Last spring, La Bonne Mine offered writing workshops followed by one-on-one meetings with Leucan teens between the ages of 14 and 17. Each participant was then able to polish and edit their text for publication!
Group workshops took place on Wednesday evenings from April 12 to May 3, 2023, followed by individual meetings over the following weeks.
Six young Leucan members who have been diagnosed with cancer, or who are siblings of a child with cancer, now share their work with you.
It was a project that allowed me to learn not only more about writing but also about the different ways of telling it all. At first, writing was just a hobby, but with your help I really got the hang of it. I’m very happy with the end result and I sincerely believe that it represents what I wanted to convey through the story. It was my first time writing a story of this kind and I really enjoyed it.
– Nicolas, participant in the first group of writing workshops
An inspiring new partnership
La Bonne Mine is a company offering novel-writing workshops and manuscript evaluations. Its mission is to help writing enthusiasts start, polish or publish a book.
Writing allows us to express ourselves, raise awareness and even release certain emotions. Creative writing offers more freedom than testimonials. We can deploy our pen to depict the atmosphere and emphasize feelings as well as reflections. I wanted to offer this creative space to young people by proposing that they write a narrative text of autofiction.
Their lived experience becomes material for the creation of a story inspired by their reality as teenagers whose lives have been turned upside down by a cancer diagnosis: their own or that of their sibling. Anoushka, Léanne, Marilie, Nicolas, Safia and Samyra rose to the challenge with brilliance, giving us access to the vulnerability of a defining moment
– Joannie Roberge, literary consultant and founder of La Bonne Mine
Leucan is thrilled to collaborate with La Bonne Mine, to offer teenagers a space for free self-expression, allowing them to harness their creativity through writing.
The Paragraph
Les mains tremblantes
Bonne fête!
Ma place
Mon opération
Un pas devant l’autre
Artwork by Lydia Simpson