Talks

For Kids

Kristin is available for author talks and workshops for children in grades 1–6 (fiction & non-fiction) and grades 7–9 (non-fiction). She is also available to facilitate and host sessions with fellow authors at Family Fun Days and Festivals for kids of all ages.

For Adults

Kristin is an experienced interviewer and panel chair for Festivals and literary events. She has facilitated both online and in-person interviews. She is also willing to participate in panels talking about her experience transitioning from journalism to writing for children and about the importance of children’s literature from her work as Program Manager for the Australian Children’s Laureate Foundation.

Workshops

All workshops 45 mins – 1 hour unless indicated

1. Writing as a Team

Do you think you have to write alone? Think again! Author and journalist Kristin Darell is no stranger to writing with a team. In this workshop she draws on her time as a producer in TV newsrooms and her crazy experience writing and publishing a novel with eight other authors. Learn tips and tricks for exciting and efficient brainstorming, building a seamless plot and how much fun it can be to create stories with friends.

2. Writing with Parameters

Do you ever feel stuck for story ideas? Do you wonder where authors find inspiration? Kristin Darell helps inspire young writers by showing them how the most random settings and characters can kick-start fascinating stories – the more random the better! Kristin works with the group to build the framework for a story and support students to write the start of a brand new adventure.

3. WABIAD Preparation (1–1.5 hours)

Writing as a Team and Writing with Parameters workshops can be combined with the WABIAD experience in mind to help students preparing to take on this challenge. Author Kristin Darell was part of the national WABIAD-winning team for four years in a row, and is passionate about supporting kids to write and illustrate a whole book in a single day.
Kristin is also available to provide support on a WABIAD writing day.

4. Be A Reporter

Kristin spent more than 20 years working as a broadcast journalist, covering happy, sad, funny and fascinating stories. In this workshop, learn interview techniques and the importance of asking curious questions, how to sort fact from fiction and the essential elements of a writing an engaging information report.

5. Making Non-Fiction Fun!

Non-fiction can get a pretty bad wrap, but Kristin is passionate about encouraging kids to share the stories of our time and our world. Kristin is happy to tailor this workshop to your specific focus area – persuasive writing, report writing, information texts, fact vs opinion, interview techniques … and more. 

6.Building Characters

Characters are one of the most important elements of any story and creating characters is one of Kristin’s favourite things to do. Kristin shares how she came up with a whole team of kids for her Football Fever series, and then working with your student’s interests and experiences, she gives them the tools and the confidence to create their very own characters … and the start of a brand new story!

Recent festivals include:

June 2022: Chair of the Aspiring Writers Panel at the 2022 Kids & YA Festival, WritingNSW
June 2022: ScribeTribe host at the Littlescribe Mini-Writing Festival
July 2021: Littlescribe Mini-Writing Festival – Reporting & Non-Fiction for Lower Primary
March 2021: MC and moderator for Australian Children’s Laureate Foundation Summit
July 2020: Littlescribe Mini-Writing Festival – Non-Fiction for Stage 2 “Heroes”