Award winning writer Monique Polak, gave two remote writing workshops to the students of Saint-Francis Elementary School in Richmond, located in the Eastern Townships.  Her workshop was delivered video chat to one Grade 9 class and two Grade 4 classes. Monique also made an in person visit to Grade 5 students, giving a short introduction to herself and the art of fiction writing. 

During her school visit, Monique spoke about why she wrote certain books and where she got her ideas from. She spoke to students about the work and answered questions about whait takes to get a book published, why different drafts are necessary and how the story changes from one draft to the next.

Monique teaches English and Humanities at Marianopolis College in Montreal, and is the author of 25 novels for young readers. She is a two-time winner of the Quebec Writers’ Federation Prize for Children’s and YA Literature and also works as a Montreal based journalist.

Saint-Francis Elementary School’s ArtistsInspire Grant experience was made possible by an ELAN Quebec/LEARN partnership for students from Quebec’s English-speaking communities to participate in arts and culture experiences, thanks in part to funding from the Government of Canada.

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Saint-Francis’ Grade 6 students participating in a virtual writing workshop with Monique Polak. (Photo by Siu-Min Jim)