New Shoot

The Vancouver Writers Fest is the cerebration of literatures and stories, told by authors, poets and various performers. The festival takes place in the Granville Island in Vancouver for a week during October. I was very lucky to have a chance to go to the festival with my classmates on its 30th years.  

We attended the 83rd event of the festival called New Shoot. It is a program that was launched over 30 years ago by the Vancouver school board to foster creative writing in public schools. 

The festival invited high school teacher, writers and students to come in and read their creative writing piece to the audience. The two students from Gladstone Secondary School gave out poetry and short story readings. I was impressed by the short story by an asian girl from grade 12. The story was about the early life of narrator's grandfather. Many Chinese elements are incorporated in the story and the author creates vivid images throughout the story to make it interesting. The event was followed up with a brief interview with guests and some poetry readings by the audiences. 

I'd say the festival is pretty interesting to me. Although the event I attended is fairly simple, it was still a great experience to hear from writers and other creative writing students.