WCU Hosts Ninth Annual Young Authors Celebration
Hattiesburg, Miss., March 5, 2014 - William Carey University's School of Education will host the ninth annual Young Authors Celebration (YAC) on Friday, March 7, from 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. There will be over 400 students from eight area elementary schools at the event, along with their teachers and parents.
The key note speaker this year is Vaughn Wilson of Vaughn Wilson Photography. Other special guest speakers include Rick Anderson of Clinton, Fluer Bradley of Biloxi, Kym Garraway Braley of Hattiesburg, Dr. Read Diket from WCU, Ginny Kemp of Columbia, Jean Sauls of Columbia, and Diane Williams of Jackson. Scot Jones of Hattiesburg, a local "magician," will entertain the students as they arrive.
Educators who sign up to be a YAC teacher hold a writer's workshop in their classrooms, where their students learn about the drafting, editing, and publishing stages of writing and illustrating through hands-on experience. The students bring their books to the YAC event at WCU to share their work. All children who wish to participate are accepted.
YAC began in the 1990s and is funded by Congress through the National Endowment for the Humanities to provide public programs in traditional liberal arts disciplines. Directed by Dr. June Hornsby, director of WCU student teaching, and Dr. Barry Morris, interim chair for department of curriculum and instruction, YAC gives students the opportunity to meet regional authors and illustrators, tour WCU's campus, have lunch, participate in a book fair, attend workshops on writing and illustrating, meet WCU student teachers, and share their books with other students. Sponsors for YAC include Dr. Hornsby, Dr. Morris, WCU Office of Admissions, Barnes & Nobles Bookstore, Phi Delta Kappa, and the Mississippi Humanities Council Speakers Bureau.