A Prize for the Winners of ESRA Magazine's Young Writers' Competition

We have just finished a three-day creative writing seminar with the prize winners of ESRA's creative writing competition for youth.

Day 1 was spent in the lobby of the Daniel Hotel Herzliya. The topic was "The Sea". We first got to know each other and shared the kind of books the students best enjoyed and the style of writing they use to express their ideas. We then moved on to discuss well-written and prize-winning poems and extracts from novels connected to the sea. After discussing the imagery and power of these examples, the students were given the task to go in groups onto the beach and come back and write a short passage on the sea involving both description and also suspense. After the students wrote their tasks they shared their work with the group. There was a good deal of appreciation and praise given to each other. After this task the students were treated to a light lunch in the hotel lobby.

Day 2 The topic was "The Bustling Mall". We met at the Azrieli Mall Tel Aviv for this experience. This time the focus was on looking at the physical appearance of people and also building a story about a person. We shared descriptions of famous characters in prize-winning novels. The students were then divided in groups and the task was to find a person in the mall to describe and build a story around. It was quite fascinating how different and thought-provoking the stories were. At the end of the session the students enjoyed a light lunch.

Day 3 The third and final day took place in my home. The students were asked to bring their best piece of writing they wanted to share in the group. This last day our literature focused on looking at a room. We discussed prize-giving literature where a room was described very powerfully and the imagery was most profound. Students then wrote their own piece of writing: "The Room".

After four hours of discussion and writing it was finally time to say goodbye. Each student now carried a full portfolio with worksheets of literature we had discussed together as well as examples of their own writing. The students opened a new WhatsApp group of their creative writing which we hope will lead to fruitful writing and new exciting friendships. We ended the day with a light lunch at 15.00. Time seemed to rush by - we couldn't believe that each day we had spent almost four hours together totally focused on appreciating literature and writing on various topics.

Friendships were made and telephone numbers were exchanged. There were many times that the students were very moved by their colleagues' writings and at such moments there was a mixture of magic and darkness in the air, broken only by a joke and a feeling of true comradeship and deep understanding and bonding.

A few comments from the young writers

• … your words mean so much to me and the time we spent together was so inspiring and motivational I made many memories I'll never forget. From Katrina
• Hi Janette, thank you I loved the course! From Anat
• Thank you very much for doing this writing course, it was a real pleasure! From Alex
• Thank you! The past three days were a blast! I had a lot of fun. From Reut

Dr. Janette Segal conceived and taught The Creative Writing Seminar for ESRA Magazine Prize Winners 2023. She very generously donated this prize.