Students from across the Foothills gathered at Holy Trinity Academy yesterday for the 2019 Foothills Young Authors Conference.

Kids had a choice from a wide variety workshops presented by authors, artists, and creators of all kinds, as well as a keynote speech from author David Bouchard.

Bouchard says all the media currently at our disposal serves as inspiration for kids, rather than a distraction.

"It's a plethora of venues that come at them from all directions; video games, movies, Netflix, certainly audiobooks, and of course books will always and have always been there. Their imaginations are awoke in such vibrant ways. It gets their minds going and it allows us to think outside the box. These kids are subject to so many neat ways of lighting their fire, and today's just one example of that. "

He says students now have more creative resources than ever before, and it's not hard to get them excited about utilizing these tools.

"They get to come and listen to authors and illustrators talk about how they write and what they like to write about, and these kids will go home thinking "okay, I can do that, and here's the medium I want to use." We're not all novelists. Some of us are poets, some of us are graphic novelists, there's just so many different mediums now. I have no idea what I'd do if I were young and in their boots and I saw all the options open for me. You can see it in their eyes, their enthusiastic! It's funny when you can see a twelve or a thirteen year old say "hey I wanna be a writer and here's the kind of thing I want to write." It's just brilliant how so many of these kids are well read; and you often you end up writing what you've read. So a lot of these kids are into high fiction or action or adventure and they will write that because they developed that kind of imagination!"

This was the 30th Foothills Young Authors Conference, arranged by the Foothills School Division as well as Christ the Redeemer Catholic Schools, and saw several board members in attendance, as well as a total of over 600 students.

 

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