Julia Taylor Ebel engages children and adults alike through school visits and community programs. She leaves audiences thirsty for reading and eager to capture their own ideas and images in poetry and prose. Julia inspires young poets and leads students to think like writers. As she discusses her passion for keeping stories, she offers tools that others can use and challenges all ages to explore ways to tell their own stories.
Presentations on her books can include…
• Keeping Stories: What stories of your own history or heritage would you like to keep? Who are the people who shaped our community? Using examples from my writing, I leave listeners with ideas, curiosity, and tools to explore their stories.
• Writing Books: The process of researching, writing, editing, and illustration of books for children: Why did I write about Addie Clawson? …about Orville Hicks? …about Hansi? …about beadwood leaves and evergreen wreaths? Where do we get ideas for writing? Who picks an illustrator? How many times does an author re-write? What is transcription?
• Stories Behind the Stories: What is the history behind a books, the motivation in writing about a particular subject. Who are the people and experiences behind books? What discoveries were made along the writing path?
• North Carolina History Connection: What do we learn of North Carolina history from these books and from the people and experiences represented in them? How does geography affect the stories and the lifestyles represented in them?
• Strong Females in Children’s Literature: What strengths does Addie Clawson display? What other books show strong females? What is the difference between a hero or heroine and a role model? What does Addie’s story say to us about kindness, courage and believing in ourselves? How do the characters show strength in Mama’s Wreaths and Dresses, Dreams and Beadwood Leaves?
• Getting Started with Writing: Where did the ideas for my stories originate? Where can young writers look for their own story ideas? How do our earlier experiences influence our writing?
Poetry presentations can include…
- Focusing Your Poem: Choosing a subject and point of view. Narrowing the focus to make the poem sharper and more intense
- Poem subjects: Poems about nature, poems people, poems that tell stories
- The Shape of a Poem: What makes a group of words a poem? Does a poem have to rhyme? What difference does the shape make? How do we decide where to break lines? What kinds of words sound appealing together?
- Drawing from the Senses: Using all the senses when writing
- Collaborative or Individual Poems: Writing a poem as a class or individually
Fees are negotiable, usually $350 to $800 for school visits.
Julia Taylor Ebel has led programs for schools, libraries, community groups and educational conferences. She has led a number of workshops for NCSLMA and also participated in an AASL conference. She taught teacher renewal classes for Guilford Technical Community College, Jamestown, NC, focusing on various aspects of juvenile literature and reading with children. She also tutors privately.
Contact Julia Taylor Ebel
ebel@northstate.net
(336) 454-1957