Description
Saturday, November 7, 10:30–1:00 p.m.
Open to all
Limited to 12 participants
Hybrid workshop*
This page is for Follow the Money (Part A), from 10:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Click here for Part B, which is from 2:00 to 4:30 p.m. the same day.
Labour, rent, childcare, credit cards, tuition, grants, divorce, inheritance, fantasy, debt—everyone talks, worries, and daydreams about money in private. This two-part workshop offers a series of creative and practical opportunities to think about money out in the open.
You can sign up for one or both sessions.
Part A—Morning Session: 10:30 a.m.–1:00 p.m.
Focused on the part of the story only the money can tell, this session explores writing about money. Writers working in all genres are welcome. Participants should expect:
- Vulnerability, cringiness, self-incrimination, fun
- Exploratory writing and open conversation about money woes and wants they are interested in exploring in writing
- Exercises to compile and create explicit financial details and work them into an existing text or something brand new
- Time to share, discuss, and ask questions about results.
Participants are encouraged to bring an existing text to work from and/or notes toward a new piece of writing.
Part B—Afternoon Session: 2:00–4:30 p.m.
Dedicated to navigating the practical, real-life aspects of money and financial literacy, this session is designed for those planning (or in the midst of) a writing career. Participants should expect:
- Vulnerability, cringiness, self-incrimination, fun
- An open, Ask-Me-Anything session about handling money and planning financially as artists and real people
- Hands-on budgeting and light accounting exercises based on your actual money goals
- Tackling budgeting and tax consequences for a life in the arts, for a single project, and with a sporadic income in mind
- Time to share, discuss, and ask questions about results.
If participants have budgets needing attention, they should bring them in! A budgeting excel sheet created by Darby will be provided to everyone.
Sign Up for Part B—Afternoon Session: 2:00–4:30 p.m.
Workshop leader
Darby Minott Bradford is the award-winning author of Dream of No One but Myself and Bottom Rail on Top. A 2026 Simon Fraser University Shadbolt Fellow in the Humanities, Darby thinks about money a lot and is currently at work on a book and a podcast about property and home. Darby has 16 years of experience as a full-time, registered self-employed person, including GST and QST remittance, 11 years of experience managing their own investments, a six-year track record doing their own Canadian and US business tax, four successful Canada Council-related audits turned around, and 18 months of spending too much money on owning a home while maintaining good savings. Darby lives and works in Verdun, QC, on the unceded territory of the Kanien’kehà:ka territory.
