The power of storytelling was on full display on Feb. 20 at the Highland Park Literary Festival.
Professionals representing a range of media — from journalism and literature to poetry, visual storytelling, podcasting, and more — spoke to Highland Park High School students during the popular annual LitFest workshop day.
“LitFest is just a great opportunity to build networks or talk to people who I normally would not have access to,” senior Olivia-Sophie Keijsers Koning said.
Keijsers Koning, who serves as editor-in-chief of Highland Park High School’s student newspaper, The Bagpipe, and co-hosts The Lazy Feminists podcast, called the workshops inspiring.
She said she particularly enjoyed Bubble Lounge podcast host and People Newspapers contributor Martha Jackson’s workshop.
“She was talking about her podcast, but also the courage and the will it took just to do it and go,” Keijsers Koning said. “It really spoke to me personally because I’m running my own podcast as well.”
Novelist and screenwriter Blake Crouch gave the Feb. 19 community keynote address, which drew a crowd of more than 200, and spoke with students during the workshops.
Crouch, who serves as head writer and showrunner of the hit Apple TV+ adaptation of his science-fiction novel Dark Matter, gave keynote attendees insight into his writing process.
“I don’t like to over-plan because I want to be surprised. I want to surprise myself in the storytelling and leave room to diverge from what I think it’s supposed to be,” he said.
HPHS student Biviyana Bhattarai, who attended Crouch’s workshop, said she’s a voracious reader herself and enjoyed his discussion of the storytelling process.
“We just got such a big insight into how his stories play out, and you can see his personality meshed into his work,” Bhattarai said. “It’s cool to really analyze that because when you’re reading a book, you don’t think of the author, you think of the story.”
LitFest was founded in 1995 and now includes a slate of events, including student writing contests, a student open mic night, parent and student book clubs, a keynote speaker, and workshops led by celebrated literary professionals.
Ashley Blanchette co-chaired LitFest this year with Haley DeVault.
“I hope HP LitFest leaves our students with a lasting spark of inspiration,” Blanchette said, “opening their eyes to new possibilities and career paths they hadn’t previously considered.”
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