In its tenth year of inspiring seniors enrolled in English writing courses, Lit Fest was, overall, a success. John O’Connor, a New Trier English teacher and a sponsor of Lit Fest, said that, “We try to emphasize how important writing is in the English department by giving seniors the chance to choose writing classes and listen to, share, write, and perform with writers of every possible strength.”

The department definitely accomplished that goal this year. The writers that I was able to see all gave great insight into what it means to write for a living, and they also taught me a few tricks of the trade, so to speak.

One of the best parts about Lit Fest was that students had a wide variety of writers to choose from. It was great to be able to hear from writers were accomplished in all fields of writing, from poetry to journalism. If a student was interested in a more creative side of writing, they could go and see Idris Goodwin, who Senior Lina Horvath described as, “Really talented and he knows how to captivate and interest people in writing.”  If students were interested in writing plays or screenwriting, they could hear from Zayd Dohrn. Interested in being a journalist? Students had their pick of several, including columnist Ben Joravsky, or sports writer Melissa Isaacson.

Students were able to choose speakers based on their specific area of interest which is what made Lit Fest so successful.  Senior Justin Marshall said, “Lit Fest was a good way to spend the day learning from real writers.” Many of the speakers recieved a lot of praise. Senior, Alex Kordylasinsky says, “For me, it was a tie  between Rachel DeWoskin- she was awesome- and Kenyatta Rogers.”

For the first half of the day, I went to see Chris Steiner and Zayd Dohrn. Steiner gave a great presentation. He focused on taking a story that could seem mundane and found the angle that made it interesting. He was the ideal person to teach us about this technique because only someone who has mastered it could have taken a seemingly mundane story about a fisherman making a living off of Asian Carp and turned it into a business story worthy of Forbes Magazine. He also had us practice the art of writing in a very short, concise manner which is more difficult than it sounds when the topic is one that could occupy pages and you only have twenty words to work with. Steiner offered a lot of great techniques to aspiring journalists and I really enjoyed his session.

My session with Zayd Dohrn was not as successful, however. Dohrn did not offer nearly as many techniques as Steiner did, and I wish he would have given us more tips about writing dialogues for film and theater.

The second half of the day, I saw Ben Jarovsky and Melissa Isaacson. Jarovsky did not really impress me with his presentation. He seemed unprepared and did not offer a lot of advice to the students about what it takes to be a good columnist or journalist. However, I did appreciate that he made it a question and answer session.

Isaacson did a fantastic job with her presentation in my opinion. She described, in detail, what a sports writer does and her experiences in the field. She also talked a lot about how journalism has changed over the years which was very interesting to hear about as well. She answered our questions and told us about her favorite stories she has written throughout her career.

I think overall the day went well but there were a few aspects of the day that I did not particularly enjoy. I thought that the sixty-five minute sessions were too long, first of all. They tended to drag on a bit near the end.  Also, I wish that I could have more than just four speakers during the day. I would have enjoyed the opportunity to hear from a few more writers for sure.

Despite these minor shortcomings, Lit Fest was an overall great experience and a highlight of my Senior year. I couldn’t have agreed more with creative writing teacher Leslie Skizas, when she said, “I think it was invigorating to be, for a day, among a community of writers, both student and professional.” Lit Fest absolutely hit the mark and inspired seniors across the board.