An excited group of students from Years 5 – 12 were thrilled to be selected to attend the Voices on the Coast Literature Festival organised by Immanuel Lutheran College and hosted at the University of the Sunshine Coast. This year’s event, the 28th year of the Festival, was certainly a fantastic opportunity for our students to celebrate stories, illustrations and the power of the written and spoken word. The return to a live festival, the first since 2020 was well received by staff, students, organisers and all the authors and illustrators involved. There is something extraordinary that happens when you connect students and acclaimed authors and illustrators, providing them with an authentic context for the sharing of stories and igniting imaginations! 

Our student feedback highlights their appreciation of the day:

Thank you for inviting me to Voices on the Coast. It was really fun and exciting. The authors were great and they helped me with a lot of things. I really loved meeting Nat Amoore. My writing has already changed. – Hannah R, Year 5

I loved hearing about all the authors and illustrators and the tips they shared. – Bella R, Year 5

I loved the story-building workshop with Matt Stanton. It will be really useful in class. – Amelia B, Year 5

I loved how we got autographs from authors like Matt Stanton. – Sam D Year 5

I loved drawing in the workshop and learning about authors and illustrators. – Calen P Year 5

I loved listening to the different authors and getting their autographs. I also liked talking with my friends, having lunch together and laughing. I loved buying some books too! – Erin D Year 6

I loved listening to all of the authors and illustrators. – Bryce S, Year 6

Nat Amoore was so funny! I loved when we had to guess which event was true and which was false about her life. – Byron L, Year 6

I loved the talk with Nat Amoore, she was so funny and had me and my friends cracking up laughing. – Harriet S, Year 6

My favourite part of today was getting to meet all the authors and hearing about their paths to becoming writers. It was an overall great day! – Allegra C, Year 6

We met some amazing authors who each had their own approach to writing. For me, it was amazing to meet Miranda Luby and have her guidance on what to do to reach my best writing performance.  My favourite quote from Miranda is  “You should always write about something you CARE about” Thank you to Mrs Morris, Mr Maguire, Mr Watson and Mrs McKeown for organising the day out to the Uni and making it a successful event!  – Oliver G, Year 9

I enjoyed the talks the most because they were engaging and the authors gave a lot of good information – Joshua N, Year 8

The session from Dee White who writes war books was my favourite! I love learning about World War II, so it was really good. – Mahlia S, Year 8

My favourite was the one with Miranda Luby because I was able to finally see her in person and get an autograph! –  Laura C, Year 8

I highly recommend going to the festival next time because it is like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go with wonderful teachers and you probably will never get a chance like it to meet authors and illustrators personally to get their signature – that is the next level of literature! – Annabel, D, Year 8

The workshop challenged me to expand on a character I had previously made. – Naarah H, Year 8

I definitely recommend this Festival to other students because you get to meet great Aussie authors and learn really good tips and tricks for your writing. – Samantha D, Year 8

I enjoyed going to the sessions and learning about how the authors wrote their books and where they got their inspiration from. I thoroughly enjoyed the third session with Tristan Bancks. I liked it because I had actually read some of his books already! I thought it was cool to learn about how he wrote his books, and the process it took to make them.  – Lotty K, Year 9

The excitement of meeting and hearing accomplished authors share their work was definitely the highlight of the Festival.  Special thanks to the wonderful staff and parent helpers who assisted us on the excursion. We look forward to more opportunities for our students to connect with authors and illustrators and for them to be inspired to read more and share their own writing!

Vanessa McKellar and Beryl Morris, Teacher Librarians

See more photos here for Primary and here for Secondary.