David Homel

Literary

Contact Info

Please note that you must communicate with the artist to confirm details such as dates, levels or grades and workshop themes.

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Email address

david.homel@concordia.ca

Where Artist lives

Outremont, Montreal

Resides in

English Montreal

Experience working with

Cycle 2 Elementary
Cycle 3 Elementary
Secondary 1 & 2
Secondary 3 & 4
Secondary 5
CEGEP

I regularly explore the following Broad Areas of Learning/Themes in my work

Personal and Career Planning
Media Literacy
Citizenship and Community Life (Identity & Belonging)

Listed in the Quebec Culture in the Schools Repertoire

I have experience working with

Carrefour Emploi-Jeunesse, NDG. Auteurs en herbe, French Ontario schools, several locations. A variety of elementary schools, English and French, throughout Quebec.

I can facilitate virtual creative experiences

School board areas you are available to work in

Central Quebec - Quebec City & Environs
Eastern Townships
English Montreal
Lester B Pearson - outside Montreal transportation areas (STM)
Lester B Pearson - within public transit area
Western Quebec - Southern area (Hull, Wakefield etc)
New Frontiers - Chateauguay
New Frontiers - Chateauguay Valley
Sir Wilfrid Laurier – Lanaudiere
Sir Wilfrid Laurier – Laurentian
Sir Wilfrid Laurier – Laval

Travel

I am available for travel within the same day
I am available for travel overnight
An extended residency is an option

From an immigrant family whose grandparents were illiterate, I now work full-time as a writer in a number of fields: fiction-writing for young readers and adults, journalism, documentary film, translation... I've visited schools in Canada, the US, Mexico, Cuba, the Balkans and several west European countries. And every time, I learn something new from the students.

Photo Credit: Marie-Louise Gay

Creative Approach and Experiences Offered

I always like to start with one question: where do the good stories come from? In our houses, and if so, where? In the garage, the basement? In the neighborhood? With our families? And what's a good story anyway? I know the answer: the one we absolutely have to tell, the one that matters to us most. Not easy finding that one... So how do we look for it? We don't only look around, we look inward -- both at the same time. Once we get our hands on something promising, we start building the narrative, and we start asking the literary questions: who will tell the story? What point of view? Where will it happen and how will we interest our readers? I bring examples from my work and that of others to show how it's done. For example, the first scene of my first book came to me as a result of a nuclear bomb drill when I was 10 years old, during the Cuban missile crisis. Now, that's a good start! The students learn how to build a good starting scene. and something about world history too.