LEWISTON
Craig Crist-Evans was an unhappy, military school seventh-grader when he discovered writing.

Inspired by a math teacher and a fellow student’s writing, he found that poetry could give him a world all his own.

Now an award-winning poet and author, Crist-Evans hopes to offer a little inspiration to the next generation.

“We’re all observers. We’re all speakers,” he said. “We all have a story to tell.”

This week, Crist-Evans spoke to hundreds of Lewiston and Auburn students as part of Visual Literacy, a program funded by the Maine Arts Commission. For three days, he traveled to six area schools, encouraging students to think, feel and imagine, and to channel their creativity into writing.

On Wednesday, his last day in the Twin Cities, Crist-Evans visited Holy Cross Junior High School.

For more than an hour, the author of the young adult novels “Amaryllis” and “Moon over Tennessee,” spoke to more than 80 sixth-graders from Walton Elementary School in Auburn and eighth-graders from Holy Cross.

He spent much of the time using photographs – a city sunset, mountains encased in fog and a boy in quirky sunglasses – to lead students through their imaginations to create small stories on the spot.

“If you don’t surprise yourselves when you’re writing, chances are you aren’t going to surprise your readers,” he said.

Afterward, he spent an hour guiding 15 Holy Cross eighth-graders through a writing workshop.

Most of the students knew Crist-Evens from “The Shadow of My Father’s Hand,” a sequel to “Moon Over Tennessee.” “The Shadow of My Father’s Hand,” which is subtitled “A Boy’s Civil War Journal,” is being serialized in the Sun Journal on Mondays and running in other newspapers nationally.

Some said meeting the author gave them new insight into the poetic story.

“It just helps you understand where the stories come from,” said 14-year-old Terry O’Brien.

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