Young Author’s Conference

The students’ day began with an opening session featuring the keynote speaker, Mary Casanova.  Casanova talked about her dream of becoming an author ever since she was a young girl.  She also showed the students how she creates her books and the changes that she must make to each page.  Casanova then talked to the students about her achievements as an author, which included writing over 30 books such as “Grace Stirs It Up” in the American Girl Series, “Riot”, a historical fiction and YA Novels such as “Ice Out”. 

Afterwards the students attended three sessions out of 15 sessions with other notable authors such as Debbie Hoven, William Durbin, and Sheryl Peterson.  A few of these classes taught the students about how to create fictional characters in “Flash Fiction!” with Mary Casanova, write scripts for movies in “Writing a Movie Scene” with Bly and Rowan Pope, and learning how to draw inspiration from nature in “Writing about Nature through the Eyes of a Wildlife Photographer” with Steve Maanum.  Later, the students had an opportunity to buy several different books from a small book fair.  Upon returning to school from the trip, students said that they had enjoyed going to the event.