State Library Victoria

Do you have big dreams of writing a novel, penning a poem or publishing your own zine?
Or do you have something to say, but you're not quite sure how to get it out into the world?

This is your chance to meet and learn from some of Australia’s most exciting and inspiring storytellers in a free* school holiday workshop for 12- to 15-year-olds.
Over three days you'll explore story, poetry and performance, building your creative skills and finding out how to turn your passion into a career.

Lunch and transport costs provided.

April Story Camp workshops
Fiction with Kirsty Murray
Learn how to craft a compelling story from multi-award-winning children’s and young adult author Kirsty Murray. Spanning many genres from speculative fiction to historical and contemporary fiction, Kirsty’s novels include The year it all ended, The four seasons of Lucy McKenzie, India dark, Vulture's gate, Market blues, and the epic quartet of historical fiction, Children of the wind. Kirsty is a nominee for the prestigious 2018 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for her contribution to young people’s literature. Explore different methods of storytelling with Kirsty and develop your own unique voice.

Slam poetry with Sukhjit Khalsa
Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa is a first generation Australian Sikh spoken word artist, educator, performer & human rights reformer. Sukhjit has gone from performing at the Opera House for the Australian Poetry Slam Competition in 2014 to appearing on national television for Australia’s Got Talent. Most recently she was a speaker at TedxUWA. With experience tackling topics such as Australian identity, feminism and cultural confusions on stage, Sukhjit will help you provoke conversations – even uncomfortable ones – with your words.

Visual storytelling with Texta Queen
Texta Queen is known for using the humble fibre-tip marker to draw out complex politics of gender, race, sexuality and identity. She has exhibited wildly and widely, from bedroom shrines to the wide white walls of the Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane; de Young Museum, San Francisco; Elga Wimmer Gallery, New York and Kunsthalle Darmstadt, Germany. Her work is also held in the collections of leading cultural institutions including National Gallery of Victoria, Heide Museum of Modern Art and the National Portrait Gallery of Australia. She is a current State Library of Victoria Creative Fellow. Let Texta Queen teach you how to make a statement with your own masterpiece.

* This program is free for young people who attend a school with an Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage (ICSEA) rating of less than 1000 - contact us to check your school’s rating.

Story Camp will also run:
3–5 July 2018
2–4 October 2018

[email protected]
03 8664 7014
Centre For Youth Literature
State Library Victoria