2010 Young Writer's Conference

Another guest post, this one from Ramona:

On Saturday, April 17th, a group of Haultain students and parent/teacher volunteers led by Mrs. Kerr recently enjoyed another successful Calgary Young Writer’s Conference.

The keynote speaker, Michael Kusugak, entertained everyone with his unique glimpse into the traditional Inuit lifestyle that is all but forgotten – living with no permanent home in igloo and tent, moving nomadically with sled dogs, stopping for lunch when they became too tangled to go on, and, at the end of a day’s journey, with no modern conveniences – no TV’s, IPods, computers, or even telephones, relishing in anticipation of a grandparent’s stories passed down to new generations. Mr. Kusugak was captivating, humorous and warm. His telling of the story behind Baseball Bats for Christmas, where he explained his and his peoples’ puzzlement over the purpose of 6 Christmas trees flown in by a priest to their remote village was enchanting. With no explanation, the Inuit children discovered that, of course, the trees were brought as Christmas presents! They were baseball bats in waiting!

We set off for two sessions each with a break for lunch. I enjoyed the session with Carol McTavish and Linden Wentzloff of Canmore who shared the joys and headaches of writing, illustration and self-publishing.

After lunch, Marty Chan, playwright, humorist and novelist, led us through a hilarious session of creative, easy to remember tricks to start the writing process. He shared humorous anecdotes of his experiences growing up in Morinville, Alberta as the only non-white family and the ways (sometimes painful like taping his eyelids up) that he attempted to fit in. Everyone could relate to his horrible experience of shopping with his mother, begging for jeans but being forced to try on lime green cords at a store. It only got worse when the girl he had a crush on literally caught him with his pants down!

After sharing many other memories, we were asked to hide a lie about ourselves among 3 truths and use an idea as a jumping off point for a story. The session flew by and we were all disappointed to see it end.

Thank you Haultain Memorial Parent Association for giving me this opportunity. I know all students enjoyed at least one of their sessions immensely. Many couldn’t wait to see what might be in store for next year!

Ramona Lind