The Ipswich Festival of Children’s Literature
General Report:The Ipswich Festival of Children’s Literature was held from the 6th—12th September 1999 and exceeded all expectations. The festival focussed on Primary school aged children during the week and adults and young adults with an interest in children’s literature such as teachers, librarians, students, emerging writers and illustrators on the weekend. The program during the week included meet the author sessions, hands-on writing and illustrating workshops, a 2 day writers camp for talented young writers, and a number of Internet Relay Chat sessions. The students from the writers camp attended a literary dinner with the authors, and helped to launch the first title by Brisbane authors Josie Santomauro and Mary Serenc. Josie and Mary had attended a writing workshop at the last festival in 1997, and now have their first book published. This was an inspiring moment for the budding authors at the writers camp.
Feedback from teachers, students and members of the community have stated that they benefited greatly from this festival. Teachers reported an increase in borrowing of books by the festival presenters.
The main strength of this festival is that the authors and illustrators lived on site and although some had never met before, by the end of the week some very strong connections had been made. There were many opportunities for them to share ideas and develop professionally.
The Internet Relay Chats were a great opportunity also for professional development for the authors and should result in them being able to conduct chats from their own homes. Schools unable to attend the festival in reality were given the opportunity of a virtual visit. This is a trend that should increase in the future as more schools and authors become skilled in using the technology.
There were 3730 students from 41 schools who participated in the festival during the week. Twenty-five of these were at the Writers’ Camp and 90 participated in the Internet Relay Chats. Over the weekend a total of 71 attended the sessions however the authors and illustrators also attended sessions as participants. Students came from pre-school to year 7 level. Particpants from the weekend came from a wide area of southeast Queensland including Rockhampton, Gympie, Glasshouse Mountains, and Nanango. Most were teachers and teacher-librarians but some unpublished writers attended.
Writers' Camp
More information about the festival programme