The Young Blood Podcast held its virtual conference last August 31, from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm via Zoom with over 120 attendees. The live virtual conference was a way to show Young Blood’s support for young aspiring Filipino writers, providing them an opportunity to interact and learn from distinguished guest speakers and published authors.
The morning session’s keynote speaker was Grace Talusan, author of The Body Papers. She gave a speech on personal narrative in memoirs and shared her journey after becoming a published author in the US as a Filipino woman. She also answered questions from participants on topics such as the relevance of vocabulary to start writing and overcoming discouragement.
The afternoon session’s first speaker was Gail Villanueva, author of My Fate According to the Butterfly and Sugar and Spite. Her speech focused on writing for children’s fiction and the misconceptions that come with it. It brought light to the importance of introducing certain social issues to children and exploring complex ideas with a younger target audience.
The second speaker for the afternoon session was Gianna Sibal, author of The Blueberry Boys. She spoke about the art of storytelling and her evolution from writing on Wattpad to becoming a published author at the age of 21. She gave advice on overcoming the difficulties of being a student-writer and her process for writing her various works on Wattpad.
The final segment gathered Natalya Patolot, Ma. Francesca Santiago, and Natalia Arana for a panel discussion on Essay Writing for major publications. They answered questions about their humble beginnings as writers, their writing processes and advice on how to achieve being published.
The event concluded with messages from participants of the writing workshop “Young Blood Writers’ Academy” and the announcement of prizes for winners of the Kamustahan Kahoot! game and the Interactive Breakout sessions.
The Young Blood Podcast Email Address: theyoungbloodpodcast@gmail.com
Podcast Site: anchor.fm/the-youngblood-podcast
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/theyoungbloodpodcast
Registration link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2021-young-blood-writers-conference-tickets-165388255725
━━ Art By The Young Blood Podcast
