as the Rivers Flow. Raised a Chippewa, Bartleman eloquently traces the impact of prejudice and racism through generations on and off First Nations reserves with poet, playwright, and essayist, Daniel David Moses, coeditor of the Oxford Anthology of Canadian Native Literature in English.

Science fiction is often called “the literature of ideas,” and with good reason: the fresh central idea is often the defining characteristic of a science–fiction novel. Join bestselling author Robert J. Sawyer for an interactive master class on how to come up with and develop a high concept for your own science–fiction novel by finding the theme that will give rise to your plot and characters, and enthrall your readers. Sawyer’s Aurora Award–winning novel FlashForward had its theme summarized in the opening narration of every episode of the ABC TV series based on it: “On October 6, the planet blacked out for 2 minutes and 17 seconds. The whole world saw the future.” Come prepared to distill your own ideas to something equally succinct and exciting, so that you can focus on what your story is really about.

You’re a teenager and you love to write, but how do you know if you’re any good? How does a young writer get published? Can writing be a career? In this master class, Sarah Yi-Mei Tsiang covers the essentials of process and technique in both poetry and fiction for youth aged 15 and older. She’ll help you learn to read like writer, find mentors within your community, navigate the intimidating world of publishing and give you tips on what to expect from a career in creative writing.

Called “the Godfather of IndieRock” by CBC Radio, author/musician Dave Bidini leads this master class dedicated to the exploration (and evisceration) of the modern song form. In his presentation, the founder of the Rheostatics and author of Writing Gordon Lightfoot will dissect some of his own more notable compositions as well as discuss what makes a song good or completely forgettable. Time permitting, he will lead the class in the composition of a piece of music. Topics: chord structure, melodic choices, varying rhythms, arrangements, and musical honesty.

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