Daily Inspiration: Meet Carrie Deem

Today we’d like to introduce you to Carrie Deem.

Hi Carrie, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
In high school, students often find themselves writing in compliance with assignments, assessments, and other academic pursuits. But to write creatively because they enjoy it is another skill set altogether. I saw a need to support creative writing skills for my high school students, and in 2014, I started the Young Authors Club at North Gwinnett High School in the hope that students who had stories to tell would find a community of like-minded peers to share ideas, encourage one another, and learn from each other. We started with just five members that fall. Fast forward to today, and we are still what I would call a “niche” club with just 30 members, but our writing community has grown significantly.
I wanted to get the word out to our student body that there was a new club available to them, one dedicated to creative writing as an art form, where students could actively learn at their own pace and still feel like they were growing in both the craft and their confidence. A big part of the club’s mission is helping students find their voice and learn to share the most creative part of their storytelling, even if it remains personal and unpublished. Most importantly, it is still about encouraging young writers to write for themselves FIRST.
With those goals in mind, over the last ten years, I attended as many local Atlanta author events as I could in order to speak with authors, buy their books, and ask them to visit our school and talk to students about their own writing journey. The Atlanta kid-lit community is fantastic, and the active authors in our area are very generous with their time and expertise. Many have become friends and welcomed me into their writing groups. Naturally, I started dreaming up new ways to connect my students with these talented writers. After attending several local writing conferences myself, I decided I wanted to offer that experience to young adult writers. The 1st North Gwinnett Youth Writing Conference was born in April of 2023.
The conference is a full day of writing workshops geared toward two age groups, with this year being the first time we expanded our Young Adult registration to include students from any Gwinnett County Public High School. Published authors lead our workshops and cover topics such as world-building, character development, plotting a novel, journalism, how to write a twisty-tale, using science to write fiction, creating graphic novels, writing a compelling villain, and so much more. We have been so fortunate to have several NYT best-selling authors spend the day with us teaching or serving as inspirational keynote speakers, including: Nic Stone, McCall Hoyle, Mark Oshiro, and Jill Tew.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
As one might imagine, hosting a writing conference of any size comes with a learning curve and a host of challenges. First and foremost, I had zero experience coordinating an event of this size —what was I thinking? So I took some time to train, and for several years before our first event in 2023, I attended writing conferences for adults, mirrored those formats, networked with authors, and tried to learn as much as I could from those who had done it before me. The Atlanta writing community as a whole is very welcoming and willing to share knowledge, and that made all the difference in our success.
I’d say the biggest challenge came with how to recruit and compensate professional writers for their time and expertise. Because I had already established a rapport with several local writers, most were willing to start this journey with me and asked nothing in return. That gesture of faith in our mission was a considerable boon, especially with no guarantee of student registration.
With authors volunteering to participate, the next step was to fund all of the other swag and supplies, including a conference t-shirt, lunch, and a signed book from the keynote speaker. That first year, I was encouraged by Cindy Skibitsky, an active board member of the North Gwinnett Schools Foundation (NGSF), to apply for a teacher grant. Through this process, I was able to supplement the cost of the first conference through the monetary grant awarded to my project. The ongoing support of The North Gwinnett Schools Foundation has been crucial to the success of the conference each year. It is incredibly validating to know that my local community also believes in the work involved in this project. For the last two years, we have proudly been able to offer our participating authors an honorarium for their workshop experiences. I am excited to see what new opportunities continue to grow from this annual event.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a high school English teacher at North Gwinnett High School in Suwanee, Georgia, and I am in my 30th year of teaching and my 11th year at NGHS. I teach 12th-grade Language Arts and love exploring new and marginalized perspectives in British Literature. I have procured a classroom aesthetic that reflects the importance of helping all students feel seen and included through art, images, and cultural representation that break the traditional literary narrative. My relentless goal remains finding fresh ways to engage students with the literary canon as well as modern supplemental texts and ideas. Additionally, I am a member of the National Council of Teachers of English, an organization that provides English teachers with opportunities to replenish ideas and feed our desire to deliver engaging lessons in the ELA classroom. I travel to the NCTE annual national convention whenever possible.
In addition to teaching, I am passionate about the student clubs I sponsor, including The Young Authors Club, a student organization that provides a sense of community for young adults interested in creative writing, and The You Matter Club, which is a student club dedicated to growing a positive school culture and suicide prevention among teens. Both organizations strive to offer students a sense of belonging in our school and community.
Outside of teaching, I enjoy writing and reading stories that include Scottish and Celtic lore, lush fantasy realms, and a wee beastie or two. I hope to publish my own young adult novels in the near future. I am a member of the Broadleaf Writing Association, and I am passionate about meeting local authors and making new literary connections. If not at the local Renaissance Faire or a cabin in the mountains with friends, my favorite place to be is at home in the comfort of my favorite armchair with a book in hand and a cat on my lap.

Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
I feel extremely fortunate to have the support of my leadership team at North Gwinnett High School, starting with my principal, Mr. Nathan Ballantine. He saw my vision and what I was attempting to build within our local school through annual author visits and the Young Authors’ Club itself. But the real champion of my work remains Dr. Jill Chalk, one of our assistant principals. She and several others on the leadership team encouraged me to develop the writing conference into a reality. I also owe my gratitude to several teachers within the Language Arts Department who continue to cheer me on and volunteer to work alongside me. I am forever grateful for the colleagues who keep saying yes and keep showing up to deliver the conference experience. Last but not least, I owe a wealth of gratitude to my loving husband, Robert, and my two sons, Maxwell and Mason. They are usually the first to hear my grand ideas and to offer support when I need help. The success of the conference, the student clubs, and my classroom instruction simply would not be possible without the support of these colleagues, friends, and family.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @CBDeemwrites
• Other: @NGYWC26 (Instagram page for the writing conference)