Many young writers are seeing their dreams of being published become reality thanks to a national literacy project called Dancing Pencils – and founder Felicity Keats Morrison says a Daily News article was a springboard for the project.
In 1996, the Daily News carried a story about a group of Grade 3 Manor Gardens Primary pupils who had had stories published by umSinsi Press, Keats Morrison’s publishing house.
“That article sparked huge interest in children’s writing and I started to teach children the right-brained method of writing,” said Keats Morrison. “Schools then invited me to do workshops for pupils and teachers and in 1998, Engen commissioned me to teach all the pupils and teachers in 13 primary schools on the Bluff and to publish 89 books of children’s writing. Books were donated to disadvantaged schools in rural areas.”
Her book, Dancing Pencils, was used in schools and academic institutions, was published the next year. Invitations for her to hold workshops came in from other provinces.
But demand was growing and in 2003 Dancing Pencils Writing Clubs (DPWCs) were established and mentors were trained. The next year, the Dancing Pencils Literacy Development Project was set up with the blessing of two ministers of education in KwaZulu-Natal. A non-profit company, it has a fundraising number and aims to get sponsorship to have books, written by members, distributed in disadvantaged schools. Sponsors will pay for mentor training and for the origination of books.
Keats Morrison says she has trained 600 mentors and there are about 50 clubs that work and publish consistently.
“The success for everyone, no matter what age, comes in the ability to understand our right brain and to be able to tap into it,” she says. “Once this is done, those books and stories you’ve always wanted to write will just tumble out! ”
DPWCs are held in all areas – impoverished and upmarket, rural and urban. Umsinsi Press has published 1 450 books sold through the website.
Many members have success stories to tell. Detlev Diegel joined the Dancing Pencils Bat Centre group, and was so inspired that he is now a mentor. His life has also taken a new direction: he is now a ghost writer.
Patricia Devenish is the librarian at the Open Air School in Glenwood, mentor of the Trevean adult DPWC and founder of Vulumoyua DPWC.
“The club has published eight books in six years and 100 children have passed through it. A writing club is one of the ways you can bring about a culture of reading and writing in a school and I have seen children grow in self-confidence as they express themselves through writing.”
Parkvale Primary School teacher Veena Gangaram says:
“We have had seven anthologies and 30 stories published as stand-alone books. English is second language for many of the pupils but everyone is welcome.”
See www.umsinsi.com and www.dancingpencils.co.za