Writer’s circle formed at RRHS

Valkyrie Clark
Coop Student

The Writer’s Circle is a new group activity in Rainy River. Not many people know about it yet, but everyone, young and old, are welcome!
Writer’s Circle members share their writing with one another in order to help with refining it. Whether one writes stories, poems, or other types of writing, they are welcomed with open arms into the circle. Members may feel embarrassed at first, but everything shared is completely confidential.
It is currently being held at Rainy River Public Library at 6:00 pm on Mondays. Writer’s circle will be held every week for the entire school year. This will start on September 30th.
Teacher, Laura Armistead, who is responsible for organizing this Circle, is very excited about enlarging it. “This is a three fold mandate. You become better listeners, better readers, and better writers.” However, she warned, “What’s shared in the circle, stays in the circle.”
In this Circle, nothing is censored, “Critique the writing, not the content. Sharing your writing is a huge risk, you have to learn to trust some people if you want to reap the benefits.”
Currently, there are seven members in the Writer’s Circle. Armistead, Heather Mailloux, Charles Bechard, Amanda Venables, Nathan Sawatsky, Jenny Burner, and Valkyrie Clark.
Armistead was pleased to tell the Circle members that she will be having guest speakers come in occasionally to speak to the group. When she had held Writer’s Circle where she previously taught, she had invited many guest speakers. They included Bill Richardson, Carol Shields, Margaret Buffy, Linda Holeman, David Burgen, and a few occasional publishers.
“You should believe in your writing because it is very lonely, so you need a community of writers to support you,” concluded Armistead.