White Pine Award nominee. Recipient of Canada Council of the Arts and BC Arts Council grants.
Workshops for ages 12 to 17. $250.00 for one 60-minute session. $450 for two sessions. $675 for three sessions and $900 for 4 sessions, plus travel (50 cents per kilometer, round-trip for the Metro Vancouver area).
Virtual Visits: $150 for one 60-minute session, $100 for each additional session on the same day, up to four sessions in one day.
Christy Goerzen writes young adult novels about artists and underdogs finding their way in the world. Her past novels include RIVER MERMAID (Crwth Press, 2021), as well as EXPLORE (2009), FARMED OUT (2011), and The BIG APPLE EFFECT (2014), all from Orca Book Publishers. Her books have been nominated for awards, appeared on several “best of” lists, and have been translated into several other languages.
After a decade working in the arts industry for countless festivals, artists, musicians, dance companies and more, Christy became an award-winning university instructor in arts and entertainment management, a career that she loves dearly. Plus, she gets to talk about movies, music and art all day – what could be better? Currently working toward her PhD in Education, she has a BA in English Literature, an MA Children’s Literature. Originally from Maple Ridge, BC, Christy lives in Vancouver with her two lovely kids and a majestic one-eyed cat. In her spare time she likes to read, draw (badly), lift heavy things, listen to podcasts, and have random dance parties.
In her workshops and presentations, Christy loves to bring authenticity and humour as she talks about her creative inspirations, the writing process, developing characters that come alive, writing great dialogue, poetry and freewriting as a creative “spark,” the publishing industry, and everything in between!
Presentations/workshops – Age group: 12 – 17 (Grades 7 – 12)
Christy likes to keep her presentations informal, interactive and chatty! Presentations/workshops will include:
- Author introduction and background/biography
- Introduction on writing/inspiration for the book
- Her writing process
- Where she gets her ideas
- How it got published/process
- Q & A
Christy is happy to create workshops on the topic of poetry writing, freewriting/jamming on ideas, plot structure, character development, dialogue, and more for this age group. Just ask and she can tailor something for your group!
All venues; library or classroom preferred. General Equipment needs: Christy likes to keep it low-tech and chat with the students! For in-person visits, just a chair is all that’s needed. For virtual visits, school Zoom account (or similar). Student supplies depend on chosen session and will be discussed prior to visit.