Author Visit: Lili Wilkinson Inspires Year 8 Students
On Friday 22 May, Australian author Lili Wilkinson visited the Junior Campus Library to speak with Year 8 students about her writing process, creative inspiration and books.
Lili has written more than 20 books for young adults. Her novel A Hunger of Thorns won the Premier’s Literary Award, and her latest novel, Unhallowed Halls, has been shortlisted for the Children’s Book Council of Australia Older Readers Book of the Year. The winners will be announced during Book Week, 22–28 August.
Students enjoyed hearing about Lili’s journey as an author and learning how ideas can be developed into engaging stories. The session also supported their creative writing skills for English.
“When Lili Wilkinson visited our school, I felt so excited and inspired because she was such an amazing speaker and explained everything so clearly and passionately. She talked about how she became an author, where she gets her ideas from, and the hard work that goes into writing books, which made me appreciate authors even more. I really enjoyed listening to her because she made the session fun, interesting, and easy to understand. My favourite part was hearing about the books she has written and discussing the stories we enjoyed reading, especially how the characters and plots connected to real-life emotions and experiences. Her visit made me feel more interested in reading and writing, and it was an unforgettable experience for our whole school.” ~ Sara S
“We had a marvelous time listening Australian Author Lili Wilkinson as she talked to us about her life as an author, how she became one, and where the inspirations for her amazing books lie. Not only did her presentation inspire us to write, but it also assisted us with our English. She taught us how to build ideas and thoughts, and how to end a book without leaving the audience feeling disappointed or underwhelmed. We improved our skills for our creative writing CATs while also getting a preview of her work on children’s and teen books. A highlight of our incursion was being able to solve many questions that challenged our thinking. We also had time for questions, since this can be an effective way to learn. We really appreciated Lili coming to our school, and felt glad to host her in our learning space.” ~ Anahita A
“The visit of highly renowned author, Lili Wilkinson was a time of inspiration and learning for all Year 8s. Many were excited to and were awestruck by her speech. She watered our knowledge of story writing and helped grow the plants of our understanding of what made a good story and how we could fertilize these plants to bring upon results that would engross the reader deeply to the worlds we fabricate when we write narratives. The questioning session provided us with an opportunity to clarify our queries that had risen whilst listening. This was essential and incredibly useful for us as the current common assessment task requires to create narratives. She also discussed what she would use as inspiration for writing stories. This incursion was extremely helpful and we are very thankful to the school for organising this useful event which we got so much out of.” ~ Mason B
Lili Wilkinson’s visit was an inspiring opportunity for students to see how reading, writing, curiosity and persistence come together in the work of a professional author.
Mrs Robyn Whitelaw
Resource Centre Manager, Junior Campus