Quebec Writers' Federation

Shut Up & Write! with QWF (Virtual)
2024-02-17 10:00 - 12:30 (America/New_York) | Online – Please RSVP to receive a Zoom link
Saturday, February 17, 10:00 am–12:30 pmOnline via Zoom—RSVP below to receive the 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.

The Zoom link will be sent out a day or two before the session.

Please note that these sessions are designed for silent writing, rather than discussing or getting feedback on work.

10:00–10:25: Writing 110:25–10:30: Break10:30–10:55: Writing 210:55–11:00: Break11:00–11:25: Writing 311:25–11:30: Break11:30–11:55: Writing 411:55–12:00: Break12:00–12:25: Writing 5

To receive the Zoom link, RSVP below. You will receive the Zoom link a few days before the session.

Note: RSVPs will close 24 hours before the event starts. If there is no option to RSVP, RSVPs are closed.

Illuminated Grant-Writing
2024-02-17 10:30 - 13:30, 2024-02-24 10:30 - 13:30 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
This series of four workshops will examine how writers with projects for print, spoken word, or storytelling can develop a strong literary arts grant application. From drafting a project description to balancing a budget, we will also discuss artistic risk, impact, and cultural appropriation. Focus will be on funding programs at the Canada Council for the Arts (CCA) and the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ), and an arts council program officer will join us to answer questions. This series is information-heavy and intended for Quebec-based writers at all stages of their practice: emerging, mid-career, or established. Participants must have an original literary arts project in mind in order to focus their efforts and be prepared to complete tasks between sessions.

Access to MS Word or similar writing software will be necessary as well as a willingness to share work, and give and receive feedback in a workshop setting.

As soon as they have registered for the workshop, participants should email a short, one-sentence description of their current literary arts project to riley@qwf.org with the subject line “For Tawhida Tanya Evanson.”

Tawhida Tanya Evanson is a poet, author, performer and producer. Her poetry collections include Bothism and Nouveau Griot, and her debut novel Book of Wings won the 2022 CAM/Blue Metropolis New Contribution Prize. Her French autotranslation Livre des ailes (2023) is fresh from Marchand de feuilles. With a twenty-five-year practice in oral poetry and music, she performs internationally and has released studio albums and short films including the upcoming concert film CYANO SUN SUITE. She is president of the Quebec Writers’ Federation, director of the Banff Centre Spoken Word Program, and produces interarts events as Mother Tongue Media. She moonlights as a whirling dervish. www.mothertonguemedia.com

Youth-Led Poetry Night
2024-02-21 08:00 - 17:00 | Viva Vida Art Gallery, 278 Lakeshore Road, suite 2, Pointe-Claire, Quebec, H9S 4K9, Canada
Thursday, Feb 29, 2024, 7:00 pm ESTViva Vida, 278 Ch. du Bord-du-Lac-Lakeshore, Suite 2Point-Claire, QC, H9S 4K9

You’re invited to a Youth-Led Poetry Night, a free event encouraging young writers to share their work with an audience. Everyone is welcome!

Desserts, coffee, and tea will be available.

Hosted by MNA Greg Kelley & Samara O’Gorman (Poète/Poet).

Feel free to bring your poetry, or other forms of written work for our open mic—it will be a night of sharing stories, art, and connecting with other local artists

To RSVP: Email Gregory.Kelley.JACA@assnat.qc.ca.

Perspective in Literary Fiction
2024-02-21 18:00 - 21:00 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
This five-week workshop will offer a deep dive into the use of perspective in fiction. Storytellers operate in first-person, second-person, third-person limited, third-person omniscient, and more unusual points-of-view. What distinguishes these perspectives? What are their gifts and limitations? Most importantly, what can your chosen perspective do for the story you want to tell?

Each class will open with a discussion of perspective in some published fiction. How close is the narrator to the characters? How does the perspective affect the voice in which the story is told? What is the relationship of the voice to the characters?

Next, we will do two writing exercises. The first will be largely generative, based on the reading. The second will be integrative, guiding participants to apply what we are learning to their own stories or characters.

After discussing the writing exercises, we will devote the last part of each class to discussing participant stories.

On registration, participants will receive a packet of published stories or samples to be discussed in the first class; reading for subsequent weeks will be distributed after our first meeting. Participants are encouraged to bring ½-1 page of fiction to share on the first day, though they may choose instead to share some work generated in class. Subsequently, each participant is encouraged to submit 3-10 pages of fiction to be discussed by the class with a special focus on perspective. Otherwise, discussion will be tailored to participant preferences, with an eye to making discussion as useful to the writer as possible.

Participants should arrive each week having read the assigned stories and their peers’ work (approximately 40 pages). Be prepared to discuss these thoughtfully and with engagement! My goal is to create a space for candid and open-ended discussion.

Participants will finish the workshop with greater fluency and command in perspective, as readers able to discern the subtleties and mechanics of this important aspect of our craft, and as writers able to choose and employ a storytelling perspective with verve and confidence.

Padma Viswanathan’s novels have been published in eight countries and shortlisted for various awards, including the Scotiabank Giller Prize. Her most recent book is Like Every Form of Love: A Memoir of Friendship and True Crime (Random House Canada, 2023). Her short fiction, essays, and short translations can be found in Granta, The Paris Review, BRICK, and elsewhere. Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Arkansas, she has also served as fiction faculty at the Banff Center, the Vermont Studio Center, the Bread Loaf Conferences, and the low-residency MFA of Fairleigh Dickinson University. More at www.padmaviswanathan.com

Shut Up & Write! with QWF (In Person)
2024-02-23 12:30 - 15:00 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
Friday, February 23, 12:30 pm–3:00 pmFree, In PersonQWF Office (Room 3, 1200 Atwater Ave., Westmount)

Register for the session by filling out the RSVP form below.

Looking for some dedicated, quiet writing space?

Join us for an in-person Shut Up & Write session at the QWF office!

Do all that writing you’ve been meaning to do, and meet a few of your fellow QWF members. Using the Pomodoro technique, participants write in 25 minute bursts, with 5-minute breaks in between.

This event is for QWF members only. Not a member? Learn about becoming a member.

Please note that these sessions are designed for silent writing, rather than discussing or getting feedback on work.

12:30–12:55: Writing 112:55–1:00: Break1:00–1:25: Writing 21:25–1:30: Break1:30–1:55: Writing 31:55–2:00: Break2:00–2:25: Writing 42:25–2:30: Break2:30–2:55: Writing 5

To register, RSVP below.

Getting to the QWF Office

Our office is located on the top floor of the Atwater Library and Computer Centre, in Room 3.

Address: 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3Westmount, QC H3Z 1X4

Closest Metro: Atwater Station

Closest Bus lines: 24, 63, 90, 104, 138, 144, 150

Accessibility:

The QWF Office is fully accessible by wheelchair from the side entrance on Tupper Street. Once inside, there is an elevator to the second floor, where the QWF office is.

Learn more about the office location and accessibility.

Book Launch: Naniki by Oonya Kempadoo
2024-02-24 14:00 - 16:00 | Librairie Paragraphe Bookstore, 2220 McGill College Ave, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 3P9, Canada
February 24, 2–4 pmLibrairie Paragraphe Bookstore, Montreal

𝐋𝐢𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐞 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐞 and 𝐃𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐫𝐧 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 present a book launch for 𝑵𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒌𝒊 by 𝐎𝐨𝐧𝐲𝐚 𝐊𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐨.

Join us as author 𝐎𝐨𝐧𝐲𝐚 𝐊𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐨 discusses and signs copies of her latest book 𝑵𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒌𝒊.

Admission is Free.

𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐑:

Oonya Kempadoo is the author of three novels and is critically acclaimed on both sides of the Atlantic. A creative practitioner with an interest in cross-disciplinary dialogue, she is a citizen of England, Guyana, and Grenada, and currently lives in Montreal.

𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐎𝐎𝐊:

Through luminescent light, ancestral paths, and a Caribbean spirit-inflected world, Naniki explores the musings and inner workings of the deep blue — the Caribbean Sea — and its shape-shifting sea beings.

As the sea mirrors the light from the blue skies, and its depths are exposed by daggers of sunlight, so too Naniki reveals and honours the Indigenous roots of the Caribbean and its people, whose destiny is tied to the sea, the vessel of collective memory.

Amana and Skelele are made of water and air, their essence intertwined with Taino and African ancestry. They evolved as elemental beings of the Anthropocene, and shape-shifting with their naniki (active spirits) or animal avatars, they begin an archipelagic journey throughout the Caribbean Basin to see the strange future they dreamed of. Until devastation erupts.

Tasked by their elders to go back in time to the source of the First People’s knowledge, they must surmount historical and mythological challenges alike. How can they navigate and overcome these obstacles to regenerate themselves, their love, their islands, and their seas?

Book launch of 'Take Out the Jocks: a feminist revenge comedy'
2024-02-24 15:00 - 17:00 | l’Euguélionne Bookstore, 1426 rue Beaudry,, Montreal, Quebec, H2L 3E5, Canada
Join Michael Nest for the launch of his new novel ‘Take Out the Jocks: a feminist revenge comedy’, with Linda Morra, the host and writer of Getting Lit With Linda. The novel explores what would happen if the people afraid to go out at night were young men, not young women. It follows Kate, Carly, and Seyram, friends since childhood, who are outraged by the acquittal of a local rapist and frustrated at the lack of progress with the #MeToo movement in their community. They decide to reverse gender freedoms by targeting the town’s jocks in a series of ever-more brazen attacks. On the case are local police, who can’t conceive that middle-aged moms could be capable of such things. But also on their tail are the FBI and a local journalist who suspect their involvement. Set against the backdrop of Trump’s America in 2018, the novel is a dark comedy of female vengeance that blows open literally a small American town. Michael Nest lives in Montreal. His previous book, Cold Case North: the search for James Brady and Absolom Halkett was shortlisted for Crime Writers of Canada’s Best Nonfiction Crime Book (2021) and won SaskBooks’ Creative Publishing Award (2022).

Translation Talks: D. M. Bradford and Donald Nicholson-Smith
2024-02-26 12:00 - 13:00 | Quebec
February 26, 12:00–1:00 pm ESTOnline via Zoom (Register for Zoom link)

Darby Minott Bradford is a poet, translator, and sometimes curator. They are the author of Dream of No One but Myself (2021), which won the A.M. Klein QWF Prize for Poetry, was a finalist for the 2022 Griffin Poetry Prize, Governor General Literary Award and Gerard Lampert Memorial Award, and was longlisted for the Grand Prix du livre de Montréal. Bradford’s first translation, House Within a House (2023) by Nicholas Dawson, received the VMI Betsy Warland Between Genres Award and John Glassco Translation Prize, and was shortlisted for the Governor General Literary Awards for French-to-English translation. Their most recent book of poetry, Bottom Rail on Top (2023), works to complicate prevailing conceptions of Blackness by staging one personal present alongside American histories of antebellum Black life. Bradford lives and works in Tio’tia:ke (Montréal) on the unceded territory of the Kanienʼkehá꞉ka nation.

Donald Nicholson-Smith is a translator and freelance editor. Born in Manchester, England, he is a long-time resident of New York City. His translations include works by Thierry Jonquet, Guy Debord, Paco Ignacio Taibo II, Henri Lefebvre, Guillaume Apollinaire, Raoul Vaneigem, Antonin Artaud, Yasmina Khadra (with Alyson Waters), Jean-Patrick Manchette, and Serge Pey. His en-face translation of Abdellatif Laâbi’s In Praise of Defeat, including self-selected poems from the Moroccan author and dissident’s long career, was a finalist for the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2017. Nicholson-Smith has been dubbed Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in recognition of his services to French literature in translation.

Translation Talks will run for approximately one hour on Zoom and will be hosted by Griffin Poetry Prize editorial director Adriana Oniță and social media editor Medgine Mathurin.

Check out the Griffin Poetry Prize’s past Translation Talks on SoundCloud and YouTube, featuring exceptional poet-translators in conversation, including Khaled Mattawa & Sarah Riggs; Ani Gjika & Dunya Mikhail; Ali Kinsella, Dzvinia Orlowsky, & Mira Rosenthal; Valzhyna Mort & Erin Moure; and Manolis Aligizakis & Sharon Dolin.

Stay tuned for the announcement of the 2024 Griffin Poetry Prize Longlist on March 20, 2024.

Shut Up & Write! with QWF (Virtual)
2024-03-02 10:00 - 12:30 | Online – Please RSVP to receive a Zoom link
Saturday, March 2, 10:00 am–12:30 pmOnline via Zoom—RSVP below to receive the 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.

The Zoom link will be sent out a day or two before the session.

Please note that these sessions are designed for silent writing, rather than discussing or getting feedback on work.

10:00–10:25: Writing 110:25–10:30: Break10:30–10:55: Writing 210:55–11:00: Break11:00–11:25: Writing 311:25–11:30: Break11:30–11:55: Writing 411:55–12:00: Break12:00–12:25: Writing 5

To receive the Zoom link, RSVP below. You will receive the Zoom link a few days before the session.

Note: RSVPs for virtual Shut Up & Write! sessions close 24 hours before the session. If there is no option to RSVP, RSVPs are closed.

Confabulation presents: Lies I told my parents — Stories of missed curfews, careful omissions and getting caught red-handed
2024-03-02 20:00 - 22:00 | Centaur Theatre, 453 St. Francois-Xavier, Montreal, Quebec, HZY 2T1, Canada
Confabulation Montreal presents: “Lies I told my parents — Stories of missed curfews, careful omissions and getting caught red-handed.”
Saturday March 2, 2024 @ 20h
Centaur Theatre, 453 Saint Francois Xavier St, Montreal, Quebec H2Y 2T2
Get your tickets right here: https://centaurtheatre.com/box-office/event-details/?event_id=S55confablies

Writing Comic Poetry: Seriously?!
2024-03-04 18:00 - 20:00, 2024-03-11 18:00 - 20:00 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
Can a poem be funny? Can we balance the light and the dark, find hilarity in a haiku? What is the value of play in creation? In this workshop, participants will be encouraged to explore the place of humour in their work, through guided readings, discussions, and exercises.

Writers of all levels, from beginner to seasoned, are welcome, and you may use whatever tools you prefer, from laptops to paper and a pen. Each workshop will begin with a reading and discussion of a poem provided by the workshop leader, followed by a writing session. Participants are encouraged but not required to share their works-in-progress with the group. You are also encouraged to bring to our meetings drafts of poems-in-progress, or any writing you may wish to shape into a poem.

Identifying what makes you laugh is key to sharpening your own wit, so a week prior to the workshop you will be asked to select a poem from a provided list. During the first meeting, be prepared to explain why this poem made you guffaw, laugh, or perhaps just chuckle. Was it the surprising wordplay? An unexpected juxtaposition? The poet’s subversion of your expectations?

Through writing prompts and exercises (both collaborative and individualized), we will play with form, persona, and language. While humour is subjective, this workshop will be a safe space, with respectful feedback provided by the instructor and the group.

Rebecca Păpucaru‘s first novel, As Good a Place as Any, will be published by Guernica Editions in 2025. Her first book, The Panic Room (Nightwood Editions) was awarded the 2018 Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Poetry and was also a finalist for the A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry and longlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. Her short story “Yentas” won The Malahat Review’s 2020 Novella Prize. Her work has also appeared in The Best Canadian Poetry in English, Arc, EVENT, Grain, The Literary Review of Canada, Canadian Literature, and The New Quarterly, among others.

Memoir: How to Tell Your Story
2024-03-04 20:00 - 22:00, 2024-03-11 20:00 - 22:00 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
Each of us has a story to tell. We all have memories. But how do you take what you’ve experienced and turn it into something more than a conversation in a bar? How do you find the weight that is in each of our lives and stories?

In this workshop we’ll focus on transforming the personal into something that reaches beyond.

Here’s a loose outline of how we’ll approach it.

Week 1

What is a story? What makes the telling a story and not just words spilling onto a page?

Week 2

How to get at that story that burns within?

Week 3

The hook, part 1: First impressions are critical

Week 4

The hook, part 2: Developing the critical eye

Week 5

Beyond copy editing: How do you know which voice is the right voice? You have to listen carefully. The story knows.

Week 6

Attack 1: You’ve written your story. We’re here to tell you we don’t like it. What are you going to do about it?

Week 7

Attack 2: Why is the story not working – or, better still, why is it working?

Week 8

Writer vs Author: writing to write or writing to get published. Why it matters.

Along the way, there will be exercises, discussions, writing, revising, reading of each other’s work, and good fun.

Eddy L. Harris is a perpetual traveler, a filmmaker and the author of seven critically acclaimed books, all of which partake of memoir, adventure tale, travelogue and cultural reportage.

He spent four years as Writer-in-Residence at Washington University teaching Black American Literature and writing classes structured as workshops. That was followed by a stint on the Nez Perce Indian reservation in northern Idaho and a documentary project he wrote and presented for BBC-Wales: Roots In Wales.

In 2014 he repeated his canoe journey along the Mississippi River which resulted in the award-winning documentary film River to the Heart, which he wrote, produced, and directed.

He has worked most recently as professor of English and Writer-in-Residence at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia

As USA Today put it: “Eddy Harris isn’t your everyday tourist. His travels almost always have a purpose, and that purpose is to write about not only what he sees, but what he feels.”

Unlock Your Filmmaking Dreams: A Short Film Screenwriting Workshop
2024-03-05 20:00 - 22:00, 2024-03-12 20:00 - 22:00 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
This workshop is not just about dreaming—it’s about doing. It’s about equipping you with the tools to transform your creative ideas into compelling short films. Here’s what you can expect to gain from this cooperative experience:

Learn the fundamental skills of crafting engaging and impactful short film screenplays; the principles of character development, plot structure, and dialogue that will make your narrative resonate. Gain insights into the anatomy of a successful screenplays, receive hands-on guidance on structuring your ideas, ensuring your story flows seamlessly from start to finish and receive constructive feedback in a safe environment designed to cultivate a supportive community of fellow aspiring writers.

As you share your thoughts and insights, you will develop the skill of giving and receiving positive, constructive feedback to elevate your work and cultivate a supportive community of fellow writers. This will allow you to articulate your vision effectively, convey the essence of your screenplay with impact and hone the art of pitching your ideas confidently and persuasively.

How to apply?

Submit your CV, a paragraph detailing your previous creative writing experience and a paragraph describing the story you would like to develop as a screenplay of no more than ten script pages – equivalent to ten minutes of screen time. Adaptations of stories from other forms is encouraged. Send all your submissions materials in one email to Riley at riley@qwf.org with the subject line “For Jacob Potashnik” by Friday, February 16.

Through a series of ten, two-hour sessions, you will identify and refine the core elements of your story and develop your ideas and receive constructive group feedback. You will progress from story idea to an outline, treatment, a dialogued version, to your final draft screenplay. There is an emphasis on oral presentation of ideas and active participation for all participants.

Seize Your Spot! Spaces are limited, so act now to secure your place in this exciting QWF Short Film Screenwriting Workshop.

Jacob Potashnik is a screenwriter and producer and line-producer of documentaries, television series, commercials, web content and films of every genre. In 2019, Jacob co-produced, “Pink Lake,” a feature film which screened at international festivals in Vancouver, Hamilton, and Durban. Jacob won the WGC award for the best screenplay for, “Stardom,” co-written and directed by Denys Arcand. He is the author of, “The Golem of Hampstead, and Other Stories,” a collection short-listed for the QWF/Concordia University First Book prize.

Writers Read presents Laurie Graham, Derek Beaulieu, and Jana Prikryl
2024-03-06 11:00 - 17:00 | 4TH SPACE, McConnell Building, Concordia University, 1400 de Maisonneuve Boulevard West, Montreal, Quebec, H3G 1M8, Canada
Writers Read, a reading series based at Concordia University, is eager to feature a professional panel of outstanding writers: poet and publisher of Brick Magazine Laurie Graham, poet, publisher, anthologist and Banff’s poet laureate Derek Beaulieu, and poet and executive editor of the New York Review of Books Jana Prikryl. The panel will take place from 11am-1pm, in which Graham, Beaulieu, and Prikryl will discuss how to make a career through writing. From 1:00-2:30, light refreshments will be served as members from Concordia’s graduate literary journal, Headlight Anthology, perform a reading. Finally, from 2:30-5:00, Graham, Beaulieu, and Prikryl will read their own work. This event is free and open to all. If attendees can not be present for the whole event, they are welcome to attend as much as they can.

Writers Read is part of Concordia University’s Creative Writing program and is supported by the Department of English and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Writers Read, directed by Professor Sina Queyras since 2011, invites renowned and emerging authors, both Canadian and international, to read from and discuss their work with students and local audiences. In addition to readings, the series includes Master Classes and professional developmental activities spanning the school year.

For more information, follow @writersreadconcordia on Instagram

Edit Your Own Prose: The Art of Rewriting
2024-03-06 18:00 - 20:00 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
You’ve written a first draft of your novel or your memoir. You know you need to rework it, but you’re stuck. It doesn’t quite work, but you are not sure why. Rewriting the opening over and over isn’t helping. So, what should you do?

In this workshop, you’ll learn how to see your own work with an editor’s eye using tips, tricks, and hands-on exercises.

The workshop will focus on big-picture issues, including story line, character development, and genre expectations, and help you bring the story alive on the page through rhythm, effective dialogue, and language choices.

Through the course of the workshop, you’ll learn how to:

Spot common big-picture problems (info dumping, “as you know, Bob” explanations, insufficient conflict, misunderstanding genre conventions, etc.)

Track character development (goals and motivation)

See the advantages and pitfalls of different points of view

Make the most out of dialogue

Play with language and develop your imagination

This workshop is geared toward fiction and creative nonfiction book-length manuscripts.

By the end of the workshop, you’ll better understand what isn’t working in your manuscript and how to fix it, and, hopefully, have learned to love the rewriting process.

Maria Schamis Turner is a freelance editor specializing in developmental editing and line editing for fiction and creative nonfiction. She is a founding editor and previous editor-in-chief and creative nonfiction editor of the literary magazine carte blanche. She worked for 10 years on literary projects for CBC Radio, including as an editor for Canada Writes. She was also the producer of the true-story storytelling series This Really Happened and has taught numerous workshops on storytelling, writing, and editing.

Speaking Truth to Power: How to Write Non-Didactic Political Poetry
2024-03-06 20:00 - 22:00 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
This 8-week poetry workshop focuses on writing poetry that engages with social justice and politics without leaning too far into didacticism and prescriptiveness, without sounding too preachy or like a chant in a march. This workshop intends to show writers how to subtly pack a punch into a poem that leaves the reader breathless, surprised, and moved. We will be doing this by exploring different formal approaches that will help add nuance and singularity to the poems we will be writing.

Each week, we’ll be discussing a different formal approach, including:

Direct address/letter poems

Filtering through a lens

Writer as expert

Research

Found poetry/Erasure poetry

Villanelle, the ghazal, and the power of repetition

Experimental poetry

We will be doing so by reading and discussing poems that utilize specific formal approaches based on the topic set for the week. Some of the writers we will be reading include Hanif Abdurraqib, Chen Chen, Canisia Lubrin, Trish Salah, Tommy Pico, Kay Gabriel, Dionne Brand, and Hala Alyan.

Furthermore, each week, workshop participants will be given writing prompts that will help them learn about the different forms and formal approaches discussed. The prompts will guide the participants in attempting to write poems using that week’s form. Finally, 1-2 writers will have their poems workshopped each week. Attendees will be asked to send in their poems a week in advance so that their peers can start workshopping the pieces at home a week in advance.This workshop is open to poets in any stage of their development, whether they are new to writing or already have a writing practice. The goal of the workshop is for participants to leave the workshop with a deeper understanding of the ways form and craft can be used to write more impactful and unique poems that engage with social justice and undermine the white, cis, colonial patriarchal status quo. This workshop will be especially useful for writers who feel they have something to say but don’t know how to say it.Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch is a writer, translator, and acquisitions editor at Metonymy Press living in Tio’tia:ke. Their work has appeared in The Best Canadian Poetry 2018 anthology, The New Quarterly, Arc Poetry Magazine, and elsewhere. Their book, knot body, published by Metatron Press in 2020, was shortlisted for the QWF Concordia First Book Award, and their second book, The Good Arabs, published by Metonymy Press in 2021, was received honorary mention for the Arab American Book Awards and the Khayrallah Prize, and won the Grand Prix du Livre de Montréal. Their translation of Gabrielle Boulianne-Tremblay’s La fille d’elle-même from the French was published in Spring 2023. With co-editor Samia Marshy, they are editing El Ghourabaa, an anthology of queer and trans writing by Arab and Arabophone writers, forthcoming Spring 2024.

Infinithéâtre Presents: Dominoes at the Crossroads
2024-03-07 00:00 - 2024-03-16 23:59 | 3680 rue Jeanne-Mance, Montreal, Quebec, H2X2K5, Canada
March 7–March 16

Presenting the world premiere production of Dominoes at the Crossroads, based on the novel by Kaie Kellough and adapted and directed by Zach Fraser in collaboration with a team of multidisciplinary artists.

Exploring race, history, and coming-of-age by way of confessions and dreams, Dominoes at the Crossroads offers a poetic ode to an epic and universal search for home and belonging, gently anchored into port here in our eclectic city that is Montréal. Running from March 7th – 16th at 3680 rue Jeanne-Mance in Montréal (H2X 2K5).

Tickets available at: https://www.zeffy.com/en-CA/ticketing/f56d43f8-23be-4a72-b2e1-aca6c64b6cee

Getting Weird: Crafting Surreal Short Stories
2024-03-07 18:00 - 20:00 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
Getting Weird is an 8-week short fiction workshop that focuses on writing strangeness into the everyday, as a method for exploring and disrupting questions of race, gender, sexuality, climate change, capitalism, and other big topics. Participants will read a wide range of writers who delve into the weird, such as Paige Cooper, Giada Scodellaro, Renee Gladman, Hiromi Goto, Mariana Enriquez, Carmen Maria Machado, and Callum Angus. They will be given an array of writing prompts, designed to investigate different aspects of surreal fiction, and will also have the opportunity to give and receive feedback on short pieces of writing.

Weird fiction contains elements of the eerie, the uncanny, and the surreal, and encourages high levels of playfulness and perceptiveness, two key elements of compelling storytelling. Weird fiction can also serve as a strong vehicle for writers from underrepresented groups to remake the world in ways that decenter white, colonial, hetero-cis-normative worldviews. Prompts will include the following topics:

Weird micro-fiction

Engaging the senses

Weirdness at work (parsing the rituals of capitalism and labour)

Gender euphoria/queer weirdos

Reworking ancestral mythologies

Dream logics

Participants will receive prompts the week before each session (except before the first meeting), and will be given a rota (workshopping schedule) in advance. Each participant will have at least one opportunity to submit one piece of writing (up to 2000 words) to the group, which will be discussed in-session by their peers, with additional feedback provided by the instructor. These submissions should be based on one or more of the prompts given in the workshop. Participants should be prepared to do the following homework between sessions: responding to writing prompts, reading one assigned piece of fiction, providing feedback to their peers.

This workshop is open to new fiction writers, as well as writers who already have a developed fiction practice. Participants should emerge from the workshop with one or two solid short story drafts, and a confidence in their ability to unsettle the status quo on the page.

H Felix Chau Bradley is the author of Personal Attention Roleplay (Metonymy Press), which was a finalist for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award and the Kobo Rakuten Emerging Writer Prize in 2022; and the chapbook Automatic Object Lessons (House House Press). Their writing has appeared in carte blanche, ESPACE art actuel, the Humber Literary Review, Maisonneuve Magazine, the Montreal Review of Books, PRISM International, Weird Era, Xtra and elsewhere. They live in Tiohtià:ke (Montreal), and work as an editor for Metonymy Press, This Magazine, and Le Sigh. They were recently awarded QWF’s carte blanche Prize.

Launch of Mechanophilia with Sarah Burgoyne, Misha Solomon, & Bridget Huh
2024-03-07 19:00 | Librairie Pulp Books & Cafe, 3952 Wellington Street, Montreal, Quebec, H4G1V3, Canada
Thursday, March 7, 7:00 PMLibrairie Pulp Books & Cafe3952 Rue Wellington, Montreal

Join Sarah Burgoyne, Misha Solomon and Bridget Huh at Librairie Pulp on March 7th for the launch of Sarah Burgoyne and Vi Khi Nao’s collaborative mathematical infinite epic poetry book Mechanophilia (Book 1!), hosted by the inimitable Stuart Ross, editor of A Feed Dog Book, an imprint with Anvil Press. Poems will be read, books will be signed, refreshments will appear, and the number pi will unfurl among us in verse. JOIN US FOR A NIGHT OF LOQUACIOUS BALLADEERING.

SARAH BURGOYNE is a Canadian experimental poet. Her second collection, Because the Sun was published with Coach House Books in April 2021 and was nominated for the A.M. Klein Prize in Poetry. Her first collection Saint Twin (Mansfield: 2016) was a finalist for the A.M. Klein Prize in Poetry (2016), awarded a prize from l’Académie de la vie littéraire (2017) and shortlisted for a Canadian ReLit Award. Other works have appeared in journals across Canada and the U.S., have been featured in scores by American composer J.P. Merz and have appeared with or alongside the visual art of Susanna Barlow, Jamie Macaulay and Joani Tremblay. https://www.sarahburgoyne.com

VI KHI NAO (who will not be present this evening, but will be at the online launch March 11) is the author of six poetry collections: Fish Carcass (Black Sun Lit, 2022), A Bell Curve Is A Pregnant Straight Line (11:11 Press, 2021), Human Tetris (11:11 Press, 2019) Sheep Machine (Black Sun Lit, 2018), Umbilical Hospital (Press 1913, 2017), The Old Philosopher (winner of the Nightboat Prize for 2014), and of the short stories collection, A Brief Alphabet of Torture (winner of the 2016 FC2’s Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize), the novel, Fish in Exile (Coffee House Press, 2016). Her work includes poetry, fiction, film and cross-genre collaboration. She was the Fall 2019 fellow at the Black Mountain Institute: https://www.vikhinao.com

MISHA SOLOMON is a homosexual poet in and of Tiohtià:ke/Montréal. He is the author of two chapbooks, FLORALS and Full Sentences, and his work has recently appeared or is forthcoming in Best Canadian Poetry 2024, & Change, The Antigonish Review, The Fiddlehead, Grain, The Malahat Review, and PRISM international.

BRIDGET HUH is a queer Korean poet completing her undergraduate studies at Concordia University. Her poetry and criticism have appeared in Arc Poetry Magazine, PRISM International, The Ex-Puritan and Canthius. She is the winner of the 2023 Vallum Poetry Award, and her debut collection of poetry is forthcoming from Véhicule Press.

Speculative Fiction Master Class: Readying Your Work for Publication
2024-03-07 20:00 - 22:00 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
As in all of my workshops, speculative fiction is defined broadly to include anything from science fiction to fantasy to slipstream to magic realism. Participants are free to submit a short story, an excerpt from a larger work, a script, speculative poetry, a comic, or graphic novel excerpt.

The workshop will consist of ten sessions so as to give each participant the opportunity to workshop their piece twice: once for initial feedback and a second time once revisions have been made. We will begin by having each workshop member introduce themselves and their project, including their intentions. Following these introductions, I will give a brief presentation on different vectors of analysis in evaluating a piece, including:

story, plot arc, and pacingworldbuildingcharacter, POV, voice, and tonedescriptions and other issues of language and writing qualitytheme and meaning/intention

beginnings and endings

In week 1, we will workshop a very short story that participants should read before we meet: Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.” In discussing this story, participants will have the opportunity to practice both the workshopping method and vectors of analysis that we will be employing during subsequent sessions.

In weeks 2 through 9, we will workshop two to three submissions at each session. There will also be discussions and exchanges on a topic or topics related to one or more of the vectors of analysis mentioned in the first session. These topics will not be determined in advance, but will flow organically from the submissions discussed that particular week.

The last session will be reserved for an in-depth presentation on maximizing your chances of publication, including a list of resources, and a guest presentation by a speculative fiction publisher. I will also answer any new questions that may have arisen in previous sessions.

*This workshop will take place at the QWF Office (Room 3, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Westmount, Quebec) with up to 2 virtual spots for participants who are unable to attend in-person. By default, all workshop registrations are for in-person spots. If you would like to attend the workshop via Zoom, first email Riley (riley@qwf.org) to see if online spots are still available for this workshop, and then wait for confirmation. Virtual spots are limited and are reserved for people who either live outside Montreal or have a medical condition.

Su J Sokol is a writer of speculative and interstitial fiction as well as an editor. Xe is the author of three novels: Cycling to Asylum, long-listed for the Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic and optioned for a film; Run J Run; and Zee, a finalist for the Janet Savage Blachford Prize for Children’s and Young Adult Literature. Les lignes invisibles, the French translation of Cycling to Asylum, was published in 2022 by VLB Imaginaire. Sokol’s short fiction and essays have appeared in various magazines and anthologies.

Shut Up & Write! with QWF (In Person)
2024-03-08 12:30 - 15:00 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
Friday, March 8, 12:30 pm–3:00 pmFree, In PersonQWF Office (Room 3, 1200 Atwater Ave., Westmount)

Register for the session by filling out the RSVP form below.

Looking for some dedicated, quiet writing space?

Join us for an in-person Shut Up & Write session at the QWF office!

Do all that writing you’ve been meaning to do, and meet a few of your fellow QWF members. Using the Pomodoro technique, participants write in 25 minute bursts, with 5-minute breaks in between.

This event is for QWF members only. Not a member? Learn about becoming a member.

Please note that these sessions are designed for silent writing, rather than discussing or getting feedback on work.

12:30–12:55: Writing 112:55–1:00: Break1:00–1:25: Writing 21:25–1:30: Break1:30–1:55: Writing 31:55–2:00: Break2:00–2:25: Writing 42:25–2:30: Break2:30–2:55: Writing 5

To register, RSVP below.

Getting to the QWF Office

Our office is located on the top floor of the Atwater Library and Computer Centre, in Room 3.

Address: 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3Westmount, QC H3Z 1X4

Closest Metro: Atwater Station

Closest Bus lines: 24, 63, 90, 104, 138, 144, 150

Accessibility:

The QWF Office is fully accessible by wheelchair from the side entrance on Tupper Street. Once inside, there is an elevator to the second floor, where the QWF office is.

Learn more about the office location and accessibility.

Writing Biography: A One-Day Creative Nonfiction Workshop
2024-03-09 10:30 - 16:30 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
“Biography is a metaphor. It’s not the person’s life; it’s writing about a person’s life.”

–Benjamin Moser, author of a biography of Susan Sontag

This workshop aims to introduce participants to the art and science of writing the story of another person’s life. After unpacking the notion of “biography” and examining examples of different approaches, the workshop will focus on the challenges and methodologies of biographical investigation, research, and writing. Participants are invited to bring to the workshop a favourite book-length biography and, if possible, to briefly present the subject of a biography that they would like to write.

Morning (10.30 am – 1 pm):

Introductory remarks and participant introductions

Biography as creative nonfiction (As opposed to memoir, autobiography, auto-fiction, or fiction).

“My favourite biography.” Each participant, beginning with the workshop leader, briefly presents a favourite book-length biography. (Participants are invited to prepare these brief presentations before coming to the workshop and, if possible, to bring in a copy of the book they wish to highlight.)

Discussion

Afternoon (2 pm – 4.30 pm):

The research and writing process. (Including a breakdown of the workshop leader’s research, methodology, and writing process for his two award-winning published biographies.)

“My future biography.” Each participant briefly presents the subject of a biography they would like to write, with emphasis on the “why” and the “how,” describing how they would go about doing it and the pitfalls they might anticipate.

Discussion and wrap-up

Suggested reading: Robert A. Caro, Working: Researching, Interviewing, Writing. Penguin Random House, 2019.

Marc Raboy is a former print and broadcast journalist, emeritus professor of media studies, and author or editor of some twenty books, including the award-winning biographies: Marconi: The Man Who Networked the World, finalist for the 2016 Governor General’s Literary Awards, and Looking for Alicia: The Unfinished Life of an Argentinian Rebel, which won the 2022 QWF Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction. He lives in Montréal and Abercorn, Qc.

Business Skills for Creative Souls Artists’ Conference: “Strategies for Thriving as an Artist”
2024-03-11 12:30 - 17:00 | Unitarian Church of Montreal, 5035 Boulevard de Maisonneuve Ouest, Montreal, QC, Canada
March 11, 2024, 12:30–5:00 pmUnitarian Church of Montreal, 5035 Boulevard de Maisonneuve OuestMontreal, QC

Calling all creatives! Unlock Your Artistic Potential: Join the Business Skills for Creative Souls Artists’ Conference: “Strategies for Thriving as an Artist”!

Join a vibrant community of visionaries at our artists conference, where we delve into the keys to unlocking your full artistic potential. Dive into dynamic sessions on cultivating creativity, overcoming challenges, and mastering the business of art. Connect with seasoned professionals, gain insights into navigating the evolving art landscape, and leave inspired to thrive as an artist. Don’t miss your chance to grow as an artist —reserve your spot now!

This year’s event, hosted by CBC’s Sonali Karnick, features an exciting lineup of panelists eager to share their artistic journeys with you! Topics include strategies for thriving as artist: earning a livable income as an artist, balancing life and personal career, and building your artistic brand.

Panel 1: Strategies for Earning A Livable Income

Cara Carmina (illustrator/designer/entrepreneur)

Sylvie Trouvé and Dale Hayward (animators and educators)

Lacy Alana (circus artist/writer/psychotherapist/Founder of YesAndBrain)

Tam Lan Truong (classical music photographer)

Keynote: The Artist’s Balance: Managing Personal Life and Artistic Career: Victoria Sanchez (actress/filmmaker)

Panel 2: The Art of Exposure: Building Your Artist Brand

Stephen Voyce (multi-award-winning recording artist)

Liana Cusmano (writer/spoken word artist/educator)

Carolina Echeverria (visual artist, feminist activist, and artistic director)

Blair Thomson (composer/arranger/pianist)

When: Monday March 11th, 2024

Where: Unitarian Church of Montreal (5035 Boulevard de Maisonneuve West, easy access from Vendôme Metro on the Orange Line)

Schedule:

12:30 PM: On-site Registration

1-5 PM: Artist Conference featuring two-panel discussions and a Keynote Speech. Note that the conference will be live-streamed online from 1-5 pm for virtual participants.

5-7 PM: In-person networking event

*In addition, YES provides an exclusive online opportunity in the morning for a 15-minute consultation with renowned arts organizations, including the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Quebec and the Conseil des Arts de Montreal.

Stay tuned for more information!

Don’t miss your chance to thrive—reserve your spot now! Secure Early Bird pricing by registering before March 1st.

Mechanophilia Launch (Online) with Vi Khi Nao & Sarah Burgoyne
2024-03-11 19:00 - 20:30 | Online
Monday, March 11, 7:00–8:30 PMOnline (Register on Eventbrite)

Join Vi Khi Nao and Sarah Burgoyne virtually on March 11th for the launch of their collaborative mathematical infinite epic poetry book Mechanophilia (Volume 1!) edited by the inimitable Stuart Ross who will be hosting the event, and published with Anvil Press. Poems will be read, books may be ordered, and the number pi will be unfurling among us in verse. JOIN US FOR A NIGHT OF LOQUACIOUS BALLADEERING.

VI KHI NAO is the author of six poetry collections: Fish Carcass (Black Sun Lit, 2022), A Bell Curve Is A Pregnant Straight Line (11:11 Press, 2021), Human Tetris (11:11 Press, 2019) Sheep Machine (Black Sun Lit, 2018), Umbilical Hospital (Press 1913, 2017), The Old Philosopher (winner of the Nightboat Prize for 2014), and of the short stories collection, A Brief Alphabet of Torture (winner of the 2016 FC2’s Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize), the novel, Fish in Exile (Coffee House Press, 2016). Her work includes poetry, fiction, film and cross-genre collaboration. She was the Fall 2019 fellow at the Black Mountain Institute: https://www.vikhinao.com

SARAH BURGOYNE is a Canadian experimental poet. Her second collection, Because the Sun was published with Coach House Books in April 2021 and was nominated for the A.M. Klein Prize in Poetry. Her first collection Saint Twin (Mansfield, 2016) was a finalist for the A.M. Klein Prize in Poetry (2016), awarded a prize from l’Académie de la vie littéraire (2017) and shortlisted for a Canadian ReLit Award. Other works have appeared in journals across Canada and the U.S., have been featured in scores by American composer J.P. Merz and have appeared with or alongside the visual art of Susanna Barlow, Jamie Macaulay and Joani Tremblay. https://www.sarahburgoyne.com

A Hundred Hydrangeas: Poetry Soirée & Launch of "Citronella"
2024-03-11 19:30 - 21:00 | Morrin Centre, 44 Chaussée des Écossais, Quebec City, Quebec, G1R 4H3, Canada
Join us on Monday, March 11 for an evening of poetry at the Morrin Centre! We will be celebrating the launch of Loch Baillie’s debut chapbook, “Citronella.” Loch will be joined by Vanessa Bell and Sierra Duffey as well as local poets for a reading. An open mic will follow: all are welcome!
Unable to make it in person? This activity will be offered in a hybrid format so you can join from the comfort of your own home too! For more information, visit www.morrin.org/en/morrin-in-verse

Lunch and Learn: How to Get Translated or Publish Translations
2024-03-13 12:00 - 13:30 | Online – Please RSVP to receive a Zoom link
Wednesday, March 13, 202412:00–1:30 pm ESTOnline via Zoom (RSVP below for Zoom link)

Have you ever wondered about the potential of getting your book translated? Or are you an aspiring translator with an idea for a project for which you’re unsure how to progress?

QWF has you covered in this iteration of our Lunch and Learn series! Renowned translator and author Katia Grubisic (the most recent recipient of the Cole Foundation Prize for Translation) will lead us in this hour-and-a-half session, where she goes over the lifecycle of publishing translations.

Expand the reach of your artistic work by getting a high-level insider view into the wonderful world of literary translation. You are invited to bring all your questions.

Come join us on the 13th of March from 12-1:30pm online via Zoom. Secure your spot by clicking on the RSVP button below, and a Zoom link will be sent to you a few days before the session.

The Facilitator

Katia Grubisic is a writer, editor and translator whose work has appeared in various Canadian and international publications. Her collection What if red ran out was shortlisted for the A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry and won the Gerald Lampert Award for best first book.

Her book translations include Martine Delvaux’s White Out, Stéphane Martelly’s Little Girl Gazelle, and Marie-Claire Blais’s final novels. Her translations of David Clerson’s first novel, Brothers, and of A Cemetery for Bees, by Alina Dumitrescu, were shortlisted for Governor General’s Awards, and her translation of Clerson’s short story collection, To See Out the Night, won the Cole Foundation Prize for Translation.
