Quebec Writers' Federation

Shut Up & Write! with QWF (Virtual)
2025-02-01 10:00 - 12:30 (America/New_York) | Online – Please RSVP to receive a Zoom link
Saturday, February 1, 2025, 10:00 am–12:30 pmOnline via Zoom—RSVP below to receive the Zoom link

Looking for some dedicated, quiet writing space?

Register below to do all that writing you’ve been meaning to do. Using the Pomodoro technique, participants write in 25-minute bursts, with 5-minute breaks in between.

This event is for QWF members only. Not a member? Learn about becoming a member.

The Zoom link will be sent out a day or two before the session.

Please note that these sessions are designed for silent writing, rather than discussing or getting feedback on work.

10:00–10:25: Writing 110:25–10:30: Break10:30–10:55: Writing 210:55–11:00: Break11:00–11:25: Writing 311:25–11:30: Break11:30–11:55: Writing 411:55–12:00: Break12:00–12:25: Writing 5

To receive the Zoom link, RSVP below. You will receive the Zoom link a few days before the session.

Note: RSVPs for virtual Shut Up & Write! sessions close 24 hours before the session. If there is no option to RSVP, RSVPs are closed.

Illuminated Grant-Writing
2025-02-01 10:30 - 13:30 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
This series of four workshops will examine how writers with projects for print, spoken word, or storytelling can prepare a strong literary arts grant application. From drafting a project description to balancing a budget, we will also discuss artistic risk, impact, and cultural appropriation. Focus will be on funding programs at the Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, and an arts council program officer will join us to answer questions. This series is intended for Quebec-based writers at all stages of their practice: emerging, mid-career, and established. There will be tasks to complete between sessions and participants must have an original literary arts project in mind.Access to MS Word or similar writing software will be necessary as well as a willingness to share work and exchange feedback in a workshop setting.As soon as they have registered for the workshop, participants must email a short, one-sentence description of their intended literary arts project to riley@qwf.org with the subject line “For Tawhida Tanya Evanson.”

Tawhida Tanya Evanson is a poet, novelist, artist, and Ashiq known for her work blending poetry, orality, music, and multimedia. Born and based in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal, she performs internationally, has released several audio recordings, short films, and the award-winning 2024 Afrofuturist concert film CYANO SUN SUITE. Evanson has two published poetry collections and her debut novel Book of Wings won the 2022 CAM/Blue Metropolis New Contribution Prize. Her French autotranslation Livre des ailes followed in 2023. Evanson’s work explores themes of African diasporic identity, Sufi spirituality, and the human condition, and she has received acclaim at home and abroad for her captivating performances and unique approach to poetry. She produces multimedia events as Mother Tongue Media, is recognized for her role as director of the Banff Centre Spoken Word program, and is current president of the Quebec Writers’ Federation. She moonlights as a whirling dervish.

Workshop: Embodied Writing with Maya Khamala
2025-02-01 14:00 - 17:00 | Espace Be Bien-Être, 2240 Beaconsfield, Montreal, QC, Montréal, Canada
Saturday, February 1st, 2-5pmEspace Be Bien-Être, 2240 BeaconsfieldAll are welcome! Limited spots.

Book here: linktr.ee/heartfire.kundalini

Writing, breathwork, meditation & optional sharing circle

Writing happens in the body. The more you engage your senses, the stronger your language. Whatever emotions you spill onto the page are deeply rooted—at the cellular level.

Get out of your head and into your body so you can write with vital presence. Doing so has the potential to be a deeply empowering and healing act. If you’ve never done breathwork or meditated before, it really doesn’t matter. If you’re not a writer, that’s ok too. This workshop is for writers wanting to enhance or expand their practice, non-writers interested in exploring their potential, and anyone who feels called to investigate the relationship between body and language.

Our practice will interweave:

Discussion

Kundalini breathwork

Stretches

Creative writing prompts/exercises

A Kundalini meditation

An optional sharing circle

Chai & a sweet snack

What to bring: your journal, a pen, comfy clothes, & an open mind. Pens & paper will be available, as will yoga mats if needed.

About the Facilitator

Maya Khamala is a lifelong writer of many stripes. From poetry to grassroots journalism to creative nonfiction, word is her bond. She has also collaborated with visual artists at a loss for words, and has worked as a freelance copywriter and editor for close to a decade. She has a shiny little MA in Creative Writing to list among her credentials, and is an emerging novelist to boot. Maya has an extensive background in feminist, anti-racist and climate justice movements—work that has deeply informed the way she wields words. Aside from being a writer, she is also a soon-to-be-certified Kundalini Yoga teacher. She got into Kundalini as a way of healing from trauma and its many lifelong manifestations in her body, as well as to counteract being a writer who sometimes forgets to step away from the keyboard…and take a breath.

Book now
