Quebec Writers' Federation

Volume 4 MTL Art Book Fair
2021-10-02 12:00 - 18:00 (America/New_York) | 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.

Writing with the River
2021-10-02 09:00 - 11:00, 2021-09-25 09:00 - 11:00, 2021-09-18 09:00 - 11:00, 2021-09-11 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.

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.
***
Please R.S.V.P. at LitEventRSVP@gmail.com
***
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.

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.

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).

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.
***
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.
***
Please R.S.V.P. at liteventrsvp@gmail.com

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.”
***
Please R.S.V.P. at liteventrsvp@gmail.com

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!

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.

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

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.

Virtual Shut Up & Write! With QWF
2021-09-04 10:00 - 12:30, 2021-08-21 10:00 - 12:30, 2021-08-07 10:00 - 12:30, 2021-07-24 10:00 - 12:30, 2021-07-10 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

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.

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

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!

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

Argo Zoom Reading Series: Verse, Prose & Song
2021-08-05 19:00 - 21:00 | 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

"Lunch and Learn" with Fabled Films Press
2021-07-20 12:00 - 13:30 | Online – Please RSVP to receive a Zoom link
Fabled Films/Fabled Films Press is a children’s publisher based in New York City with offices in Montreal. Fabled is currently soliciting writers and editors for its reimagined Classics Collection, where BIPOC/#ownvoices writers of communities marginalized by race, gender, orientation, and disability reimagine works from the Victorian canon as contemporary, middle-grade fiction. An example from this collection is Pippa Park Raises Her Game, based on Dickens’ Great Expectations by first-time author Erin Yun.
Please join author and Fabled Films creative director Tracey Hecht for a discussion and Q&A of this opportunity as well as upcoming projects for the press. All attendees will be invited to submit applications for review and consideration.
RSVP below. Zoom details will be sent out a day before the event.

Writers Out Loud: Playwrights on Palestine/Israel II
2021-07-11 18:00 - 19:30 | Online – Please RSVP to receive a Zoom link
A Conversation between Arthur Milner and Ehab Lotayef
Two extraordinary writers sit down together to converse on the situation in Palestine and Israel as it connects to their arts practice and activism. This is the second in a series of online events in 2021 exploring Palestine and Israel through the eyes and work of writers.
Presented by the Quebec Writers’ Federation.
REGISTER HERE.
Arthur Milner
Arthur Milner is a playwright and theatre director. His most recent play is Getting to Room Temperature, “a hard-hitting, sentimental and funny one-person play about death.” Facts, a murder mystery set in the West Bank, premiered in Ottawa in 2010 and, in 2013, toured ten cities in Palestine and Israel in Arabic translation. Facts has also been produced in London, the U.K., and Istanbul (in Turkish). Arthur was Artistic Director of Ottawa’s Great Canadian Theatre Company and has worked as a dramaturge across Canada. He writes on politics and culture for inroadsjournal.ca and has taught theatre at Concordia and Carleton universities, University of Ottawa, University of Calgary and, soon, the University of Regina. He now lives in Regina where his wife, Jennifer Brewin, is Artistic Director of Globe Theatre and where he and Rania Al-Harthi recently read the poems of Mahmoud Darwish for the Globe’s Art Out Loud Festival.
Ehab Lotayef
Ehab Lotayef is a Canadian IT Manager, poet, writer, and community activist of Egyptian origin. He has published a bilingual poetry collection, To Love a Palestinian Woman (TSAR 2010), and the CBC produced his play Crossing Gibraltar in 2006. His writings also appear in many anthologies and zines, and he has written numerous Op Eds on various subjects for various Canadian papers over the years.
Ehab is deeply involved in social and community work, including campaigns against the sanctions and war on Iraq, opposing the blockade of Gaza, and advocating for Native Rights. Over the years he has served on the boards of the Egyptian Canadian Coalition for Democracy, the Muslim Council of Montreal, Muslim Schools of Montreal, the Canadian Arab Federation, Fair Vote Canada, and Teesri Duniya Theatre, as well as on the Board of Governors of McGill University. He is currently on the boards of Montreal City Mission and QWF.

Argo Zoom Reading Series: Verse, Prose & Song
2021-07-08 19:00 - 21:00 | Online – Please RSVP
Argo Zoom Reading Series: Verse, Prose & Song
Thursday July 8, 2021 7 PM to 9 PM Free
James Dunnigan, Susan Elmslie, Ariela Freedman, Ilona Martonfi, Drea Lake, Barry Webster, Tamara Nazywalskyj, Sivan Slapak
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/4pzbOo3g9

Spark: A Generative Workshop
2021-07-04 14:00 - 16:00 | Online via Zoom
This generative workshop will provide sparks to ignite new projects and constructive feedback to shape your writing past the first draft stage. If this year has been one of repose and stillness the intention with this workshop is to ignite the dark; discover new connections and try exercises designed to improve your prose. We will read, write and share (if you choose to) in the first session and the second will be devoted to giving feedback. Participants are encouraged to take some time to edit their drafts between sessions and to be prepared to give feedback to their peers. If you’ve been stuck in a rut or simply need to come to a writing space with intention where you can connect to other writers; this workshop is for you. Robert Frost said “writing a poem is discovering,” with a series of exercises that celebrate the unexpected and play with language we will engage and create together. All levels welcome as we will all be working with fresh, first drafts generated during the workshop.

Writers Out Loud: Playwrights on Palestine/Israel
2021-06-28 18:00 - 19:30 | Online – Please RSVP to receive a Zoom link
Join us on Monday, June 28 at 6 p.m. EDT for the first in a series of Writers Out Loud digital events exploring Palestine and Israel.
Playwrights Rimah Jabr, Stephen Orlov, and Samah Sabawi sit down with guest host Zachary Couture for a conversation about their arts practice and its connection to the situation in Israel and Palestine. This is the first in a series of two online events in 2021 exploring Israel and Palestine through the eyes and work of writers.
Click here to register for the Zoom link.

About the Writers:
Rimah Jabr is a theatre director, playwright and Ph.D. student in Theatre and Performance Studies at York University. Rimah studied theatre-making at the RITCS in Brussel. She wrote several plays that were produced in Belgium, Canada and Palestine; Including “High Heels and Stuffed Zucchini”, and ‘Raya’ for young audiences. In Toronto, she co-wrote and co-performed “Two Birds One Stone” with Natasha Greenblatt. Rimah is currently an artist in residency at The Theatre Centre in Toronto to develop “Broken Shapes” with visual artist Dareen Abbas. She made an audio drama “This is Not what I want to tell you”, wrote “Ghurba”- a play for children-, and co-writes “When you are free, I’ll be free” with Johnny Wideman. In film, she is co-writing the feature film “Deluge” with filmmaker Grace Wang. During the pandemic, Rimah made her first short film “The day I shall pray”, and she created This Gen Podcast with Why Not Theatre launched in June 2021.
Stephen Orlov is an award-winning dramatist, whose plays have been showcased in such theatre centres as London, Chicago and Montreal. He co-edited with Melbourne-based Palestinian playwright, Samah Sabawi, their award-winning Double Exposure: Plays of the Jewish and Palestinian Diasporas, the first anthology worldwide of drama, prose or poetry by Jewish and Palestinian writers. In 2018, Stephen’s play Sperm Count, was a finalist of QWF’s inaugural Drama Prize, and its sequel, Birthmark enjoyed sold-out shows during Teesri Duniya Theatre’s premiere run. In 2016, Guernica Editions published Freeze, his hit at the Centaur Theatre. Other plays include Isolated Incident, co-written with Rahul Varma, Salaam-Shalom, and Bow Ties. Stephen is now completing Engagement, Birthmark’s sequel and the third of his dual-Diaspora trilogy. Stephen has served on the executives of Playwrights Guild of Canada and Playwrights Canada Press. He leads workshops on script writing, most recently for PGC, QDF, National Arts Festival of St. Lucia, and Osher Institute at Dartmouth College.
Samah Sabawi is an author, playwright and poet. A recipient of multiple awards both nationally and internationally, Samah’s theatre credits include the critically acclaimed and award-winning plays Tales of a City by the Sea and THEM. In 2020 Samah received the prestigious Green Room Award for Best Writing in the independent theatre category and was shortlisted for both the NSW and Victorian Premiere Literary Awards. Samah co-edited along with Stephen Orlov the anthology Double Exposure: Plays of the Jewish and Palestinian Diasporas, winner of the Patrick O’Neill Award and she co-authored I Remember My Name: Poetry by Samah Sabawi, Ramzy Baroud and Jehan Bseiso, edited by Vacy Vlazna, winner of the Palestine Book Award. Samah hosts the webinar/podcast series The Book Room and has recently received a Doctor of Philosophy from Victoria University for her thesis ‘Inheriting Exile, transgenerational trauma and the Palestinian Australian Identity.

Mired 2 Moving: Getting Unstuck in Your Writing
2021-06-28 10:00 - 12:00 | Online – Please RSVP to receive a Zoom link
MONDAYs: June 14, June 21, and June 28, 2021 – 10:00 am to 12:00 noon

This workshop is limited to 25 participants.
Mired 2 Moving is a deep listening and storytelling space where everyone comes in with what they are holding and where they want to get to.
Our intention is to explore and strengthen your relationship with your writing. We work with elements of Journaling (awareness of, attention to, and honouring thought), loving kindness meditation (grounding and cultivating space within), social presencing theatre (getting unstuck), playback theatre (listening to self and other, spontaneity, creativity , improvisation) and guided visualization (symbols and the unconscious).
Come as you are, bring what you hold.
Lisa and Joliane of Montreal Living Histories will help us reflect about and play with creativity, the senses, self-care, pleasure, and creating writing together.
Joliane Allaire uses theatre techniques as pedagogical tools in education settings. For the last decade she has evolved with the Living Histories Ensemble where she explores intersections of Playback Theater, Theater for the Oppressed, Theatre for the Living, and Developmental Transformation.
Lisa Ndejuru is a psychotherapist, psychodramatist, and theatre practitioner. Her research – creation explores survival and life, stories and silence, persecution, genocide, war and dislocation through deep listening, storytelling, and play.
This workshop is FREE. It will be held on ZOOM. Space is limited. To register: awe@atwaterlibrary.ca.
This online workshop is being produced in partnership with the Quebec Writers’ Federation.
The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.
Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.
