Making Plays, The Power of Punctuation, Comics, Country Music Writing — all this and more were presented at this year’s Lit Jam for Garfield County grades 5th-8th at Escalante High School.
Lit Jam, which began last year, is a mini writing conference for middle schoolers teaching kids the significance of literature and writing in their life. This year the keynote address was playwright Raymond Shurtz, from Boulder. Other presenters included children’s author Amber Dennison, Cheryl Cox, Robbin Peterson, Jared Brehms, Sondra Jones, Evelyn Corning, Ward Williams, Rowdy Miller, Karen Munson, Jemma Young, Bonnie Jensen, AJ Martel, and Michelle Lindsey.
Boulder playwright Raymond King Shurtz provided the keynote address. Shurtz spent the first few years of his life living in Salt Gulch, a remote area west of Boulder. He told the students how he was afraid of black bears even though his parents said there weren’t any. For that reason, Shurtz said, he loved when his mother read him stories like Alice Dalgliesh’s 1953 novella, The Bears on Hemlock Mountain.
Shurtz said that it was around the time he graduated from Escalante High School (the old school) that he began to ask himself, “What is my story?” He said he felt without direction, and wanted to have a more complex story for his life. It was also during this time that he began experimenting in writing his own stories and plays.
He described writing a play as an architectural task. “To do a play,” he said, “it takes a lot of people working in a collaborative way. A playwright puts it all together into a story.” He urged the students to spend more time being creative, and making stories.
Writing fiction in the form of stories and plays was just one component of literacy promoted by the conference, however.
“We wanted to do something to help literacy in our area,” said Robbin Peterson, author, and one of the founders of Lit Jam. “Lit Jam has become a fun, informative experience for everyone involved. Our team shares a passion for literacy, and we wanted to show students that they can learn to use the resources and information they have around them to create and express themselves, and to find joy in the heart of literature.
“Sometimes kids can feel like their abilities to create are limited,” she continued, “that they only have so many options, that learning isn’t fun. There is a power in writing and reading that nothing can match, that can take you places you never dreamed of. I know it definitely has done that for me in my life.”
This enthusiasm for literature and self-expression was contagious with classes like “Write to Fight for Right” by journalist AJ Martel, and the class “Who am I? Personal Narrative” by professional therapist Michelle Lindsey. Michelle helped the kids look at their past, their parents and grandparents, and see what qualities they admire and share to better utilize those qualities in their own personal stories. The class sizes were kept small, under 15 students, so they could get more individualized learning.
One 5th-grader said of the conference, “I got to meet songwriters, actors, and authors.” Another said “It was awesome—cool to see people from here who can do all that. And Ward Williams is a good singer!”
Several kids in particular were impressed with Jemma Young’s class, “Comics: Storytelling Through Art”. Young, a comic artist and writer based in Lindon, encouraged students to master their art in their storytelling. “Art is a journey,” she said. “Just like any skill you learn, the more you do it, the better you’ll become.”
Of Young’s presentation, one 6th-grader said, “I learned comics and the layout. There’s a lot of cool art.” Another said, “I learned how to draw different scenarios and emotions in the characters.” A 7th grader commented, “I learned from Jemma you need to always be practicing. It will only get better, not worse.”
One 6th-grader said she really liked meeting new people from around the district and working with them. Especially in classes like “Running Dictation” with Jared Brehms.
“In his class we wrote a story and then we cut it up and stuck it around the gym,” she said, “and then we chose another team’s sentences and then we had to run over, remember it, make a picture with it, and then put them in order. And then the other team judged you on how good you did. It was my favorite class. It made me energized for the day.”
As part of the conference, each student was encouraged to submit a sample of their personal writing in the categories of argumentative essay, informational essay, poetry, or a fictional narrative. Eighty-nine submissions were scored by local judges. Twenty-three outstanding writers were identified with five champion writers whose work was exemplary and stood out as being worthy of extra acknowledgement.
Excerpts from these five were read during a closing awards ceremony and the top five writers were later given an engraved metal bookmark to recognize their performance. All students received applause for their participation, a book mark, and a $2 bill with a certificate attached to their work.
Last year the conference was available only to students in Escalante. This year, about 110 middle-school students attended from Escalante’s school, Boulder Elementary, Bryce Valley Elementary, and Panguitch Middle School. The Byway sponsored a pizza lunch for the students from Escalante Outfitters, and many of the essays and stories written by the students will be published in The Byway.
– The Byway
Feature image caption: The playwright and master of his own story, Raymond King Shurtz, performs at Lit Jam.
Explore the events planned for the 2024 LitJam in Escalante to Host 3rd Annual LitJam Conference.