Available for virtual visits: Yukon, Quebec, Newfoundland & Labrador
Craft: Author
Genre: Teen Fiction
Target Audience: Grades 7-12
Cost for School and Public Presentation: $250.00, plus applicable taxes
Biography
Sarah Raughley grew up in Southern Ontario writing stories about freakish little girls with powers because she secretly wanted to be one. Sarah has been nominated for the Aurora Award for Best Young Adult novel for Legacy of Light, the final book of her first trilogy, The Effigies Series. The Lady of Rapture, the final book of her second trilogy, The Bones of Ruin, releases in April 2024. As an academic, Sarah teaches creative writing at Lakehead University. Her research concerns representations of race and gender in popular media culture, youth culture and postcolonialism. She has edited special issues in academic journals such Safundi, Popular Music and Society, and Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Culture and Social Justice. She’s also written freelance pieces for The Conversation, Quill & Quire and Zora Magazine. She is represented by literary agent Natalie Lakosil.
Presentation Information:
Workshop 1: Writing Across Genres (Grades 7-12)
Workshop can be adapted to suit older audiences or middle school audiences
Workshop Description/Overview
This workshop is an introduction to the practical study of creative writing, focusing specifically on fiction. Through lectures, discussions, creative activities, and workshops, students will learn the art of expressing and evoking emotion and depicting life through language. The workshop will give an overview of fiction genres and teach students techniques of writing to specific market categories of fiction.
Learner Outcomes
Upon successful completion of the workshop, students will be able to:
- Recognize and use various conventions of genre
- Produce creative narratives in short form that appeal to diverse audiences
- Understand the process of submitting pieces for publication
- Use different techniques to draw out creativity
- Understand the pitfalls that may stand in the way of creativity and productivity
- Identify and make use of literary devices (plot, setting, figures of speech, theme, point of view) and rhetorical techniques (simile, alliteration, allegory, metaphor)
- Produce grammatically correct and engaging prose that shows effective use of story structure
- Discuss and evaluate the work of peers and other authors (ie: read like a writer)
Texts I’ll be Using (Not Required of Students): Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
Workshop 2: The Short Story (Grades 7-12)
Workshop can be adapted to suit older audiences
Workshop Description/Overview
This workshop is a practical study of creative writing. We will specifically be studying creative short fiction from seminal authors. Through lectures, discussions, creative activities and workshops, students will learn the art of writing short stories through critical analysis and creative experimentation. By learning to read like a writer, students will become adept at expressing and evoking emotion, and depicting life through language.
Learner Outcomes
Upon successful completion of the workshops, students will be able to:
- Read short stories critically and assess their rhetorical, ideological and aesthetic strategies.
- Read shot stories critically in a variety of historical, cultural and social contexts.
- Analyse specific literary devices, themes and structures, and explain how they contribute to the meaning of a literary text.
- Apply one’s knowledge of how literature works to their own creative writing
- Identify the conventions of a variety of literary prose genres and identify ways to challenge and expand beyond those conventions
- Write grammatically correct, clear, effective critical one’s creative prose.
- Communicate ideas effectively and coherently in critical essays and creative works.
- Gain an understanding of Canada’s publishing landscape while learning how to submit short stories for contests and publications.
- Provide and receive feedback in a way that will effectively contribute to the strengthening of one’s own writing and the writing of peers.
- Lead class discussion effectively
Texts I’ll be Using (Not Required of Students): The Art of Dramatic Writing by Lajos Egris
Book List
Feather Bound (Angry Robot, 2014)
Fate of Flames (Simon Pulse, 2016)
Siege of Shadows (Simon Pulse, 2017)
Legacy of Light (Simon Pulse, 2018)
The Bones of Ruin (Margaret K McElderry Books, 2022)
The Song of Wrath (Margaret K McElderry Books, 2023)
The Lady of Rapture ((Margaret K McElderry Books, forthcoming April 2024)
The Queen's Spade (HarperTeen, forthcoming 2025)
Livewire: Circuit Breaker (Valient Books, forthcoming 2025)