The Second Annual Young Writers Conference

The Second Annual Young Writers Conference was an event with activities for students along with workshops.

Emillie Siv, Writer|May 8, 2023

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  • Juniors Rafyel Curtis, Airam Chavez, Paris Banner, Miguel Moreno, Jennifer Arias, Daniel Valadez, Martha Canas, and Yosselin Arias all gather around the art table, where they were doodling, looking at stickers and pins, and enjoying their time.

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  • Seniors Nyta Prom, Anthony Van, and Thai Tran work on origami at the origami table with juniors Mia Raynor, Chi Pham and senior Laila Raynor accompanying them.

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  • Seniors Thai Tran and Vincent Reyes stack up the props from the photo booth on their friend, senior Anthony Van.

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  • Junior Airam Chavez holds up an additional cardboard face cut out to junior Miguel Moreno’s face. Junior Daniel Valadez documents this in the background while junior Rafyel Curtis makes a comment.

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  • Junior Martha Canas looks through the different art done at the art table while junior Miguel Moreno holds them up. Junior Airam Chavez also examined the artwork while also creating her own.

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  • Senior Nyta Prom draws her friends, senior Thai Tran and freshman Eddy Garcia Aquino as a bee and a dinosaur nugget.

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  • Junior Elizabeth Macias writes her name down on raffle tickets, determined to win a prize. Junior Viviana Olivera Cardenas is crouched beside her, working on the blackout poetry the “Poetry on The Spot” table had to offer.

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  • Senior Alexander Betancourt looks at his mini book “Legend” by Marie Lu while waiting for the dialogue workshop to begin.

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  • Senior Jo Hernandez looks at his papers and organizes them.

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  • Senior Paulina Olivares and junior Keera Poole both pay attention to the professor during the “Fantasy and World-Building” workshop.

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  • Junior Martha Canas stands by the bags, and explains to a parent how the writer workshops were scheduled.

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  • Seniors Josephine Veneracion (dressed as Draculara from Monster High) and Fernando Olivares runs the Card Game table. They both focused on their UNO game, and looked at the card their opponent placed.

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  • Junior Nox Clarkson and senior Elton Crawford-Martin are dressed as Makima and Denji from “Chainsaw Man”. They played a game of UNO and waited for their opponent to place down their card.

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  • Juniors Viviana Olivera Cardenas and Elizabeth Macias joke around with junior Luis Garcia during the event. Junior Thien Tran looked to them with a smile.

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  • Senior Nelly Ugarte attentively listens to senior Geraldine Cruz-Hernandez expressively reading the blurb from the book she got from the “blind date with a book.” The book she was holding is “The Blacksmith Queen” by G.A. Aiken.

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  • Junior Mia Raynor and Laila Raynor both write their friend’s name on the raffle tickets to help him win the prizes.

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  • Junior Thuc (Elsa) Vuong poses with a hat at the photo booth station. She smiled off to her friends, tipping the hat.

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As students from all grade levels walked into the ballroom, they were met with booths with numerous activites. The Second Annual Young Writers Conference took place on Saturday, April 22 at the Klein ISD Multipurpose Center. Compared to last year’s writers conference, there were fewer workshops but more activities with twice as many students participating. 

“We just stepped everything up,” creative writing teacher Danae Perez said. “We tried to make everything more appealing so it looked more inviting and people would want to come. 

The conference hall held activities such as the photo booth, origami, card table, art table, blind date with a book, scavenger hunt, cosplay, Barbara Bush Library, Flash Fiction Composition, Poetry on the Spot, Hatch a Character, Caption This and Concoct a Comic. After participating in the activities, students won raffle tickets that allowed them a chance to win a prize. Students from the National Honor Society worked a number of the booths and made sure the event was welcoming and enjoyable.

“My role was basically to not leave anyone alone or unattended so they can make friends and also giving out directions and pins and giving them their bags,” junior Paris Banner said.

Besides the activities, writer workshops were also offered. It included Poetry, Character Development, Hunt a Killer and Crime Writing, Dialogue, Plot and Conflict, and Fantasy and World Building. In these workshops, students had guidance from teachers and got to learn new knowledge about writing. Junior Chi Pham said he preferred the character development workshop over the poetry.

“The teacher supervising it introduced me to books that detailed character traits based on certain attributes that made writing feel so much less laborious,” Pham said. “I am a writer so I thought it would be a fun way to meet other people like me within the district as well as honing my skills with educators outside of the school setting.”

As the workshops concluded, raffle tickets were randomly drawn by teacher volunteers that also worked the event. Seniors Alexander Betancourt, Thai Tran along with juniors Paris Banner and Elizabeth Macias won raffle prizes that included a candy bouquet, gift cards, and a customized mug. Another prize was a customized tote bag with free books and other accessories. 

“Since it was the last [prize], I already thought that I wasn’t gonna get it but then Ms. Dyess said my name and I just shyly walked up,” Betancourt said. “I couldn’t believe it. My teacher promoted [The Young Writers Conference] a lot so I just decided to give it a try and it turned out to be really fun and really informational.”