Mentorship

The 2024 QWF Writing Mentorship Program

The 2024 Mentorship Pairs have been announced. Read the announcement.

The QWF Writing Mentorships are designed to help promising emerging writers make the transition to the next stage of their careers. Both mentors and mentees are selected by an independent jury.

Over a period of four months (February–May), each mentee gets one-on-one guidance and support from a professional writing mentor. At the end of the mentorship period, there is a public reading at which the mentees present their work in progress.

Mentors are expected to devote 35 to 40 hours to reading and responding to their protégé’s work and giving guidance towards the goal of publication or production. Mentees are expected to commit a minimum of 15 to 20 hours per month to the program.

2024 Program Timeline:

  • Call for applications: September 20, 2023
  • Deadline for applications: October 16, 2023
  • Notification of results (latest): December 15, 2023 (for mentors), December 22, 2023 (for mentees)
  • Mentorship period: Four months (February 1, 2024 to May 31, 2024) with a public reading in June 2024

The Mairuth Sarsfield Mentorship

The Mairuth Sarsfield Mentorship, a component of QWF’s Fresh Pages Diversity Initiative, is designed to help an aspiring writer or playwright who is Indigenous, Black or a person of colour to develop their literary writing.

The 2024 mentorship will go to a Quebec-based writer of young adult literature who will work with their mentor over the course of four months (February through May) and participate in a public reading in June.

The LTAC/QWF Mentorships in Literary Translation

The LTAC/QWF Mentorships in Literary Translation are designed to support an aspiring or emerging literary translator.

A joint initiative of the Quebec Writers’ Federation and the Literary Translators’ Association of Canada—L’Association des traducteurs et traductrices littéraires du Canada, the program alternates each year between the Karin Montin Mentorship in Literary Translation, which is for translators of literary work into English, and the Jean Antonin Billard Mentorship in Literary Translation, which is for translators of literary work into French.


The 2024 Mentorship Program Pairs

Fiction:

Raphaëlle Aubin, mentored by Su J. Sokol
River Lee, mentored by Chris DiRaddo

Playwriting:

Megan Hunt, mentored by Alexandria Haber

Poetry:

Emily Gaudet, mentored by Sarah Wolfson

Mairuth Sarsfield Mentorship in Young Adult Literature:

Santiago Eastman Herrera, mentored by Raquel Rivera

Non-Fiction:

Robin Macdonald, mentored by Elise Moser
Emira Tufo, mentored by Daniel Allen Cox

Past Mentorship Program Pairs

2023

Fiction:

Mairuth Sarsfield Mentorship—Screenwriting: Victoria Platel, mentored by Alain Zaloum
Fiction: Alana Dunlop, mentored by H. Felix Chau Bradley; Dinu Mahapatuna, mentored by Sean Michaels; Noa Padawer-Blatt, mentored by D.W. Wilson
Non-Fiction: Cornelia Mars, mentored by Annabel Howard
Poetry: Loch Baillie, mentored by Simina Banu; Raïssa Simone, mentored by Jay Ritchie
Translation: Élisabeth Savoie, mentored by Sonya Malaborza

2022

Mairuth Sarsfield Mentorship—Nonfiction: Chanel Sutherland, mentored Tara McGowan-Ross
Fiction: Eilis Quinn, mentored by Catherine McKenzie; Laurel Páez Brave, mentored by Cora Siré; Steven Stowell, mentored by Edeet Ravel
Non-Fiction: Nancy Webb, mentored by Lise Weil
Poetry: Barbara Kelly, mentored by stephanie roberts
Screenwriting: Sal Eigh, mentored by Gerald Wexler
Translation: Alex Boos, mentored by Jessica Moore

2021

Mairuth Sarsfield Mentorship—Fiction: Lynda Bailey, mentored by H. Nigel Thomas
Fiction: Geeta Johal, mentored by Leila Marshy
Non-Fiction: Suzanne Cerreta, mentored by Robyn Sarah
Poetry: Jess Tran, mentored by Yusuf Saadi
YA Fiction: Becca Yu, mentored by David Homel
Screenwriting: Dara Murphy, mentored by Jacob Potashnik
Fiction: Miki Laval, mentored by Claire Holden Rothman

2020

Mairuth Sarsfield Mentorship—Poetry: Faith Paré, mentored by Gillian Sze
Fiction: Lukas Rowland, mentored by April Ford; Robert Sandiford, mentored by Michael Foy
Non-Fiction: Carolyn McPherson, mentored by Ian McGillis
Poetry: Andrew Middleton, mentored by Mark Abley
Young Adult Fiction: Maureen Marovitch, mentored by Sue MacLeod; Lea Beddia, mentored by Lori Weber