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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230508T180000
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SUMMARY:The Art of Literary Translation
DESCRIPTION:In this workshop\, we will explore literary translation from French to English: fiction\, nonfiction\, poetry\, and songs. \n\n\n\nWe will look at contemporary literature from Quebec and France\, as well as some older (nineteenth- and twentieth-century) texts. Sources may include Gabrielle Roy\, Anne Hébert\, Annie Ernaux\, and Samuel Archibald. We will start by looking at an excerpt of a literary text in French and reading a published English translation of it. What difficulties (such as euphony\, voice\, word play\, and verb tense) did the translator face\, and how successful were they? At each meeting\, there will be time to produce your own translations\, often in groups. We will read our work aloud and comment on difficulties and strokes of inspiration. \n\n\n\nParticipants will have the opportunity to translate a further passage from the same work (or from another) as a homework assignment for the next meeting. The corrected assignments provide individual feedback and lead to discussion of the issues encountered. \n\n\n\nDuring the course of the workshop\, you’ll be asked to present a passage you have translated from a work you have chosen\, commenting on the issues it presents\, and describing ways of solving these issues. This is an ideal opportunity to begin or pursue a project you intend to submit to a publisher. Jonathan Kaplanskywon a French Voices Award to translate Nobel Prize-winning author Annie Ernaux’s La vie extérieure (Things Seen)for the University of Nebraska Press. Recent translations include Jonathan Bécotte’s Like a Hurricane (Orca\, 2023) and Hélène Rioux’s The End of the World is Elsewhere (Guernica\, 2022). He has sat on the juries for the translation category of the Governor General’s Literary Awards and the John Glassco Translation Prize and recently translated the libretto of an opera by Hélène Dorion and Marie-Claire Blais entitled Yourcenar: An Island of Passions.
URL:https://qwf.org/event/the-art-of-literary-translation-2/2023-05-08/
LOCATION:QWF Office\, 1200 Atwater Avenue\, Room 3\, Westmount\, QC\, H3Z 1X4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:QWF Workshops,Workshops
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230504T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230504T220000
DTSTAMP:20260404T211618
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SUMMARY:Biography\, Autobiography\, and Ghostwriting
DESCRIPTION:The basic tools of biography and autobiography are the same\, and this workshop will show how you can write any life in a meaningful and engaging way. \n\n\n\nThe first challenge is learning how to put lives in a larger context. This means researching the times and places the subject lived in\, then weaving their individual narratives with all of their complex personal relationships\, into the larger world. We will learn how to do this with the use of the illuminating details that bring people and places to life. \n\n\n\nWe will also look at the sub-category of ghostwriting\, where you are writing a first-person biography and\, in a sense\, become the person you are writing for\, internalizing their thoughts and feelings as you use all of the tools at your disposal to tell their story as if was your own. \n\n\n\nGhostwriting also happens to be a field where a writer can make a decent living in Canada\, and at the end of the course\, we will look at the business side and what goes into a ghostwriting contract. \n\n\n\nOne thing you soon discover in writing biographies of any kind\, including ghosting an autobiography\, is the truth of the cliché that everyone has a book in them. At least in the sense that all of our stories—following our lives along the trajectories of time and space and meeting and beating challenges—are worth telling. As a writer you discover that it is a privilege to write someone else’s life. \n\n\n\nIdeally\, you will be working on biographical or autobiographical material of your own in the class\, but this is not necessary. If you are working on a text now or if you are simply planning one for the future\, I look forward to meeting you in the spring of 2023 and exploring the writing of lives together. \n\n\n\nPeter McFarlane has written 4 nonfiction books of his own and five ghostwritten books\, as well as more than 100 newspaper and magazine features. He has specialized in Indigenous history and politics and has worked on several CBC radio programs as a researcher and on-air contributor. He is currently completing another ghostwritten book and a new work of his own nonfiction.
URL:https://qwf.org/event/biography-autobiography-and-ghostwriting/2023-05-04/
LOCATION:QWF Office\, 1200 Atwater Avenue\, Room 3\, Westmount\, QC\, H3Z 1X4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:QWF Workshops,Workshops
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230504T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230504T200000
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SUMMARY:Writing the TV Pilot
DESCRIPTION:In this eight-week workshop\, Montreal-based screenwriter Allen Markuze will give you the tools to be able to write a TV pilot. He’s going to do so by asking and helping answer the following… \n\n\n\n\nWhat is your TV series about?\n\n\n\nIs your idea sustainable?\n\n\n\nWhat happens episode to episode?\n\n\n\nWhat’s the theme of your show?\n\n\n\nWhat are some similar shows?\n\n\n\nWho are your characters?\n\n\n\nIs your pilot going to be a premise episode or an episodic episode?\n\n\n\nWhat is a three-act structure and five-act structure?\n\n\n\n\nThese intimate sessions will involve a mixture of group discussion\, critical analysis of TV pilots and shows\, and workshopping participants’ own ideas with the goal of completing their own TV pilot. Ideas will be workshopped in groups as well as one-on-one with the workshop leader and fellow participants. \n\n\n\nAllen Markuze is an award-winning screenwriter who has taken part in writers rooms and has written for a variety of live-action and animation TV shows that have aired on the likes of Netflix\, Disney\, Nickelodeon\, Hulu\, and CBC. Before embarking on a screenwriting career\, Markuze spent several years working in LA at Dan Halsted’s company\, Manage-ment\, where he helped manage a roster of writers from shows such as Mad Men and Breaking Bad\, and on feature films like Friday Night Lights and Wall Street. Prior to that\, he worked as an assistant to screenwriter Janus Cercone (Leap of Faith with Steve Martin). Markuze’s foray into the entertainment industry began as a development intern in LA at Underground Films (FX’s Snowfall) where he read countless scripts\, books\, and plays\, and eavesdropped on A LOT of conversations.
URL:https://qwf.org/event/writing-the-tv-pilot/2023-05-04/
LOCATION:QWF Office\, 1200 Atwater Avenue\, Room 3\, Westmount\, QC\, H3Z 1X4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:QWF Workshops,Workshops
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230503T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230503T220000
DTSTAMP:20260404T211618
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SUMMARY:The Ghost at the Heart of a Short Story
DESCRIPTION:A man down on his luck has moved everything he owns out onto his lawn\, and for no reason anybody can articulate\, he pawns some of it to two young passersby; in northern Ontario\, a woman whose cancer is in remission lets a teenaged boy\, half her age\, kiss her on a floating bridge—she doesn’t know why; in a hotel room in Wenatchee\, a man has a strange\, galvanizing sexual encounter with a bare-knuckle boxer\, and it leaves him more sure of himself\, or more sure of his past\, or more sure of who he might yet become. But if you asked him what had changed\, he wouldn’t be able to tell you. \n\n\n\nThere is something ineffable in every good short story\, something that cannot bepinned down\, a question—perhaps insignificant—whose answer is not merely unknown\, but unknowable\, and whose presence haunts us long after we’ve put a story down. \n\n\n\nThis workshop is a guided discussion about the plot\, characters\, point of view\, structure\, and language (the mechanics or “craft”) of participants’ short stories\, as well as an investigation of each story’s aboutness\, patterns\, emotional plot\, and central question(s)—that is\, all those hard-to-define elements that make fiction what it is. \n\n\n\nAdditionally\, the workshop aims to foster community among the attendees\, to bring together \n\n\n\nwriters of similar skill and drive\, and to encourage the kind of creative energy that crackles \n\n\n\nbetween new practitioners. \n\n\n\n Some Learning Objectives \n\n\n\n\nCritical reading\, and the ability to identify the roots of a story’s problems\, particularly with regard to dramatic structure and conflict. Conversely: the ability to identify the roots of a story’s successes\, especially when it seems intangible or difficult to pin down.\n\n\n\nClose reading\, even of your own work\, for strongest possible sentences. (They are\, after all\, the building blocks of fiction.)\n\n\n\nImmersing yourself in\, and engaging with\, literature among a cohort of people who are similarly immersed and engaged in literature; enjoying it.\n\n\n\n\nIn our first meeting\, we will establish a schedule\, review workshop etiquette\, spend some time meeting each other\, and do a few writing exercises. From then on\, each session will consist of detailed discussion and feedback of participants’ stories. The goal\, always\, is to offer the writer of each story constructive suggestions to help them improve the story and their craft. We are\, I always say\, in this together. \n\n\n\nIn preparation: Please bring a short story you’ve written of no more than 2500 words to the first session. \n\n\n\nD. W. Wilson is the author of Once You Break a Knuckle\, a collection of short stories\, and Ballistics\, a novel. His work has appeared in lit mags across the globe\, and in 2011 he won the BBC National Short Story Award for “The Dead Roads.” Since then he has been shortlisted for numerous fiction prizes\, and has won the CBC Short Story Prize and the Manchester Fiction Prize. He taught creative writing at the University of Victoria and Brandon University\, as well at literary festivals such as the London Short Story Festival and Wordfest.
URL:https://qwf.org/event/the-ghost-at-the-heart-of-a-short-story/2023-05-03/
LOCATION:QWF Office\, 1200 Atwater Avenue\, Room 3\, Westmount\, QC\, H3Z 1X4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:QWF Workshops,Workshops
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230503T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230503T200000
DTSTAMP:20260404T211618
CREATED:20230109T170626Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230109T170629Z
UID:10003274-1683136800-1683144000@qwf.org
SUMMARY:The Joys and Pitfalls of Memoir
DESCRIPTION:This workshop will explore the hazards and rewards of writing a personal memoir. Throughout the eight weeks\, we will look at ways to produce a compelling narrative out of the chaos of the past. We’ll discuss the tremendous value of research\, but we’ll also consider whether research can sometimes handicap a project. We will explore the creation of a narrative voice. And we will ask if and how a writer knows that a memoir has achieved its ideal focus and shape. \n\n\n\nEach participant will be expected to produce one or two finished (or near-finished) pieces of writing. They could be either stand-alone essays or excerpts from a longer work. I will provide a detailed response to these pieces\, and other participants in the workshop will be asked to give their feedback too. A good portion of time each week will be spent on a discussion of the work submitted by participants. Throughout the workshops\, I plan to emphasize the crucial importance not just of remembering but of rethinking and rewriting.  \n\n\n\nIn the remainder of each session\, we will examine and debate issues that memoir-writing brings to the fore. We will delve into some thorny issues that memoirs often raise: the unreliability of memory\, an author’s urge to justify\, and the sense of hurt and betrayal that a memoir may provoke in other people. I will ask the participants to read selected materials (none of them too lengthy) as a basis for discussion.   \n\n\n\n“Memoir\,” for the purposes of this workshop\, can include small-scale personal essays as well as longer\, more ambitious texts. The participants may choose to focus on a particular relationship\, place\, or time. But the pieces they submit for discussion should all be personal in nature\, and unless there are unusual reasons to the contrary\, they should make use of the first-person pronoun. Memoir can be a demanding form; it allows the author no place to hide. Yet it can be immensely rewarding to write. \n\n\n\nThe overall aim is to equip participants with more awareness\, more skills\, and more confidence in their own work.
URL:https://qwf.org/event/the-joys-and-pitfalls-of-memoir-2/2023-05-03/
LOCATION:QWF Office\, 1200 Atwater Avenue\, Room 3\, Westmount\, QC\, H3Z 1X4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:QWF Workshops,Workshops
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230502T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230502T150000
DTSTAMP:20260404T211618
CREATED:20230405T145631Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230405T195055Z
UID:10003360-1683032400-1683039600@qwf.org
SUMMARY:How to Pitch the Media
DESCRIPTION:Virtual Session: April 27\, 2-3:30pm (No registration limit)In-Person Session: May 2\, 1-3pm (Registration currently full)Free for all QWF members \n\n\n\nQWF is pleased to offer this free workshop with CBC Montreal’s Debbie Hynes\, Manager of Communications\, Marketing & Brand. \n\n\n\n“How to Pitch Your Work to CBC” will give you practical\, hands-on advice on how to get your work out to the media\, with a particular focus on CBC. You’ll learn what producers expect (and want) in a pitch\, how to market your work to media outlets\, and how to craft a pitch that sets you and your story apart.  \n\n\n\nThis workshop is offered two times: once online and once in person. The in-person workshop will be held at the CBC Montreal offices and is limited to 12 participants. The virtual workshop will be held over Zoom and does not have an attendance limit. The content of both sessions is essentially the same\, but the in-person workshop will be a bit more hands-on\, given the nature of the format. \n\n\n\nTo Register for a Virtual Spot on April 27: \n\n\n\n(1) Send an email to Riley at riley@qwf.org with the subject line “How to Pitch the Media – Virtual Registration.” Make sure that your email includes both your name and email address.  \n\n\n\n(2) A Zoom link will be sent out a few days prior to the session. \n\n\n\nTo Register for an In-Person Spot on May 2: \n\n\n\nIn-person registration is now closed. If you are interested in this workshop\, please register for a virtual spot. \n\n\n\nImportant: This workshop is free for all QWF members. QWF membership status will be checked for both virtual and in-person participants. Not yet a member? Learn about being a member here!
URL:https://qwf.org/event/how-to-pitch-the-media/2023-05-02/
LOCATION:Online – Please RSVP to receive a Zoom link
CATEGORIES:QWF Workshops,Workshops
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230430T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230430T200000
DTSTAMP:20260404T211618
CREATED:20230421T203124Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230424T142706Z
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SUMMARY:The Words & Music Show: Spring 2023
DESCRIPTION:Sunday\, April 30\, 5:00–8:00 pm\n\n\n\nThis spring edition of the Words and Music Show will feature spoken word performances by Roen Higgins\, Erin Moure\, and Lucia De Luca\, the three winners of the inaugural (2022) Spoken Word Prize awarded by the Quebec Writers Federation.  Other featured artists on the programme include poets Misha Solomon and Hannah Karpinski\, and singer-songwriter\, member of the band Bluebird\, Dan Beasy. \n\n\n\nHosted by poet\, trumpeter\, and community worker Jason “Blackbird” Selman \n\n\n\nAdmission: Free or Pay What You Can (to support future Words & Music shows) \n\n\n\nCo-produced by the Quebec Writers’ Federation\, Words & Music\, and SpokenWeb. We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for this project. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPerformers’ Bios\n\n\n\n\nDan Beasy (Beaulieu) is a singer-songwriter\, and central member of Bluebird\, a band and musical collective based in Montreal. Dan is originally from Prince George\, British Columbia\, and grew up surrounded by significantly more diesel pickups than artists and musicians. After years of trying to fit into a conservative city geared towards capitalism Dan hit the road and began a journey of inspiration and creativity. Travelling through Canada Dan landed in Dawson City\, Yukon and began writing poetry and stories to pass the time. Finding other poets and songwriters along the way encouraged Dan to keep writing and eventually to sing as well. After several years in Yukon Dan set off for Montreal and began pursuing a career as a songwriter. 2 EPs and a full album later Dan is just getting started. The music continues to be guided first and foremost by poetry and the human experience. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRoen “Blu’Rva” Higgins is an award-winning spoken word poet\, educator\, speaker\, and creative evangelist. As the founder of The Elevated Creative\, her mission is to elevate others through creative literacy and help them find their flow and tap into their genius zone. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nHannah Karpinski is a queer writer and editor living in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Lemon Hound\, Commo Magazine\, My Loves: Digital Anthology of Queer Love Poems (Ghost City Press)\, and Lesbians are Miracles\, among others. She is currently finishing her MA at Concordia University and working as the Publishing Assistant for Montreal-based independent press\, Metatron. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLucia De Luca is an English teacher and spoken word artist\, who plays with stories in the classroom and at the mic. Her poetry cradles past versions of herself\, her family\, and her Italian heritage. Lucia is a recipient of the 2022 QWF Spoken Word Prize and was a finalist at the 2021 Canadian Individual Poetry Slam. As an organizer\, she brought McGill University its first-ever slam (2020) and oversaw the Grove Campus Poetry Show (2022). Her work is published to the TEDx\, Brickyard Spoken Word\, Toronto Poetry Slam\, and Bankstown Poetry Slam YouTube channels\, as well as in online and print publications. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nErín Moure is a Montreal poet and translator from Galician\, Portuguese\, French and Spanish to English and from Galician and English to French. Her next book\, a hybrid book of texts and poems\, Theophylline: an a-poretic migration via the modernisms of Rukeyser\, Bishop\, Grimké (de Castro\, Vallejo)will appear in August 2023 from House of Anansi Press. You can find her reading new stories once in awhile on YouTube too. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMisha Solomon (he/him) is a homosexual poet in and of Tiohti:áke/Montréal. He is the author of two chapbooks\, FLORALS (above/ground press\, 2020) and Full Sentences (Turret House Press\, 2022)\, and his work has also appeared in journals including The /tƐmz/ Review\, Yolk\, andLeste Magazine\, and is forthcoming in Vallum and Plenitude. He is currently pursuing his MA at Concordia University. \n\n\n\n\nThe Host\n\n\n\n\nJason “Blackbird” Selman is a Montreal born poet\, trumpet player and community worker. He is the author The Freedom I Stole (2007\, Cumulus Press)\, Africa As A Dream That Travels Through My Heart (2016\, Howl) and co-editor of the poetry anthology Talking Book (2006\, Cumulus Press) which chronicles the writings of Kalm Unity Vibe Collective (of which he is a founding member). He works as a teaching artist\, conducting poetry workshops in schools across the Montréal area and beyond. His work is grounded in the themes of ethno-musicology\, surrealist expression\, love and the intersection of masculinity and emotional vulnerability.
URL:https://qwf.org/event/the-words-music-show-spring-2023/
LOCATION:les sans-taverne\, 1900 rue Le Ber\, suite 101\, Montreal\, Quebec\, H3K 2A4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:Words and Music
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230429T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230429T140000
DTSTAMP:20260404T211618
CREATED:20230426T193954Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230426T202349Z
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SUMMARY:Book Celebration\, Audiobook Launch\, and Premiere of Wekweètì and Ekwǫ̀
DESCRIPTION:Saturday\, April 29\, 2PMMcCord Stewart Museum Theatre\, Montreal\n\n\n\nNadine Neema will be in conversation with Tammy Steinwand\, Tłı̨chǫ Government Culture and Lands Protection Director\, to celebrate Neema’s historical fiction youth novel and audiobook Journal of a Travelling Girl\, and to watch the premiere of her short film Wekweètì and Ekwǫ̀ (“Wekweètì and Caribou”) at the McCord Stewart Museum Theatre on Saturday April 29th at 2pm. \n\n\n\nThere will be readings\, songs inspired by Neema’s time in Wekweètì accompanied by Adam Goulet\, and the Montreal premiere of Wekweètì and Ekwǫ̀\, a short film from footage Neema took between 2000 and 2002 in Wekweètì and on the land\, which features the late Elders Alexis Arrowmaker and Mary Adele Eyakfwo telling old time stories of how they grew up on the land and why they settled in Wekweètì. There will also be book signings\, bannock and giveaways.  \n\n\n\nPlease come early as seats are limited and this is free admission.
URL:https://qwf.org/event/book-celebration-audiobook-launch-and-premiere-of-wekweeti-and-ekw%c7%ab/
LOCATION:McCord Stewart Museum Theatre\, 690 Sherbrooke St. W.\, Montreal\, QC\, H3A 1E9\, Canada
CATEGORIES:Bilingual/Multilingual,Book Launch,Performance,Reading
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230429T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230429T123000
DTSTAMP:20260404T211618
CREATED:20230329T160701Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230425T182900Z
UID:10003357-1682762400-1682771400@qwf.org
SUMMARY:Shut Up & Write! with QWF
DESCRIPTION:Looking for some dedicated\, quiet writing space? \n\n\n\nRegister 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. \n\n\n\nThis 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. A Zoom link will be sent out a few days before the session. \n\n\n\nPlease note as well that these sessions are designed for silent writing\, rather than discussing or getting feedback on work. \n\n\n\n1000 – 1025: Writing 11025 – 1030: Break1030 – 1055: Writing 21055 – 1100: Break1100 – 1125: Writing 31125 – 1130: Break1130 – 1155: Writing 41155 – 1200: Break1200 – 1225: Writing 5
URL:https://qwf.org/event/shut-up-write-with-qwf-24/
LOCATION:Online – Please RSVP to receive a Zoom link
CATEGORIES:Community Events,QWF Events,Shut Up & Write!
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230427T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230427T220000
DTSTAMP:20260404T211618
CREATED:20221215T182413Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221215T182414Z
UID:10003248-1682625600-1682632800@qwf.org
SUMMARY:Biography\, Autobiography\, and Ghostwriting
DESCRIPTION:The basic tools of biography and autobiography are the same\, and this workshop will show how you can write any life in a meaningful and engaging way. \n\n\n\nThe first challenge is learning how to put lives in a larger context. This means researching the times and places the subject lived in\, then weaving their individual narratives with all of their complex personal relationships\, into the larger world. We will learn how to do this with the use of the illuminating details that bring people and places to life. \n\n\n\nWe will also look at the sub-category of ghostwriting\, where you are writing a first-person biography and\, in a sense\, become the person you are writing for\, internalizing their thoughts and feelings as you use all of the tools at your disposal to tell their story as if was your own. \n\n\n\nGhostwriting also happens to be a field where a writer can make a decent living in Canada\, and at the end of the course\, we will look at the business side and what goes into a ghostwriting contract. \n\n\n\nOne thing you soon discover in writing biographies of any kind\, including ghosting an autobiography\, is the truth of the cliché that everyone has a book in them. At least in the sense that all of our stories—following our lives along the trajectories of time and space and meeting and beating challenges—are worth telling. As a writer you discover that it is a privilege to write someone else’s life. \n\n\n\nIdeally\, you will be working on biographical or autobiographical material of your own in the class\, but this is not necessary. If you are working on a text now or if you are simply planning one for the future\, I look forward to meeting you in the spring of 2023 and exploring the writing of lives together. \n\n\n\nPeter McFarlane has written 4 nonfiction books of his own and five ghostwritten books\, as well as more than 100 newspaper and magazine features. He has specialized in Indigenous history and politics and has worked on several CBC radio programs as a researcher and on-air contributor. He is currently completing another ghostwritten book and a new work of his own nonfiction.
URL:https://qwf.org/event/biography-autobiography-and-ghostwriting/2023-04-27/
LOCATION:QWF Office\, 1200 Atwater Avenue\, Room 3\, Westmount\, QC\, H3Z 1X4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:QWF Workshops,Workshops
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230427T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230427T200000
DTSTAMP:20260404T211618
CREATED:20221215T181429Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221215T181432Z
UID:10003240-1682618400-1682625600@qwf.org
SUMMARY:Writing the TV Pilot
DESCRIPTION:In this eight-week workshop\, Montreal-based screenwriter Allen Markuze will give you the tools to be able to write a TV pilot. He’s going to do so by asking and helping answer the following… \n\n\n\n\nWhat is your TV series about?\n\n\n\nIs your idea sustainable?\n\n\n\nWhat happens episode to episode?\n\n\n\nWhat’s the theme of your show?\n\n\n\nWhat are some similar shows?\n\n\n\nWho are your characters?\n\n\n\nIs your pilot going to be a premise episode or an episodic episode?\n\n\n\nWhat is a three-act structure and five-act structure?\n\n\n\n\nThese intimate sessions will involve a mixture of group discussion\, critical analysis of TV pilots and shows\, and workshopping participants’ own ideas with the goal of completing their own TV pilot. Ideas will be workshopped in groups as well as one-on-one with the workshop leader and fellow participants. \n\n\n\nAllen Markuze is an award-winning screenwriter who has taken part in writers rooms and has written for a variety of live-action and animation TV shows that have aired on the likes of Netflix\, Disney\, Nickelodeon\, Hulu\, and CBC. Before embarking on a screenwriting career\, Markuze spent several years working in LA at Dan Halsted’s company\, Manage-ment\, where he helped manage a roster of writers from shows such as Mad Men and Breaking Bad\, and on feature films like Friday Night Lights and Wall Street. Prior to that\, he worked as an assistant to screenwriter Janus Cercone (Leap of Faith with Steve Martin). Markuze’s foray into the entertainment industry began as a development intern in LA at Underground Films (FX’s Snowfall) where he read countless scripts\, books\, and plays\, and eavesdropped on A LOT of conversations.
URL:https://qwf.org/event/writing-the-tv-pilot/2023-04-27/
LOCATION:QWF Office\, 1200 Atwater Avenue\, Room 3\, Westmount\, QC\, H3Z 1X4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:QWF Workshops,Workshops
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230427T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230427T153000
DTSTAMP:20260404T211618
CREATED:20230405T145631Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230405T195055Z
UID:10003359-1682604000-1682609400@qwf.org
SUMMARY:How to Pitch the Media
DESCRIPTION:Virtual Session: April 27\, 2-3:30pm (No registration limit)In-Person Session: May 2\, 1-3pm (Registration currently full)Free for all QWF members \n\n\n\nQWF is pleased to offer this free workshop with CBC Montreal’s Debbie Hynes\, Manager of Communications\, Marketing & Brand. \n\n\n\n“How to Pitch Your Work to CBC” will give you practical\, hands-on advice on how to get your work out to the media\, with a particular focus on CBC. You’ll learn what producers expect (and want) in a pitch\, how to market your work to media outlets\, and how to craft a pitch that sets you and your story apart.  \n\n\n\nThis workshop is offered two times: once online and once in person. The in-person workshop will be held at the CBC Montreal offices and is limited to 12 participants. The virtual workshop will be held over Zoom and does not have an attendance limit. The content of both sessions is essentially the same\, but the in-person workshop will be a bit more hands-on\, given the nature of the format. \n\n\n\nTo Register for a Virtual Spot on April 27: \n\n\n\n(1) Send an email to Riley at riley@qwf.org with the subject line “How to Pitch the Media – Virtual Registration.” Make sure that your email includes both your name and email address.  \n\n\n\n(2) A Zoom link will be sent out a few days prior to the session. \n\n\n\nTo Register for an In-Person Spot on May 2: \n\n\n\nIn-person registration is now closed. If you are interested in this workshop\, please register for a virtual spot. \n\n\n\nImportant: This workshop is free for all QWF members. QWF membership status will be checked for both virtual and in-person participants. Not yet a member? Learn about being a member here!
URL:https://qwf.org/event/how-to-pitch-the-media/2023-04-27/
LOCATION:Online – Please RSVP to receive a Zoom link
CATEGORIES:QWF Workshops,Workshops
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230426T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230426T220000
DTSTAMP:20260404T211618
CREATED:20221215T172340Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221215T172545Z
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SUMMARY:The Ghost at the Heart of a Short Story
DESCRIPTION:A man down on his luck has moved everything he owns out onto his lawn\, and for no reason anybody can articulate\, he pawns some of it to two young passersby; in northern Ontario\, a woman whose cancer is in remission lets a teenaged boy\, half her age\, kiss her on a floating bridge—she doesn’t know why; in a hotel room in Wenatchee\, a man has a strange\, galvanizing sexual encounter with a bare-knuckle boxer\, and it leaves him more sure of himself\, or more sure of his past\, or more sure of who he might yet become. But if you asked him what had changed\, he wouldn’t be able to tell you. \n\n\n\nThere is something ineffable in every good short story\, something that cannot bepinned down\, a question—perhaps insignificant—whose answer is not merely unknown\, but unknowable\, and whose presence haunts us long after we’ve put a story down. \n\n\n\nThis workshop is a guided discussion about the plot\, characters\, point of view\, structure\, and language (the mechanics or “craft”) of participants’ short stories\, as well as an investigation of each story’s aboutness\, patterns\, emotional plot\, and central question(s)—that is\, all those hard-to-define elements that make fiction what it is. \n\n\n\nAdditionally\, the workshop aims to foster community among the attendees\, to bring together \n\n\n\nwriters of similar skill and drive\, and to encourage the kind of creative energy that crackles \n\n\n\nbetween new practitioners. \n\n\n\n Some Learning Objectives \n\n\n\n\nCritical reading\, and the ability to identify the roots of a story’s problems\, particularly with regard to dramatic structure and conflict. Conversely: the ability to identify the roots of a story’s successes\, especially when it seems intangible or difficult to pin down.\n\n\n\nClose reading\, even of your own work\, for strongest possible sentences. (They are\, after all\, the building blocks of fiction.)\n\n\n\nImmersing yourself in\, and engaging with\, literature among a cohort of people who are similarly immersed and engaged in literature; enjoying it.\n\n\n\n\nIn our first meeting\, we will establish a schedule\, review workshop etiquette\, spend some time meeting each other\, and do a few writing exercises. From then on\, each session will consist of detailed discussion and feedback of participants’ stories. The goal\, always\, is to offer the writer of each story constructive suggestions to help them improve the story and their craft. We are\, I always say\, in this together. \n\n\n\nIn preparation: Please bring a short story you’ve written of no more than 2500 words to the first session. \n\n\n\nD. W. Wilson is the author of Once You Break a Knuckle\, a collection of short stories\, and Ballistics\, a novel. His work has appeared in lit mags across the globe\, and in 2011 he won the BBC National Short Story Award for “The Dead Roads.” Since then he has been shortlisted for numerous fiction prizes\, and has won the CBC Short Story Prize and the Manchester Fiction Prize. He taught creative writing at the University of Victoria and Brandon University\, as well at literary festivals such as the London Short Story Festival and Wordfest.
URL:https://qwf.org/event/the-ghost-at-the-heart-of-a-short-story/2023-04-26/
LOCATION:QWF Office\, 1200 Atwater Avenue\, Room 3\, Westmount\, QC\, H3Z 1X4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:QWF Workshops,Workshops
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230426T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230426T210000
DTSTAMP:20260404T211618
CREATED:20230414T204019Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230417T141231Z
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SUMMARY:SpeakUp: Collaborative Performance Poetry
DESCRIPTION:​FREE EVENT \nSpeakUp​ : Collaborative Performance Poetry\nL’Échange Interactif de Poésie de Montréal \nPoets : ​​Carolyn Souaid & Endre Farkas; Jade Palmer featuring Hillary Muller & Willow Little \n​Join us at Phoenix Books in NDG (5928 Sherbrooke St W\, Montreal\, Quebec H4A 1X7)\non WEDNESDAY\, April 26th @ 7 PM\n​for a poetry reading with a difference\, avec SpeakUp le public est engagé. \nEach audience member receives a copy of the poems.\nEach poet reads their poem\, followed by a 15 to 20-minute discussion.\nThe poet reads their poem a final time. \n​For more info or details contact us by\nemail MTLSpeakUp@gmail.com or on Facebook @MtlSpeakUp
URL:https://qwf.org/event/speakup-collaborative-performance-poetry/
LOCATION:Phoenix Books\, 5928 Sherbrooke St W\, Montreal\, Quebec\, H4A 1X7\, Canada
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230426T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230426T200000
DTSTAMP:20260404T211618
CREATED:20230109T170626Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230109T170629Z
UID:10003273-1682532000-1682539200@qwf.org
SUMMARY:The Joys and Pitfalls of Memoir
DESCRIPTION:This workshop will explore the hazards and rewards of writing a personal memoir. Throughout the eight weeks\, we will look at ways to produce a compelling narrative out of the chaos of the past. We’ll discuss the tremendous value of research\, but we’ll also consider whether research can sometimes handicap a project. We will explore the creation of a narrative voice. And we will ask if and how a writer knows that a memoir has achieved its ideal focus and shape. \n\n\n\nEach participant will be expected to produce one or two finished (or near-finished) pieces of writing. They could be either stand-alone essays or excerpts from a longer work. I will provide a detailed response to these pieces\, and other participants in the workshop will be asked to give their feedback too. A good portion of time each week will be spent on a discussion of the work submitted by participants. Throughout the workshops\, I plan to emphasize the crucial importance not just of remembering but of rethinking and rewriting.  \n\n\n\nIn the remainder of each session\, we will examine and debate issues that memoir-writing brings to the fore. We will delve into some thorny issues that memoirs often raise: the unreliability of memory\, an author’s urge to justify\, and the sense of hurt and betrayal that a memoir may provoke in other people. I will ask the participants to read selected materials (none of them too lengthy) as a basis for discussion.   \n\n\n\n“Memoir\,” for the purposes of this workshop\, can include small-scale personal essays as well as longer\, more ambitious texts. The participants may choose to focus on a particular relationship\, place\, or time. But the pieces they submit for discussion should all be personal in nature\, and unless there are unusual reasons to the contrary\, they should make use of the first-person pronoun. Memoir can be a demanding form; it allows the author no place to hide. Yet it can be immensely rewarding to write. \n\n\n\nThe overall aim is to equip participants with more awareness\, more skills\, and more confidence in their own work.
URL:https://qwf.org/event/the-joys-and-pitfalls-of-memoir-2/2023-04-26/
LOCATION:QWF Office\, 1200 Atwater Avenue\, Room 3\, Westmount\, QC\, H3Z 1X4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:QWF Workshops,Workshops
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230426T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230426T133000
DTSTAMP:20260404T211618
CREATED:20230420T175434Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230420T194128Z
UID:10003364-1682510400-1682515800@qwf.org
SUMMARY:Copyright 101 Webinar
DESCRIPTION:April 26\, 12:00–1:30 PMOnline: Click here to register\n\n\n\nThis professional development webinar\, which AELAQ is hosting in partnership with the Association of Canadian Publishers\, and the Canadian Copyright Institute\, will take place online on April 26th from 12 pm – 1:30 pm ET. \n\n\n\nOn the occasion of World Book and Copyright Day 2023\, the panelists will give an overview of the copyright landscape in Canada – addressing the history\, reform\, and proposed changes surrounding the Copyright Act\, and its impact on Canadian publishers.
URL:https://qwf.org/event/copyright-101-webinar/
LOCATION:Online via Zoom
CATEGORIES:Webinar
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230425T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230425T220000
DTSTAMP:20260404T211618
CREATED:20221215T171053Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221215T171056Z
UID:10003225-1682452800-1682460000@qwf.org
SUMMARY:Tell Your Story as a Graphic Novel!
DESCRIPTION:You don’t need to be an artist to enjoy this graphic novel workshop. All you need is a story you want to tell and the courage to put it down on paper. Drawings can be formal and detailed or simple and expressive. Comic making bridges storytelling and picture making\, and this workshop will explore both. Through dynamic exercises that combine simple drawing experiments and story brainstorming\, each participant will develop their own personal style and hone the story they wish to tell. \n\n\n\nPeople will share their work and give feedback on each other’s pieces and end the workshop with a comic of their own! \n\n\n\nKate Lavut is the author and illustrator of the graphic novel Chico\, a true tale of the time she dressed as a boy\, jumped on a bus\, and went to Mexico. Chico was featured at TCAF\, Toronto Comics Arts Festival\, and was a finalist for the Quebec Writers’ Federation Prize for Children’s and Young Adult Literature. Lavut has recently produced her play A Little Bit Pregnant at Fringe Montreal and was a finalist for the Most Promising Emerging Artist award. She is currently at work on a new graphic novel\, about her experience having breast cancer\, called Content Removed.
URL:https://qwf.org/event/tell-your-story-as-a-graphic-novel/2023-04-25/
LOCATION:QWF Office\, 1200 Atwater Avenue\, Room 3\, Westmount\, QC\, H3Z 1X4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:QWF Workshops,Workshops
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230425T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230425T200000
DTSTAMP:20260404T211618
CREATED:20221215T165441Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221215T165444Z
UID:10003217-1682445600-1682452800@qwf.org
SUMMARY:Deep Story Design
DESCRIPTION:Deep Story Design depends on a divine trine of three elements: character\, plot\, and theme. \n\n\n\nNovelists\, screenwriters\, and memoirists who learn to harmonize these elements are able to create stories with depth and resonance. \n\n\n\nThis 8-week online course is for the longer form narrative writer who wants to: create structurally sound and engaging plots; craft characters whose inner and outer conflicts captivate readers; and develop impactful themes that linger after the story is over. \n\n\n\nUsing April’s Deep Story Design method of combining basic three-act structure\, the seven stepping stones that uphold a narrative arc\, and the four stages of authentic character development\, writers will be guided to create a cohesive story that is greater than the sum of its parts. \n\n\n\nWeekly lessons\, homework assignments\, and in-class exercises and conversations will focus on the essential story elements that need to be in place to ensure a compelling and meaningful narrative. \n\n\n\nNote: Handouts will be provided digitally. Live weekly Zoom calls will be recorded and available for review for up to two weeks after the workshop finishes. Homework assignments\, shared with and reviewed by participants\, will receive light feedback from April during class time. \n\n\n\nApril Bosshard has been called a “story whisperer” and “story genie” for her keen awareness of story principles and deep understanding of the writer’s craft\, which allows her to help writers deal with the complex issues of story-creating and sticking to the writing process. She’s led workshops in Canada\, the US\, France\, and Mexico\, including at the internationally recognized San Miguel Writers Conference. She’s written novels\, short stories\, poems\, and non-fiction essays for traditional and independent markets\, which include publications in the US\, UK\, and Canada. Most recently\, she contributed a chapter to the newly released The Great Book of Journaling\, How Journal Writing Can Support a Life of Wellness\, Creativity\, Meaning\, and Purpose\, (Conari\, June 2022). April develops and maintains online courses and writing programs while also working with individual clients as a writing coach and developmental editor.
URL:https://qwf.org/event/deep-story-design/2023-04-25/
LOCATION:QWF Office\, 1200 Atwater Avenue\, Room 3\, Westmount\, QC\, H3Z 1X4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:QWF Workshops,Workshops
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230425T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230425T200000
DTSTAMP:20260404T211618
CREATED:20221214T210152Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221214T210154Z
UID:10003201-1682445600-1682452800@qwf.org
SUMMARY:The Joys and Pitfalls of Memoir
DESCRIPTION:This workshop will explore the hazards and rewards of writing a personal memoir. Throughout the eight weeks\, we will look at ways to produce a compelling narrative out of the chaos of the past. We’ll discuss the tremendous value of research\, but we’ll also consider whether research can sometimes handicap a project. We will explore the creation of a narrative voice. And we will ask if and how a writer knows that a memoir has achieved its ideal focus and shape. \n\n\n\nEach participant will be expected to produce one or two finished (or near-finished) pieces of writing. They could be either stand-alone essays or excerpts from a longer work. I will provide a detailed response to these pieces\, and other participants in the workshop will be asked to give their feedback too. A good portion of time each week will be spent on a discussion of the work submitted by participants. Throughout the workshops\, I plan to emphasize the crucial importance not just of remembering but of rethinking and rewriting.  \n\n\n\nIn the remainder of each session\, we will examine and debate issues that memoir-writing brings to the fore. We will delve into some thorny issues that memoirs often raise: the unreliability of memory\, an author’s urge to justify\, and the sense of hurt and betrayal that a memoir may provoke in other people. I will ask the participants to read selected materials (none of them too lengthy) as a basis for discussion.   \n\n\n\n“Memoir\,” for the purposes of this workshop\, can include small-scale personal essays as well as longer\, more ambitious texts. The participants may choose to focus on a particular relationship\, place\, or time. But the pieces they submit for discussion should all be personal in nature\, and unless there are unusual reasons to the contrary\, they should make use of the first-person pronoun. Memoir can be a demanding form; it allows the author no place to hide. Yet it can be immensely rewarding to write. \n\n\n\nThe overall aim is to equip participants with more awareness\, more skills\, and more confidence in their own work.
URL:https://qwf.org/event/the-joys-and-pitfalls-of-memoir/2023-04-25/
LOCATION:QWF Office\, 1200 Atwater Avenue\, Room 3\, Westmount\, QC\, H3Z 1X4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:QWF Workshops,Workshops
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230424T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230424T220000
DTSTAMP:20260404T211618
CREATED:20221214T203321Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221215T163934Z
UID:10003193-1682366400-1682373600@qwf.org
SUMMARY:Picture Book Spyglass: Writing through the Lens of Children’s and YA Literature
DESCRIPTION:Why every writer should know picture books: in this workshop\, emerging and experienced writers will return to the source and hone their skills through a selection of outstanding picture books. We will learn wisdom\, gain inspiration\, and rediscover the joy of word-sounds and word play. We’ll find eye-popping object lessons in voice\, character\, plot\, and surprise—while renewing our delight in language.  \n\n\n\nBe prepared to articulate your own writing goals for this session to receive personalized prompts. Or feel free to just explore\, through collaborative and individual writing time and assignments. Whether you are casting for new reveries\, or seeking to push forward on a particular project\, let the concise brilliance of picture books light your way. \n\n\n\n——————————————– \n\n\n\nRaquel Rivera is a two-time winner of the QWF Prize for Children’s and YA Literature; her books were selected for CCBC Best Books for Kids & Teens (starred selection)\, USBBY Outstanding International Books (Grades 3-5)\, Quill & Quire’s “Best of 2007” (Children’s)\, and more. \n\n\n\nRaquel has lived and worked in Washington DC\, Kuala Lumpur\, Singapore\, Barcelona\, and Toronto (where she was born and raised as a first-generation Canadian). These experiences\, and her own mixed heritage\, engender her deep interest in history\, culture\, social roles\, and norms. Cultures in cooperation is the theme that runs through her writing.
URL:https://qwf.org/event/picture-book-spyglass-writing-through-the-lens-of-childrens-and-ya-literature/2023-04-24/
LOCATION:QWF Office\, 1200 Atwater Avenue\, Room 3\, Westmount\, QC\, H3Z 1X4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:QWF Workshops,Workshops
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230424T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230424T200000
DTSTAMP:20260404T211618
CREATED:20221214T191418Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221214T210450Z
UID:10003209-1682359200-1682366400@qwf.org
SUMMARY:Poetic Conversations
DESCRIPTION:Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) is known to have said\, “A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it.” Put differently\, a reader’s personal response offers an added dimension to a book. In this workshop\, participants will select a published poetry collection whose world resonates with them\, one that includes poems they would like to “dialogue with” for the remainder of the workshop.* Weekly writing prompts will initiate a “conversation” with a chosen text from their book\, an opportunity to engage with the source material on a deeper level. Topics covered will include imagery\, line breaks\, and poetic language\, and we will attempt a variety of poetic forms. Roughly half of each session will be devoted to theoretical concerns and/or writing exercises; the second half to workshopping the pieces produced in class and tweaked at home. Aside from the selected poetry book\, no texts are required\, but participants are strongly encouraged to read poetry and/or essays on poetics outside class time and share materials/information that might be of interest to the group. \n\n\n\n*A list of suggested poets and/or titles will be provided after the first class\, upon request. \n\n\n\nAuthor of nine poetry books and an award-winning novel\, Carolyn Marie Souaid has performed at literary events in Canada and abroad; her work has been featured on CBC-Radio and in a variety of national and international publications. Her videopoem\, Blood is Blood\, won a top prize at the 2012 Zebra Poetry Film Festival in Berlin. Other books have been shortlisted for the Pat Lowther Memorial Award and the A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry. Carolyn has been guest faculty at Bishop’s University and has led several previous QWF workshops. Her literary papers are housed at Rare Books and Special Collections of the McLennan Library (McGill University).
URL:https://qwf.org/event/poetic-conversations/2023-04-24/
LOCATION:QWF Office\, 1200 Atwater Avenue\, Room 3\, Westmount\, QC\, H3Z 1X4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:QWF Workshops,Workshops
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230422T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230430T190000
DTSTAMP:20260404T211618
CREATED:20230103T190827Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230103T190829Z
UID:10003265-1682157600-1682881200@qwf.org
SUMMARY:Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival
DESCRIPTION:The Blue Metropolis Festival is one of the largest multilingual literary events in North America. Each year\, writers from Quebec\, Canada and around the world converge on Montreal for a couple of days. Festivalgoers are treated to live interviews\, roundtable discussions\, public readings\, debates\, master classes\, reading and writing workshops. Every year\, the Festival is structured around several strong themes that bear testimony to a keen social awareness and to a passion for literature in all its richness.\nIn 2023\, Blue Metropolis turns 25.\nThe anniversary edition of the Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival will take place April 27 to 30\, 2023\, in Montreal (in-person program). The online program will premiere April 22 to 27\, 2023.\nIn addition to our usual program\, part of our programming will be dedicated to this 25th anniversary.\nFor more information\, visit our website (bluemetropolis.org) as of March 17\, 2023.
URL:https://qwf.org/event/blue-metropolis-international-literary-festival/
LOCATION:Hotel 10\, 10 Sherbrooke Street West\, Montreal\, Quebec\, H2X 4C9\, Canada
CATEGORIES:Performance
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230420T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230420T220000
DTSTAMP:20260404T211618
CREATED:20221215T182413Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221215T182414Z
UID:10003247-1682020800-1682028000@qwf.org
SUMMARY:Biography\, Autobiography\, and Ghostwriting
DESCRIPTION:The basic tools of biography and autobiography are the same\, and this workshop will show how you can write any life in a meaningful and engaging way. \n\n\n\nThe first challenge is learning how to put lives in a larger context. This means researching the times and places the subject lived in\, then weaving their individual narratives with all of their complex personal relationships\, into the larger world. We will learn how to do this with the use of the illuminating details that bring people and places to life. \n\n\n\nWe will also look at the sub-category of ghostwriting\, where you are writing a first-person biography and\, in a sense\, become the person you are writing for\, internalizing their thoughts and feelings as you use all of the tools at your disposal to tell their story as if was your own. \n\n\n\nGhostwriting also happens to be a field where a writer can make a decent living in Canada\, and at the end of the course\, we will look at the business side and what goes into a ghostwriting contract. \n\n\n\nOne thing you soon discover in writing biographies of any kind\, including ghosting an autobiography\, is the truth of the cliché that everyone has a book in them. At least in the sense that all of our stories—following our lives along the trajectories of time and space and meeting and beating challenges—are worth telling. As a writer you discover that it is a privilege to write someone else’s life. \n\n\n\nIdeally\, you will be working on biographical or autobiographical material of your own in the class\, but this is not necessary. If you are working on a text now or if you are simply planning one for the future\, I look forward to meeting you in the spring of 2023 and exploring the writing of lives together. \n\n\n\nPeter McFarlane has written 4 nonfiction books of his own and five ghostwritten books\, as well as more than 100 newspaper and magazine features. He has specialized in Indigenous history and politics and has worked on several CBC radio programs as a researcher and on-air contributor. He is currently completing another ghostwritten book and a new work of his own nonfiction.
URL:https://qwf.org/event/biography-autobiography-and-ghostwriting/2023-04-20/
LOCATION:QWF Office\, 1200 Atwater Avenue\, Room 3\, Westmount\, QC\, H3Z 1X4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:QWF Workshops,Workshops
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230420T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230420T200000
DTSTAMP:20260404T211618
CREATED:20221215T181429Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221215T181432Z
UID:10003239-1682013600-1682020800@qwf.org
SUMMARY:Writing the TV Pilot
DESCRIPTION:In this eight-week workshop\, Montreal-based screenwriter Allen Markuze will give you the tools to be able to write a TV pilot. He’s going to do so by asking and helping answer the following… \n\n\n\n\nWhat is your TV series about?\n\n\n\nIs your idea sustainable?\n\n\n\nWhat happens episode to episode?\n\n\n\nWhat’s the theme of your show?\n\n\n\nWhat are some similar shows?\n\n\n\nWho are your characters?\n\n\n\nIs your pilot going to be a premise episode or an episodic episode?\n\n\n\nWhat is a three-act structure and five-act structure?\n\n\n\n\nThese intimate sessions will involve a mixture of group discussion\, critical analysis of TV pilots and shows\, and workshopping participants’ own ideas with the goal of completing their own TV pilot. Ideas will be workshopped in groups as well as one-on-one with the workshop leader and fellow participants. \n\n\n\nAllen Markuze is an award-winning screenwriter who has taken part in writers rooms and has written for a variety of live-action and animation TV shows that have aired on the likes of Netflix\, Disney\, Nickelodeon\, Hulu\, and CBC. Before embarking on a screenwriting career\, Markuze spent several years working in LA at Dan Halsted’s company\, Manage-ment\, where he helped manage a roster of writers from shows such as Mad Men and Breaking Bad\, and on feature films like Friday Night Lights and Wall Street. Prior to that\, he worked as an assistant to screenwriter Janus Cercone (Leap of Faith with Steve Martin). Markuze’s foray into the entertainment industry began as a development intern in LA at Underground Films (FX’s Snowfall) where he read countless scripts\, books\, and plays\, and eavesdropped on A LOT of conversations.
URL:https://qwf.org/event/writing-the-tv-pilot/2023-04-20/
LOCATION:QWF Office\, 1200 Atwater Avenue\, Room 3\, Westmount\, QC\, H3Z 1X4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:QWF Workshops,Workshops
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230419T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230419T220000
DTSTAMP:20260404T211618
CREATED:20221215T172340Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221215T172545Z
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SUMMARY:The Ghost at the Heart of a Short Story
DESCRIPTION:A man down on his luck has moved everything he owns out onto his lawn\, and for no reason anybody can articulate\, he pawns some of it to two young passersby; in northern Ontario\, a woman whose cancer is in remission lets a teenaged boy\, half her age\, kiss her on a floating bridge—she doesn’t know why; in a hotel room in Wenatchee\, a man has a strange\, galvanizing sexual encounter with a bare-knuckle boxer\, and it leaves him more sure of himself\, or more sure of his past\, or more sure of who he might yet become. But if you asked him what had changed\, he wouldn’t be able to tell you. \n\n\n\nThere is something ineffable in every good short story\, something that cannot bepinned down\, a question—perhaps insignificant—whose answer is not merely unknown\, but unknowable\, and whose presence haunts us long after we’ve put a story down. \n\n\n\nThis workshop is a guided discussion about the plot\, characters\, point of view\, structure\, and language (the mechanics or “craft”) of participants’ short stories\, as well as an investigation of each story’s aboutness\, patterns\, emotional plot\, and central question(s)—that is\, all those hard-to-define elements that make fiction what it is. \n\n\n\nAdditionally\, the workshop aims to foster community among the attendees\, to bring together \n\n\n\nwriters of similar skill and drive\, and to encourage the kind of creative energy that crackles \n\n\n\nbetween new practitioners. \n\n\n\n Some Learning Objectives \n\n\n\n\nCritical reading\, and the ability to identify the roots of a story’s problems\, particularly with regard to dramatic structure and conflict. Conversely: the ability to identify the roots of a story’s successes\, especially when it seems intangible or difficult to pin down.\n\n\n\nClose reading\, even of your own work\, for strongest possible sentences. (They are\, after all\, the building blocks of fiction.)\n\n\n\nImmersing yourself in\, and engaging with\, literature among a cohort of people who are similarly immersed and engaged in literature; enjoying it.\n\n\n\n\nIn our first meeting\, we will establish a schedule\, review workshop etiquette\, spend some time meeting each other\, and do a few writing exercises. From then on\, each session will consist of detailed discussion and feedback of participants’ stories. The goal\, always\, is to offer the writer of each story constructive suggestions to help them improve the story and their craft. We are\, I always say\, in this together. \n\n\n\nIn preparation: Please bring a short story you’ve written of no more than 2500 words to the first session. \n\n\n\nD. W. Wilson is the author of Once You Break a Knuckle\, a collection of short stories\, and Ballistics\, a novel. His work has appeared in lit mags across the globe\, and in 2011 he won the BBC National Short Story Award for “The Dead Roads.” Since then he has been shortlisted for numerous fiction prizes\, and has won the CBC Short Story Prize and the Manchester Fiction Prize. He taught creative writing at the University of Victoria and Brandon University\, as well at literary festivals such as the London Short Story Festival and Wordfest.
URL:https://qwf.org/event/the-ghost-at-the-heart-of-a-short-story/2023-04-19/
LOCATION:QWF Office\, 1200 Atwater Avenue\, Room 3\, Westmount\, QC\, H3Z 1X4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:QWF Workshops,Workshops
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230419T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230419T200000
DTSTAMP:20260404T211618
CREATED:20230109T170626Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230109T170629Z
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SUMMARY:The Joys and Pitfalls of Memoir
DESCRIPTION:This workshop will explore the hazards and rewards of writing a personal memoir. Throughout the eight weeks\, we will look at ways to produce a compelling narrative out of the chaos of the past. We’ll discuss the tremendous value of research\, but we’ll also consider whether research can sometimes handicap a project. We will explore the creation of a narrative voice. And we will ask if and how a writer knows that a memoir has achieved its ideal focus and shape. \n\n\n\nEach participant will be expected to produce one or two finished (or near-finished) pieces of writing. They could be either stand-alone essays or excerpts from a longer work. I will provide a detailed response to these pieces\, and other participants in the workshop will be asked to give their feedback too. A good portion of time each week will be spent on a discussion of the work submitted by participants. Throughout the workshops\, I plan to emphasize the crucial importance not just of remembering but of rethinking and rewriting.  \n\n\n\nIn the remainder of each session\, we will examine and debate issues that memoir-writing brings to the fore. We will delve into some thorny issues that memoirs often raise: the unreliability of memory\, an author’s urge to justify\, and the sense of hurt and betrayal that a memoir may provoke in other people. I will ask the participants to read selected materials (none of them too lengthy) as a basis for discussion.   \n\n\n\n“Memoir\,” for the purposes of this workshop\, can include small-scale personal essays as well as longer\, more ambitious texts. The participants may choose to focus on a particular relationship\, place\, or time. But the pieces they submit for discussion should all be personal in nature\, and unless there are unusual reasons to the contrary\, they should make use of the first-person pronoun. Memoir can be a demanding form; it allows the author no place to hide. Yet it can be immensely rewarding to write. \n\n\n\nThe overall aim is to equip participants with more awareness\, more skills\, and more confidence in their own work.
URL:https://qwf.org/event/the-joys-and-pitfalls-of-memoir-2/2023-04-19/
LOCATION:QWF Office\, 1200 Atwater Avenue\, Room 3\, Westmount\, QC\, H3Z 1X4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:QWF Workshops,Workshops
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230418T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230418T220000
DTSTAMP:20260404T211618
CREATED:20221215T171053Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221215T171056Z
UID:10003224-1681848000-1681855200@qwf.org
SUMMARY:Tell Your Story as a Graphic Novel!
DESCRIPTION:You don’t need to be an artist to enjoy this graphic novel workshop. All you need is a story you want to tell and the courage to put it down on paper. Drawings can be formal and detailed or simple and expressive. Comic making bridges storytelling and picture making\, and this workshop will explore both. Through dynamic exercises that combine simple drawing experiments and story brainstorming\, each participant will develop their own personal style and hone the story they wish to tell. \n\n\n\nPeople will share their work and give feedback on each other’s pieces and end the workshop with a comic of their own! \n\n\n\nKate Lavut is the author and illustrator of the graphic novel Chico\, a true tale of the time she dressed as a boy\, jumped on a bus\, and went to Mexico. Chico was featured at TCAF\, Toronto Comics Arts Festival\, and was a finalist for the Quebec Writers’ Federation Prize for Children’s and Young Adult Literature. Lavut has recently produced her play A Little Bit Pregnant at Fringe Montreal and was a finalist for the Most Promising Emerging Artist award. She is currently at work on a new graphic novel\, about her experience having breast cancer\, called Content Removed.
URL:https://qwf.org/event/tell-your-story-as-a-graphic-novel/2023-04-18/
LOCATION:QWF Office\, 1200 Atwater Avenue\, Room 3\, Westmount\, QC\, H3Z 1X4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:QWF Workshops,Workshops
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230418T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230418T200000
DTSTAMP:20260404T211619
CREATED:20221215T165441Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221215T165444Z
UID:10003216-1681840800-1681848000@qwf.org
SUMMARY:Deep Story Design
DESCRIPTION:Deep Story Design depends on a divine trine of three elements: character\, plot\, and theme. \n\n\n\nNovelists\, screenwriters\, and memoirists who learn to harmonize these elements are able to create stories with depth and resonance. \n\n\n\nThis 8-week online course is for the longer form narrative writer who wants to: create structurally sound and engaging plots; craft characters whose inner and outer conflicts captivate readers; and develop impactful themes that linger after the story is over. \n\n\n\nUsing April’s Deep Story Design method of combining basic three-act structure\, the seven stepping stones that uphold a narrative arc\, and the four stages of authentic character development\, writers will be guided to create a cohesive story that is greater than the sum of its parts. \n\n\n\nWeekly lessons\, homework assignments\, and in-class exercises and conversations will focus on the essential story elements that need to be in place to ensure a compelling and meaningful narrative. \n\n\n\nNote: Handouts will be provided digitally. Live weekly Zoom calls will be recorded and available for review for up to two weeks after the workshop finishes. Homework assignments\, shared with and reviewed by participants\, will receive light feedback from April during class time. \n\n\n\nApril Bosshard has been called a “story whisperer” and “story genie” for her keen awareness of story principles and deep understanding of the writer’s craft\, which allows her to help writers deal with the complex issues of story-creating and sticking to the writing process. She’s led workshops in Canada\, the US\, France\, and Mexico\, including at the internationally recognized San Miguel Writers Conference. She’s written novels\, short stories\, poems\, and non-fiction essays for traditional and independent markets\, which include publications in the US\, UK\, and Canada. Most recently\, she contributed a chapter to the newly released The Great Book of Journaling\, How Journal Writing Can Support a Life of Wellness\, Creativity\, Meaning\, and Purpose\, (Conari\, June 2022). April develops and maintains online courses and writing programs while also working with individual clients as a writing coach and developmental editor.
URL:https://qwf.org/event/deep-story-design/2023-04-18/
LOCATION:QWF Office\, 1200 Atwater Avenue\, Room 3\, Westmount\, QC\, H3Z 1X4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:QWF Workshops,Workshops
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230418T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230418T200000
DTSTAMP:20260404T211619
CREATED:20221214T210152Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221214T210154Z
UID:10003200-1681840800-1681848000@qwf.org
SUMMARY:The Joys and Pitfalls of Memoir
DESCRIPTION:This workshop will explore the hazards and rewards of writing a personal memoir. Throughout the eight weeks\, we will look at ways to produce a compelling narrative out of the chaos of the past. We’ll discuss the tremendous value of research\, but we’ll also consider whether research can sometimes handicap a project. We will explore the creation of a narrative voice. And we will ask if and how a writer knows that a memoir has achieved its ideal focus and shape. \n\n\n\nEach participant will be expected to produce one or two finished (or near-finished) pieces of writing. They could be either stand-alone essays or excerpts from a longer work. I will provide a detailed response to these pieces\, and other participants in the workshop will be asked to give their feedback too. A good portion of time each week will be spent on a discussion of the work submitted by participants. Throughout the workshops\, I plan to emphasize the crucial importance not just of remembering but of rethinking and rewriting.  \n\n\n\nIn the remainder of each session\, we will examine and debate issues that memoir-writing brings to the fore. We will delve into some thorny issues that memoirs often raise: the unreliability of memory\, an author’s urge to justify\, and the sense of hurt and betrayal that a memoir may provoke in other people. I will ask the participants to read selected materials (none of them too lengthy) as a basis for discussion.   \n\n\n\n“Memoir\,” for the purposes of this workshop\, can include small-scale personal essays as well as longer\, more ambitious texts. The participants may choose to focus on a particular relationship\, place\, or time. But the pieces they submit for discussion should all be personal in nature\, and unless there are unusual reasons to the contrary\, they should make use of the first-person pronoun. Memoir can be a demanding form; it allows the author no place to hide. Yet it can be immensely rewarding to write. \n\n\n\nThe overall aim is to equip participants with more awareness\, more skills\, and more confidence in their own work.
URL:https://qwf.org/event/the-joys-and-pitfalls-of-memoir/2023-04-18/
LOCATION:QWF Office\, 1200 Atwater Avenue\, Room 3\, Westmount\, QC\, H3Z 1X4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:QWF Workshops,Workshops
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230417T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230417T220000
DTSTAMP:20260404T211619
CREATED:20221214T203321Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221215T163934Z
UID:10003192-1681761600-1681768800@qwf.org
SUMMARY:Picture Book Spyglass: Writing through the Lens of Children’s and YA Literature
DESCRIPTION:Why every writer should know picture books: in this workshop\, emerging and experienced writers will return to the source and hone their skills through a selection of outstanding picture books. We will learn wisdom\, gain inspiration\, and rediscover the joy of word-sounds and word play. We’ll find eye-popping object lessons in voice\, character\, plot\, and surprise—while renewing our delight in language.  \n\n\n\nBe prepared to articulate your own writing goals for this session to receive personalized prompts. Or feel free to just explore\, through collaborative and individual writing time and assignments. Whether you are casting for new reveries\, or seeking to push forward on a particular project\, let the concise brilliance of picture books light your way. \n\n\n\n——————————————– \n\n\n\nRaquel Rivera is a two-time winner of the QWF Prize for Children’s and YA Literature; her books were selected for CCBC Best Books for Kids & Teens (starred selection)\, USBBY Outstanding International Books (Grades 3-5)\, Quill & Quire’s “Best of 2007” (Children’s)\, and more. \n\n\n\nRaquel has lived and worked in Washington DC\, Kuala Lumpur\, Singapore\, Barcelona\, and Toronto (where she was born and raised as a first-generation Canadian). These experiences\, and her own mixed heritage\, engender her deep interest in history\, culture\, social roles\, and norms. Cultures in cooperation is the theme that runs through her writing.
URL:https://qwf.org/event/picture-book-spyglass-writing-through-the-lens-of-childrens-and-ya-literature/2023-04-17/
LOCATION:QWF Office\, 1200 Atwater Avenue\, Room 3\, Westmount\, QC\, H3Z 1X4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:QWF Workshops,Workshops
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END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR