Quebec Writers' Federation

Argo Zoom Reading Series: Verse, Prose & Song
2021-08-05 19:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | Online – Please RSVP to receive a Zoom link
Argo Zoom Reading Series: Verse, Prose & Song
Thursday August 5, 2021 7 PM to 9 PM Free
Louise Dupré, Ilona Martonfi, Mike Di Sclafani,
Jocelyne Dubois, Brian Campbell,
Clayton Bailey, Maria Caltabiano, Kate Lavut

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
*email events@argobookshop.ca for the Zoom link
Facebook link:
fb.me/e/1LmdTrcv8

Virtual Shut Up & Write! With QWF
2021-08-07 10:00 - 12:30, 2021-08-21 10:00 - 12:30, 2021-09-04 10:00 - 12:30 | Online – Please RSVP to receive a 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 minutes break in between.
This event is for QWF members only. Not a member? Learn about becoming a member. Please note that you have to be logged in for the registration link to show up.
Please note as well that these sessions are designed for silent writing, rather than discussing or getting feedback on work.

1000 – 1025: Writing 1
1025 – 1030: Break
1030 – 1055: Writing 2
1055 – 1100: Break
1100 – 1125: Writing 3
1125 – 1130: Break
1130 – 1155: Writing 4
1155 – 1200: Break
1200 -1225: Writing 5

Disability Series #3: QWF Poetry and Prose Showcase
2021-08-12 19:00 - 20:30 | Online – Please RSVP to receive a Zoom link
This year, the Quebec Writers’ Federation hosted its first poetry and prose workshop specifically inviting writers who identify with the disability experience to gather. Now the workshop facilitator, some participants, and other writers from the Montreal region will share a program of poems, prose, and dramatic writing.
The event will take place over Zoom on Thursday, August 12th, at 7 PM. Everyone is welcome; the event is free and captioning will be available! Registration via Eventbrite is required.
We’re thrilled to co-host this in conjunction with the QWF, who will be recording the Zoom event and posting it later on their YouTube channel so as to make the event more accessible to those who might not attend the day of. For privacy reasons, we will ask for mics to be muted until the Q&A section, and invite you to only have cameras on if you’re comfortable with being part of the recording.
Enjoy this opportunity to hear new work by disabled writers in English from Quebec. We have works in print by some of these writers in the store already, and for anything else in print, we’ll be happy to special-order it for you! Featured authors will include (more to be confirmed):
Bára Hladík is a writer, artist and facilitator born to Czech migrants in Sinixt Territory. Her work can be found in Hamilton Arts & Letters Canadian Disability Poetics Issue, and more. Book of Mirrors (2019), her micro-chapbook of reflections on degenerative disease was selected for the Ghost City Press microchap series. She is the founding editor of Theta Wave. barahladik.com
Madelaine Caritas Longman is a writer and PhD candidate living in Tiotià:ke (Montreal). Her poetry has appeared in Room, Prism, Grain, and elsewhere. Her collection The Danger Model explores the relationships between art, identity, and chronic illness, and received the QWF’s Concordia University First Book Prize. https://madelainelongman.com/
Ambica Sharma is Montreal-based and involved in theater, dance, poetry, and broadcasting. She has presented performance poetry at multiple platforms in North America since 2015. She writes in her mother tongue Hindi, and also is writing in English and contributing to local publications. She manages and curates the Kabir Poetry Club. https://www.centrekabir.com/en/poetry-club
seeley quest is a trans disabled writer, organizer, and environmentalist, in Montreal since 2017, who led the QWF workshop. From the US, sie presented with the Sins Invalid project 2007-15. Hir script “Crooked” is in At the Intersection of Disability and Drama: A Critical Anthology of New Plays. Not on social media, find hir via email at https://questletters.substack.com.
Pamela Vaccariello is a Montreal-based writer, currently pursuing a BA in Creative Writing at Concordia University. Her poetry has been published in Dawson College’s S.P.A.C.E. magazine and Creations literary journal. Her work often explores disability and the body.
image by: funkyjunkinteriors.net

Writers Out Loud - Pride Edition
2021-08-17 18:00 - 19:30 | Online – Please RSVP to receive a Zoom link
This extraordinary group of writers who all have new work out this year sit down with host Liana Cusmano for a conversation about their literary arts practice and new books: Christopher DiRaddo’s novel The Family Way (Véhicule Press 2021), Helen Chau Bradley’s short story collection Personal Attention Roleplay (Metonymy Press, coming October 2021), and Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch’s poetry collection The Good Arabs (Metonymy Press, coming September 2021).
Helen Chau Bradley is the author of Automatic Object Lessons (House House Press, 2020) and Personal Attention Roleplay (Metonymy Press, 2021). Their essays, stories, and reviews have appeared in carte blanche, Cosmonauts Avenue, Entropy Magazine, Maisonneuve Magazine, and elsewhere. They host the Strange Futures book club, a bi-monthly discussion group that focuses on BIPOC speculative fiction, via Librairie Drawn & Quarterly.
Christopher DiRaddo
Christopher DiRaddo is the author of two novels: The Family Way and The Geography of Pluto. Since 2014, he has worked to create a space for LGBTQ literature in Montreal—producing and hosting the Violet Hour reading series and book club.
Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch is a queer Arab poet living in Tio’tia:ke, unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory. Their work has appeared in The Best Canadian Poetry 2018 anthology, GUTS, carte blanche, The Shade Journal, The New Quarterly, Arc Poetry Magazine, and elsewhere. They were longlisted for the CBC poetry prize in 2019. You can find them on Instagram and Twitter @theonlyelitareq. Their first book, knot body, was published by Metatron Press in 2020, and their upcoming book, The Good Arabs, will be published by Metonymy Press in September 2021.
Guest Host: Liana Cusmano
Writer, poet, filmmaker, and arts educator Liana Cusmano (Luca/BiCurious George) is the 2018 and 2019 Montreal Slam Champion and runner up in the 2019 Canadian Individual Poetry Slam Championship. A participant in the 2019 Spoken Word Residency Program at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, their poems and short stories have been published in anthologies and literary magazines. Liana has performed their work in English, French, and Italian, and given readings in Montreal, Lisbon, and Shanghai. They wrote the short film “La Femme Finale,” screened at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, and wrote and directed the award-winning “Matters of Great Unimportance,” screened at the 2019 Blue Metropolis Festival. Their work explores heritage, queerness, and mental health. Liana is the 2020/2021 President of the Green Party of Canada. Their first novel, Catch & Release, will be published by Guernica Editions in 2022.
Register here!

In Honour of Naim Kattan
2021-08-25 18:00 - 20:00 | 99 Chabanel W., Suite #215, 99 Chabanel W., Suite #215, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
An evening of dialogue with Pierre Nepveu (literature) and Norman Cornett (religious studies).
Followed by a relaunch of FARIDA and refreshments.
Hosted by Guernica Editions & Rosi Maria DiMeglio
25 August 2021
6 PM – 8 PM
99 Chabanel W.,
Suite #215, Montreal
Free and open to the public.
For reservations contact:
info.professornormancornett@gmail.com

Evening with an Agent
2021-09-01 20:00 - 21:00 | Online – Please RSVP to receive a Zoom link
Writeaways invites you to our premiere First Wednesday Event Evening with an Agent

Jeff Kleinman
Folio Literary Management
Wednesday, September 1, 2021
8:00-9:00 pm, Eastern Time
Zoom
How do literary agents work their magic? Join us for an open conversation with Jeff Kleinman of Folio Literary Management to discover how agents find writers and work with them to transform manuscripts into published books.
This evening is designed to be a backstage pass to help you understand what it takes to find an agent, what agents are looking for, how agents pitch books to publishers, and how to create successful relationships between writers and agents.
Bring your questions, but please leave your pitches behind.
This event is sliding scale. Pay at your own comfort level.

Baraka Books launches Maker by Jim Upton, in conversation with Elise Moser.
2021-09-08 19:00 - 20:00 | Online
Forced to forego her dream of swimming in the Olympics, Nicole Fortin finds work in a Montreal aerospace plant to support herself and her daughter. Drawn into a bitter labour conflict that stretches workplace and family ties to the breaking point, she finally comes into her own in this vivid account of industrial strife.
“Jim Upton’s page-turning novel Maker is a fast-paced look inside the anatomy of a bitter strike in Montreal’s aerospace industry. The author brilliantly captures the tensions and fears that run through the minds of every striking worker and the enormous pressure loaded onto the shoulders of every bargaining committee member. An excellent read!” Sid Ryan, Former President of the Ontario Federation of Labour
To register please write to Blossom Thom at liteventrsvp@gmail.com.

Argo Zoom Reading Series: Verse, Prose & Song
2021-09-09 19:00 - 21:00 | Online – Please RSVP
Argo Zoom Reading Series: Verse, Prose & Song
Kelly Norah Drukker, Ilona Martonfi, Harry Rajchgot, Kasia Van Schaik, Lp Camozzi, Michael Foy, Sarah Burgoyne, Jerome Ramcharitar
Thursday September 9, 2021 7 PM to 9 PM Free
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
email events@argobookshop.ca for the Zoom link
Facebook event: Fb.me/e/4pCc4Nfhu

Weekend Writeaway at Home
2021-09-10 08:00 - 2021-09-12 17:00 | Online via Zoom
The weekend-long workshop has all the elements of a typical Writeaway, combined with a few twists to bring the liveliness of an in-person Writeaway to Zoom. The weekend includes writing time, workshops, exercises to inspire you, craft discussions, brainstorming, consultations, readings and optional cocktails and meals (with drink and dinner recipes from Italy, France and New Mexico sent to you in advance!) Design the schedule that fits you best. Want opportunities to talk with smart people about the craft of writing? You’ve got it. Need feedback–or just more time to hunker down and write? It’s yours.
Participation limited to eight.

Writing with the River
2021-09-11 09:00 - 11:00, 2021-09-18 09:00 - 11:00, 2021-09-25 09:00 - 11:00, 2021-10-02 09:00 - 11:00 | St. Lawrence River in Verdun, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Open to all who can comfortably walk on uneven ground.

Limited to 8 participants.

A small group of writers will walk the Verdun shore of the St. Lawrence River, known as Kaniatarowanénhne in the language of the Kanien’keha:ka, with time to sit and write outside.

The physical and mental work of walking stimulates creativity. Participants will be guided in focusing observing eyes and imaginations, surrounded by the growing and living things of the season—grasses, trees, herons, snails, red-winged blackbirds. With sessions spread over a month, we will attend to changes in the air, water, plants and animals, and the quality of light.

Participants will choose spots along the river where they can observe, contemplate, and write as they are moved to do, singly or in small groups. You do not have to do “nature writing,” although you can—bring a work in progress, any genre, or start something new by the water. Writing prompts and exercises will be available for those who like a little kickstart.

We will consider issues of craft and writing practice. A few short readings will be offered; you will have the opportunity to share work for feedback.

Sturdy shoes (there may be mud) and layered clothing that can get dirty are required. Sunhat and/or sunglasses, water, and your preferred writing tools (laptops not ideal) will make the workshop safer, more enjoyable, and more productive. If masks are recommended by public health authorities, participants will be required to wear them except when sitting or walking alone.

A Special Story Time: Gillian Sze & Michelle Lee present "My Love for You is Always"
2021-09-11 14:00 - 15:00 | Online
Vroman’s Live presents a special story time with Gillian Sze & Michelle Lee presenting My Love for You is Always.
Registration is free!

Baraka Books Launches "Waswanipi" by Jean-Yves Soucy (Reading by Romeo Saganash)
2021-09-15 19:00 - 21:00 | Online – Please RSVP
Join Romeo Saganash for a reading from Waswanipi followed by a question-and-answer session.
It’s 1963, Jean-Yves Soucy is 18 and dreams of being a fire warden scanning the boreal forest from a fire tower. But he ends up at an equipment depot between Val-d’Or and Chibougamau. To his delight, he is located near the Cree community of Waswanipi. With two Cree guides, including a man named William Saganash, he will be canoeing through the lakes and rivers of the region.
On each encounter with the Crees, Jean-Yves expects to see a new world. Instead, he meets a different civilization, as different from his own as Chinese civilization. Yet he knows nothing about it.
He wrote Waswanipi because Romeo Saganash, son of William, insisted: “You have to write that, Jean-Yves. About your relationship with my father and the others, how you saw the village. You got to see the end of an era.”
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Please R.S.V.P. at liteventrsvp@gmail.com

QC Fiction Launches "To See Out the Night," Written by David Clerson & Translated by Katia Grubisic
2021-09-22 19:00 - 21:00 | Online – Please RSVP
Join author David Clerson and translator Katia Grubisic as they discuss “To See Out the Night” followed by a reading.
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In these 12 short stories, scurrying insects and luminous jellyfish reveal a predatory world of childhood fairy tales, lurking shadows, and unrelenting fevers. . . .Throughout, Clerson draws—and blurs—the lines between man and beast, life and death, as characters strive to see out the night.
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Please R.S.V.P. at liteventrsvp@gmail.com

Book Launch: Hope and Resilience in the Time of Covid
2021-09-25 14:00 - 16:00 | Online via Zoom
We are pleased to announce the launch of “Hope and Resilience in the Time of Covid,” an anthology of community writing and artistry, with submissions from adults and children across the world. The launch is scheduled for Saturday, September 25th, 2:00-4:00 PM, an electronic session to be presented on Zoom.
The book is a collection of more than 160 contributions in a variety of media, incorporating short stories, memoirs, haiku, poetry, photos, drawings, and paintings. “Hope and Resilience” is edited by Rebecca Welton with support from an editorial board of writers from the Eastern Townships. Contributors comprise Quebec creatives supplemented by writing and art from other provinces and several foreign countries.
This book is a production of the Write Here, Write Now! project, originally launched with the support of the federal government’s Canadian Heritage programme and now under the sponsorship of Bishop’s University Lifelong Learning Academy (BULLA).

APP Online - Jordan Abel & David Bradford
2021-09-28 20:00 - 21:00 | Crowdcast
APP Online with Jordan Abel & David Bradford
Tuesday, September 28, 2021
8 – 9pm (ET)
Crowdcast link: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/app-online-jordanabel-davidbradford
APP Online is back! For the opening event of our Fall/Winter season, Atwater Poetry Project Online is delighted to present JORDAN ABEL (Un/inhabited, Injun – winner of the 2017 Griffin Poetry Prize) and DAVID BRADFORD (Nell Zink is Damn Free). Join us on Crowdcast for reading and discussion of their latest works, NISHGA and Dream of No One But Myself. Hosted by Rachel McCrum.

Baraka Books Launches Bigotry on Broadway, An Anthology Edited by Ishmael Reed and Carla Blanc
2021-09-29 19:00 - 21:00 | Online – Please RSVP to receive a Zoom link
Join Ishmael Reed, Carla Blank, and contributors to Bigotry on Broadway for a panel discussion.
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Please R.S.V.P. at LitEventRSVP@gmail.com
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How do intellectuals and scholars feel about how members of their ethnic groups are portrayed on Broadway? How would we know? Very few of them have the power to rate which plays and musicals are worthy and which are flops, and above all, be heard or read. The American critical fraternity is an exclusive club.
In this hard-hitting anthology, Ishmael Reed and Carla Blank have invited a diverse group of informed and accomplishes writers, both women and men, who are rarely heard to comment on the long-standing bigotry on Broadway towards many different ethnic minorities.
Contributors include Lonely Christopher, Tommy Curry, Jack Foley, Emil Guillermo, Claire J. Harris, Yuri Kageyama, Soraya McDonald, Nancy Mercado, Aimee Phan, Betsy Theobald Richards, Shawn Wong, David Yearsley, and the editors.
Under review are Madame Butterfly, the Irving Berlin songbook, Oklahoma, South Pacific, Miss Saigon, Flower Drum Song, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, The Color Purple, The Book of Mormon, West Side Story and Hamilton.

Volume 4 MTL Art Book Fair
2021-10-02 12:00 - 18:00, 2021-10-03 12:00 - 18:00 | 1201 Saint-Laurent, 1201 Saint-Laurent, Montreal, Quebec, H2X 2S6, Canada
Volume 4 MTL : Art and the Book
VOLUME 4 MTL: Art and the Book, Montreal’s art publishing conference and art book fair, is coming back September 29 to October 3 both live and through the web!
There will be a physical fair at the Société des Arts Technologiques (SAT), 1201 Saint-Laurent Blvd., on Saturday, October 2 and Sunday, October 3, free to the public from noon to 6 pm, with exhibitors and attendees respecting all safety measures in effect.
The very boundaries of what a book can be will be explored in this edition of Volume focusing on the potential of new technologies such as AI, Augmented Reality (AR) and electronic publishing on books by and about artists.
Among the artists participating in the programming are Walter Scott, Moyra Davey, Ken Lum, Annie Descôteaux, Harry Dodge, Sky Goodden, Dana Michel, Michael Nardone, Maryse Larivière, Tanya Lukin Linklater, Milutin Gubash, Daniella Sanader, Fabiola Carranza and Amy Ching-Yan Lam to name but a few ! You can also expect presentations of books and works using Augemented Reality, an overview of the Mutations: The Book in the Digital Age project by TOPO ( Centre de création numérique ), as well as more programming in person and through web streaming during Art Book Month in October 2021.
Volume MTL is an ARCMTL project, produced in partnership with the SAT and TOPO and made possible in part thanks to the support of SODEC, the Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseil des arts de Montréal.

Nuts and Bolts of Self-Editing for Writers
2021-10-03 09:00 - 11:00 | Online via Zoom
Producing crisp, error-free prose presents a polished image and helps you stand out in a crowd of writers. If you have a great editor, they’ll appreciate a clean draft. And if you’re working without a net, editing yourself is crucial. We’ll talk tips and tricks, whether you’re writing for a publication, submitting a manuscript, or re-reading your own words before you hit post.

The goal of this workshop is to give you tools to become a better editor for your own work. We’ll see how to spot glitches, what to question, and where to find answers. We’ll cover typos, grammar, and usage. We’ll talk common pitfalls and frequent flubs. Toward the end of the workshop, we’ll put into practice a bit of what we’ve learned: I’ll provide a few brief writing samples and we’ll tackle the editing, addressing questions as they arise.

Daniel Shumski is a Montreal-based writer and editor. He has worked as a copy editor at the Chicago Sun-Times and as a digital news editor at the Chicago Tribune. His food and travel writing has brought readers ramen in Tokyo, pizza in Chicago, and ice cream in Buenos Aires. As a cookbook author, he has sold more than 400,000 copies in Canada and the United States. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Northwestern University.

www.danielshumski.com

Poetry: An Act of Mischief
2021-10-05 18:00 - 20:00 | Online via Zoom
Open to all
Limited to 12 participants

American poet Theodore Roethke (1908-1963) once called poetry ‘an act of mischief.’ In this online, hands-on workshop participants will be encouraged to ‘play’ outside the boxes they habitually construct for themselves, to venture into dubious territory, to be mischievous. Sessions will be tailored to meet the needs and interests of the group, with writing triggers designed to coax out your dormant little ‘gems.’ Some of the topics we will explore include imagery, line breaks, and poetic language. What makes a good poem? What are some practical ways of incorporating this knowledge into your own writing? Roughly half of each class will be devoted to theoretical concerns and/or writing exercises; the second half, to workshopping the pieces produced in class and tweaked at home. No texts are specifically required, but you are strongly encouraged to read poetry and/or essays on poetics outside class time and share materials that might be of interest to the group. Beginning, emerging, and intermediate poets welcome.
Carolyn Marie Souaid is the author of eight poetry books and an award-winning novel. She has performed at festivals and literary events in Canada and abroad, and her work has been featured on CBC Radio and in a variety of national and international publications. Her controversial videopoem, Blood is Blood, won a top prize at the 2012 Zebra International Poetry Film Festival in Berlin. Other books have been shortlisted for the Pat Lowther Memorial Award and the QWF’s A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry. Carolyn has been guest faculty in creative writing at Bishop’s University and has led several previous QWF workshops.

Suspended Meaning: Making Filmpoems
2021-10-05 20:00 - 22:00 | Online via Zoom
Open to all
Limited to 12 participants

What happens when image and sound and poetry collide? The experience of a filmpoem is suspended somewhere between what is seen, what is heard, and what is ‘read.’ Learn how to create your own filmpoems with Rachel McCrum, from conception to writing to filming to editing to production.

This 8-week workshop is suitable for both beginners and those with some experience in writing poetry and/or making films. Support will be tailored to whatever participants already have access to, and to their needs.

We’ll set the foundation by introducing the basics of filming, video-editing, soundtracks, post-production, and writing poems suitable for short films. Along the way, we will explore and discuss examples of filmpoems, from the Surrealist experiments of the 1920s to videopoetry of the 1980s, to performance, animation, and digital art in the 1990s and 2000s. By the end of the workshops, each participant will have their own original DIY, guerilla-style filmpoem to showcase.

Over the workshop, we will cover

Introduction to the genre, exploring how filmpoetry has evolved since the start of the 20th century, and how to break down elements of text, image and sound.
Critiques to explore how each element influences our perceptions of the finished piece, including pacing, framing etc.
Exploring the types of poems that make good filmpoems (and those that do not).
Developing your own visual language.
Writing original poems.
Use of archival footage and sound (including rights).
Introduction to various editing suites.
Editing techniques and post-production work.
Sound effects and soundtracks; use of music.
Finishing a film.

Equipment requirements: There is no need for expensive technology or software, although those with access to more sophisticated equipment are welcome to use it. The basic requirements will be a digital camera or cameraphone (a basic cameraphone is enough); a PC or Mac computer with basic editing software installed, and a good Wifi connection. We will use WeTransfer and Google Drive to share documents, resources, and large video files. There will be some homework set between sessions (no more than 2 hours per week).

If you are curious about the genre ahead of signing up for the website, you could check out https://movingpoems.com/ and http://motionpoems.org/ for examples.
Rachel McCrum is a poet, performer, event organizer, and workshop facilitator. Originally from Northern Ireland, between 2010 and 2016 she lived in Edinburgh, Scotland, where she was the first BBC Scotland Poet in Residence and recipient of a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship. Her debut collection The First Blast to Awaken Women Degenerate was published in a bilingual edition with Mémoire d’encrier in Fall 2020. She has produced filmpoems in Scotland, Ireland, and Canada, and coordinated the international collaborative projects ‘cinepoems Quebec-UK’ (2016) and ‘Moving Pictures and Borders’ (2017) – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkKtEfsozu9cZELX6QO8KCQ

Life Writing: An Introductory Memoir Workshop
2021-10-06 18:00 - 20:00 | Online via Zoom
Open to all
Limited to 12 participants

“Part of the art of memoir is seeing and recognizing the story itself. Life is messy. Art gathers up the chaos and gives it form.” Dani Shapiro.

Our lives are filled with stories—experiences of joy, heartbreak, or transformative change. If you’ve always wanted to write down true stories from your life, here’s a place to begin. Whether you’re writing family tales for the next generation or describing life-changing moments for a wider audience, this workshop will help you find your voice and polish your prose.
Building a writer’s toolbox of basic narrative techniques helps shape personal episodes into stories that engage readers. Sessions will include discussion of short readings and tips for getting stories from your head and heart onto the page. Each week, two or three participants will be asked to email their drafts of a life-based story for peer feedback the following session. You will learn how to offer supportive feedback to your fellow writers in accordance with workshop guidelines. The workshop leader will provide written comments on submissions to help writers lift their first drafts to the next level.

Karen Zey’s creative nonfiction stories, personal essays and craft articles have been widely published in literary magazines. Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net, and featured in Getting to the Truth: The Craft and Practice of Creative Nonfiction (Hippocampus Books, 2021). Karen has led writing workshops and hosted literary events at her local West Island library. She belongs to a monthly writing group whose members first met in 2013 at a QWF workshop. Karen believes that emergent writers thrive by finding community in which they can explore craft and share writerly talk.
Visit: www.karenzey.com
(Twitter @zippyzey) http://twitter.com/zippyzey

Baraka Books Launches Montreal and the Bomb
2021-10-06 19:00 - 21:00 | Online – Please RSVP to receive a Zoom link
Join Gilles Sabourin who will discuss the inside story of secret nuclear research in Montreal during WWII.
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Please R.S.V.P. at liteventrsvp@gmail.com
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WINNER OF THE HUBERT REEVES 2021 AWARD FOR SCIENCE COMMUNICATORS
It’s a story peopled by leading figures of modern nuclear physics, bold chemists, and scientists accused of spying. The one idea driving them is to master the atom, whatever the result may be.
With war raging in Europe, the Allies worried about advances being made by Germans scientists. The British wanted to get a jump ahead of Hitler and the physicists working for the Third Reich. England was too close to the enemy, so they decided to secretly establish a nuclear research laboratory in Montreal. The best scientists moved to Montreal with two goals in mind: develop an ultra-powerful bomb and find a new source of energy. What started as cooperation with the Americans instead became a race to harness the energy of the atom when Washington launched the Manhattan project.
Montreal and the Bomb breathes new life into the exhilarating saga of European scientists secretly developing a strategic nuclear laboratory in the halls of the Université de Montréal. It’s a story peopled by leading figures of modern physics, bold chemists, and scientists accused of spying. The one idea driving them is to master the atom, whatever the result may be.

Story Technique – A Hands-on Investigation
2021-10-06 20:00 - 22:00 | Online via Zoom
Open to all
Limited to 12 participants

“The only way … to learn to write short stories is to write them, and then to try to discover what you have done.” Flannery O’Connor

This eight-week workshop will investigate the short story form. Using five truly great realist and speculative short stories as reference, we’ll do a quick review of the basic building blocks of story-writing: things like detail, narrative point of view, and elements of time and place. Then we’ll investigate technical innovations with an eye to attempting something new in our own fiction. Workshop time will be split between discussing technique in published models, and reading and discussing our own stories.

As soon as you have registered for this workshop, please submit a single WORD document containing the following information to workshops@qwf.org with the subject line “For Claire Rothman”:

A short paragraph about yourself.
A sentence about what you hope to get from this workshop.

Story Technique will be taught online on Zoom. You’ll need a computer and a decent online connection. We will keep things interactive, with participants pairing up in break-out rooms for one-on-one exchanges, and also giving short presentations to the group.

You will receive links to the five stories we’ll be using as models. Reading them before our start date is strongly recommended.

Claire Holden Rothman is a Montreal writer, translator, and fiction editor, whose third novel, Lear’s Shadow (2018) won the 2019 Vine Award for Jewish Canadian Fiction and was short-listed for the 2020 Jacob Isaac Segal Award. Other novels include My October (2014), shortlisted for a Governor General’s Award and nominated for a Scotiabank Giller prize, and The Heart Specialist (2009), also nominated for the Giller. She has taught fiction workshops at McGill and Bishop’s Universities. For many years, she taught English literature and creative writing at Marianopolis College in Montreal.

www.claireholdenrothman.com

Teen Spirit: Writing YA
2021-10-07 18:00 - 20:00 | Online via Zoom
Young adult fiction is a genre that has exploded in popularity in the last few decades, but it is a genre that is often hard to define. Many people want to write stories about adolescence, with teenaged protagonists. Does that automatically make the work YA? What exactly is YA? That is one of the questions we will seek to answer in this workshop as we look at the genre and talk about what makes it great. YA is exciting, explorative, and highly creative, allowing writers to experiment with novel structure and narrative voice. It is also challenging, in that the story must be engaging to young readers and speak to them in a way that is never condescending or pedantic. The writer must do all this with plots that are fast-paced and original, and with characters that are believable and never clichéd.
In this workshop, we will look at the components of the YA novel, including character, voice, plot, structure, setting, dialogue and figurative language. We will also discuss how to generate ideas, the writing and editing process, marketing and working with editors. Participants will learn how to deal appropriately with sensitive topics such as sex, violence and profanity. We will explore various forms of the YA novel, such as traditional narrative, journal form and the verse novel. We will also talk about different sub-genres, such as fantasy, historical, mystery, reluctant reader, and others. We will use John Truby’s book, The Anatomy of Story, as a support and guide to the process of storytelling. It is recommended that participants purchase this book.
Participants will have the opportunity to workshop their own writing on a designated night by sharing up to 20 double-spaced pages with the group. Fellow participants will read the work in advance and offer critiques in a supportive round table forum. Writers can then ask questions on their work and gain valuable advice for revision.
The schedule below shows the main topic of each session. Writing exercises, examples taken from published works, and discussion will be also part of each session.
Week 1: Introductory session Participants will introduce themselves and their work; they can also share their expectations for the workshop. Lori will introduce herself and her work to the group and provide an overview of the units that will be covered during the upcoming sessions. We will also lay out the workshopping schedule.
Week 2: Plot, structure, pacing.
Week 3: Character and voice.
Week 4: Setting, symbolism and figurative language.
Week 5: Dialogue.
Week 6: Publishing, submissions, expectations etc.
Week 7: Workshopping.
Week 8: Workshopping. Wrapping up loose ends, final questions.
Lori Weber is a native Montrealer who has written eight young adult novels, including Deep Girls and Yellow Mini; a middle grade novel called Lightning Lou; and one picture book, My Granny Loves Hockey. A ninth young adult novel, The Ribbon Leaf, is forthcoming with Red Deer Press in 2022. She has also published poetry, short fiction, and essays in various Canadian journals. She taught English Literature and Creative Writing at John Abbott College for twenty-six years, and has been a QWF mentor five times, as well as workshop leader several times. She lives in Dorval, Quebec.
