Author Maggie de Vries introduced young writers to the world of writing at Gibsons Elementary School last week.
Thanks to Vancouver Inter-national Writers Fes-tival's (VIWF) Spreading the Word program, de Vries acted as a writer in residence at the school where she inspired and advised students in a Grade 6/7 class.
This year, one student from the class will be chosen to receive further mentorship from de Vries. She will mentor the student for eight weeks following the residency and work with him or her on a piece of writing that is already in progress. At the end of the eight weeks, the student's work will be posted on the VIWF's website. The mentorship component was made possible by support for the Writer in Residence program from Amazon.
"Writer in Residence is a vital outreach program that allows us to introduce young readers to the magic of the written word, despite the geographic and financial limitations that prevent them from attending the festival," said artistic director Hal Wake. "Maggie de Vries is an award-winning children's writer, who has the ability to engage young people with her writing workshops."
De Vries is a writer for children and adults, whose passion lies with writing, teaching and giving workshops. De Vries regularly gives presentations to audiences of all ages. Since she works as both a writer and an editor, she speaks on where she gets her ideas, her own books and the writing and editing process.
"The opportunity to have a writer like Maggiein our classrooms has been such a privilege," said Bev Craig, literacy resource teacher for School District No. 46. "Maggie's insights and strategies are already being shared among teachers. Her work will have a ripple effect and benefit many students in the district."
During the week, de Vries also visited the Grade 6-7 students at Halfmoon Bay Elementary School and students at the Sunshine Coast Alternative School in Sechelt.
The Vancouver Inter-national Writers Festival's Spreading the Word school program offers two writer-in-residence programs each year to communities that cannot attend the festival because of geographic and/or economic limitations and is supported by Amazon and the Michael R. Shaw Outreach Fund. This year as well, Celebration of Authors, Books and Children is assisting with accommodation during the Writer in Residence stay.
The Vancouver Inter-national Writers Festival also produces an annual festival on Granville Island in October, and has recently launched Incite, a free regular reading series in partnership with Vancouver Public Library. For information on Incite see www.writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite.
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