Aeolus House 2020 Virtual Launch
2020-08-13 19:30 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | Quebec
Zoom conference. Four poets will present extracts from their new books.
Miller Adams (Folding Laundry on Judgement Day); Claudia Coutu Radmore (rabbit); Louise Carson (Dog Poems); Sue Chenette (Clavier, Paris, Alyssum).
RSVP allan@aeolushouse.com

Shut Up & Write! with QWF
2020-08-15 10:00 - 12:30, 2020-09-12 10:00 - 12:30, 2020-09-26 10:00 - 12:30 | Online via Zoom
Looking for some dedicated, quiet writing space?
Register below to do all that writing you’ve been meaning to— via Zoom! Using the Pomodoro technique, participants write in 25 minute bursts, with 5 minutes break in between. Once you RSVP, we will send you a Zoom link and instructions.
This event is for QWF members only. Not a member? Learn about becoming a member.
Please note that these sessions are designed for silent writing, rather than discussing or getting feedback on work.

10:00 – 10:25 – Writing 1
10:25 – 10:30 – Break
10:30 – 10:55 – Writing 2
10:55 – 11:00 – Break
11:00 – 11:25 – Writing 3
11:25 – 11:30 – Break
11:30 – 11:55 – Writing 4
11:55 – 12:00 – Break
12:00 – 12:25 – Writing 5

In order to receive the Zoom link via email, please RSVP using the form below.

QWF Members, you must be logged in to your Member Account in order to check event availability and to access the RSVP form on this page. If you are having any issues with the RSVP form, please email Marian and she will be happy to help you.
You must specify that you are reserving 1 (one) spot (by clicking the “0” and using the arrows or typing in the number 1). Don’t forget to enter your name and email address as well.
Please note: the automated ticket you receive via email is just a confirmation that you have successfully RSVP’d; you will receive the actual Zoom link via email the day before the event.

Due to the popularity of our SUAW! events, we ask that you only RSVP if you are quite sure you will attend. Thank you for your understanding 🙂

Summer Refresher with QWF! Online via Zoom
2020-08-19 17:30 - 19:00 | Online via Zoom
This event has passed— thanks for joining us and keep an eye out for more QWF schmoozers!

Dear QWF members, writers, and book lovers,
We’ve been itching for another opportunity to connect with our literary community in a casual setting!
Please join us for our second online schmoozer of the summer– a place for our community to gather, network, exchange pleasantries and catch up, and generally just expand the circle of faces we get to see– while still maintaining physical distancing from the safety of our own homes.
We invite you all to join us on Wednesday, August 19 from 5:30-7:00 p.m. for a casual evening of refreshing conversation with QWF!
The plan:

please arrive on time (to get the most out of the experience), but feel free to drop in later if you need!
we’ll start as a large group to say a quick “hello!”
then QWF will put attendees into smaller groups (at random), in individual breakout rooms.
open to members and non-members!
BYOB– if you wish!

To receive the Zoom link, please RSVP using the form below (this information will not be shared with anyone):

← Back Thank you for your response. ✨

First & Last Name(required)

Email(required)

What's a book or genre you come back to every (few) summer(s)?(required)

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Lawn Chair Soirée Virtual Edition #5
2020-08-20 19:00 - 21:00 | Online – Please RSVP to receive a Zoom link
A monthly soirée of words and music, now via Zoom.
This month’s featured readers:
Louise Carson (launching her new poetry collection, Dog Poems)
Rachel McCrum
Bruce Kauffman
Open mic follows (three minute limit for participants).
To access the reading and/or take part in the open mic, please write lawnchairsoiree@gmail.com

Raven Leilani launches LUSTER at Librairie Saint-Henri Books
2020-08-21 19:00 - 21:00 | Online – Please RSVP to receive a Zoom link
Raven Leilani launches her debut novel, Luster, with Librairie Saint-Henri Books in an online talk and Q&A with LSHB Events Coordinator Sruti Islam.
Buy a ticket to reserve a spot in our live-streamed conversation with the author of one of this year’s most exciting debuts! The online event will take place August 21st at 7PM—a url will be provided closer to the launch date and sent to your email.
For every $10.00 ticket sold you are entered for a chance to win an exclusive, specially printed LSHB designed poster as well as a copy of the book!
*All ticket sales for this event are to be donated to the Montreal women’s shelter, Chez Doris*
ABOUT THE BOOK: Edie is stumbling her way through her twenties–sharing a subpar apartment in Bushwick, clocking in and out of her admin job, making a series of inappropriate sexual choices. She’s also, secretly, haltingly, figuring her way into life as an artist. And then she meets Eric, a digital archivist with a family in New Jersey, including an autopsist wife who has agreed to an open marriage–with rules. As if navigating the constantly shifting landscapes of contemporary sexual manners and racial politics weren’t hard enough, Edie finds herself unemployed and falling into Eric’s family life, his home. She becomes a hesitant friend to his wife and a de facto role model to his adopted daughter. Edie is the only black woman who young Akila knows.Razor sharp, darkly comic, sexually charged, socially disruptive, Luster is a portrait of a young woman trying to make sense of her life in a tumultuous era. It is also a haunting, aching description of how hard it is to believe in your own talent and the unexpected influences that bring us into ourselves along the way.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: RAVEN LEILANI’s work has been published in Granta, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Narrative, Yale Review, Conjunctions, The Cut and New England Review, among other publications. She won Narrative’s Ninth Annual Poetry Contest and the Matt Clark Editor’s Choice Prize, as well as short fiction prizes from Bat City Review and Blue Earth Review. Luster is her first novel.

Musical Theatre Showcase
2020-08-31 19:00 - 20:00 | Quebec
Montreal Musical Theatre Writers is presenting an online showcase on Monday, August 31st at 7pm. We have been been working on our various musicals with Jonathan Monro and CMTWC (Canadian Musical Theatre Writers Collective) for almost a year now. The following YouTube link will take you directly to the hour-long video: https://youtu.be/mpla8HYahN0

The Infinite Playwrights' Chat Room
2020-09-10 17:00 - 18:00 | Online via Zoom
Infinithéâtre is inviting members of the public across Canada to participate in the development of a series of exciting new plays. Once a week, a work-in-progress will be released online in read-only digital format. Our playwrights are looking for your help to write the next draft of their play. You’ll have ten days to read, prepare comments, questions, suggestions and e-mail them back to Infinithéâtre.
This is a genuine dramaturgical process. A live Zoom on-line chat session with the playwright and moderator will take up your suggestions, address questions and hopefully provide the writer with fresh inspiration for the new draft.
All interested members of the public are welcome to audit the event live. If you would like to participate in the live discussion with the playwright, just let us know when you send in your comments. You could be invited as a guest into the Zoom online Chat Room.
Marc-André Thibault will kick off with Mazel Tov on September 10th. After that, The Infinite Playwrights’ Chat Room will happen every Thursday at 5PM. Alice Abracen is due up September 17 with Children of Egypt. Other writers to follow: Zaynab Bourezza on September 24 with M1ndf0ck_, and Laura Flynn on October 1 with Ceasefire.
For more details, or if you would like to read Mazel Tov and audit the chat room, please e-mail: ATD@infinitheatre.com.

The lawn chair soirée (Virtual Edition #6)
2020-09-17 19:00 - 21:00 | Zoom: get link at lawnchairsoiree@gmail.com, Montreal, Canada
An evening of poetry and story and song
Une soirée de poésie et d’histoire et de la chanson
Thursday, Sept. 17, 2020 at 7pm EDT
on Zoom
Invited Guests:
Sharon Lax
Su J Sokol
Carolyne Van Der Meer
+ Open Mic (3 minutes, svp)
Hosted by Jan Jorgensen, Blossom Thom, and Brian Campbell
Contact Jan for Zoom coordinates
lawnchairsoiree@gmail.com

"September Stories" with Licia Canton
2020-09-19 12:00 - 13:00 | Zoom: get link at lcanton@accenti.ca
“September Stories” with LICIA CANTON –
Books and Biscotti Literary Series on Zoom – Register at lcanton@accenti.ca to receive the link.

Wherever you may be, whether you are having breakfast, lunch or dinner, join author Licia Canton for a Books and Biscotti event on September 19th at 12 p.m. EST. She will read her most recent (un)published writing and share biscotti, dolcetti…
Licia Canton‘s writing has been anthologized internationally in English, French, Chinese, Italian and Venetian dialect. She has published twelve books, including The Pink House and Other Stories (2018) and Almond Wine and Fertility (2008; 2018), published in Italy as Vino alla mandorla e fertilità (2015). She is the founding editor-in-chief of Accenti Magazine, where she organizes the annual writing contest and “Capture an Italian Moment” photo competition. At Accenti, she also manages a student internship program with Bishop’s University. She is also a mentor (for emerging writers and editors) and a writer-for-hire through the Quebec Writers’ Federation. She holds a Ph.D. from Uni. de Montréal and an M.A. from McGill
The event is funded by the Canada Council for the Arts and The Writers’ Union of Canada (TWUC).

Summer in September at W&M Sunday
2020-09-20 20:00 - 21:30 | Online via Zoom
This Sunday September 20th we’re feeling the last rays of summer as Rachel McCrum and Jonathan Lamy perform in tandem. Joining them for the show are three fine poets, all with new books!
Robin Durnford has moved from The Rock to settle in Montreal and presents work from her new book “Gap-Toothed”
And Montreal-based poet Greg Santos is here to present work from his new book “Ghost Face”.
Checking in from Gabriola Island on the the West Coast, PC Vandall launches her book of poems “The Blue Moth of Morning”.
The event will be hosted by Jason Camlot and Ian Ferrier on Zoom at 8PM EDT, Sunday September 20th.
Join us at the following link:
https://concordia-ca.zoom.us/j/3772249115
The Words & Music Show is funded by the Quebec Writers’ Federation, and brought to you the Casa del Popolo and Wired on Words Productions.

What’s in a Name? A Poetry Workshop
2020-09-22 14:00 - 16:00, 2020-09-29 14:00 - 16:00, 2020-10-06 14:00 - 16:00 | Online – Please RSVP to receive a Zoom link
Names carry meaning. Some names carry a story, like Samson whose name conjures thoughts of cut hair, love betrayed, and strength. We can use names to add meaning and texture to our poems.
During the workshop, participants will be guided to write poems built around a name. Each week, we will: highlight a way a name can add texture to a poem; read and discuss a poem by an acclaimed poet who uses names to create images, foreshadow, or inject meaning; and write a poem inspired by the week’s poem. Participants will have the first draft of four new poems by the end of the workshop.
Registration Deadline: September 17, 2020.
Blossom Thom is a poet and editor. She is the author of #HashtagRelief (Gaspereau Press, 2017) and her poetry has appeared during art collaborations and in literary magazines and anthologies including Poetic Notions: A Weaving of Poetry and Visual Arts, Kola: A Black Literary Magazine, and Montréal Serai. A mentorship with George Elliott Clarke set the groundwork for her work-in-progress and was supported by a Professional Development for Artists Grant from the Canada Council for the Arts.
For further details, please see event link.

Sensational Songwriting: the Art and Craft of Song [Live & Online]
2020-09-22 15:00 - 16:30, 2020-09-29 15:00 - 16:30, 2020-10-06 15:00 - 16:30 | Online – Please RSVP to receive a Zoom link
How do we know if an idea is solid enough to inspire a song? What’s the difference between a ballad and a 3 minute pop song? What are our choices when it comes to rhyming schemes and how do we maintain a flow when scanning lyrics to melody? How do we write a thrilling pre-chorus and what makes a song have an impact? In this four-week workshop we will transform your ideas into songs; exploring structure, storytelling techniques, melodic phrasing, harmonic support and verse/chorus/bridge formats. Each week there will be a songwriting assignment, followed by the opportunity to share your work and receive in-depth feedback from your instructor and peers.

Poetry London: Roxanna Bennett & Greg Santos
2020-09-23 19:00 - 20:00 | Online
On Wednesday, September 23, Poetry London launches their 2020/2021 season with a digital reading event featuring Roxanna Bennett and Greg Santos.

Poetry London hosts and celebrates nationally acclaimed and local poets. For more information check out the Poetry London website: http://poetrylondon.ca

Digital Reading @ 7pm (EDT)
Zoom Workshop @ 6pm (EDT)

Black Writers Out Loud - Spoken Word Edition
2020-09-24 19:00 - 20:30 | Online via Zoom
Roen Higgins, Fabrice Koffy, and Faith Paré in conversation with Jason “Blackbird” Selman.

This fantastic group of spoken word artists sit down with guest host Jason Selman for a conversation about their arts practice, the Black Lives Matter movement and current pandemic. This is the second in a QWF series of online events celebrating black literary arts in Quebec.

The conversation will take place on September 24, 2020 at 7 p.m. EDT via Zoom.
Please CLICK HERE to RSVP and receive the Zoom link via email.
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ROEN ‘BLU RIVA’ HIGGINS – From a hyper, at-risk youth entangled in the system, to an active community change agent, Roen is a committed educator, coach, speaker, and event producer. She is known to flip words and paint pictures through her diction and uses her-story to help others “Elevate Impact.” Her community service and creative accomplishments have been recognized by Montreal Community Care Awards, Black Theatre Workshop, and Fonds 1804. In the ring of Improv & Slam poetry, she echoes the realities of society yet never leaves the mic without a solution. Dubbed as ‘Blu Riva,’ her unique style, flow and delivery has gained her opportunities to perform before different audiences in different time zones. Her current projects are coaching multi-passionate creatives to get unstuck and tap into their creative potential, and releasing a Poetry Project this year.

FABRICE KOFFY – Originally from the Ivory Coast, Fabrice Koffy settled in Montreal in 1998 to pursue university studies. This is where his journey of artistic expression begins, as he joins the infamous Kalm Unity Vibe Collective, with whom he collaborates for several years. In 2006, he meets guitarist Guillaume Soucy. Grounded in a growing complicity, their prolific union breathes life into a series of performances and the album Poésic is released in 2009 and selected by the Vue sur la Relève festival and the Montreal FrancoFolies. In 2016, the album receives the Prix Coup de Coeur award from ICI Musique, Diversité artistique Montréal (DAM) and La Vitrine during the 6th edition of the Vitrine des musiques locales et métissées (Local and Cross-Cultural Music Showcase) presented by Vision Diversité. His poetry speaks of life through history where the human being is center stage.

Photo Credit: Isobel Rose Carnegie

FAITH PARÉ – is a poet and performer of Afro-Guyanese and Québécois ancestries. Her writing is forthcoming in Carnation, and has previously appeared in GUTS , Ossa , and Shameless Magazine. Faith is a proud alum of Our Bodies, Our Stories, a creative collective for queer, trans Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour artists mentored by Kama La Mackerel, and she recently completed the Quebec Writers’ Federation’s 2020 Mairuth Sarsfield Mentorship for Underrepresented Writers under the guidance of Dr. Gillian Sze. She is studying for her Hons. B.A. in English and Creative Writing. Find her @paretriarchy and faithpare.com.

JASON “BLACKBIRD” SELMAN – Jason “Blackbird” Selman is a Montreal born poet, trumpet player and community worker. He is the author Africa As A Dream That Travels Through My Heart (2016, Howl), The Freedom I Stole (2007, Cumulus Press), and co-editor of the poetry anthology Talking Book (2006, Cumulus Press) which chronicles the writings of Kalm Unity Vibe Collective (of which he is a founding member). He has done extensive poetry workshops across the Montréal area in schools and community groups. His work is grounded in the themes of ethno-musicology, surrealist expression, love and the intersection of masculinity and emotional vulnerability.

Writing Outside the Box: a Workshop on Edgy Fiction
2020-09-28 18:00 - 20:00, 2020-10-02 13:00 - 15:00, 2020-10-05 18:00 - 20:00 | Online – Please RSVP to receive a Zoom link
Interested in examining unsettling or edgy themes but don’t know how to get started? Nervous about writing outside the usual rules of CanLit? This workshop series is designed to help writers of any medium, genre or experience level learn to start pushing boundaries with their work.
Full of provocative exercises and frank discussion, these fun and interactive sessions will provide participants with tips and techniques that will help build confidence in working with the unusual, the taboo and the experimental.
Students will be asked to read aloud from their work and to provide feedback to other participants. Students will also receive written feedback from the instructor as the course progresses.
Tracey Waddleton is a Newfoundland writer living in Montréal. Her work has been published in Riddle Fence, NQ, the Cuffer Anthology and elsewhere. A finalist for the NLCU Fresh Fish Award for Emerging Writers and recipient of the 2015 Lawrence Jackson Writers’ Award, Waddleton’s work has been described as weird and wonderful minimalist dark realism. Her first book, Send More Tourists… the Last Ones Were Delicious, was published in July of 2019. She is the inaugural recipient of the Quebec Writers’ Federation Max Margles Writing Residency and is scheduled to spend a month writing in Dublin in 2021.
For details, please see event link.

A Poetry Reading with Gillian Sze
2020-09-30 14:00 - 16:00 | Quebec
The Département de littératures et de langues du monde, section études anglaises, at the Université de Montréal invites you to join us for a poetry reading and discussion with Gillian Sze.

GILLIAN SZE is the author of multiple poetry collections, including Peeling Rambutan (2014), Redrafting Winter (2015), and Panicle (2017), which were finalists for the QWF’s A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry. She studied Creative Writing and English Literature at Concordia University and received a Ph.D. in Études anglaises from Université de Montréal. Her forthcoming publications include a book of essays and poems from ECW Press and three books written for children. www.gilliansze.com

Please join us using the Zoom link: https://umontreal.zoom.us/j/97745719460?pwd=[REDACTED]
For any inquiries contact: jane.malcolm@umontreal.ca or joyce.boro@umontreal.ca

Write Like a Pro
2020-10-01 18:00 - 19:30 | Online – Please RSVP to receive a Zoom link
Writing can be an act of catharsis, a way of processing experiences during difficult times. Now, more than ever, we need to write our stories.
The Write Like a Pro workshop is designed to guide participants through the stylistic and technical elements that make a great piece of writing. It draws heavily from the art and craft of narrative non-fiction, but is relevant for anyone who wants to communicate more effectively through the written word. The nut of it is: How do you make your truth compelling to others?
Over the course of the workshop, we’ll cover: shaping ideas; planning and organising material; elements of storytelling; wordcraft and style; finding your voice; tough-love editing; and, finally, putting your work out there.
Now in its TENTH run, the Write Like a Pro workshop puts special focus on practising techniques we learn in class through the process of developing, writing, and polishing a short (500- to 1000- word) non-fiction piece by the end of the workshop. For most people, this requires setting aside an additional hour or so per week to write at home.
In each workshop, we’ll spend part of the time reviewing techniques and examples, and part of the time writing, sharing work, and providing feedback to others. Think of it like part writing class, part writing circle.
So, if you’ve been feeling the urge to write now more than ever, don’t hesitate to sign up.
Colleen Kimmett is a Montreal-based writer and journalist. Colleen’s work has been published in The Walrus, The Guardian, Al Jazeera America, Bright Magazine, In These Times, StatNews, Arctic Deeply, and beyond. Previously, she was a senior editor at The Tyee and a founding editor of The Discourse. Currently, she teaches a science communication course at McGill and is the community outreach coordinator for the Institute for Investigative Journalism.
For more details, please see event link.

Reading: de Meijer, du Plessis, MacAskill
2020-10-02 19:00 - 20:00 | Online via Zoom
Join Sadiqa de Meijer, Klara du Plessis, and Annick MacAskill for an online reading from their new books alfabet / alphabet, Hell Light Flesh, and Murmurations respectively. Time is listed as EDT.
A link to the event will be made public closer to the date.
This event is kindly supported by the League of Canadian Poets.
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Annick MacAskill’s poems have appeared in journals and anthologies across Canada and abroad, including Arc, Canadian Notes & Queries, The Stinging Fly, Versal, Room, Plenitude, Canthius, This Magazine, and Best Canadian Poetry 2019. Her debut collection, No Meeting Without Body, was nominated for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award and shortlisted for the J.M. Abraham Poetry Award. Her second collection, Murmurations, was published by Gaspereau Press this spring. She lives in Halifax on the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq. Visit her online at annickmacaskill.com
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Sadiqa de Meijer’s poetry has received the CBC Poetry Prize, Arc’s Poem of the Year Award, and her first collection was short-listed for the Governor General’s Literary Award and the Pat Lowther Memorial Award. Her second collection, released this spring, is The Outer Wards (Vehicule). Her most recent book is the language memoir, alfabet / alphabet, released by Palimpsest Press this fall.
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Klara du Plessis’ debut collection, Ekke, won the 2019 Pat Lowther Memorial Award and was shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. Her second book, Hell Light Flesh, will be released, Fall 2020, with Palimpsest Press. Klara is a PhD English Literature student at Concordia University, a researcher for SpokenWeb, and currently expanding her curatorial practice to include experimental Deep Curation poetry reading events, an approach which places poets’ work in deliberate dialogue with each other and heightens the curator’s agency toward the poetic product. Klara writes poetry and essays in English, Afrikaans, and multilingually.

Writing About Controversial Topics: Nonfiction
2020-10-05 18:00 - 20:00 | Online via Zoom
Workshop description TBA!

Remembering: The Art and Craft of Memoir
2020-10-05 20:00 - 22:00 | Online via Zoom

Writing Memorable Characters for the Screen
2020-10-06 18:00 - 20:00 | Online via Zoom

Review, Refine, Submit: Strategies for Writing Short Prose
2020-10-06 20:00 - 22:00 | Online via Zoom
