Voices on the Coast 2020: There’s always an exciting buzz in the air when students attend the Voices on the Coast Literature Festival. This year’s festival had two student days held at USC plus a number of additional events aimed at enthusing readers and emerging writers across the Sunshine Coast region. An enthusiastic group of Primary and Secondary students from Year 5 – 11 at our College were thrilled to attend this popular event.
Our students connected with authors, illustrators and guest presenters, collected some great ideas to incorporate into their own writing or heard about what inspires authors in their creative process. It’s always enlightening to learn that an idea for a story can come in a moment of creative thought or take years to transform into an amazing story journey that captivates a reader. Voices on the Coast aims to inspire readers and emerging writers to continue to pursue their love of reading and writing. This year’s event, the 25th year of the Festival was certainly a fantastic opportunity for our students to celebrate words, images and the power of the spoken and written word.
Our student feedback highlights their appreciation of the day:
I enjoyed listening to Candice Fox because it was nice to hear the backstory of an author and hear what she did to get through rejection. Voices was a great experience for both writers and book lovers. Alex – Year 11
I’d recommend Voices on the Coast Festival to people who love reading and literature as I think they would enjoy seeing all the different artists and writers – Brianna Year 9
I loved how Morris Gleitzman gave us ideas of how to start a story so that we’ll never get stuck again. – Chloe Year 6
I enjoyed the Morris Gleitzman talk the most because it was interesting to learn about ‘The Secret’ to starting a book – Elizabeth Year 7
My favourite session was with George Ivanoff. He was really funny, and I have read lots of his books so it was good to actually meet him – Amali Year 6
I really enjoyed the workshop with Mark Smith because we could interact with our own ideas – Hudson Year 9
I would definitely recommend this festival to other students because I actually enjoyed it and it helped me maintain my love for writing. If you love writing, GO! – Josh Year 7
The excitement of meeting and hearing accomplished authors share their work was definitely the highlight of the Festival. We look forward to more opportunities for our students to connect with authors and illustrators during the year.
Beryl Morris – Secondary Teacher Librarian