I have the great good fortune to be participating again this year in Quebec Roots, an educational program sponsored by the Blue Metropolis Literary Foundation. As part of the project, teams of writers and photographers will visit a total of 10 schools in the province in order to help students produce a chapter in this year's Quebec Roots: The Place Where I Live.
Today was the first of two orientation sessions and I met some of the teachers I'll be working with. Photographer Monique Dykstra and I will be traveling to Quebec City and Shawinigan to work at Everest Elementary School and Shawinigan High. Closer to home, photographer Joel Silverstein and I will work with students at St. Willibrord Elementary in Chateauguay. My biggest (and furthest) trip will be with photographer Thomas Kneubuhler when we go to Sautjuit Schoool in Kangirsuk, Nunavik.
One of the other writers working on the project this year is Winnipeg-born poet Gillian Sze. Last year, Gillian's poetry collection, Fish Bones, was a finalist for the Quebec Writers' Federation First Book Prize. Today, I had a chance to chat with Gillian. She was telling me about her work with at-risk teens, and how important it is for the young writers she works with to feel they can trust her. I really loved how Gillian expressed her thoughts, telling me: "Walls don't write." (You can tell from that line that Gillian is a poet, can't you?) Anyway, that's what I'm thinking about this afternoon... how writing takes a certain openness. If your feelings get too walled up inside, you've got to find a way to take down those walls. For me, it's always been writing.
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