3. Tristan Bancks (June 6-17 2012)
Last but not least was Tristan Bancks: a novelist, writer of the Nit Boy and Mac Slater books, and developer of the ‘Story Scrapbook’ brainstorming app.
Tristan was selected because of the quality and interest of his novels, and the interest value of the app for the young community in Armidale. Tristan delivered a series of writing workshops at schools and in the community that were of great interest and well received.
Workshops with students from Drummond School, Kingstown Primary, and The Armidale School, at which he used the story scrapbook app to brainstorm stories with the students.
Workshops with students from Drummond School, Kingstown Primary, and The Armidale School, at which he used the story scrapbook app to brainstorm stories with the students.
Public writing workshops at the New England Regional Art Museum:
- Character Building
- Vision Boarding
Public talk at the University of New England: Writing for the Children’s Market.
Public reading at the Armidale Dumaresq Council War Memorial Library.
Interviews with ABC New England, Kelly Fuller, and the Armidale Independent.
While resident in Armidale, Tristan worked on his latest novel.
Dear Liz
Thank you so much for a fantastic two weeks in Armidale. I was so impressed by the organisation and by the way you looked after me while I was there – driving me to events, ensuring that I was well-fed and watered and for promoting the events effectively so that there was a strong audience each time.
I enjoyed the broad array of audiences that you targeted the events towards – from toddlers in Story Time at the local library to primary school children in three very different schools (Kingstown, Drummond and TAS) to the university and TAFE teacher / student community and then the events for the broader children's literature and writerly community at the weekend NERAM workshops. The diversity of audiences kept me on my toes and interested and also made me feel that we were making strong inroads into the New England creative community.
I also heard wonderful reports about the other presenters that you have brought to the region this year. I would love to return to Armidale at some point to carry on with this work. Please let me know if the opportunity arises.
Children's literature and creative communities need humans like you to make these kinds of programs happen.
Thanks again.
Tristan.
