Artist Visit: Becky Albertalli
Above: GUIDING INSPIRATION: Media Specialist Angela Pendley holds copies of Becky Albertalli’s novels “Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda", "Here’s to Us” and “Imogen, Obviously” in the Clarke Central High School Media Center on Feb. 5. Pendley coordinated Albertalli’s Feb. 6 visit to CCHS. “Anytime you get to speak to a real author or someone who is making their living doing this is super exciting,” Pendley said. “The writing process looks different for every writer that I've ever met and just being able to kind of pick their brain about how they got started, I think that’s very interesting.” Photo by Cate DeMaria
Young adult author Becky Albertalli will visit CCHS on Feb. 6 to speak to students about her experiences as an author.
Georgia native Becky Albertalli, the author of the young adult novel “Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda,” will visit Clarke Central High School on Feb. 6 for a Q&A about her experiences as an author.
The visit will be held during fourth block in the Media Center, with approximately 80 tickets available for students. Media specialists Angela Pendley and Naomi Craver wanted to find a local author to come visit students and chose to ask Albertalli to visit after some research.
“I'm just really excited that our students are gonna get the opportunity to interact with her and to hear what she has to say about her writing process and just about her life and who she is as a person because I feel like it really humanizes people,” Craver said. “When you think about somebody who's an author, they seem kind of larger than life and when they come and you get to actually talk to them, you realize they're just a regular person, too.”
Junior Havona Jean-Phillippe appreciates Albertalli’s inclusion of LGBTQ+ characters in her stories and anticipates learning more about Albertalli's process.
“I'm an aspiring author and most of the stuff that I do like to write or read is LGBT (to) some degree. I want to hear from an established author (about) how they incorporated LGBT topics and flowed well into the story instead of feeling stale,” Jean-Phillippe said. “I want to learn from her on how she made (her stories) not awkward and (flow) well into her story.”
After an introduction and Q&A facilitated by members of the iliad Literary-Art Magazine, Albertalli will then answer questions from students. Media specialist Angela Pendley, who took the lead on coordinating the author visit, is hopeful that students will be positively impacted.
“I hope they're excited about reading, but also I hope that if they're in here for this presentation, that they're looking for some type of connection,” Pendley said. “Looking at (students' takeaways) through (them) wanting to be a writer or maybe they want a field somewhere in (writing), (I hope students) leave here feeling inspired.”
Story by Cate DeMaria
Cate DeMaria is a Clarke Central High School junior in Athens, Georgia. She serves as the Managing Editor for the iliad Literary-Art Magazine. DeMaria hopes to work on her writing skills and expand iliad’s community outreach. In her free time, she likes to hang out with friends and play flag football.