Emily Urquhart, Artsci’99, landed her first job at a summer camp. An introvert by nature, at camp she was able to hone the observation skills needed for compelling writing as well as develop confidence to speak in public, something that comes in handy on book tours. This summer, she went back to camp to lead a braille creative writing workshop at CNIB Lake Joe, a summer camp for visually impaired children. Her most recent book, Ordinary Wonder Tales, made the shortlist for the 2023 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction. When she’s not at camp or writing, she teaches creative writing and science communication at the University of Waterloo.
I started working at Camp Waabanaki, a YMCA camp near Huntsville, Ont., when I was 15. I did every job they had there. I was still working at camp when I was studying at Queen’s, and it wasn’t until the summer between second and third year that I stopped. I’ve never considered my camp experience as having any influence on my writing, but of course it has, and it actually makes its way into some of the stories that I’ve written. It all became fodder for future writing: The observation of other people, interpersonal conversations, even all the stuff that you have to deal with on a 24-hour basis because you’re living with people.
I’m quite an introvert, so I look back on that time – and it was really my favourite, most special time of my life – but I do wonder how I got through it. I distanced myself sometimes and was more of an observer because that’s a more comfortable role for me to be in anyway. Certainly, summer camp was where I first became confident speaking in front of a crowd, which I have to do as a writer and a teacher and is not something that I relish.
As a teenager, it gives you this huge responsibility and I think, when it came to university, it’s partly why I had no problem moving out on my own and spending time away from my parents. I also was never homesick, and I think that was largely in part from having lived all those summers at camp. And it’s funny, I don’t remember reading to the kids, but I read the whole time I was at camp: I have never in my life – no matter what’s happening – ever, ever, ever been without a book. I just can’t imagine it when people say, “Oh, I haven’t been reading lately,” because I just think it’s like they’re saying they haven’t been breathing.
And now it’s gone full circle, because I was asked to run a braille creative writing workshop in August at CNIB Lake Joe for kids between the ages of six and 18. I drew a lot on my experiences as a camp counsellor from when I was a teenager, and even more so than my work right now teaching creative writing. My daughter is visually impaired, but my son isn’t, and what’s lovely about CNIB Lake Joe is that, for its children’s programming, they include the siblings of the visually impaired kids. You’re growing these advocates and allies and it really gives the fully sighted kids a much better understanding of their siblings’ lives and their siblings’ social lives, too.
