Writers' Fortnight 2022

By Clare Kiersey, High School English Teacher, East Campus

25 April 2022

 

This year's Writers' Fortnight site boasts 200+ articles and podcasts from a huge range of topics that teens feel need talking about right now ... some as personal as talking about parental abuse, to many discussing LGBTQ+ issues. Lots were also fascinated by the secret life of Singapore – the problems of human trafficking and the reality of lives for so many migrant workers.

 

To kick start the unit, two local writers came in: Kirsten Han, a local Singaporean activist/ journalist who writes for We,The Citizens and Sonny Liew, a Malaysian graphic novelist famous for The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye came to speak to the students. Both shared their stories about the challenges of being a writer here in Singapore. We were also lucky enough to have Chris Brummitt and Tom Wright who are both parents of G9 students and used to work for the Associated Press. Tom is also the creator of Fat Leonard, the co-author of Billion Dollar Whale and the co-founder of Project Brazen.

 

After this, students had a 'Human Library' of guests into class to come and talk to the students about a huge range of topics. Two speakers were from local charities that work with migrant workers, we had students in from our focus groups in school to talk about Solar at East, or supporting the vulnerable; about Human Trafficking or Solidarity for women in abusive relationships. We had inspiring local Singaporeans who are trying to make the world more sustainable with local food supplies, and someone who has created an app to encourage more people to eat and promote veganism, or another who initiates 'Climate Conversations'. We were also privileged to have some teachers and students come into class to talk about their own private journeys and experiences, perhaps with coming out, or mental health issues, or the constant need to succeed, or parenting a non-binary child, or dealing with a parent with mental health problems too. Carma Elliot also spoke about promoting equality for women, and Damian Bachoo shared some of his experiences in Afghanistan, and what he learned there too. It was an exciting two weeks.

 

The students were then encouraged to find a topic that they felt needed to be talked about, perhaps inspired by one of the stories they heard, or another they also felt needing exploring further. Thus ... we now present to you our Writers' Fortnight 2022 site. We hope we might inspire you too!