For the last two weeks I have been working at Heathfield High School in the Adelaide Hills as a Writer in Residence, as part of a program organised by Writers SA. I’m here to support students with their creative writing and reading, to share knowledge about the industry, and to demonstrate that a career as a writer can be more than just a daydream.

Me, daunted? Never!

It’s a beautiful campus surrounded by trees, and the start of my residency coincides with the first cold weather for the year, the hills providing some atmospheric fog and rain. It’s a huge school with around 1200 students from year 7 to 12. Big new buildings sit amongst native bushland and sports ovals, with some landscaping work still going on in between. I walk past the trades shed and the art rooms, and sign in at Reception.

English learning area leader Brigid Parker gives me a warm welcome and a tour of the site. She has set me up with a timetable, keen to make the most of this opportunity – I’m grateful for the work she has put in ahead of time. After the tour, we head to the library, where I’ve been allocated an office. The library is also home to the Wellbeing Centre and the IT team. There are always students around, chatting, gossiping, reading and working. All the students and staff I meet make me feel very welcome.

As I settle in, I start to note down some of the things I overhear people saying in the space – students, teachers, and other staff and visitors. I like to use overheard dialogue as source material, and I quickly fill a couple of pages with lines like these:

But before I go into the classroom, my first assignment is addressing the Year 10 assembly, held in a volleyball gym. The Year 10s are undertaking their work experience program at the moment so I speak to them about the possibilities and challenges of a career in the arts, including some of the skills you might need, such as persistence, adaptability, and independence. I don’t remember ever hearing an artist or writer speak at my own high school. It’s great to be able to show young people that a creative career pathway exists. I encourage them to look past the financial aspect of jobs and employment and to think more widely about how they might use their unique voices in the world.

In the classroom, I get to work. Year 11s and some Year 12s are beginning their own narrative (fiction) writing projects. Year 9s are starting a unit of work on crime fiction, including writing their own stories. I take over their classes with some targeted creative writing games. They rise to the challenges with imaginative daring and lots of laughs.

With the Year 9s I play collaborative character building games to show how details can bring your characters to life (ever heard of a detective with a violent pet marmoset? What about a vegan criminal with a fear of magpies?) My overheard lines from the school campus become starters for writing dialogue, and we find out what happens when our characters start to lie (as one student observes – ‘the possibilities [head exploding gesture]’). We practice stealing details from everyday life and from each other to create interesting and atmospheric settings. Lying and thieving are essential skills for a writer.

With the older students, erasure poems are a fun way to break from the fear of the blank page and show how limitations can unlock creativity. The results are sometimes absurd, sometimes moving – here are some of my favourites:

We play another interactive game I call ‘exquisite corpse manifesto’ that teaches us about language, meaning and power (if you’ve ever been in one of my workshops, you’ve probably played this one). I also answer many a smart question about what it takes to be a writer, the book industry, editing, planning and structure, and how to sustain focus over a longer project such as a novel.

All the teachers I meet at Heathfield are hardworking, generous, and really supportive of their students’ creativity. Some lament the ways that too much focus on analysis in the curriculum can override the love of reading in students. One year 11 student remarks, ‘After year 9 English I didn’t read a book for fun until now.’ The residency is a chance for us to celebrate reading and writing without the pressure of assessments and the rigour of formal critique.

During breaks, I run a zine workshop in the library – mainly attended by a group of enthusiastic year 8s who produce some great collages from the materials I’ve brought with me, flicking through some zines and comics for inspo. It’s great to see some graphic storytelling in the school library too (I spotted Mandy Ord on the shelves!). I suspect I will be seeing more creative work from some of these budding zinesters in future.

I have a friendly handmade sign on my office, and when I’m not in class I keep my door open so students can pop by to chat. Some ask for help with poetry homework, others want to ask about my work or talk about their own writing. I answer questions about writing as a career, how publishing works, and where they can go next. Writers SA and local superstars Matilda Bookshop are both great places to find more workshops and advice.

Today’s my last day and while I’m looking forward to getting back to my own writing, I’ll be sad to leave Heathfield High behind. I’ve had lots of positive feedback, and I think this residency has been a great success. There are some excellent young writers at this school, and they are lucky to have teachers that support them in their creative endeavours. I feel fortunate to have had the chance to share some skills, games and advice with them. I hope I have offered them just that little bit of encouragement for the future, and a sense of possibility [head exploding gesture]!

This project has been funded by a one-off state government grant and organised by Writers SA, who are sending writers in residence to half a dozen schools in South Australia. Over the years, I have written many articles and submissions to government that advocate for programs like this one. I hope that we can demonstrate to legislators and funding bodies how beneficial it is for schools and students to employ writers/artists in this setting. Everyone should have a way to access the world of professional artists and writers. Every person has a right to arts, culture, and creativity.

Thank you for having me, Heathfield High – and thank you to Writers SA for this opportunity.