Convent of the Sacred Heart Upper School students and faculty will participate in the sixth annual Writers Festival. Greenwich Academy will host the event Saturday, February 21 which will include writing workshops, readings and discussions with published writers.
“It’s a great experience for writers and non-writers alike. You get to meet some famous authors and take some time out of your busy schedule to think in new and creative ways,” Abigail Smith ’14, who attended the event last year, said.
Katie Nail ’16
Greenwich Academy started the Writers Festival tradition in 2008 and has since continued the tradition in collaboration with Sacred Heart and the Brunswick School. A small group of literary magazine staff, editors and teachers from each school organize the event in order to introduce writing outside of the classroom setting.
Upper School English Teacher Dr. Cristina Baptista is a member of the Writers Festival committee and believes the day will be full of opportunities for students.
“It’s a chance to engage with practicing writers who are making a living from their craft, as well as make students better global and literary citizens,” Dr. Baptista said.
Many published writers, including teen fiction writer Mrs. Annabelle Monaghan, poet Mr. Stephen Cramer, and essayist Mrs. Angela Palm will attend this year’s Writers Festival. Each of these individuals will introduce their work, give a sampling, and then explain their own unique writing process.
Mrs. Palm, author of Please Do Not Remove and recent winner of the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize for her collection of essays Riverine, will share her literary experience with students.
Mr. Cramer will talk about his latest work “From the Hip: A Concise History of Hip Hop (in sonnets).” His poetry ties together two literary worlds and appeals to a large audience, giving them a new appreciation for rap or sonnets, according to sevendaysvt.com.
Mrs. Monaghan, author of A Girl named Digit and its sequel Double Digit, is a teen fiction writer who speaks at middle schools and high schools across the country.
Mrs. Kelsey Cohen, Middle School Librarian at Hommocks Middle School in Larchmont, New York, commented on Mrs. Monaghan’s ability to inspire students.
Mrs. Monaghan “engaged students with a spirited, interactive presentation about the writing process and the challenges all writers face,” Mrs. Cohen said according to anabellemonaghan.com.
Past sessions at the Writers Festival have included opportunities for students to work one-on-one with published authors and obtain valuable personal feedback.
“I am really looking forward to improving my skills as a writer and learning from published authors about their trade,” Sacred Heart junior Olivia Thurman, who plans to attend the festival, said. “I think the expeience writing in workshops with these authors will be invaluable, and I am sure my story-telling and creative writing skills will improve under their guidance.”
For more information please contact Dr. Baptista at [email protected].
– Nebai Hernandez, Staff Writer