Quebec Writers' Federation

What’s in a Name? A Poetry Workshop
2020-10-06 14:00 - 16:00, 2020-10-13 14:00 - 16:00 (America/New_York) | 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]
2020-10-06 15:00 - 16:30, 2020-10-13 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.

Writing Memorable Characters for the Screen
2020-10-06 18:00 - 20:00, 2020-10-13 18:00 - 20:00, 2020-10-20 18:00 - 20:00 | Online via Zoom
Workshop description TBA!

Review, Refine, Submit: Strategies for Writing Short Prose
2020-10-06 20:00 - 22:00, 2020-10-13 20:00 - 22:00 | Online via Zoom

Silver Pins: Novel Writing Workshop
2020-10-07 18:00 - 20:00, 2020-10-14 18:00 - 20:00 | Online via Zoom
Workshop details TBA!

Writing What We Don’t (Yet) Know: Fiction
2020-10-07 20:00 - 22:00, 2020-10-14 20:00 - 22:00 | Online via Zoom

Write Like a Pro
2020-10-08 18:00 - 19:30, 2020-10-15 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.

Argo Zoom Reading Series: Verse, Prose & Song
2020-10-08 19:00 - 21:00 | Argo Bookshop, 1915 Ste. Catherine Ouest, Montreal, Quebec H3H 1M3, Montreal, Canada
Argo Zoom Reading Series: Verse, Prose & Song Thursday, October 8, 2020
John Kerkhoven, Susan Elmslie, Larissa Andrusyshyn, Kate Lavut, Harold Hoefle, Matthew Murphy, Nadine Ltaif, Karen Isabel Ocaña, Matthew Rettino
Argo Bookshop 1915 Ste. Catherine St. West
https://www.argobookshop.ca/
Hosted by Adele-Elise Prevost & Moti Lieberman 514.931.3442
Curator Ilona Martonfi ilona.martonfi@sympatico.ca
7 PM-9 PM
Please email events@argobookshop.ca for the Zoom link.

Crafty Poetry
2020-10-08 20:00 - 22:00, 2020-10-15 20:00 - 22:00 | Online via Zoom

Writing Outside the Box: a Workshop on Edgy Fiction
2020-10-09 13:00 - 15:00, 2020-10-16 13:00 - 15:00, 2020-10-19 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.

APP Online: Klara du Plessis & Erín Moure
2020-10-13 19:00 - 20:00 | Quebec
Atwater Poetry Project Online is delighted to be returning for two more events in October 2020!
On Tuesday, October 13, we are proud to present a two-tongued reading and discussion with Montreal-based poets Klara du Plessis & Erín Moure. Sharing concerns of language, translingualism, and writing across borders, this event celebrates du Plessis’s eagerly awaited second collection Hell Light Flesh (Palimpsest Press, 2020) and – among other things – Moure’s translation of Galician poet Uxío Novoneyra, The Uplands, Book of the Courel and other poems (Veliz Books, 2020).
The Atwater Poetry Project is made possible with funding and support from the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Atwater Library and Computer Centre.

Librairie D+Q presents Eva Crocker and Morgan Murray in conversation
2020-10-15 19:00 - 20:30 | Online via Zoom
Join us a for a virtual conversation with authors and friends Eva Crocker and Morgan Murray.
Eva Crocker is the author of the 2020 Giller nominated ALL I ASK . Morgan Murray is the author of the celebrated DIRTY BIRDS a book that takes from the Prairies to the Plateau on a hilarious quest to find Leonard Cohen!
RSVP here: https://bit.ly/3iphXUZ
You can purchase both books on our webstore. We ship Canada wide!
Link to purchase DIRTY BIRDS
https://tinyurl.com/y4xgevat
Link to purchase ALL I ASK
https://bit.ly/3iK7swu
By purchasing your book at Librairie Drawn & Quarterly you help support events like this one, independent publishing and retailing, our neighborhood, and authors both local and from around the world who depend on independent bookstores for their livelihood. Your support is appreciated.

Young Readers Book Club - Ikenga by Nnedi Okorafor
2020-10-17 18:00 - 20:00 | Online via Zoom
Meeting ID: 819 2563 8502
Password: [REDACTED] write librairie@drawnandquarterly.com to request
Join us at la Petite Librairie Drawn & Quarterly for our Young Readers book club, hosted by Caleb!
This month’s pick is the novel Ikenga by Nnedi Okorafor.
This is a book club for young readers, with a median age of 10-12 or fifth, sixth and sec 1 grades. Younger kids are welcome if the book is appropriate, but not younger than 8-9, please. There will be a different book every meeting. The focus is to provide tweens a safe space to learn to discuss and express thoughts and ideas about literature among their peers without parents or teachers.
Where/how do I order this book? Via our online store of course!
http://mtl.drawnandquarterly.com/webstore
We’re shipping Canada wide and delivering in certain area codes close to the bookstore!
*By purchasing your book at Librairie Drawn & Quarterly you help support events like this one, independent publishing and retailing, our neighborhood, and authors both local and from around the world who depend on independent bookstores for their livelihood. Your support is appreciated.

Poetry and Politics: A Performance by Liana Cusmano (aka BiCurious George)
2020-10-18 12:00 - 13:00 | Zoom: get link at lcanton@accenti.ca
Poetry and Politics: A Performance by Liana Cusmano – Books and Biscotti Literary Series.
Join Liana Cusmano (aka BiCurious George) for a Books and Biscotti event on October 18th at 12 p.m. EST. Liana will perform spoken word poems, read excerpts from a forthcoming novel, and share stories about making biscotti with Nonna V.
Born and raised in Montreal/Tiohtià:ke, Liana Cusmano (they/them) is a writer, filmmaker, spoken word artist and arts educator who works in English, French and Italian. A graduate of McGill University, Liana is the 2018 and 2019 Montreal Slam Champion, runner up in the 2019 Canadian Individual Poetry Slam Championship, and a participant in the 2019 Spoken Word Residency Program at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Liana Cusmano wrote and directed the film Matters of Great Unimportance. They also wrote the film script for La Femme Finale, screened at the Cannes Film Festival. Liana Cusmano is editor-at-large at Accenti Magazine www.accenti.ca. Watch “A Poem About My Grandmother.”
Liana is interviewed in the documentary Creative Spaces: Queer and Italian Canadian
Liana Cusmano is a proud member of The Writers’ Union of Canada, the League of Canadian Poets, the Quebec Writers’ Federation and the Association of Italian Canadian Writers (AICW).
This event is funded by the Canada Council for the Arts and The Writers’ Union of Canada (TWUC). Thanks to AICW and Accenti.
Register at lcanton@accenti.ca to receive the link.

Content Marketing Demystified
2020-10-18 13:00 - 16:00 | Online via Zoom

Decolonizing the screen through Indigenous Cinema
2020-10-19 12:30 - 13:30 | Online via Zoom
For as long as cinema has existed, there have been stories with Indigenous themes and characters. But up until recently, very rarely were these stories told from an Indigenous perspective.
But more and more, Indigenous storytellers are decolonizing screens and tearing down stereotypes perpetuated for decades through various forms of media.
Using her feature film Rustic Oracle as a case study, Sonia Bonspille Boileau will discuss the use of fiction to tell the truth and the importance of reclaiming Indigenous narratives to help reshape our collective memory.
Sonia Bonspille Boileau is a bilingual Kanienkeha:ka and Québécois filmmaker who has been working with Nish Media for the past decade to bring Indigenous content to the screen for viewers of all cultural backgrounds. Some of her documentary credits include Last Call Indian, The Oka Legacy, Wapikoni, and Skindigenous. In 2015, Sonia wrote and directed her first feature film, Le Dep. Her second feature film, Rustic Oracle, has already received praises on the festival circuit and was just released in theatres.
This event is part of the Spirituality as Land, Story and Relation series presented by the Department of Theological Studies with the support of the Faculty of Arts and Science.

Writing About Controversial Topics: Nonfiction
2020-10-19 18:00 - 20:00 | Online via Zoom

Remembering: The Art and Craft of Memoir
2020-10-19 20:00 - 22:00 | Online via Zoom

Strange Futures Book Club: Dear Cyborgs
2020-10-20 19:00 - 21:00 | Online via Zoom
The Strange Futures book club focuses on sci-fi and speculative fiction by QT/BIPOC writers. “Strange Futures” speaks to the unknown worlds that are to come–but also to the strangeness that is ascribed to marginalized voices, and how such strangeness can actually be generative, challenging, discomforting, and revolutionary. Hosted by Helen Chau Bradley, the book club meetings take place every two months, and are open to the public.
For our next meeting, on Tuesday, October 20th, we’ll assemble virtually online at 7 PM to discuss DEAR CYBORGS by Eugene Kim. Join us for the discussion!
Where/how do I order this book? Via our online store of course!
http://mtl.drawnandquarterly.com/posts/webstore-faq
We’re shipping Canada wide and delivering in certain area codes close to the bookstore!
*By purchasing your book at Librairie Drawn & Quarterly you help support events like this one, independent publishing and retailing, our neighborhood, and authors both local and from around the world who depend on independent bookstores for their livelihood. Your support is appreciated.
