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Lit Fest 201 0
College News
Old Saint returns to College
TALENTED botanist, artist and illustrator Ellen Hickman reminisced about 'the good old days' when she returned to her former school in March, asa guest presenter at Lit Fest 2010: Storylines.
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THE All Saints' College 1985 graduate joined more than 30 respected local and national authors, illustrators, storytellers, poets, journalists, playwrights and artists at the annual three-day festival.
Students, teachers and literature enthusiasts throughout Western Australia converged at the Bull Creek campus to be inspired and captivated by their favourite storytellers.
It was little surprise to hear that Ellen's favourite subject at school was Art, a passion she has continued to pursue throughout her successful career.
Ellen conducted in-class sessions with All Saints' College Art students, discussing her work as a freelance artist and botanist, followed by question and answer time.
The students admired her portfolio of art work and browsed the pages of the first children's book she illustrated, Hooray for Chester. Ellen's most recent book Tuart Dwellers, was awarded the Wilderness Society's Best Picture Book Award and was short-listed for the Children's Book Council Eva Pownall Award for Information Books in 2009.
Other highlights of this year's Lit Fest program included workshops by WA Ballet and WA Youth Theatre, Sensational String Shows performed by energetic storyteller Clare Stace, and an Ethics in Sport discussion panel led by ABC presenter James Lush.
The College was also excited to welcome award-winning author Hazel Edwards to this year's festival, coinciding with the 30th anniversary of her popular children's book There's a Hippopotamus on our Roof Eating Cake.
Lit Fest 2010
Lit Fest Young Writers' Competition
THE theme for the 2010 Lit Fest Young Writers' Competition reflected the 100th anniversary of our sponsor, Girl Guides WA. This year the Girl Guides celebrate 100 years of changing lives and opening doors for all girls and boys through education.
ENTRANTS were asked to write a poem about being 100 years old, a story with the line 'I am 100 years old and camping, how did I get here?', or to illustrate 100 years of camping. Entries were received from Esperance to Broome, and many places in between.
All Saints' College Year4 student Georgia Balding won the Prose Years 1-7 category. Her story took two friends to the future where they were 100-year-old men camping before magic could bring them back home. Year 9 student David Mano was commended for his story about a father and son on a camping trip in Africa, reconnecting with one another and coming to terms with the loss of a loved one.
Congratulations to Georgia and David, and to everyone who entered the competition.
Mrs Kris Williams Literature Festival Coordinator
Excerpt from: Too Old Too Soon By Georgia Balding - Year 4
HI, my name is Max. Let me tell you about the time a simple drawing changed my life. That Saturday started like any other day. My friend Billy was coming over and Mum was making me clean up my room. Billy and I had been friends since Kindy. We are very different. Billy is not very smart and he goofs around all the time.
We have one main thing in common - we love to draw! We spend hours on my bedroom floor, drawing crazy characters from our imagination and dreams of what we want to do when we are older.
When Billy arrived, we went straight to my room and started to draw. Billy was acting crazy as usual. His first drawing was of us as 100-year-old men. Wrinkles and all, we laughed so hard that Billy nearly wet his pants!
We drew for the whole morning. We were getting hungry when Mum called us for lunch. I stacked all our drawings together, when something really weird happened. My fingers started to tingle and lights flashed before my eyes. Then everything went black. I tried to yell for Billy, but no words came out.
As the darkness turned to light, I still couldn't see because my eyes were blurry. I rubbed them hard, but it didn't help. Now I was starting to panic. I could hear the wind rustling the trees and crickets chirping. I stumbled around and found what felt like a pair of glasses and put them on. I was glad I could finally see, but where was I?
As I looked around me, I realised I was in a tent. I unzipped the flap and called for Billy, this was really weird! A funny looking old man was standing outside. "Who are you?" I said. "I'm Billy, who are you?" asked the old man. I told him I was Max. After a short time staring at each other, we worked out who we were. "No way!" we both cried. "Man, you're old!" I told Billy. "So are you!" replied Billy.
It was too weird to believe that this was happening to us. "We have turned into the future Max and Billy, just like in our drawings!" I said.
By Georgia Balding - Year 4 (Winner, Prose Years 1-7)
Volunteer efforts celebrated at Lit Fest 20 10
ANOTHER All Saints' College Literature Festival has been and gone and preparations are underway for the 10th Anniversary Festival to be held in 2011.
THIS year's three-day event was held from 17-19 March, and once again, Lit Fest put forward a talented list of presenters from much-loved authors to those for whom the Festival was their first time presenting in front of an audience.
Children were delighted with stories encompassing everything from a hippopotamus on a roof,samurai and other worlds, to sports heroes and indigenous stories. Ballet, theatre and comedy, added to a full program of many and varied Storylines.
Much of the success of Lit Fest is thanks to the tireless work of adult and student volunteers. This issue of The Dove celebrates the wonderful work they do each year. My first experience of Lit Fest was as a parent volunteer at the inaugural Festival in 2002. Each year about 70 adult volunteers, ably led by Jane Snowden, assist in the venues, bookshop, cafe, ice-eream van, canteen, as drivers, and in the general running of the event. Student volunteers from Years 9 to 12 have an important role to play as ambassadors of the College. They escort presenters to the venues, introduce them, ensure the sessions run to schedule, assist with audio visuals, supervise the information booth and ensure the adult volunteers have everything they need.
Thank you. We could not do it without you!
"The Literature Festival is always the highlight of my year. I have been volunteering for the past two years and it has always been extremely enjoyable." Nicole Devoy (student volunteer)
"Please congratulate the students, especially Nicole and Matt, who showed initiative and anticipated the needs of the presenters." Hazel Edwards (author)
"The volunteers were uniformly superb." Michael Pryor (author)
Th roug h the eyes of a student volunteer
THE All Saints' College Literature Festival is always an amazing experience. It opens up a world of writing, illustrating and storytelling to students from Kindergarten to Year 12 -a world they would rarely have the opportunity to experience first-hand, if not for this annual three-day event.
Writing is a profession that some people regard as nonprofitable and pointless. However, as both an audience member and presenter at Lit Fest 2010, it became clear that the world of writing is a fascinating one, and one in which many students aspire to be part of in the future.
This year's Lit Fest was outstanding and provided a chance to meet some truly inspiring men and women who loved their vocation of professional writing. It also gave hope tothose students who wanted to become part of the industry, and who did not know where to start.
The opportunity to meet people who created worlds and characters for a living was, for everyone, a marvellous experience. To meet famous authors, talk to them and learn from their advice, will never be forgotten by all those who presented and attended sessions at the Literature Festival.
This was my fifth and final year as a student presenter at the All Saints' College Literature Festival, and I will forever remember it as one of my favourites. It was an opportunity to meet some truly amazing authors, some of whom I already admired and read their books, and others whom I met and then proceeded to buy their books based on the knowledge, understanding and brilliance they showed in the art of writing.
Shannon Beaffie - Year 12
