For St. Francis Middle School (SFMS) sixth grader Avery Ritter, a visit by local author William Durbin was just what she wanted to help fuel her passion for writing. During Durbin’s visit on April 15, Ritter signed up for a small group writing workshop and was grateful to him for sharing his knowledge.
“I want to be an author, so I've been dreaming of this day,” Ritter said. “I found William Durbin very inspiring to my passion, and I was very excited that he was here to teach me. The workshop was a wonderful experience. I loved it.”
Connecting to students: Durbin is not only an award-winning historical fiction author, but a former middle school English teacher. He has visited thousands of schools since publishing his first book, “The Broken Blade” in 1997, and enjoys connecting with the students who he is writing for. View photos from his visit.
“I want to inspire the kids to pursue their own writing as much as they can,” Durbin said. “A lot of times kids don’t realize how fast ideas come. Their imaginations are just so vivid and their potential is incredible.”
Durbin’s visit: He visited all sixth graders during two larger assemblies talking about the inspiration behind his writing, his writing process and how he conducts his historical research and incorporates the research into his novels. He conducted two smaller writer’s workshops for students interested in expanding their writing skills. During the workshop, Durbin discussed the different ways authors grab readers’ attention within the first sentence and challenged the students to come up with some engaging first sentences of their own.
He closed his workshop by saying, “If you want to be a good writer, you just have to practice. Don’t ever be hard on yourself. Look at every writing assignment as an opportunity.”
Curriculum connection: Throughout the last two decades, students at SFMS have read Durbin’s “The Broken Blade” about life during the fur trade era or “The Journal of Otto Peltonen” about life inside Hibbing’s iron ore mines at the turn of the 20th century as part of their 6th grade social studies class.
More about Durbin: William Durbin has published 14 historical fiction novels, many of which are widely read inside middle school classrooms across the country, and has received an array of writing and academic honors including the prestigious Minnesota Book Award and Great Lakes Book Award.