FULTON – Local author Rachel Guido deVries encouraged G. Ray Bodley High School students to use their life experiences to help perfect their writing craft.
“Reading and writing saved my life,” she said, after she detailed a troubling childhood.
Her writing journey began at just 8 years old when she would combine her struggles and triumphs with her imagination and passion to create stories and poems personal to her but important enough to share with the world.
DeVries said she has come a long way in the publishing world since her first book of poetry, “An Arc of Light” and will continue to draw from her own experiences to create literary works.
A couple dozen students from English language arts and social studies classes read deVries’ “The Moocher” ahead of her visit so they could become engaged in conversation as she arrived at the school.
GRB librarian Wendy Scalfaro said she wanted to highlight a Central New York published author for the school’s second annual author visit.
Since the Fulton City School District has a focus on writing, she said, deVries’ short stories and the sharing of her writing process paired perfectly with that initiative.
Rachel has a way with her when it comes to permitting children to express innermost thoughts and feelings.. an opportunity they may not get anywhere else. Brava.
I loved Rachel’s class. She was so gifted in helping to guide my way in a personal discovery of memory and imagination and how to share that through words. A rare talent….!