"Ai" from Kuujjuaq!

I'm in Kuujjuaq, Nunavik, where people say "Ai" instead of "Hi".

I'm here with my friend photographer Thomas Kneubuhler (that's him in the black T-shirt). We'll be here until Friday, working with Cyril's Sec. V students at Jaanimmarik School. We're helping the students use words and images to produce a chapter in the next edition of a book called Quebec Roots: The Place Where We Live. The project is part of the Blue Metropolis Literary Foundation's educational program.

We left Montreal at 10 this morning, and by 2 P.M., we were in the school library, working with our students. They've decided to do their chapter about meeting places in their community, so we began making plans to do some writing research and a photo-shooting field trip together tomorrow. Also, I did a short talk about how I became an author and told the students what writing means to me -- EVERYTHING!

I have noticed that every time I hang out with a photographer, I learn about writing too! So here's what I learned today -- Thomas asked a really good question, "When there are so many photos around us, why take more?" and then he answered his own question by saying, "We want to make photos that matter." I decided the same is true about writing. Writing has to matter.

Authors and writing teachers often advise, "Write about what you know." Thomas said something similar to the students today about photography: "If you're close to something, you can take very good photos. You have access."

So, here's to writing -- and photographing -- what you know. If you are reading this and you're one of the students at Jaanimmarik that we are working with this week, we look forward to reading your stories and seeing your photographs!