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SALT LAKE CITY — Maya Angelou once said, “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” And that’s certainly proven true for hundreds of teens who have attended Teen Author Boot Camp.
Teen Author Boot Camp is an annual conference hosted in Utah that encourages teens to improve and expand their creative writing abilities. This year, the conference was held at Utah Valley Convention Center and welcomed over 800 teens on March 25 to attend panels, writing workshops and keynote speeches from national bestselling authors.
The conference welcomed Jay Asher, author of "Thirteen Reasons Why," which has recently been adapted as a television series airing this year, and Marie Lu, best known for the Legend series.
"It’s really important that people know how to express themselves and tell their stories so people can walk in their shoes for a minute," conference organizer Jo Schaffer said. "I think that’s what’s so important about storytelling is allowing people to be able to walk in their shoes so we can have understanding as humans."
It was eight years ago that Schaffer and others in the creative writing class she attended decided to host a conference that would encourage teens to tap into their creative side and share their story.
Since then, conference attendance has grown from 150 teens to 800 teens with plans to expand to Idaho and the east coast.
“(The kids have) met some of their best friends at our conference and they go every year together,” Schaffer said. “We’re going to be a big chunk of their childhood where they have these positive memories of learning and being able to stretch their wings … especially these days when everyone needs a place where they feel like they belong.”
Ashtyn Newbold was one of these teens that felt she found a confident voice at Teen Author Boot Camp. Before attending last year’s conference, Newbold had written a book and decided to submit the first chapter to the conference’s writing competition. After winning the competition, Newbold said she found a voice she didn’t know she had.
“(The competition), along with the amazing classes I attended, helped me gain the confidence I needed to finally let others read my book and start submitting to publishers and agents,” Newbold said. “After heading home from Teen Author Boot Camp, I submitted my book, 'Mischief and Manors,' to a publisher that same month. After a few rejection letters — which Teen Author Boot Camp taught me to expect and deal well with — Cedar Fort Publishing said yes.”
Newbold published her first novel, "Mischief and Manors," Dec. 1, 2016, and has a second book, "Lies and Letters," coming this July.
According to Schaffer, Teen Author Boot Camp was inspired mainly because of the lack she and others saw in the opportunity teens had to write creatively in school. To combat what she saw as a growing problem, Schaffer and her group began a petition called “Fight to Write” that hopes to reinstall creative writing in the classroom, even gaining support from Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes.
“Everyone is so pressured to do standardized tests,” Schaffer said. “And because things (like creative writing) aren’t tested on that test, there’s not classroom time for it … Research shows that technical writing is great and it’s handy, but there’s something about creative writing, especially, that seems to tap into parts of the brain that help with communication. It can even help with mental illness like depression.”
Utah boasts one of the highest literacy rates in the nation, exceeding the national average by nearly 6 percent with a literacy rate of 91 percent. Utah also conducts more Google searches on novels than almost any other state, according to Google Trends.
However, Schaffer and others believe there is still much to do to encourage literacy and creative writing in Utah and the state’s public schools.
Deborah Young, director of Utah’s Literacy Action Center, noted a disturbing trend she’s noticed in over 30 years of working with illiterate adults.
The Literacy Action Center helps adults who read below a fifth-grade level, but Young says that about 50 percent of the adults who come in to receive help already have a high school diploma, yet are still illiterate.
While some come from the special needs program, many have come from the regular school system and have managed to graduate with a high school degree despite being unable to read.
“When I was teaching public school in another state, we were told to push them through, to get them through, so you couldn’t give them lower than a certain grade,” Young said.
With such a high literacy rate, Young says it’s easy to believe we don’t have much work to do. However, according to Young’s estimates, there are about 74,000 adults in Salt Lake County alone that can’t read.
“And that’s not including the ones who have diplomas who have issues and the ones that don’t speak English well, there’s more literacy issues than that number suggests,” Young said.
Young notes that creative writing has helped many of the adults in the program find the interest in literacy they need to provide motivation.
"Using and sharing your creative voice is so important, and we need more of it," Newbold said. "We all have a different perspective and sharing your thoughts and ideas creatively through writing is a great way to communicate and let your voice be heard."
Liesl is a reporter at KSL.com, section editor of KSL Tech and a student at Brigham Young University. You can email her at lnielsen@ksl.com and follow her on Twitter at @liesl_nielsen.
