Year 7 student Sophia Marra has been selected as one of only ten students in the state who will be put in charge of their own event at Perth Writers Week (part of the Perth Festival) in February 2019, as part of the Curated By Kids event.

Curated by Kids is an opportunity for children between the ages of 10 and 12 to work with local, national and international authors and illustrators.

The young curators will attend workshops over two days where they will learn the skills they need to design and present the sessions at Writers Week. They will be in charge of the whole program, including designing the format for the sessions, deciding who will appear and developing questions to ask each guest. Sophia will be required to read 12 books prior to the program and conduct research into each book, to prepare for the interviews.

Sophia has a passion for reading and has been part of the Talented Readers Program, run through the Fremantle Literature Centre since she was in Year 5. She’s been involved with the College public speaking program and is a member of the writing club. Sophia is an author and has entered the Tim Winton writing competition a number of times and been published in an anthology titled Write4Fun. She is currently 8000 words into writing her first fantasy novel (her favourite genre). Her book is about a young girl who has magical powers and uses her powers whenever she if feeling scared or sad.

Sophia feels she is privileged to have this opportunity. She is excited to be a part of the Curated by Kids event and is looking forward to interviewing authors and being with people who enjoy books and reading as much as she does.

We asked Sophia what she loves about reading, she said. “You can kind of forget about what’s happening and disappear into another world where everything is magical.”