DOHA: Two renowned writers conducted crash course seminars for children at the Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing (BQFP).
A one day crash course seminar for 90 children aged between 9 and 13 entitled 'Fun with Storytelling" were held with Kathy Hoopmann, award winning UAE based author and 'How to Become a Writer' with Taghreed Najjar, author, founder and CEO of Al Salwa Publishing house.
"Nurturing writing as a hobby in young children is a great start to building a generation of young writers in Qatar,'' said Lana Shamma, Events and Publicity Coordinator, BQFP.
Kathy Hoopmann uses a combination of different workshops to inspire young writers to write their stories.
At the beginning she revealed a sneak peak at the tricks of the trade with 'The Secret Life of an Author.' This was followed by a combination of two interactive workshops, where she used music as a means for inspiration, and allowed for writers to be more creative with their characters. Hoopmann is an award winning author born in Australia. She is the author of 13 books for children and teens, translated into 10 languages, including four books in Arabic.
Taghreed Najjar's workshop 'How to Become a Writer' was held in Arabic. She shared her personal experience as a writer, explaining different theories to build a story's structure. She also utilised games and activities with children to inspire ideas for their stories, as well as help them organise their thoughts. Najjar is the author of over 40 Arabic books for children aged between three and 10.
BQFP also sponsored a brainstorming workshop for college-aged essayists in conjunction with the 'My Fathers' project, a locally organised endeavour aiming to be the largest anthology of writing on fathers in the world.
BQFP's Reading and Writing Development Department is a unique aspect in a commercial publishing house and reflects the company's core value to identify, nurture and support literary talent. Particularly focused on developing aspiring writers' talents in Doha, BQFP offers various workshop programmes all year long.
© The Peninsula 2010
