TAMBORINE MOUNTAIN authors have gained a boost to their confidence and a fun creative outlet through a newly launched Scenic Rim Youth Anthology.
The anthology, spread across two volumes, features work from St Bernard State School students, members of Tamborine Mountain Library Wordsmiths and young authors from Beaudesert and Harrisville.
Library staff joined with the youth involved, their families and friends to launch the anthology at The Centre recently with guest Isobelle Carmody, author of The Obernewtyn Chronicles.
Emalyn Nohlmans, 18, from Tamborine Mountain wrote a story titled, ‘Recounting of a Meeting with the Crowfather’ for the anthology.
“I’d always liked writing and I saw this as an opportunity to put my writing out there so other people could read it,” she said.
“I found it really interesting receiving feedback from more experienced writers and I found it very valuable listening to other people. Sometimes I can get stuck in my own head about what the story is like, and you need outside influence to be able to see mistakes because you’ve looked at them too many times.
“I would encourage people to get involved with things like this because it’s really good to hear both positive and constructive feedback. I think it’s really important for writers to get recognition and other people to say, ‘look, I see that you’ve done this thing, I see you’ve put in this work’, because it is a lot of work with sometimes very little recognition.”
Chloe Crawford, 14, who goes to school on Tamborine Mountain, wrote a story titled ‘The Mist by Rift Revinbur’ for the anthology.
She said it was a great learning exercise.
“Word count was a big thing for me, learning to use my words in a way that would describe the story really well but at the same time be succinct, and this helps me at school as well,” she said.
“I wrote 40,000 words and had to cut it down to 1500 words to fit in. I’ve been writing my whole life since I was a kid, and my writing style is fantasy and quite descriptive.”
