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The Milken Community High School & Stephen S. Wise Temple Elementary School is hosting the Young Writers' Conference (YWC) on Sunday, February 12th, for the 7th consecutive year. Fourth through eighth grade students are invited to participate in this special conference. Students will start the day with a Keynote Address and then participate in three workshops led by professional writers. The Young Writers' Conference is a Los Angeles based organization dedicated to improving young people's writing skills by first instilling a passion for writing. The activities of the YWC are designed to support the development of student knowledge and skills in alignment with K-8 Eng/LA content standards.
Keynote Speaker D. J. MacHale:
Opening the day's conference will be New York Times bestseller D.J. MacHale, author of the Pendragon-Journal of Adventure Through Time and Space, a series of ten novels for young readers. D.J. has co-written the book The Tale Of The Nightly Neighbors, based on his own teleplay and penned the poetic adaptation of the classic Norwegian folk tale East Of The Sun And West Of The Moon. He is currently writing Morpheus Road, a spooky trilogy and The Equinox Curiosity Shop, a fantasy adventure. The final book in the trilogy, The Blood, will be published in March 2012. The Monster Princess, a picture book, was published in 2010. Along with being a novelist, MacHale is also a writer, director, producer and creator of several popular television shows and movies. His credits include Ghostwriter (ABC/PBS), Are You Afraid of the Dark? (Nickelodeon), Tower of Terror (for ABC's Wonderful World of Disney), and Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective (HBO).
Conference: After the keynote address, the students will attend three different workshops that they selected and registered for online. The writer workshops are all designed to teach students authentic writing strategies utilized by real writers. During each workshop students are given the opportunity to apply these strategies as they create their own original narratives. From tweeting to journaling, from poetry to advertising, from cartooning to adventure stories, all are led by accomplished authors and educators and designed to create an environment where the joy of writing and self-expression is celebrated. Hope Anita Smith is a dynamic and popular speaker, artist, and teacher. Her latest book, Mother Poems was released last year and has received numerous awards and recommendations. Keeping the Night Watch, won a Coretta Scott King Honor and an ALA Notable Book award. Smith's first book, The Way A Door Closes won numerous awards including, The Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award, the Judy Lopez award from the Women's National Book Association, the Lee Bennett Hopkins Honor, and the Claudia Lewis Award from Bank Street College. A storyteller, teacher, photographer, artist, and singer, Smith delights in teaching writing workshops to writers of every age. 
Louise Palanker: Expressive and Creative Journaling
Louise Palanker is an accomplished writer/producer/performer in the arenas of radio, television, stage and stand-up comedy. As Senior VP of Creative and co-founder of Premiere Radio Networks, the nation's largest radio syndicator and a division of Clear Channel Communications, Louise wrote, produced, performed in and/or was executive producer of over 20 programs and services for Premiere Radio while overseeing a large staff of talented writers, producers, engineers and performers.
After leaving Premiere in 2000, Louise launched a charitable foundation dedicated to benefiting children's causes. She began a stand-up comedy program at Los Angeles Boys & Girls' Clubs and the Santa Barbara Jewish Federation where kids learn to write and perform comedy.
She is currently directing and producing a documentary about the famed 60s family pop band, The Cowsills. Her first documentary effort, We Played Marbles: Remembering a Stolen Childhood explores the lives of Holocaust Survivors. Louise produced a Fritz Coleman hit one-man play, and she has been developing a television pilot with Henry Winkler.
Palanker will work with students on journaling, illustrating how it can serve as an outlet and as a form of first-person storytelling.
David Robertson: Building Character - A Picture Says a Thousand Words
David Robertson began his education career as an English/Language Arts teacher in inner city Los Angeles. He is a former fellow of the UCLA Writing Project and teacher-leader for the California Reading and Literature Project. He holds a doctorate in teacher education from the University of Southern California and a master's degree in rhetoric and composition studies. David has developed and facilitated professional development activities for teachers on a wide variety of topics to include: writer's and reader's workshop, differentiated instructional strategies, culturally responsive pedagogy, classroom management, and formative assessment of student learning. Dr. Robertson currently works for Torrance Unified School District as an eighth grade English/language arts teacher.
Inspiration for character development can be found in everyday objects. Using found images, writers will develop unique character profiles that they will use to initiate original story ideas.
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