Illinois is home to thousands of authors – young, budding, enthusiastic authors. In fact, about 1,500 of these writers will be attending the 16th Annual Young Authors Conference held at Illinois State University in Normal this May.

Who are these aspiring novelists? Illinois children from kindergarten through eighth grade who have put much time and effort into developing, revising and illustrating stories they pridefully call their very own.

The person who has made this program possible is founder Jane Davidson of the NIU curriculum and instruction department.

The Young Authors Conference is funded by the Language Arts Conference and the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE). Davidson said having a state office back the Young Authors Conference with funds places a value on it and on childrens’ writing.

“It (the conference) has grown so, and they (the ISBE) continue to support it year after year,” she said. “That help has been tremendous along the way.”

Learning to write and edit stories teaches children to be creative, an element of language that can’t be learned through mere grammar exercises, Davidson said. “We’ve known for a long time kids knew the mechanics, but they didn’t choose to write.”

By revising, editing and analizing a written selection (finished or unfinished), children eventually produce a manuscript that represents their best work, she said. Some children even illustrate their own stories, or work in close author-illustrator teams.

Kindergartners and first graders dictate their stories to their teachers, but the language remains the same in the written version. From grade two and up, students are involved in the whole book-writing process.

Once the students have the end products of their literary efforts, they take them to the Young Authors Conference for a day of seminars and award ceremonies.

At the conference, children are separated into three groups—primary, intermediate and older, where they share writing tips, listen to children authors and receive copies of books these authors have written.

Later in the day, the students and their families attend the awards ceremony where they get gold sealed certificates for their work. Davidson says the children are “just besides themselves” when the awards are given out.

The whole atmosphere of the conference is electric, Davidson added. One of her favorite stories comes from a little boy who excitedly came up to her and said “You have got to read my book – it’s the best thing I’ve ever written!” Another boy once proclaimed proudly that he had now published more books than his father had.

Schools can send young authors to the conference according to their population. Sometimes winners are chosen to attend the program from a certain district, but once at the conference there is no judging. Davidson stressed that “the Young Authors Conference is a conference, not a contest.”

The first Young Authors Conference was held 16 years ago at a school in Decatur, Ill. Davidson said the program was a great success from the very beginning.

At the first conference, Davidson read 500 books herself, but since then a committee was established to undertake the extensive task.

Everyone who helps out at the conference is a volunteer and a teacher or undergraduate student.