The Kootenay Literary Competition has secured funding from the Columbia Basin Trust Youth Grants Program to develop the talents of young writers this winter.
A new Writer in Residence program is set to run at three School District 8 schools, including L.V. Rogers, Trafalgar and Mount Sentinel.
Writers visit classrooms occasionally, but to have an experienced creative writer available to work with students over multiple visits allows for more depth and skill development. The author who will take on the residency is Julia Caceres Booth, who grew up in the Slocan Valley, graduated from Mount Sentinel, and studied creative writing at Selkirk College.
Caceres Booth started her post-secondary studies in psychology, but found her voice in writing courses.
“The creative writing program [at Selkirk College] really is an exceptional program,” she said, adding she hopes to help local students experience empathy and connection to community through the process of writing.
“Youth can a be a lonely time. Kids struggle with questions like, ‘what to do, where to go next?’ Writing can be a solace... it reminds us that we are in this together.”
The residency will begin at LVR in February for one month, then move to Trafalgar middle school followed by Mount Sentinel.
Young writers as well as adults from the region are invited to submit work to the Kootenay Literary Competition, which closes on January 17. Cash prizes and publication will be awarded to the winners; details are available on the KLC website.
Questions about the competition can be emailed through the website (kootenaylitcomp.com), or directed to Morty Mint at 250-352-7844.