Just how do they do it? Anyone who’s tried to write a mystery knows just how difficult it is to craft that edge-of-the-seat, page-turning plot that manages to keep readers guessing while tying up dozens of loose ends by the last page. Students will learn from the best with these three exceptional writers who will share how they manage to do just that. New York Times bestseller Emiko Jean speaks to her feminist tour de force, The Return of Ellie Black, while another NYT-bestseller Molly Knox Ostertag shares a beautiful story of identity, family, love, and magic in The Deep Dark. Tom Ryan, meanwhile, shares an action-packed mystery about a secret society and nautical discoveries in The Treasure Hunters Club. Grades 10–12. Moderated by Christina Barber.
Themes: Creative writing, masterclass, mystery, adventure, crime fiction, graphic novel
Curriculum Connections: Creative Writing 10-12, Career-Life Connections
More information about the Festival:
Box Office | Accessibility | Venue Map
Event Participants:
CHRISTINA BARBER is a Vancouver-based writer, dramaturge, artist, and educator. Her poetry has appeared in The Whimsical Poet, and she contributed to the Vancouver City Poems Project. She is a regular contributor to The Miramichi Reader and The Seaboard Review, reviewing fiction and non-fiction for both adults and youth.
EMIKO JEAN is the New York Times bestselling author of the young adult novels Tokyo Dreaming and Tokyo Ever After, a Reese Witherspoon/Hello Sunshine pick, as well as the novel Mika in Real Life, which was a Good Morning America Book Club pick. She lives in Washington with her husband and two kids.
MOLLY KNOX OSTERTAG is the acclaimed ABA Indie and New York Times bestselling graphic novel author-illustrator of The Girl from the Sea and the Witch Boy trilogy: The Witch Boy, The Hidden Witch, and The Midwinter Witch, as well as a writer for animation. A graduate of the School of Visual Arts, Molly was featured in the Forbes 30 Under 30: Media list in 2020. She’s married to fellow writer and artist ND Stevenson, and they live in Los Angeles with two cats and a very cuddly dog.
TOM RYAN is an award-winning author, screen writer, and producer. His YA mystery Keep This to Yourself was the winner of the 2020 ITW Thriller Award for Best Young Adult Novel, the 2020 Arthur Ellis Award for Best YA Crime Book, and the 2021 Ann Connor Brimer Award, and is currently being adapted for television. His follow-up YA mystery, I Hope You’re Listening, was the winner of the 2021 Lambda “Lammy” Award for Best LGBTQ Mystery. He was a 2017 Lambda Literary Fellow in Young Adult Fiction. Tom, his husband, and their dog live in Nova Scotia.
