You're young and you've got literary words in your head that need to make it down on paper. What then? Where to go? Who can be there to offer a helping hand and maybe point you in the "write" direction?
Ink Movement, that's who, err ... what.
"We are an organization for youth by youth. All of our team is entirely university and high school students. Basically, our primary goal is to give youth a creative outlet for them to express themselves and their own unique thoughts in just a really fun and safe environment for each other," said Ellie Simonot, VP Outreach for the University of Alberta-based branch of the national group.
The local chapter is very new — only three years old — but it has an unbridled sense of enthusiasm for fostering creativity in youths aged 14 to 25. As the summer starts, it is looking forward to its big launch event for its third annual anthology publication called The Small Print, due to be out for sale some time this summer.
Contributors to the project included St. Albert's Bethany Gerlach and Brooklynn Shaw, who submitted their prose and poetic writings based on the theme of "Beauty in the Small Things," although some people choose to apply that concept loosely, Simonot added. For her works, Gerlach muses on the internal and external majesty of a duck and the lessons one can learn from them with Like Water Off a Duck's Back. Shaw's poems Someday and Honey demonstrate a deft use of sensory vocabulary that lulls the reader before revealing that beauty can hide danger and that pain can replace wonder if one isn't so careful.
Both of them have also shown that becoming a published writer can happen while they are still in school, in the midst of learning about composition, grammar, syntax, and the like. All one needs to proceed is the desire.
Simonot, an English major, has two prose pieces in the yet-to-be-released book: one is a little horror story about burying a body, but the narrative is focused more on the forest and flowers, while the other is a "very scientifically-oriented" look at the Big Bang.
"A lot of our other pieces that we’ve gotten have been really amazing and have had really creative takes on the prompt that we chose this year," she said.
Ink all over the place
The anthology is just one of the efforts Ink Movement puts forth to keep the creative sparks flying. One look at its Instagram account @inkmovementyeg shows paint nights, poetry slams, and sidewalk chalk galleries.
"We have a lot of really cool stuff for youth to be able to get involved in and express what’s on their minds," Simonot said.
"A lot of the times, a lot of artistic spaces are [geared] towards people who are adults, and a lot of youth art is very often overlooked. I think the anthology and our project is pretty special because we specifically celebrate and cater all of our events and projects toward youth. I think being able to give them those opportunities and ways to connect with one another and learn has been really valuable for a lot of people, in my opinion. Also, for our previous anthologies we had a lot of contributors who weren’t in really big cities. Being able to give them this opportunity has been really special."
At least, the anthology provides that ever-important moment in any creative's career.
"I think it’s really nice, especially for youth, to be able to see their names in print and just get that confidence boost. For me, I’ve been in a few essay competitions that [Ink Movement] has given me the confidence to be able to submit to those as well," she said, noting that she has seen many past members "expand outwards" with their works and get published elsewhere after their starts with Ink Movement.
She encouraged interested youths to pay attention to its website, found among its links at flowcode.com/page/inkmovementyeg. There will be an anthology launch coming with other activities tied into it. There will be readings and workshops, speakers, bonding events, and games.
You can also be certain there will be community. It's the place where future readers will say they first saw someone's work, too.
