Gaithersburg Book Festival Hosts Free Workshops for Students

From Gaithersburg Book Festival: The Gaithersburg Book Festival will host a wide array of writing and illustrating workshops designed for students from elementary school to high school. Offered for free and led by writing and graphics professionals, the children’s writing workshops take place on Saturday, May 20, 2017, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on the grounds of City Hall (31 S. Summit Ave., Gaithersburg, MD 20877).

The workshops include:

How to Write a “How-To” (Ages 7-15)

Presented by 826DC

Students have different talents and interests, and this workshop, presented by non-profit 826DC, will help them harness all of it into a fun series of “how-to’s.” The key to this exercise is to get students thinking about what lesson, exactly, they can share with their peers and the world at large. Participants will learn how to make a small pocket-size book of collective knowledge in zine-form.

Comics Character Team Up (Ages 6-15)

Presented by Dave Roman and Alexis Frederick-Frost

Authors Dave Roman (“Astronaut Academy,” “Teen Boat”) and Alexis Frederick-Frost (“Adventures in Cartooning”) join forces for an interactive workshop that’s all about developing unique characters and collaborating with fellow artists to create unexpected comic stories full of twists and turns.

Three Different Ways to Design and Create Cool Creatures and Characters (Ages 6-15)

Presented by Timothy Young

Timothy Young – who has a been a head model-maker for Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, designed and built Muppets for Jim Henson, and sculpted the first Simpsons toys – will teach participants how to draw creatures and characters using three different techniques: doodling, sketching and scribbling.

Journal Writing for Young Sports Fans (Ages 8-15)

Presented by Fred Bowen

Be a sportswriter. Cover your own team or even a pro team. Discover more about your sport, yourself and the joy of writing, while creating a memory book you’ll want to have your whole life. Fred Bowen – Washington Post KidsPost sports columnist and author of “Quarterback Season” (about a kid who keeps a journal) – will provide tips and advice. Participants will learn what to put in their journals (rosters, game schedules) and how to think and write in new ways about the games they play and love.

Fiction and Fun! (Ages 7-15)

Presented by Jocquelyn Downs

Do you like writing fantasy? Realistic fiction? Or are dystopian worlds more your style? Then join this workshop, where participants will be encouraged to create a piece of fiction through original Writopia creative writing games, while getting stellar feedback from published authors trained in its method. At the end of the workshop, writers are encouraged to read their work and receive constructive feedback from fellow writers and instructors.

Make Your Own Sketchbook (Ages 5-11)

Presented by Elise Gravel

Montreal, Canada-based author/illustrator Elise Gravel will share her sketchbook and then teach children how to create their own art notebook by giving them ideas, props and instructions on how to let themselves go and create. Drawn & Quarterly will provide the sketchbooks and markers for workshop participants.

No pre-registration is required for these free workshops. Participants should just plan to show up at the time their preferred workshop is scheduled to start. Workshops are generally limited to 20 participants, but individual presenters can expand the workshop at their discretion.

For more information about the workshops, the presenters and the schedule, including additional workshops geared for older teens and adult writers, please visit the Workshop page of the GBF website.

Image via Pixabay