One of the Coast’s most storied literary anthologies has nearly reached the age of its most senior contributors.
The Coastal Voices publication — an annual project of School District 46 and the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts — released its 15th anniversary edition during a gala celebration at Sechelt’s Rockwood Pavilion on June 12.
Nearly 850 students from every school on the Sunshine Coast contributed poems, stories and essays for consideration. One hundred and fifty-six pieces were selected, representing young writers from kindergarten to Grade 12.
“Good writing has to have a few things,” said John Lussier, a retired principal who was one of the anthology’s co-founders. “It needs to make you feel something: joy, sadness, laughter, disgust. So many of the pieces have that, connecting with readers at a very deep and gut-wrenching level. Good writing should describe what it’s like to be human: to show a shared experience, that when we read it, we go, ‘Ah yes, I know that.’ And sometimes good writing teaches us something about ourselves.”
The inaugural edition of Coastal Voices, in 2011, elicited only 300 submissions. The response rate has almost tripled over the last decade and a half.
“This is more than a collection of writing,” said Kirsten Deasey, the school district’s principal for learning and innovation. “Sharing writing is an act of courage: it invites others into your inner world, into your questions, your memories, your imagination. When we listen closely, we are reminded that sharing our stories helps us understand each other. Stories make us feel less alone. They open windows in the world.”
shíshálh Nation cultural ambassador kway?imin Andy Johnson delivered specially chosen music in honour of the youthful writers. “I normally sing a welcome song,” he noted, “but we’re celebrating [the students], so I wanted to share a celebration song.”
Elijah Grant, a kindergarten pupil at Gibsons Elementary, read from his poem Things I Love, in which creativity itself becomes an impetus for gratitude. “I love the ABCs because they help me make my favourite words. / I love Lego because I can build a delivery truck.”
Pearl Metcalfe, a Grade 4 student at West Sechelt Elementary, tapped a common vein of admiration for the Sunshine Coast’s unique culture and landscape. “If you’re not from the Coast you don’t know our mountains,” she wrote, “Mount Steele standing tall and proud amidst the Tetrahedron Range.” Even a local supermarket makes a cameo, in Cedar Grove student Knox Swaffield’s IGA: “Shopping with my mom is a nightmare. It takes so long.”
Selections for the anthology are made by a four-member adjudication panel. While such a commitment usually lasts two years, local musician and repeat adjudicator Simon Paradis has renewed his term twice, often finding inspiration in the students’ writing for original musical compositions.
The cover artwork (an arresting closeup of an eye, its iris a cerulean starburst) was designed by Elphinstone Secondary student Ashley Laila Bruce. Bruce’s painting made its public debut in January during a showcase of emerging artists at The Kube gallery.
Lucy McCulloch, a Grade 8 student from Chatelech Secondary, wrote a confessional poem in four quatrains. Its conclusion — “It’s talked about to this day / How it’s really such a shame / That onto our untouched bathtub / I carved my sister’s name” — elicited laughter from the crowd after McCulloch’s spirited reading. “It’s a true story!” she exclaimed.
Biographical reflections permeate many of the verse and prose works. “I am from all the wooden canoes that have strode across our waters,” wrote Sybil Durant, a Grade 6 student at Cedar Grove Elementary. “I am from the people who wear orange / and stand tall against the darkness that has been lashed upon them.”
The hometowns linked by Highway 101 are frequently exalted as a thriving, nature-girded community: “I realize the Coast is where I’m happiest,” sums up Ava Hynd, in Grade 12 at Chatelech Secondary. “The coast is where I’m most relaxed.”
Audio recordings of a dozen anthology contributors reading their own works can be heard online at michaelgurney.com/culture.
