Stro1 was very sincere and prompted interesting and personal dialogue through
an open approach."
--Ben, PSW Participant

Kristyn Dunnion's workshop was great because it was like she's been where I'm at and she has many new ways of thinking about characters.
--Danielle, PSW Participant

The first Parkdale Street Writers: A Boot Camp for Young Dreamers took place in April and May, 2008, at the Parkdale Library branch. Our goal was to bring together 16-24 year olds who live in the area and were interested in trying different kinds of writing, through a series of hands-on workshops led by local authors and artists.

An outstanding 38 people expressed an interest in participating. We were able to accept approximately 20 registrations and finished with a core group of about 12 dedicated writers.

We're thrilled to be able to publish some of their work here, in The Scrawl 2008.

The workshop leaders included graphic novelist Mariko Tamaki, author Kristyn Dunnion, street artist and videographer Stro1, hip hop lyricist Mindbender, and comics artist Willow Dawson.

They ran workshops on everything from finding your character's voice, to turning your life into a song, to writing reviews, to the basics of writing film scripts, to creating comics even if you can't draw.

The program was coordinated by award-winning Toronto author Emily Pohl-Weary (who grew up in the area). We had two paid youth coordinators, Kashfia Rahman and Greg McFall, who helped organize and shape the program.

If you're interested in finding out more about the next Parkdale Street Writers boot camp or in attending a public reading by program participants, visit www.parkdalewriters.ca or email info@parkdalewriters.ca.