Highlands School hosts Southern Writer’s Festival

Private Schools

Highlands School recently partnered with Barnes and Noble at the Summit for the Southern Writer’s Festival.  On Saturday, February 11, Barnes and Noble hosted eleven newly-published local authors to showcase their work and to build a community fan base.  Those authors who participated were Shirley Roland Ferguson, Brannon Sirman, Andrea Mathews, Aletia PuPree, Valjeanne Jeffers, Kyle Hannah, Nan Allen, Robin O’ Bryant, Cabot Barden, Kristi Walters, and Beulah S. Coyne.  Also featured at the Writer’s Festival were Highlands School student authors from the 2nd through the 8th Grades, Joseph Katz, Alexis Rueve, Cecelia Reisner, Peter Scalise, Genevieve Doucet, Liliana Chambless, Katsuki Chan, Mary Catherine Touloupis, Zoya Bashir, Olivia Wilson, Ada Cohen, Issy Schwiebert, Whitney Byington, Catherine Holland, and Grace O’Malley.  February 11 was a cold, rainy day in Birmingham, and the Southern Writer’s Festival was very well attended--a perfect day to be at Barnes and Noble at the Summit--meeting local authors of all ages, reading and buying new books, and enjoying a snack and a hot cup of coffee at the Café!  As a way of wrapping up the Writer’s Festival, Highlands School hosted their own Writer’s Festival, the Creativity Convention, on Monday, February 27.  Southern authors, Kerry Madden and Diane Z. Shore, as well as illustrator, Michael P. White, spent the day at Highlands School doing workshops with students from preschool through the 8th grade to encourage a love of writing and to inspire students to be writers when they grow up.

Highlands School is an Independent School distinguished by its diverse community and commitment to academic excellence, creative expression, and leadership development, and it operates on the premise that teachers prepare and motivate students to thrive and make positive differences in a constantly-changing, global world.  Highlands School’s whole-child focused academic program, guided by a comprehensive emphasis on physical, social, emotional, creative, and intellectual development, educates and inspires students in preschool through 8th grade.  The school was founded in 1958 and holds dual accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) and the Southern Association of Independent Schools (SAIS).