News from the
Library

Author Visit

On Wednesday 11 August we were delighted to once again host author Amie Kaufman and to hear about the creative writing process. Students attended a guided writing session where they were given a series of prompts to help them create their own stories with characters and plots unique to them. There were so many take-aways from these sessions, but the ones that resonated most strongly from my perspective were:

Writers are keen observers of the world around them
Writers read, a lot!
Stories rarely emerge fully formed from your brain, they require the writer to write through the rough to get to the good – the trick is to keep going (and take breaks when needed)
And lastly, writers write! You grow as an author with every piece you write, so just keep going

Our thanks again to Amie for an inspiring visit. Hopefully we will get to read some of the finished stories later this year. Here are some thoughts by students who attended:

The Amie Kaufman visit was much more interesting than I first expected. While she was there, she took us through her process to think of ideas for a story and how to incorporate tropes into our writing. It was a very engaging workshop, and everyone was challenged to think of their own idea for a story and start writing. Her lesson taught me a lot, and the skills that I learnt will certainly come in handy as I start writing more for VCE. Overall, it was an amazing period and we learnt strategies that we'd never seen before, and I would recommend attending future sessions to any avid writers looking to better their abilities.

~ Mica G

The Author visit with Amie Kaufman has inspired me to use my art skills more and expressive ways to create new stories. The easiest part about the whole process was the protagonist ideas and antagonist ideas, especially when it gets to the fun part when you get to designing. Joining this session is such a opportunity for students to gather around and make some friends and stories together. It was a blessing to have this happen and I strongly hope that it will happen again, next year in the coming 2025. ~ Holly H

At the Amie Kaufman author visit we learned new ways of planning stories with a focus on developing characters and on character motivation. Overall, it was a great experience.

~ Lincoln F

Library Leaders

Our Library Leaders program is expanding! We have just accepted several more students into the program and they are busy learning all the tasks that go into running a school library. Our more experienced cohort have taken on a mentorship roll and everyone is expanding their skills. If anyone is interested in becoming a Library Leader drop into the Library and have a chat with one of the Library staff.

Artisan of the Month

Congratulations to the winners of the August Artisan of the Month:

Student: Miguel Pedernal

Staff: James Doble

All entries can be viewed in the Gallery at the top of the Artisan of the Month channel in the Library Teams page.

The final Artisan of the Month for this year is now open. All details can be found on the Library Teams page – AotM channel. A quick overview: there are three categories: Student, Staff, and Family & Friends. Please email submissions to:

library@wantirnacollege.vic.edu.au

If it is a Family & Friends submission, please mention which student or staff member you are connected to. When submitting, please state in the email 'I declare that this entry is all my own work'.

Term 3 Resident Writers

Congratulations to Lincoln Freeman for their Term 4 winning entry. All entries can be read in the gallery at the top of the Resident Writers channel in the Library Teams page.

Term 4 Resident Writers is now open for entries. As a rough guide works should be between 250 - 350 words, shorter ok but not significantly longer. Send your entries to library@wantirnacollege.vic.edu.au with the subject line Resident Writers entry.

If it is a Family & Friends submission, please mention which student or staff member you are connected to. By submitting you agree to be published to the school community (on Teams, in the College Yearbook, etc) - let the Library know if you want to submit but prefer to keep your work anonymous. When submitting, please state in the email 'I declare that this entry is all my own work'.