It's a time-honoured tradition at the Saskatchewan Festival of Words to welcome teen writers to take the stage and share a piece of their work, and this year’s Teen Read Out event welcomed a group of clearly blossoming authors.
The reading session is the conclusion to the Sage Hill Writing Experience, a week-long intensive writing workshop that brings together teen writers from across the province under the mentorship of a literary expert.
Author Kristine Scarrow conducted the workshop for the third year in a row, and played emcee to 14 young presenters at this year’s event.
Readings ranged from fiction to spoken word poetry to novel excerpts, all written and read by workshop participants.
“The creativity of this group is outstanding,” said Scarrow, in her remarks. “These writers are fierce, formidable and on fire, and we shared a lot of laughs this week.”
The workshop group was a mix of new and returning attendees, said Scarrow, and she lauded the teens for being supportive of each other, which is a big proponent of the workshop itself.
“As writers, we know that the notion of sharing leaves us feeling really vulnerable,” said Scarrow. “Sharing our writing is like bearing a piece of our souls and it takes serious courage to share our work with one another, and even more so with a larger audience and the world.”
The Sage Hill Writing Workshop is supported by the Festival of Words each year, and also works to bring literary opportunities to schools and communities across the province throughout the entire year.
The Festival of Words continues throughout the weekend, including upcoming in-person events hosted at the Mae Wilson Theatre in Moose Jaw on Saturday and Sunday.
