teen writing experience E-mail
  • An immersion writing workshop with day-long sessions providing professional writing instruction to promising young writers ages 14-18.
  • A joint venture between the Saskatchewan Festival of Words and Sage Hill Writing Experience www.sagehillwriting.ca.
  • Emphasizes the learning and development of self-editing skills through writing assignments, critiques, discussions, with guest presenters.
  • Attended by 14 youth from all parts of the province.
  • Concludes with the participants reading original works completed during the five-day workshop in a dedicated Festival time slot.
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STUDENT TESTIMONIAL

JULY 2010

 

MY LEGACY OF TWE

Reflecting on Half a Decade of Writing and Friendship

By Blake Pritchard

 

            The Teen Writing Experience. Five years ago, I discovered this program in a Festival of Words newsletter. I had no idea just how important this workshop would be to my well-being. Before attending the TWE, my writing ability was premature, to put it mildly. In comparison to the dedicated writers attending TWE, already creating manuscripts in their youth, I clearly had a lot of work ahead of me. While I never managed to create a project ambitious enough for a novella until recently, the TWE carries a far greater relevance in my life, something I would’ve been otherwise deprived of. Can you guess it? It was friendship.

            In retrospect, high school was not as memorable for myself as one might have expected. The encompassing cliques of relatively small student body excluded me because there was simply no one I connected with. In grade 12, I grew so weary of my peers and monotonous lifestyle that I yearned for the school year to end. This all changed during one momentous week of summer each year. Perhaps it was out common ground of writing that bonded us, or maybe our oddities that cursed us back home. (Perhaps they too faced a similar dilemma in high school.) We were a crazy bunch, obsessed with anime films, role-playing hierarchies, quality literature and hating on Twilight whenever appropriate.

            If happiness can be pinpointed in my life, then look no further than the TWE for perfect coordinates. I will never forget the blessings these fellow teens graced me with. Combine this friendship with the outstanding expertise of our favourite leader, Angie Abdou, and you have an understanding of why this meant so much to us. In fact, the smaller size this year made bonding particularly easy for newcomers, who made up most of TWE’s members. I would recommend maintaining a similar size next summer. (It helps Angie immensely when organizing our readouts!)

            Unfortunately, none of us escape the heartache of TWE’s inevitable end each year, because our sense of belonging attaches itself to the memories shared there. (We even had former TWE veterans return just to visit everyone!) This sense of loss is contrasted by the exhilaration from sharing our work at the readout. Truly, it’s no surprise why the regulars make themselves regulars – we simply yearn to relive it all again each summer! It’s astonishing to think that in the past five years of my life, the moments I remember so clearly are those spent at TWE. There will always be other writing workshops in the future, no doubt. Each populated with like-minded individuals. But for now, I have one writing experience that defines my adolescence, and that includes the veterans of TWE, who shall forever remain the heroes and heroines of my youth.