Hundreds of Young Authors Share Their Stories at Annual Festival: Photogallery

On April 27 and 28, Trinity welcomed 247 students from 12 different elementary and middle schools to campus in celebration of the annual Young Authors’ Festival.

The two day event has a 24-year history at Trinity. This year’s festival offered a packed schedule that included a meet-and-greet with guest speaker and children’s author Marissa Moss. On Tuesday, students who had won Young Authors’ awards returned to campus to participate in a day of celebration.

“This event takes a ton of collaboration between the schools that are participating, Trinity students and faculty, and the featured author,” said Kelly Lenarz ’99, assistant professor of Adult Studies Education.

“It is so great to see how we can all come together and work together in a positive way to make an impact on all those involved.”

Many of Trinity’s education students had the opportunity to teach and interact with the children.

“They were enjoying the event,” said So Hye Park ’15 of South Korea. “Sometimes some of the students looked like it was challenging [for them] to write a story, but they all made a wonderful story with their imaginations.”

The children were able to watch their stories be performed by Trinity’s improv team. They also participated in a writing workshop and attended a session with Moss as she spoke on creating storyline endings.

Dr. Bill Boerman-Cornell, associate professor of education, praised Moss’s efforts at the festival.

“Marissa did a fantastic job of connecting with students into the Monday night sessions,” Boerman-Cornell said. “She talked about her process of writing and illustrating books. During the Tuesday sessions, the activity she did with the students seemed to open them up to the possibilities of telling an illustrated story.”

About the Author

Marissa Moss has been publishing books for a long time. She has over 40 published stories, but is far from finished. She is always working on multiple projects at once, and loves finding the challenge in each new story. Moss is best known for her Amelia’s Notebook series, but also writes and illustrates a variety of other pieces including historical journals and young adult novels.