Matthew Bennett Young

Literary

Specialities: Creative writing, Improvisation, Nature-focused art

Contact Info

Email address

matbyoung@hotmail.com

Phone Number

4388734565

Website address

www.onewildword.org

Other Weblink

www.amazon.ca/Matthew-Bennett-Young/e/B0043O3YZ2/ref=aufs_dp_fta_dsk

Where Artist lives

Montreal

Resides in

English Montreal

Social Media

Experience working with

Early childhood
Cycle 1 Elementary
Cycle 2 Elementary
Cycle 3 Elementary
Secondary 1 & 2
Secondary 3 & 4
Secondary 5
CEGEP
Senior Citizens

Lifelong Learners

Adult Learners

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

Health and Wellbeing
Environmental Awareness and Consumer Rights and Responsibilities
Media Literacy

I've received CHSSN Mental Health Initiative training for:

Youth

Listed in the Quebec Culture in the Schools Repertoire

I have experience working with

Culture a L'ecole

I can facilitate virtual creative experiences

School board areas you are available to work in

Central Quebec - Quebec City & Environs
Central Quebec - Rural/Regional Schools
Cree School Board
Eastern Shores - Gaspe/Coast
Eastern Shores - Lower St. Lawrence
Eastern Shores - Magdalen Islands
Eastern Townships
English Montreal
Kativik School Board
Lester B Pearson - outside Montreal transportation areas (STM)
Lester B Pearson - within public transit area
Littoral - Lower North Shore
New Frontiers - Chateauguay
New Frontiers - Chateauguay Valley
Riverside
Sir Wilfrid Laurier – Lanaudiere
Sir Wilfrid Laurier – Laval
Western Quebec - Northern area
Western Quebec - Southern area (Hull, Wakefield etc)

Travel

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

I have been producing picture books for 20 years. I love the marriage of art and literature. My intention is always to stimulate discussion between adults and children, so we may share our experience of something together. My books also form the basis of some of my interdisciplinary workshops which use the senses to stimulate literary creativity and challenge assumptions that are made around us. I love to see children and youth inspired by their own sense of creativity.

Taken from Matthew's picture book 'Snowman'. The illustrations are inspired by the work of Wilson Bentley, the first person to successfully photograph the geometric structure of snowflakes.

Musical Stories workshop flyer (Montreal).

A screenshot of the first page of Kyra's story, inspired by the Musical Stories workshop.

Showing the front and back covers of Matthew's (collage) space-and-football fantasy picture book.

Taken from Matthew's first picture book 'Maybe Colours'.

Creative Approach and Experiences Offered

Music (7 instrumental recordings) is used in my workshop as a means to stimulate feeling. Those feelings are then articulated using a word/s, expressions or images. Then the children are encouraged to use those words or images as a platform to create a basic story outline. The workshop has a very simple structure but great significance and the children love it. I also gave this workshop recently to students & faculty at McGill and they loved it too. The best way to describe it is as a 'translation of the senses'.
Interestingly, having given this workshop to so many different age groups one common kind of feedback I get from teachers is how delighted they are when their special needs students respond very positively. They do not seem to find it challenging in the same way they might a more formal approach to constructive story writing and that's because the music relieves the student of the initial creative responsibility of the development of their story.