Young writers meet a published author

MARQUETTE — Many of us enjoy authors like John Grisham or Margaret Atwood, but some of the most promising authors in the world haven’t even been published yet.

That’s because those authors haven’t even entered middle school. The Young Authors Conference is all about getting those young wordsmiths excited about reading and writing.

“We hope that they’ll take away that they are authors. You know, their books aren’t printed yet but they can be some day and we want them to feel excited about writing,” said Andrea Kleinpaste, who co–directed the Young Authors Conference.

The Young Authors Conference is a multi–day event that includes plenty of exciting activities. Tuesday, at the Peter White Public Library, students had the chance to hear from a published author. Buffy Silverman has written plenty of books, but you won’t find many dragons or superheroes in her stories

“I especially like learning about the natural world and I like sharing that with kids and I love that kids get excited about it. You reach a lot of kids with non–fiction who might not be engaged with stories about princesses. There are a lot of kids who really like learning facts and who collect facts and who really enjoy it. So, it’s nice to see how much they enjoy that,” added Silverman.

If you missed out on the fun Tuesday, you can try again Wednesday. Buffy will be doing another meet and greet at the Ishpeming Carnegie Library at 5:30 p.m.