On Feb. 22, 2025, Saint Mary’s College held the 13th annual Get Inked Teen Writing Conference to fill the gap for young writers in the South Bend area.
The conference consisted of a keynote address by author Trang Thanh Tran and workshops where attendees were provided lessons in creative writing. Some of these workshops included “Writing Music with Words,” “Written into a Corner” and “From the Author’s Toolbox.”
Coordinated by Katherine Higgs, associate professor of the Department of Education at Saint Mary’s, the conference opened in Carroll Auditorium in Madeleva Hall. There were approximately 70 attendees.
The conference began with a “writer’s marathon.” The students were allotted 2-5 minutes to compose a piece based on student proposed topics drawn at random. At the end of the allotted time students were encouraged to share their pieces.
Following the writer’s marathon, keynote speaker Tran was ushered to the stage. Thanh Tran is author of “She is a Haunting” and “They Bloom at Night,” two young adult horror novels. Tran’s keynote speech, “The Horrors Persist but So Do I,” focused on the author’s origin story with writing and advice for young writers.
“Read widely, write for yourself and make a writing friend,” Tran said.
The third point of advice resonated throughout the conference. Higgs spoke about her experience as a young writer.
“I didn't know that there were other kids like me that liked to write. I didn't get to meet authors and see that they were real people” Higgs said. “I think that by creating this space where we bring published authors in with teens, they're able to see that published authors are responding favorably to their own writing and that they're accepted into a writing community and they have the opportunity to network and meet other teens who like to write.”
This push for the students to communicate with fellow writers was also evident in the breakout sessions. Throughout Megan Twietmeyer’s session two, “Point of View,” students were further encouraged to interact with their peers and establish contacts if comfortable. Twietmeyer focused on teaching narrative perspective during her session in a manageable language for her audience.
“I still want kids to be kids, so I think providing the space for teens to explore their writing but also be a space where the content will be appropriate for their age and development is really important,” Twietmeyer said. “They may be at the beginning stages of their writing and so I think that's really important, because a lot of the [adult] conferences are going to be out of the range financially, physically and content wise. So, understanding that this is a very different audience, I think, is incredibly important and making it accessible.”
During the workshop, Twietmeyer allowed students to deviate from the assigned task by exploring their individual interests.
“I think working with students has helped me understand that creativity means a lot of different things to a lot of different people and not putting in a box allows for so much more,” Twietmeyer said. “There are things that I never would have thought of that are just like, if you don't limit creativity, the things that you can see are just super incredible.”
Alongside authors, a new edition to this year’s conference was an editor. Kortney Nash, associate editor at Godwin Books, shared advice for the young audience.
“While young creatives pursue their goals, I’d just like to remind them to have fun. It can be difficult as a creative receiving rejection letters or negative feedback, but what’s most important at the end of the day is that you enjoyed the process of whatever it is you were creating. It’s great to find people who love your work, but what’s most important is that you love it,” Nash wrote in email to The Observer.
About the conference itself, Nash shared positive feedback and hope for continuation of the event.
“This entire event was so phenomenal and I’m so thankful to every single person who made it possible. There should be a version of Get Inked in every state” Nash said.
The Get Inked Conference will host a virtual session March 1. The program intends to host in-person sessions every last Saturday of February and virtual sessions every first Saturday of March.
