Young talent

Perfect storm of stories

Rivers Brain Storm is an exciting writing initiative specifically designed to identify and foster talented young writers and illustrators from across the Northern Rivers. Here, one of its founders and developers, Polly Jude, reflects on a special project that is going from strength to strength.

The Rivers Secondary College was officially gazetted in 2015 and comprises of Richmond River High Campus, Kadina High Campus and Lismore High Campus. The three campuses work together to ensure every student is safe, supported and successful with a bright future. Data analysis from across the Rivers Secondary College quickly identified the fundamental importance of developing a program to engage young writers and to help in the development of their craft. Former Rivers Secondary College Executive Principal, Mr Greg Smith, and myself, a Kadina High Campus English teacher, had an idea and Rivers Brain Storm was born. It didn’t take long for that little idea to grow. Our vision to engage students from across the whole region in a collaborative project was well received. Now in its third year, Rivers Brain Storm has developed into a thrilling opportunity for young creative students. Gifted and talented writers from the three Rivers Secondary College campuses and year 5 and year 6 students from the thirty-three Rivers primary partner schools are invited to apply to be involved in the program. With support from the Byron Writers Festival StoryBoard program, our young writers meet and work with a local author and mentor for four days. During these sessions, students develop ideas, build characters, find the heart of a story, write, draft, edit and polish their work until they have developed a 500-1,000-word story. So far, our primary school writers have been lucky enough to work with Zanni Louise, Tristan Bancks and Samantha Turnbull. Our secondary mentors have been Jesse Blackadder, Melaina Faranda and Sarah Armstrong. These mentors work with the kids over four fantastic, crazy, exciting, and energetic days. And then things get really interesting. The call goes out to the same thirty-six primary and secondary schools; we need talented illustrators. Our illustrators then work with a finished story and an illustrator’s brief written by the author. These students interpret the work and bring their own ideas to the storytelling process. With support from an artist and illustrator, the students develop the key ideas or moments from the stories into art. Sometimes, they select an object from the story, such as an important locket or a time machine, and explore that. Other artists go for a more general motif, like the spooky forest setting of the story, and represent that. Our artistic mentors have been Misa Alexander and Michelle Dawson. They have really helped the students find ways to develop their craft and explore visual storytelling. As our project continues to expand, we’ve brought Rivers Secondary College, Lismore High Campus art teacher, Simon Clark, to help our illustrators. Simon has been an invaluable addition to the team in 2021. Once the original stories and artwork have been combined, there’s an anxious wait as the authors eagerly anticipate seeing how the illustrators have explored their ideas. They don’t have to wait forever. By November, we will be ready to launch the book, Rivers Brain Storm, 2021. Authors, illustrators, mentors, parents and families, principals and teachers from all thirty-six schools, and

everyone else who made it possible, are invited to The Rivers Secondary College, Kadina High Campus for the book launch, where the writers and illustrators will sign copies of Rivers Brain Storm. It’s the first time most of the illustrators and authors get to meet each other and see how their work has come together. It’s an exciting evening for all. Year 11 hospitality students cater the event, which is a celebration of the creative spirit of kids from our region. Thanks to the Rivers Secondary College, 500 copies of Rivers Brain Storm are published and distributed across the Far North Coast. We love thinking that in each of the thirty-six schools involved, there could be ‘the next big thing’ picking up our anthology and becoming inspired to get creative. Another important element of our program is that at the completion of their stories, primary writers are encouraged to submit their work to the Jesse Blackadder Prize and secondary writers are encouraged to submit to the Susie Warrick Young Writers Award. In 2019, we were thrilled to have two prize-winning stories in our anthology. In 2021, we are overjoyed to have one of our primary school writers, Caleb Scherrer, awarded runner-up in the inaugural Jesse Blackadder Prize. Caleb’s story, ‘The Thief’, explores the devastating impacts of dementia. Jesse Blackadder was our first secondary mentor and a key figure in developing this project into what it is today. It seems fitting that one of our writers was successful in the competition held in her name. Although not everyone could win, we are thrilled to hear a number of our writers were shortlisted in both competitions. You can read Caleb’s story on the Byron Writers Festival blog. Rivers Brain Storm simply wouldn’t happen without Byron Writers Festival’s StoryBoard. The support offered, the love of stories and sharing ideas, the outstanding mentors provided and the ongoing commitment to young writers has been amazing. Thanks to the mentors, students, teachers and everyone else involved (and there are too many to name individually), Rivers Brain Storm has become the flagship of public education in our region.