Monique Polak combines a busy life as a children's book author, freelance journalist and CEGEP teacher. She is the author of 29 books for young adults. She is a three-time winner of the Quebec Writers' Federation Prize for Children's and Young Adult Literature, renamed the QWF's Janet Savage Blachford Prize for Children's and Young Adult Literature. Monique recently won that prize for her historical middle-grade novel Room For One More (Kar-Ben). Monique's stories have appeared regularly in the Montreal Gazette. She has also been published in Maclean's, the National Post, The Globe and Mail, as well as in Canwest publications across the country. She has taught English Literature, Creative Writing and Humanities at Marianopolis College in Montreal since 1985.
I generally spend half the writing workshop sharing writing tips and stories -- then I move into writing exercises. My goal is to help young (and sometimes older) writers find the stories they most need to tell!
For workshops, I offer about a dozen practical writing tips, followed by a variety of exercises to give participants an opportunity to play with words, and find inspiration for a story in a childhood memory.
A mix of practical writing tips, fun stories -- and lots of stimulating writing exercises!
