Festival continues to spur creativity

What started off as a way to encourage creativity in young people has culminated in a free full-day event for students from the entire region to enjoy.

The Young Writers Festival will offer young people a program of writing workshops on September 16 in conjunction with the inaugural Rockingham Writers Convention on September 17.

The event was established four years ago after Member for Warnbro Paul Papalia saw a gap in opportunities provided for young people.

“Writing and, in particular, creative writing is fundamental to young people,” he said.

Mr Papalia approached Comet Bay College Associate Dean of English Ron Barton, who took on the festival internally for two years before it became too difficult for him to run on his own.

Now a year later, with the continued support of Mr Papalia and backing from the Rockingham Writers Centre, the festival has been reborn.

“It’s tremendous that CBC and Ron, in particular, are continuing the Young Writers Festival,” Mr Papalia said.

Primary and secondary schools throughout the region are being invited to attend, with strong interest already from surrounding schools.

Student and writing enthusiast Rebecca Weldon said she would have loved to have had something like this earlier on and thought it was good that it would be reaching so many ages.

“It’s such an enjoyable event and I come away with ideas of what I want to do and write as a young author,” she said.

Lynden Hughes said one of the best things about the festival was that attendees want to be there, which meant there was a lot of enthusiasm on the day.

Students will participate in workshops on the day with experienced authors and poets sharing their wisdom and knowledge.

For more information, visit www.rockinghamwriterscentre.org.au.