Last week, 13 Year 10 students who have an interest in creative writing, and who intend to study English Advanced in Year 11, participated in a creative writing workshop as part of St Clare’s commitment to gifted education.

The two-day workshop was delivered by award winning short story author Ryan O’Neill.  Ryan is the author of The Weight of a Human Heart, Their Brilliant Careers and The Drovers Wives and his fiction has appeared in The Best Australian Stories, The Sleepers Almanac, Meanjin, New Australian Stories, Wet Ink, Etchings and Westerly.  Ryan has won many awards for his writing, including, in 2017, The Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Their Brilliant Careers.  The school has purchased several copies of Ryan’s books, and these are available for borrowing from the school library.

Over the course of the workshop, students completed a range of creative writing exercises to build their skills in creative writing and reading as a writer.  Activities included writing a story on a sticky note, describing a sunset without using the letter ‘e’, and writing a short story in a list form.  Students shared their work with one another and with Ryan, receiving valuable feedback.

The workshop was an enrichment program and students expressed that they valued and appreciated the opportunity to learn from such an expert.  St Clare’s looks forward to working with Ryan in the future to continue to provide creative writing enrichment opportunities to students.

Niko Campbell-Ellis
Gifted Education Mentor