It’s been over a month since I’ve returned from summer camp at Highlights. In this last post I leave you some of my lasting impressions from the week.
When you attend a workshop at Highlights Foundation, this Welcome sign on the Barn will greet you,
as well as a sign on the screen window of your temporary home.
You may stay in one of these cabins
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| Photo courtesy Judie Anderson Offerdahl |
and will definitely eat wonderful food like this.
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| What, whip cream again??
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You’ll probably have a drink or two when schmoozing with your fellow writers before dinner.
Of course, you’ll go to classes,
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| Jillian Sullivan’s students appreciating her presentation of The Hero’s Journey. |
And yes, there is time to write too.
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| Photo courtesy Gayle Krause Pictured: Theresa Milstein and faculty member, Mitali Perkins |
There will be time to play,
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| Photo courtesy Jilanne Hoffman |
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| So many words to choose from! The Word Garden |
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| It was fun rearranging stones, adding and subtracting. and creating new sentences and phrases. Great classroom activity! |
time to meet favorite authors,
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| Clark Gillow Clark and I are Twitter friends. It was great meeting her in person! |
and time to collect autographs.
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| Enjoyed talking to Lamar Giles who shared personal stories of colorism after he heard about Half-Truths |
In your cabin you’ll find a stuffed bookcase, lovely prints, and NO TV!
Do you see that little black book under the Native American picture? That’s a journal where past residents leave their thoughts for future workshop participants. This will be fun to read and if you’re fortunate, there will even be an encouraging entry from someone special.
You will leave with a pile of books like this.
And when you return home, you’ll receive a wonderful memento of your time at Highlights.
If you write or illustrate for children or aspire to do that one day, do whatever it takes to attend a Highlights workshop. You will be glad you did.
And when you go, make sure you tell them that THE Carol Baldwin sent you.
You are welcome, Bonnie. Didn't know you had gone!
Aw, Carol, your post is beautiful and brought back wonderful memories for me as well. I took a picture of artwork from Don Tate that I never shared as a personal gift for myself. Thank you for this!
Thanks so much for sharing about your experience! It all sounds so wonderful and inspiring, with the chance to connect with so many other writers. (It's on my Wish List too, Linda!) I especially love the photo of you on the swing as it seems to capture the spirit of writing children's lit!
Glad it brought back memories for you, Vijaya, and spurring you on to go, Miriam! And thanks for the note about the swing photo. My contribution to the spirit of writing children's lit!
Hi Carol, looks like you had an amazing and inspiring experience, as did other attendees based on the comments. I need a retreat :)
Thanks, Tony. If you can think of a way to take your environmental justice issues and turn them into a kid's book —Highlights might be just the right place for you to work on that idea! They do have nonfiction workshops, but it would also be a great premise for a contemporary kid's novel!