She’s all packed up and ready to go. Gail Sidonie Sobat, the 2015 Metro Federation Regional Writer in Residence, has signed out and left the building.
“I’m pretty much done,” she said, a twinge of sadness apparent in her voice.
After having spent a four-month term in each the Fort Saskatchewan Public Library, the Strathcona County Library, and finally right here in the St. Albert Public Library, she has returned to her regular life as a writer and the head of YouthWrite, the non-profit charitable program and camp that encourages kids to put their own words down on paper. It’s already prepping for its 19th anniversary, starting with Winter WordPlay 2016 coming to the Bennett Centre in Edmonton at the end of January. It will feature guest instructors Fred Stenson, Angie Abdou, and Moe Clark.
Reaching out to young writers was just as important as helping to coach and coax the older ones. She said that she served hundreds of writers over the course of the year, between the ages of nine to “full-fledged adults with their wings.”
“It’s been a wide spectrum of all sorts of people,” she started. “I had some amazing guests come by. People who have – their whole lives – been writers some of them, and now have the time to pursue. Some people who are just beginning and setting the first tentative pen to page. And people who have dreamt long about being writers, have been closeted writers for their lives.”
“I’ve had young people who are eager to be spoken word artists and … who are writing novels. I’ve had senior citizens and I’ve had everything in between: twenty-somethings who are on the cusp of getting published. To my mind, if they find the right luck, the right publisher … I think they’re there.”
Despite handing in her keys to her temporary station overlooking the scenic parking lot on the library’s second floor, Sobat said that she is still available to offer words of encouragement and other suggestions to writers at large throughout the community until the end of the month. Her email address is [email protected].
Before that though, the organizers of the writer in residence program are giving her and Elizabeth Withey, the Edmonton Public Library’s writer in res, a big send-off while announcing who the next people in line are to take their places. Wine and Words is set to take place Dec. 14 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Papaschase Room at the Faculty Club on the University of Alberta campus, 11435 Saskatchewan Dr. in Edmonton.
Apart from the big reveal, the evening’s entertainment will include readings from the two writers along with some of the writers they assisted. There will also be musical accompaniment by both of the outgoing honorees. Withey will play the ukulele and Sobat will sing with her six-piece ensemble jazz troupe.
For more on the Metro Writer in Residence program, visit www.metrowir.com.
