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PASCO Several authors known for their books for young adults will be in the Tri-Cities this week to encourage students to read and inspire them to write their own stories.
The second annual Cavalcade of Authors is Friday at the Red Lion Hotel in Pasco.
Some of the authors will visit Tri-City schools to speak with students who won't be at the event. Author Royce Buckingham, a Richland native, also is holding a community session Thursday at the Richland Public Library.
With the Cavalcade, "we're trying to foster that love of reading and writing" in students, said organizer Michelle Lane, a librarian at Enterprise Middle School in West Richland.
The authors scheduled to appear are: Buckingham, Dia Calhoun, Patrick Carman, Brenda Cooper, Lorie Ann Grover, Maureen McQuerry, Ben Mikaelsen, Deborah Reber and Suzanne Selfors.
The centerpiece of the event is the daylong workshop for students Friday. More than 200 middle and high school students will attend; they had to read books from at least four of the authors to qualify.
The students will hear the writers talk about their work and techniques during panel discussions and will be able to choose from sessions on everything from finding inspiration for stories to writing for the big screen.
Lane got the idea for the event after attending a conference that included discussion of how to entice authors to make library visits. The first Cavalcade was last school year and drew about 70 middle school students from Richland.
This year, 225 students from Richland's middle and high schools are expected, along with a group from Kennewick High.
The hope is that eventually Cavalcade will be a Tri-City-wide event, Lane said.
"So many kids assume, 'I can't write. It's too hard.' But if they meet somebody (who's doing it) and get those ideas, then they want to try," Lane said.
In the future, she'd like to see the event held in a venue like the Three Rivers Convention Center, where there would be room for all the students who want to come. She's looking for corporate sponsors who could help offset the costs to make that happen and can be reached at michelle.lane@rsd.edu.
A major sponsor of this year's Cavalcade has been the Radcon convention, which is scheduled Friday through Sunday at the Pasco Red Lion.
Radcon covered the cost of the Cavalcade conference rooms and also is paying for the students' lunches, Lane said.
The daylong workshop isn't the only Cavalcade event scheduled. Authors also are visiting schools in the Tri-Cities during the week, and Buckingham's community session is from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Thursday at the Richland Public Library.
Lane said last year's Cavalcade took months of planning, and so did this year's event. But the effort is worth it because of all that the students gain, she said.
Some kids who attended last year have kept in touch with the authors they met and even gotten feedback from them on writing samples, she said.
Lane is already thinking about next year's event. When the 2010 Cavalcade is over, "I'm going to give myself a month and then start (planning) again," she said.
* On the net: www.cavalcadeofauthors.org
