Northern Michigan University is hosting the Marquette-Alger Young Authors Conference this week to promote literacy and authorship among children in kindergarten through fifth grade. From left, Aerillyn Glenn, Hailey Quinnell, Maila Halquist, Kylie Cardonie and Chloe LaCosse hold up books they wrote to share with each other during the conference for second and third grades on Tuesday. (Journal photo by Rachel Oakley)

MARQUETTE — Students and teachers from 13 schools in Alger and Marquette counties are visiting Northern Michigan University this week for the Marquette-Alger Young Authors Conference, with the goal of instilling an enthusiasm for literacy and authorship in our communities’ youth.

Conference Co-Director Katie Ferguson explained that each day of the week brings kids of different grades on the literary field trip.

“Monday was fourth and fifth,” said Ferguson. “(Tuesday was) second and third, (today) is first and some seconds, and then kindergarten and pre-K on Thursday.”

This year, students attending the event are coming together to share their writing with each other and meet with children’s book author Carolyn Crimi, whose books include “Boris and Bella,” “Where’s My Mummy?” and “Don’t Need Friends.”

“They get a chance to do a pen pal meetup, where they do book sharing and share a piece of writing they’ve been working on throughout the year,” Ferguson said. “They get a chance to memorize and practice some poetry that they’ll all present together today to introduce (Crimi). And then just the chance to meet a real-life author and kind of hear her process and inspire them a little bit to be young authors. Sometimes that can be a little difficult to spark interest in kids to be writers.”

The Marquette-Alger Young Authors Conference began in 1975, Ferguson said. Starting with 347 first- through sixth-grade students, the conference has expanded now to include around 3,000 pre-K through fifth-grade students.

Educators involved in the event share the belief that getting kids to enjoy reading and writing is the key to success.

“Kids want to get their thoughts out and they want to share, and it’s so important that they’re able to dictate what they’re thinking and to dictate those thoughts and those ideas,” Ferguson said. “Writing is such a powerful way of doing that, whether it be through a book or an article or a poem, or even letters. Writing can be so versatile, and it’s so important.”

Crimi echoed this notion, saying “I think that kids who are reading and writing have a leg up in life. I feel like readers are more empathetic people, they exercise their imagination to a greater degree. Writing can help you get through all kinds of problems. It can help you deal with the world around you.”

Crimi added that her goal when speaking to kids at the event is to instill the idea that reading and writing can be fun and to give them suggestions on how to exercise their imaginations.

“I hope that because they have fun coming up with story ideas with me they will go back to their classroom and when their teacher asks them to write a story, I want them to remember how much fun they had,” Crimi said. “I think that it can be really fun and it’s not always taught in a way that encourages that.”