2010 Young Authors Conference
March 22-26, 2010
Grades 2-6 Monday through Thursday
Grades 6-8 Friday
Cost is $22 per student
This year's featured authors are Robert Bowman and Kirby Larson
Registration is now open!
The date has been set! Join us for the 2010 Young Authors Conference to be held on March 22-26, 2010 at Skagit Valley College in Mount Vernon. Professional authors and illustrators provide hands-on workshops for students as they arrive for a day of celebrating the art of writing and illustration. Students will be stimulated and motivated in creative writing. It will encourage and support teachers who help students develop their writing abilities, and will offer an opportunity for students to have authors and illustrators as role models.
This year we are excited to welcome two featured authors - Robert Bowman will be the featured author on Monday through Thursday for students in grades 2-6. Kirby Larson will be the featured author on Friday for our midlde school students.
Robert Bowman is an author and also a principal of Outlook Elementary School in Eastern Washington. He has written an action adventure series called The Three Vests, a book about three children who discover a chest in a remote cave which, once opened, bestows incredible powers to the three children. A study guide and more information about this series can be found at the website www.threevests.com. He has also written The North Pole Santa Patrol, and his new book which will be released this spring Chase, the Silver Ghost.
Kirby Larson is the acclaimed author of the 2007 Newbery Honor Book, Hattie Big Sky, a young adult novel inspired by her great-grandmother, Hattie Inez Brooks Wright, who homesteaded by herself in Montana as a young woman. In addition, Kirby has written three books for children, including The Magic Kerchief, Two Bobbies: A True Story of Hurricane Katrina, Friendship, and Survival, and her latest book Nubs: The True Story of a Mutt, a Marine, and a Miracle.
Students begin the day by being placed in groups and getting acquainted with each other as they share their manuscript. Each group will then {child writing} spend one hour with the featured author, one hour with a local author, and one hour with a local illustrator.
Conference Guidelines:
Students are to come to the conference with a completed, bound manuscript. The conference is a reward for hard work rather than just encouragement for aspiring authors. Appropriate behavior for representing your school should be discussed with all students prior to attending the conference. You will need to have one teacher/parent chaperone for every 7-10 students attending from your school.
Registration is now open! Deadline to register is January 14, 2010 or until filled.
Anita Garcia-Holzemer, YAC Coordinating Assistant
