AI & The Future of Writing

Thurs, September 21, 7 pm EST
Atwater Library Auditoriam & Online via Zoom
Free, open to all

Join us for AI & The Future of Writing, a free panel discussion on the threats, challenges, and benefits artificial intelligence poses for writers.

Featuring moderator Julian Sher and panelists Crystal Chan, Sean Michaels, and Andrew Piper, the event will kick off QWF’s 25th-anniversary fall campaign called “Writing Matters,” which aims to raise awareness about the importance of professional writing both in enriching our culture and in supporting the success of companies, non-profits, governments, and other organizations.

The panel discussion will take place in person, with attendees able to join online via Zoom. Following the discussion, there will be a hybrid Q&A session and an in-person wine and cheese reception.

To attend online, register below to get the link to the Zoom Webinar. You will receive the link shortly thereafter.

You do not need to register if you plan to attend in person. You can, however, RSVP below so that we have a rough idea of how many people to expect.

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About the Participants

Crystal Chan is the vice-president of the Quebec Writers’ Federation. As both a writer and a digital designer, her specialty is merging storytelling and technology. Chan is a professor in the Creative Writing Department of the University of British Columbia and an editor at UBC Press for RavenSpace Publishing, an innovative program for Indigenous authors. In 2022-23, she was an artist-in-residence at the Banff Centre in Computational Writing, exhibited algorithmically-generated literature at BBAM! Gallery, and taught AI writing to undergraduate students. Her latest new media production is CBC/Stitch Media’s Eighty Thousand Steps, coming this September.

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Sean Michaels is the author of Do You Remember Being Born?, a novel of AI and poetry, as well as the books Us Conductors and The Wagers. His non-fiction has appeared in The Guardian, McSweeney’s, Pitchfork and The New Yorker. Sean is a recipient of the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the QWF Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize, the Grand Prix Numix, and the Prix Nouvelles Écritures, and he has been nominated for the Dublin Literary Award, the Kirkus Prize and a 2023 Peabody Award. He lives in Montreal.

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Andrew Piper is Professor and William Dawson Scholar in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at McGill University. He uses the tools of data science and AI to study human storytelling. He is the director of .txtlab and author of Enumerations: Data and Literary Study (2018).

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Julian Sher is an award-winning investigative journalist—a veteran TV documentary writer and director as well as an accomplished newsroom trainer and the author of seven books. He has been an investigative  the Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail. His film Ghosts of Afghanistan won the top Canadian Screen Award for Best Documentary. He was also the Senior Producer of CBC’s The Fifth Estate, Canada’s premier investigative TV program, for five years. Julian’s latest book tells the little-known story of Canada’s role in the American Civil War. The North Star: Canada and the Civil War Plots against Lincoln, was published by Penguin Random House in April and became an Amazon bestseller. Julian is also active in media and human rights issues. He is a Senior Fellow with the Centre for Free Expression at Toronto’s Metropolitan University and works with Journalists for Human Rights.

Note about the venue: As this event will be taking place after the Atwater Library’s opening hours, please use the side entrance on Tupper Street (4023 Tupper Street) if the main entrance on Atwater Avenue is closed.