Registration is NOW OPEN!
YouthWrite Spring Break Young Creators' Camps:
MARCH 30th - April 2nd: GRADES 4-9*
Highlands United Church, 11305 64 St NW, Edmonton, AB T5W 4H6
9:00am - 3:30pm
After-program care ($10) 3:30 pm - 5:30 pm
Each day of day camp costs $50 per participant, and includes two workshops with fabulous and famous instructors. Come for one day, or come for all four!
* Wednesday, April 01 is open to Grades 4-12!
We have will have instructors from YouthWrite, SkirtsAfire Festival, Edmonton Poetry Festival, Masani St. Rose, and SNAP Gallery! We'll be posting the full schedule of classes and instructors ASAP!
Instructors:
Monday:
Janice MacDonald and Kelly Turner
Tuesday:
Spyder Yardley-Jones & SNAP (Liz Ingram, Bernd Hildebrandt, Georgia Quinlan)
Wednesday: Grades 4-12!
Mason Repka and Edmonton Poetry Festival (Steve Pirot)
Thursday:
Masani St. Rose and SkirtsAfire Festival (Amanda Samuelson)
Please noteAll fees include a $40 non-refundable fee. No refunds will be made if registration is cancelled after March 25, 2026. YouthWrite Society Canada reserves the right to cancel courses and restrict enrollment. Courses, instructors and supervisors may be subject to change. |
Brought to you in partnership with...YouthWrite is ecstatic to welcome back many of last year's Spring Break partner organizations! |
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Meet your amazing instructors:
Monday, March 30 |
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Janice MacDonaldYouthWrite Instructor
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BioJanice MacDonald is a mystery writer who created the first series set in Edmonton, and continues to invent danger and trip over clues wherever she goes.
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ClassLearning the Formula and Crafting Your Own Detective
Mystery fiction follows a recipe that started with Edgar Allan Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and hasn’t varied all that much in the nearly two hundred years the genre has existed. Come and learn the recipe for the most popular type of fiction there is, and leave with the biography of your very own detective, ready to star in your next adventure. |
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Kelly TurnerYouthWrite Instructor
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BioKelly Turner has been honing her improv skills since 2009 with the goal of being famous. Along the way she fell in love with teaching. Kelly teaches all ages and skill levels with Rapid Fire Theatre, the GeriActors, and freelance coaching. Kelly is all about seeing the benefits improv brings to everyday life and, most importantly, getting some time in your week to be silly and have fun! She is a main ensemble member with Rapid Fire Theatre and Die Nasty the improvised soap opera, so maybe fame will come her way one day. Until then she is over the moon to share the improv skills that unlock her creativity and bring daily joy to her life. |
CourseOff The Page! |
Tuesday, March 31 |
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Liz IngramYouthWrite Instructor - SNAP Gallery.
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BioLiz Ingram is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Alberta currently living and working in Edmonton. She was born in Argentina and grew up in Delhi, Mumbai and Toronto. She has exhibited in over 300 group exhibitions in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East and the Far East and has received awards for prints at juried exhibitions in Canada, Slovenia, Poland, Korea, Brazil, Estonia, India and Finland. Honours include: Induction into the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts; City of Edmonton Hall of Fame; Royal Society of Canada; the University of Alberta Cup; and in 2017 the Order of Canada. She currently works in various media including etching, lithography, digital print, and installation. Recent exhibitions include: Rewilding,The Forest Will Forget Us, Vernon Public Art Gallery, BC, 2024; Liz Ingram and Bernd Hildebrandt: Touching Gravitas, SNAP Gallery, Edmonton, 2022; Touching Gravity, Ace AIR Gallery, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2018; Water/Bodies, FAB Gallery, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, 2017; Liz Ingram: Print Encounters, Prince Takamado Gallery, Embassy of Canada, Tokyo, 2015
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CourseWord and Image: Storytelling Through Print |
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Georgia QuinlanYouthWrite Instructor - SNAP Gallery.
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BioGeorgia Quinlan (she/they) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Amiskwaciwâskahikan (Edmonton, AB). She was first introduced to the wonderful world of printmaking at the University of Alberta, where she holds a BA in Art and Design with a minor in English. Georgia primarily works in Silkscreen and Linocut, and experiments with various textile arts. Currently, they work at SNAP Gallery as their Arts and Advocacy Assistant, and they can’t wait to share the joys of printmaking with you! |
CourseWord and Image: Storytelling Through Print |
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Spyder Yardley-Jones
YouthWrite Instructor
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BioSpyder Yardley-Jones is an award-winning, international illustrator, cartoonist and visual artist. His artistic abilities are not limited to the 2D world. Spyder takes his characters and transforms them into sculptures and detailed dioramas. He's been teaching art to youth in the Edmonton school system and at YouthWrite for 30 years.
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Course"Order up!"
With your amazing imagination, design a menu for a make believe restaurant or diner. Create illustrations and descriptions of the meals that will be served. Make it weird and make it wild! |
Wednesday, April 01 |
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Steve PirotYouthWrite Instructor - Edmonton Poetry Festival
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BioSteve Pirot (aka Unkl Stiv) is a poet, playwright, actor, director, and Executive Director of the Edmonton Poetry Festival Society who's been writing, performing, and performing his writing for 30 years. His 50-minute spoken word rhapsody Unkl Stiv's Looping Machine was presented at the Edmonton Fringe in 2023 and 2024, and at the Roxy Theatre in 2026. His energetic poetry performances have earned him the title Edmonton Poetry's Final Boss. |
CoursePresenting Poetry How To |
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Mason RepkaYouthWrite Instructor
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BioMason is a storyteller at heart, and has Studied English and Creative Writing at MacEwan University and the University of Victoria. Their dream job is to be a wizard, sending daring and unwitting heroes towards life-changing adventure. Mason is the director and founder of Dark Ascension LARP, and works as a professional Game Master, guiding players through the realms of table-top and live-action roleplaying. Mason also works at YouthWrite as a Communications Manager, Supervisor, and Instructor. They are so excited to be leading you on a table-top adventure this spring!
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CourseDelving into Characters |
Thursday, April 02 |
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Amanda SamuelsonYouthWrite Instructor - SkirtsAfire Festival
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BioAmanda Samuelson is an accomplished and award-winning writer, producer, dramaturg, educator, and actor currently based in Amiskwaciwâskahikan (Edmonton) on Treaty 6 Territory. She is a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts BFA program, with a major in Theatre and a minor in Creative Writing. During her time at NYU, she spent the majority of her studies at the Playwrights Horizons Theater School. Amanda’s ten-minute and one-act plays have been read and staged at festivals and competitions in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Her full-length play, Pressure, premiered at the 2022 Edmonton International Fringe Festival, presented by Nextfest and self-produced. Her new full-length play, A Visit, is currently in development and has received funding support from Edmonton Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts. Currently, Amanda works as the Assistant Managing Director for SkirtsAfire, a theatre and multidisciplinary arts festival that supports the work of women and non-binary artists. She also teaches playwriting to teens at the Citadel's Foote Theatre School and Free Arts Society, taking great pride in inspiring the next generation of writers. |
CoursePlaywriting Power
Have a story idea? Let's turn it into a play! In this workshop, explore the basics of playwriting through guided writing prompts focussed on character, story structure, dialogue, and more. Then create your own short script and discover how stories can be shaped for the stage. |
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Masani St. RoseYouthWrite Instructor - Masani Consulting Services
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BioMasani (she/her) is born and raised in Mohkinstis (Calgary, AB). She immersed into learning about her ancestral roots through dance at the tender age of three, specializing in West African and Carribean dance. Upon the introduction to dance, Masani found passion for the West African traditions, culture and style. Through training under Michèle Moss-Johnston at Decidedly Jazz Danceworks, she was able to build her foundation. Still working very closely with Michèle Moss-Johnston and various other artists from Guinea, West Africa, she finds every opportunity to take master classes from artists from various regions of Africa, including Congo, Uganda, Ghana, Mali, Guinea and Zimbabwe. Throughout the years, Masani has worked with various studios and professional groups across Canada. It is her mission to keep the art and culture alive from soul to sole! |
ClassSoul to Sole
Explore the ancestral stories from Guinea, Conakry through movement. We will connect our words and movement from soul to sole. |
The Amazing Supers
Handpicked and multi-talented, YouthWrite Supers are the centre of our camps. As artists, teachers and mentors, they bring the X-Factor to YouthWrite.
MORE SUPERS TBA SOON!
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SUPER Mason RepkaMason is a YouthWrite Office Bee, working with Gail and Tania behind the scenes to make sure YouthWrite events go swimmingly. Mason loves to teach writing through Roleplay, whether it be Live Action or Table Top. He also owns and operates Dark Ascension LARP, and is, of course, Gail's favorite. |
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Communications Manager Tania Gigliotti
Tania is a powerhouse administrator, amazing client services manager, excel wizard, and an adorable little hobbit. She spends her spare time researching youth engagement in living history museums for the Young People are the Future project, as well as reading a lot of good books and eating a lot of good food. She's also Gail's favorite. |
Meet Your Coordinator
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YouthWrite Director-CoordinatorGail Sidonie Sobatis a multi-award-winning teacher and author, with twelve books for children, teens and adults, and a number of educational and academic articles. A Global News Woman of Vision and an Arts and Culture Citation Award recipient, she is the YouthWrite creator/coordinator, an international presenter, an instructor in the professional writing program at MacEwan University and in the Faculty of Education at U of A. Gail was The Writers’ Union of Canada Regional Representative for Alberta, NWT and Nunavut, and writer in residence with the Metro Edmonton Federation of Libraries She has moved forty times in her life from Badlands to Siksika Nation Reserve to hideous suburbs to Istanbul to the Sunshine Coast to her writer’s garret in a century-old temperamental house. She adores all of her Supers & Coordinators equally, and loves YouthWrite like a Madwoman! |