Quebec Writers' Federation Workshops

Spring Session 2010

Develop your writing with the mentorship of an acclaimed professional writer and feedback from your peers.

Workshops take place at the QWF office, Suite 3, Atwater Library unless otherwise indicated.

CREATIVE NON-FICTION: THE ART OF FACT

Eight Thursdays, 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. (March 4–April 22, 2010)

1200 Atwater Avenue, Suite 3
Workshop leader: Elaine Kalman Naves

Creative non-fiction is a form of writing that blends different genres—fiction, journalism, autobiography, memoir, personal essay, travelogue—into something fresh and accessible that may be called the art of fact. It borrows techniques such as dialogue, dramatization, and scene-by-scene narration from fiction, but it does so in the service of recounting a true—as opposed to a made-up—story.

Many previous participants have worked on personal journalism and memoirs. However, it is just as acceptable to tackle profiles, or criticism, or travel pieces. Participants are encouraged to use a strong personal voice in their work.

There is a great emphasis on student input. You will have an opportunity to present work of varying length to the group between one and three times during the session. You will also be expected to read each other’s work carefully in order to provide vital critical feedback to each other. This element of the program is equally important to the writing.

Sample materials will be handed out to illustrate the variety of writing that falls into this genre and to help spark your ideas. From time to time there will be written exercises to help jump-start the creative process. Participants are expected to buy William Zinsser’s On Writing Well (HarperPerennial). This book will be used throughout the workshop. QWF members can get this book at a 10% discount at Argo Books, 1915 Ste-Catherine or Paragraphe Books, 2220, av. McGill College.

No advance preparation is required for the workshop. However, you might find it useful to ask yourself why you want to be in a writing workshop and to brainstorm with yourself about what topics/experiences you will want to explore during the session in clear, vivid and direct prose.

Elaine Kalman Naves is a long-time literary journalist and the author of six books of creative non-fiction. She is a two-time recipient of the QWF's Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction, the winner of two Canadian Jewish Book Awards, and of a Canadian Literary Award for Personal Essay. Her memoir Journey to Vaja: Reconstructing the World of a Hungarian-Jewish Family has been made into a documentary film. A frequent contributor to CBC Radio’s 'Ideas', her next documentary, William Notman of Montreal, will air March 2 and 3.

back