Quebec Writers' Federation

Write to Thrill
2022-03-24 18:00 - 20:00, 2022-03-31 18:00 - 20:00, 2022-04-07 18:00 - 20:00, 2022-04-14 18:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
8 Thursdays, 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.
March 17-May 5

Open to all.
Limited to 12 participants

Have you always wanted to write a thriller? Need help completing one you’ve already started? This is the workshop for you! Whether it’s a domestic noir or the CIA is chasing down your main character, we’ll spend eight weeks together working on plot, characterization, twists, dialogue, prose, and pacing. By the end of the workshop you’ll have a solid foundation for your novel. Participants should come to the workshop with a premise for their thriller in mind. After the first session, two participants a week, if they’re comfortable, will receive feedback on their writing from the instructor and the other class participants

Catherine McKenzie is the Globe & Mail Bestselling author of 13 novels, including I’ll Never Tell, Fractured, and The Good Liar. She lives in Montreal, Quebec, where she writes full time after having retired from practicing law after twenty years.

Forms and Frames – A Poetry Workshop
2022-03-24 20:00 - 22:00, 2022-03-31 20:00 - 22:00, 2022-04-07 20:00 - 22:00 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
8 Thursdays, 8:00 to 10:00 p.m.
March 17-May 5

Open to all.
Limited to 12 participants

What’s the difference between poetry and prose? One big difference is form—the shapes and sounds a poem makes using line breaks, rhyme, alliteration, and a whole host of other devices. But while it’s a defining component of poetry, form can seem complex and intimidating. Even the most experienced poets may still struggle to distinguish a Pantoum from a Villanelle or accurately parse the metre of a poem.

Thankfully, a complete mastery of form is not necessary to enjoy—or write!—poetry. A basic understanding of form, however, can give the poet a whole new set of tools with which to make their meaning clear.

For many poets, the artificial and sometimes arbitrary rules of formal poetry signal a loss of choice. This workshop aims to show that, on the contrary, the adoption of a form reveals several private decisions around values, preferences, and intent. The “rules” of a form can be followed faithfully, but they can also be rejected, subverted, or broken completely. Those decisions are matter of personal expression, not unlike subject or image, and allow the poet another layer of individuality and disclosure.

Forms and Frames focuses on artificial forms as a means of expression, subversion, and creative generation. Particpants will discuss and practice a small selection of artificial forms from a diverse range of traditions, including the Pantoum, the Haibun, and the Pas-de-Deux. These forms have been chosen specifically because they have (in the Anglo-Canadian context, at least) no set metre. While some small discussion of metre may be necessary during the course of the workshop, no prior knowledge of, or experience with, forms or metres is necessary! Through discussion of these and other artificial forms, guided exercises, free-writing, and voluntary critique, participants of all experience and skill-levels will discover how to make the frame work for them.

Patrick O’Reilly is a writer from Renews, NL, now living in Montreal. A former poetry editor of The Antigonish Review, his poetry and criticism has appeared in Numéro Cinq, untethered, Maisonneuve and others, as well as In/Words Press’s 30 under 30 anthology. Patrick’s first chapbook, A Collapsible Newfoundland, was released by Frog Hollow Press in 2020.

Announcing the Max Margles Fiction Prize Winner
2022-03-28 12:45 - 13:15 | YouTube
The Max Margles Fiction Prize will be awarded to a writer of prose fiction who is a resident of Quebec and whose writing practice is primarily in English. The winner will receive $8,500, the largest such prize to be awarded by any Canadian provincial writers’ organization.

The award is designed to enable one writer to work on a specific solo writing project between April 1 and October 31, 2022. Join us on Monday, March 28 at 12:45 as we introduce the winner!

Intermediate Memoir: The Art of Truth
2022-03-28 18:00 - 20:00, 2022-04-04 18:00 - 20:00, 2022-04-11 18:00 - 20:00 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
8 Mondays, 6 to 8 p.m.
March 21 to May 9, 2022
Open to those who have taken at least one writing workshop
Limited to 12 participants.

Memoir, a sub-specialty of autobiography, is a hugely popular form of personal writing. Whereas autobiography is the preserve of celebrities and public figures, memoir usually highlights one period or theme from the life of an ordinary individual, someone with little or no claim to fame. Its special currency is the universality of human experience; its value is what may be learned from a so-called ordinary person.
This workshop on memoir is designed for people who already have some experience of workshop settings and would like to embark or have already begun to embark on a memoir project of their own. Don’t be daunted by the “intermediate” label: you need not necessarily be working on a book-length narrative. If you’re open to learning from a professional practitioner of the genre as well as from your peers, you will almost certainly find this workshop helpful and motivating.
As in any workshop, there is a great emphasis on student input. Participants will not only be presenting their own work to the group but will also be expected to give careful reading of each other’s pieces in order to provide vital critical feedback. This element of the program is equally important to the writing. About half of each session will be devoted to in-class exercises and discussion of selected material from the text named below. The rest of the time will be spent discussing participants’ submissions.
The text for the course is This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett, a work that operates both as a how-to book on writing and as an exemplary series of linked memoirs/personal essays. I expect you to have purchased it ahead of time and to come to the first session prepared to discuss “Nonfiction, an Introduction,” and “How to Read a Christmas Story,” the first two chapters.
I also encourage participants to buy my Bible of clear writing: William Zinsser’s On Writing Well, to which I refer all the time.
To apply, please send an email with the following components to workshops@qwf.org no later than February 24, 2022:
1) a 3-5-page double-spaced writing sample (non-fiction or fiction) that you feel is representative of your abilities.
2) a paragraph introducing yourself and your writing history.
The subject line of the message should read “For Elaine Kalman Naves.”
QWF will notify you whether you’ve been accepted into the workshop the week of March 7.
Elaine Kalman Naves is a long-time literary journalist and the author of seven non-fiction titles, and of a novel. She is a two-time recipient of the Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction, the winner of two Canadian Jewish Book Awards, and of a Canadian Literary Award for Personal Essay. Her memoir Journey to Vaja: Reconstructing the World of a Hungarian-Jewish Family has been made into a documentary film. Elaine’s novel, The Book of Faith, was nominated for the Leacock Prize for Humour. She has led workshops at the QWF since their inception in 1998. To find out more about Elaine, visit her website at http://www.elainekalmannaves.com/

Translating Quebec
2022-03-28 20:00 - 22:00, 2022-04-04 20:00 - 22:00, 2022-04-11 20:00 - 22:00 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
8 Mondays, 8 to 10 p.m.
March 14 to May 2, 2022

Open to all.
Limited to 12 participants.

This workshop is aimed at anyone interested in exporting Quebec French to an English audience. Using the translator’s own experiences in the field as a springboard, the workshop will address the challenges—and fun!—of translating both a language and a culture. Participants will be encouraged to draw on their own well of cultural knowledge, and discussions are expected to be lively. We’ll tackle translation theory with a comparative reading of published translations; we’ll talk about the role of the church in contemporary Quebec French; we’ll take a look at media content and dip into the art of subtitling. Each week, participants will be given short selections to translate and workshop together. The focus of the workshop will be on translating what people speak, so don’t be afraid to make yourself heard!

Participants will be asked to reflect upon their own relationship to English and Quebec French as they develop the linguistic flexibility to navigate the challenges of translating from one to the other. Knowledge of both languages is mandatory, but participants are not required to have any formal translation experience.

Arielle Aaronson has published nine translations including titles of fiction, nonfiction, young adult fiction, and children’s literature. Her translation of Marie-Renée Lavoie’s Autopsy of a Boring Wife was longlisted for the 2021 Canada Reads book of the year. She has subtitled feature films shown across Quebec as well as content currently available on Netflix. She lives in Montreal with her husband and three children.

Facebook: Arielle Aaronson
https://www.arielleaaronson.com/

A Journey into Spoken Word
2022-03-29 18:00 - 20:00, 2022-04-05 18:00 - 20:00, 2022-04-12 18:00 - 20:00 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
8 Tuesdays, 6 to 8 p.m.
March 15 to May 3

Open to all
Limited to 12 participants

In this workshop, participants will step out of their comfort zones and onto the stage.

Objectives include learning about the history of spoken word and its place within the wider world of poetry, understanding some of the stigma surrounding spoken word and slam, and increasing appreciation for the craft of writing for performance.

Resource materials include but will not be limited to text, audio, and video from some of the best known and most beloved poets in Canada and the U.S. Participants will be expected to watch and/or listen to poems, discuss form and poetic devices, create original work, and share with the group.

Poetry as creative catharsis, democratization, and act of rebellion will be examined.

Performance tips such as mic use and engagement with the audience will also be discussed.

Deanna (DNA) Smith is a poet, performer, teaching artist, and social-justice advocate. Her artistic work is rooted in her experience as a fifth-generation Canadian who thinks in two languages and her exploration of identity as the descendent of kidnapped and exploited Africans. Deanna is a former Montreal Slam Champion and is currently the VP of the Throw Poetry Collective. She is eagerly anticipating a return to the stage with the Kalmunity Vibes Collective. Deanna has a background in Linguistics and Speech-Language Pathology. She has a Graduate Certificate in Creative Writing, and is currently pursuing another in Social Justice, Diversity, and Inclusion.

Mining Personal History to Enrich Our Short Fiction
2022-03-29 20:00 - 22:00, 2022-04-05 20:00 - 22:00, 2022-04-12 20:00 - 22:00 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
8 Tuesdays, 8 to 10 p.m.
March 15 to May 3

Open to all
Limited to 12 participants

“Some of these stories are closer to my own life than others are, but not one of them is as close as people seem to think.” — Alice Munro, from her Introduction to The Moons of Jupiter

When we write fiction, it seems inevitable that we will, at one point or another, be asked a certain, probing question: How much of that story is true?
Often, we deflect rather than answer, and make some great show of asserting our story is fiction and, therefore, not true. But by this time we are already squirming inside, feeling caught out. But caught out at what? That we have committed some sort of fraud? As if writing fiction from personal experience were cheating, like peeking at the answers we’ve scrawled on the palm of our hand in advance of the test?
In this workshop, seeking out kernels of truth from our own lives will be encouraged. We will embrace personal history for what it is: a fruitful mine for our short fiction. This is not, however, a study in autobiography. Personal experience can be a jumping-off point, the spark that sets our fictional stories in motion. It can also serve as adornment; a place from which to extract vivid details that enhance our fiction, to help our made-up stories feel alive. Yes, sometimes we write about what happened, but we strive to write about what could have happened.
We will explore writing exercises that, through examination of objects, activities, places, and time, can help us draw from our personal experiences and observations for the enrichment of our stories. We will also workshop one another’s short fiction in a respectful and supportive environment.
Recommended reading: Prior to our first session, please read “The Turkey Season” by Alice Munro, from her short story collection The Moons of Jupiter. The story can also be found online with a Google search, on the website of The New Yorker.

Mark Paterson is the author of the short story collections Dreamers and Misfits of Montclair, A Finely Tuned Apathy Machine, and Other People’s Showers, all from Exile Editions. His work has won the 3Macs carte blanche Prize, Geist magazine’s Literal Literary Postcard Story Contest, and the Atwater Library’s 150 Words for 150 Years contest. In 2020, his story “To Disappear Around Here” was runner-up for The Puritan’s Thomas Morton Prize.
www.markpaterson.ca
https://twitter.com/apathymachine
https://www.instagram.com/paterson.mark/
https://www.facebook.com/mark.paterson

Pitching on Paper: Creating a TV Series Proposal
2022-03-30 18:00 - 20:00, 2022-04-06 18:00 - 20:00, 2022-04-13 18:00 - 20:00 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
Six Wednesdays, 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
March 16 to April 20

Open to all
Limited to 12 participants

You’re armed with a great elevator pitch for a new television, documentary or digital series idea, and your friends, family and colleagues have encouraged you to pitch it to a broadcaster. The challenge is to move that idea from the confines of your creative imagination and into a well-structured and detailed concept.

In this 6-week workshop participants will expand, develop, structure, break down, and build up show ideas into full-blown proposals, ready to present to a network or production executive.

For those who don’t have a show idea at the ready, the first workshop will help you get those creative juices flowing to take a concept through the development process.

Week 1 – Elevator Pitch
The idea.

Week 2 – First Page
The beginning is crucial.

Week 3 – Structure
How it works.

Week 4 – Writing
Giving it life.

Week 5 – Rewriting
The perfect life.

Week 6 – The Full Pitch
It’s showtime.

Jennifer McAuley has produced and written hundreds of hours of television for over 30 years and developed new series and concepts for production companies throughout North America. Her most recent credits include Restoration Garage, My Worst Nightmare and Million Dollar Genius. She is currently working with Cineflix Montreal on Patrick Ayree’s Wild World for Love Nature.

As past head of production and development with various companies in Toronto, and executive producer with CBC and TVO, Jennifer has received and evaluated hundreds of pitches, and consulted on numerous TV show ideas. She has a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Journalism.

www.filltheframe.org

Narrative Non-Fiction: Creating Scenes
2022-03-30 20:00 - 22:00, 2022-04-06 20:00 - 22:00, 2022-04-13 20:00 - 22:00 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
Wednesdays, 8:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.
March 16 to May 4

This workshop is open to writers who have already taken a writing workshop or published at least one short piece of prose fiction or non-fiction.

Limited to 12 participants

Narrative non-fiction took off in the 1960s, when writers like Tom Wolfe, Joan Didion, and Gay Talese started using the techniques of fiction writers to tell true stories. Sometimes called New Journalism, the genre exploded when fiction writers like Truman Capote and Norman Mailer switched over to non-fiction, attaining major critical and popular praise. The ever-increasing demand for non-fiction writing highlights readers’ desire to connect with stories that make sense of their surroundings.

Narrative non-fiction blends reporting, research, and storytelling. In this workshop we’ll learn about how to write scenes that are true to life. Instead of simply stating what happened, we’ll explore how to create a scene, as a screenwriter or novelist might. Your task will be to impose a narrative on reality – and make it interesting to readers. We’ll talk about the techniques behind writing about your own experience, and about documenting other people’s lives. We’ll discuss what constitutes non-fiction – and what doesn’t. We’ll speak about how to get access to places off-limits to most civilians, how to approach interesting characters, and how to interview them. We’ll also speak about mining rich veins of source material from dusty old books, or weird scientific studies, or unusual academic treatises.

Each of you will be asked to present one piece of writing to the group, which will be workshopped by the group. (Participants will read and discuss each other’s writing.) I will also hand out some examples of narrative non-fiction to illustrate what it is we’re speaking about. These will also inform and inspire your own work in the workshop. No advance work is required for the workshop, but do have an idea of what you’d like to work on in our time together. In our second session, we’ll be discussing what each student plans on workshopping.

Adam Leith Gollner is the author of The Book of Immortality, The Fruit Hunters, and Working in the Bathtub: Conversations with the Immortal Dany Laferrière. The former editor of Vice Magazine, his writing has appeared in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, The Paris Review, Travel + Leisure, and The New Yorker online.

Fempocalypse 2022 Neo-Stalgia: Imagining Better Futures Together
2022-03-31 - 2022-04-08 | Digital
The Nightwood Innovators are producing a week-long digital cabaret-style show, virtual art gallery, and silent auction, with all proceeds donated to Water First, exclusively working with Indigenous communities. Different artists’ work explores how they are dreaming of the past and envisioning new futures.

SpeakUp: The Body and its Discontents
2022-03-31 19:00 - 21:00 | Online – Please RSVP to receive a Zoom link
SpeakUp: The Body and its Discontents
The Montreal Inter-Active Poetry Exchange
Poets: Lauren Turner, Willow Loveday Little, Alana Dunlop
A POETRY READING WITH A DIFFERENCE: AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT
Each audience member receives a copy of the poems by email. The poems are also displayed on screen.
Poet reads their poem, followed by 15 to 20-minute discussion.
Poet reads their poem a final time.
FREE EVENT online via Zoom
Visit our Facebook page for more details.
Contact us to register and receive the Zoom link: MTLSpeakUp@gmail.com

Springboards 2022
2022-04-01 19:00 - 2022-04-02 14:30 | Online via Zoom
This year’s conference will take place on Zoom on April 1st and 2nd and will have the theme, Creative Conversations: Connecting Teachers With Local Writers, Poets and Storytellers.
This year’s conference is all about connecting teachers to local authors. Here are the sessions scheduled for Springboards 2022 (full session descriptions in the program):
Keynote Address
Poetry, Life & Purpose – Connecting the Dots with Jason Selman and Deanna Smith
Deanna Smith & Jason Selman are teaching artists, poets, writers, and spoken word artists. They are also a married couple who work together, on occasion. In their presentation, they will perform their work, showing how it connects to both process and pedagogy. They will examine their individual approaches to teaching poetry, how they differ from one another and where they intersect. They will address the purpose of their work beyond poetry and their life journeys into becoming artists.
Elementary:
Connecting Text and Image in the Elementary ELA Classroom with Matthew Forsythe. Matthew’s presentation will focus on writing and illustrating picture books and the energies involved and on the connections between image, text, page turns, character and colour.
Fania’s Heart: Writing About the Holocaust for Young Readers with Anne Renaud. For Anne’s presentation, participants will be introduced to the pedagogical tools developed by the Montreal Holocaust Museum for elementary level students relating to the Heart of Auschwitz artefact, as well activities to do with students, depending on their grade level, which correlate with Anne’s books, Fania’s Heart, and the teaching of the Holocaust.
Reader Come Home: Our Book Club with Barbara Kurtzman, Mary Stewart and Elizabeth Walcot. Barbara, Mary and Elizabeth will speak about their involvement in an educator’s book club and the enrichment and mutual support that teachers can draw from such an experience.
Indigenous Historical Fiction Novel Study with Nadine Neema. Nadine will speak about her historical fiction youth novel Journal of a Travelling Girl aimed at 9-12 year olds. She will explain how teachers are already using the book as a novel study in several schools, and show what the teacher’s guide contains. Nadine’s book is a coming of age story of a young girl who goes on the annual Tłįchǫ canoe trip retracing the trails of their ancestors on their way to the celebrations for the effective date of the Tłįchǫ Agreement.
Rainbow Story Hour with Melissa-Ann Pereira Ledo, HercuSleaze and Uma Gahd. Melissa, HercuSleaze and Uma Gahd will discuss Montreal’s Rainbow Story Hour, which began as a study that followed elementary teachers’ creation and implementation of an age-appropriate arts curriculum focused on Queering Curriculum. Their presentation will focus on: practices that ensure a safer environment for 2SLGBTQ+ students in the classroom; how teachers can best practice allyship; the ways in which children’s literature can be used to create more intersectionality and inclusive classrooms; and the importance of live interactions with a community member!
Secondary:
Using the novel Zee to Explore Empathy, Difference, and Finding your Own Path in Life with Su J Sokol. Su’s presentation will show how her novel, Zee, can be used in the classroom to discuss empathy, both its power and its limitations; non-traditional and chosen family; issues related to gender, sexuality, and racialization; and resisting social and peer pressure to conform. The presentation will also address, with examples from the book, the use of literary tools such as point-of-view and “breaking the fourth wall” to help underline certain thematics, and speculative fiction as a fun and interesting way to talk about serious issues.
Teaching Teenagers About Poetry with Sarah Venart. Sarah will discuss teaching and writing poetry and share writing exercises she uses in her own classroom. She will share a writing exercise she has created called, “To My Fallen Soldier” and another based on an essay titled: “Teenagers are not Exempt from Poetry” by Kara Jackson. Sarah will also read from her book of poetry I AM THE BIG HEART.
Exploring Digital Reading Tools with Emily Mannard, Selma Hammad, Nicole Waldie and Josh Cross. Emily, Selma, Nicole and Josh will share final projects completed in McGill University’s EDES 461 Teaching Secondary English 2 course, which consist of teaching guides centered upon critical, activist approaches to digital new media texts like videogames, podcasts, online fanfiction, and coding.
Those Who Can Do, Teach with Dani Jensen. In this presentation, YA author and high school English teacher Dani Jansen will prove the old adage “those who can’t do, teach” is absolutely wrong. Teachers will have the opportunity to reflect on how their own reading and writing practices can help shape their teaching.
Speak Up! with Anne Beamish and Maria Raskin. With spoken word, students get the chance to fall in love with poetry and develop their sense of identity through the words they themselves write. Consultants Anne Beamish and Maria Raskin share the history of the Speak Up EMSB, an annual spoken word poetry competition.
Springboards is our annual, flagship conference held in the spring and so-named because the ideas shared are a springboard to either end-of-year planning, or beginning of next year creativity. A grass-roots conference, with an over 40-year tradition, it is held by teachers for teachers. Presenters are practicing teachers sharing what works for them, what has confounded them, and how they have attempted to solve some of the daily challenges of life as an ELA teacher. It is an opportunity to share best practices with each other in an informal, supportive setting. Join the conversation!

Celebration! Black Montreal Writers & Writing / Des écrivains et l'écriture Noirs de Montréal
2022-04-13 18:00 - 21:00 | Afromusée, 533 rue Ontario, Montreal, QC, H2L 1N8, Canada
LLP is proud to relaunch Mairuth Sarsfield’s 1993 novel No Crystal Stair—and the first French translation of this monumental work, En bas de la côte. We’re delighted to work in partnership with the Black Community Resource Centre (BCRC).
We’re also proud to launch our stunning online magazine, Font (fontmag.ca) and the Young Black Writers featured in the inaugural issue!
Join us at the spectacular AFROMUSÉE for special guests, readings, music and just a chance to vibe together.
—
LLP-LLÉ vous invite cordialement à une soirée pour rendre hommage à l’écrivaine montréalaise Mairuth Sarsfield, CQ (1925-2013) et à de jeunes autrices et auteurs noirs d’ici. À cette occasion, LLP-LLÉ lancera la réédition du roman No Crystal Stair de Mairuth paru en 1993 ainsi que sa première traduction en français, En bas de la côte.
LLP présentera également le premier numéro de Font (fontmag.ca), son magazine en ligne, qui donne la parole à de jeunes auteurs et autrices de la communauté noire. Il a été réalisé avec la précieuse collaboration du Black Community Resource Centre (BCRC).
