Words & Music: Turning the Page
2024-04-17 19:00 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | Adair Auditorium, Atwater Library, 1200 Atwater Avenue (top floor), Montreal, Quebec, H3Z 1T4, Canada
April 17, 20247:00 PM (Doors open at 6:30)Tickets available on Eventbrite and at the door (while tickets last)Free to to watch online (register here)

Buy Tickets

Join us for the Spring 2024 Edition of The Words and Music Show!

Hosted by Johanne Pelletier, Words & Music: Turning the Page will feature Moth-style narrative storytelling with an international cast, with stories about big lessons and finding contentment wherever you are.

Featuring:

Johanne Pelletier (host, curator)

Kadi Diop (Montreal)

Kurt Mullen (Boston)

Ronna J Levy (Brooklyn)

Claire Sherwood (Montreal)

Watch Online

The event will be livestreamed using the auditoriums A/V equipment and be free to watch on Zoom. Register now to watch it online.

For the full experience, buy your tickets on Eventbrite to attend in person. Tickets will also be for sale at the door (cash or e-transfer only) while tickets last.

The Performers

Kadi Diop is a half-Guinean, half-Senegalese queer, fat, bilingual, and multi-hyphenate comedian and storyteller. She is also a long-time community organizer, a sexology student, and the former French Education Director and French Inclusion and Diversity coordinator at Montreal Improv. She has performed at OFF-JFL, Zoofest, the Black and Funny Improv Festival, Ottawa Improv festival, Montreal Sketchfest, MProv, and Ladyfest. Kadi performs improv and storytelling regularly in Montreal on various teams, is one half of the sketch duo Inside Scoop, and a doting/annoying auntie.

Ronna J Levy is an award-winning Brooklyn-based storyteller, story coach, producer, and Boston Red Sox fan. She is a newly retired English professor and has happily made the shift from telling stories in the classroom to telling stories on the stage. She has appeared on WGBH’s Stories from The Stage, RISK!, is a two-time Moth Story SLAM winner, and co-hosts and produces a monthly open mic in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Kurt Mullen is an award-winning storyteller, writer, teacher, editor, and producer. He has appeared on WGBH’s Stories from the Stage, RISK!, and the GRIT: True Stories podcast. In magazines, literary journals and anthologies, Kurt has written about soldiers coming home from war, about his own personal loss and grief, and about the quirky folks who like to go it alone in this world. Kurt lives in Newburyport, Massachusetts, with his wife, Amy Ruth. Learn more about Kurt’s work at www.kurtmullen.com.

Claire Sherwood is a Montreal writer, visual collage poet, and storyteller. Her short fiction and poetry have appeared in Minority Reports: New English Writing in Quebec, Kola Magazine, Zettel Magazine, Helios, My Island My City, and What Lasts. Her collage-poems have been exhibited at Montreal, Toronto, and eastern Canada. She has appeared in storytelling line-ups with Confabulation and at Blue Metropolis with This Really Happened.

The Host

Johanne Pelletier is an award-winning storyteller working in communications in Montreal. She teaches storytelling concepts to scientists and start-ups and is a regular performer of her own writing at shows in Canada and the U.S. She is the first Canadian to have one of her stories featured on Stories From the Stage at WGBH Studios, is the winner of the GRIT 99-Second Story Grand SLAM, and the first storyteller to be a finalist for the QWF Spoken Word Prize. For more and the stories, see www.jpelletier.ca.

Getting to the Venue

The show will be held at the Adair Auditorium on the top floor of the Atwater Library and Computer Centre (1200 Atwater Avenue, Westmount).

Address: 1200 Atwater Avenue (top floor)Westmount, QC H3Z 1X4

Closest Metro: Atwater Station

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

Accessibility:

The Adair Auditorium is fully accessible by wheelchair from the side entrance on Tupper Street. Once inside, there is an elevator to the second floor where the auditorium is. Watch a video tour of the accessible entrance and elevator.

Buy Tickets

Register to Watch online

Speaking Truth to Power: How to Write Non-Didactic Political Poetry
2024-04-17 20:00 - 22:00, 2024-04-24 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.

Poetic Attention
2024-04-18 14:00 - 2024-04-19 17:00 | Thomson House, McGill University, 3650 rue McTavish, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
April 18–April 19, 2024

Register for Poetry Matters’ Poetic Attention event.

In the spirit of conversation and collaborative thinking, Poetry Matters is pleased to host a free in-person event, April 18-19, at McGill University’s Thomson House, 3650 rue McTavish (space accessible) on the topic of poetic attention, leading from the work of Lucy Alford (Forms of Poetic Attention, Columbia UP, 2020). Bringing together academic and poetic communities, the event explores the enigmatic concept of “poetic attention.” From different standpoints, we consider what this idea might mean and achieve in our days of the attention economy.

Events include:

A keynote lecture from Sarah Wylie Krotz, Director of the Centre for Literatures in Canada at the University of Alberta, On slowness and symbiosis: following lichens (11:30)

A nature walk with Yvonne Hung, Director, McGill Writing Centre (1:30)

Readings from poets Louise Dupré, Joel A. Harris, Lee Kathryn Hodge, Chad Norman, and Derek Webster

Full Schedule

Thursday, April 18, 2024

2:00–4:00 pmWorkshop with Chad Norman: “seeing the small”Register for the workshop here.

Friday, April 19, 2024

10:30–11:30 amWelcome and opening remarks on “poetic attention”11:30 am–12:45 pmKeynote lecture by Sarah Wylie Krotz, Director of the Centre for Literatures in Canada, University of Alberta (“on slowness and symbiosis: following lichens”12:45–1:30 pmLunch break (lunch provided)Exhibit by Montreal artist Kevin Jenne1:30–2:30 pmNature walk with Yvonne Hung, Director, McGill Writing Centre,on writing and attention (weather permitting, outside)2:30–3:00 pmBreak3:00–4:30 pmPoetry readings from Louise Dupré, Joel Anthony Harris, Lee Hodge, Chad Norman, and Derek Webster4:30–5:00 pmQ&A, discussion, closing remarks

Getting Weird: Crafting Surreal Short Stories
2024-04-18 18:00 - 20:00, 2024-04-25 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.

Poets for Palestine
2024-04-18 18:30 - 19:00 | Librairie Pulp Books & Cafe, 3952 Wellington Street, Montreal, Quebec, H4G1V3, Canada
April 4 & April 18, 7:00 pm

Two evenings of poetry on Thursday April 4th and 18th at 7 pm. Each evening, four Quebec poets will not only read their own poems but those of Palestinian poets as well. The Palestinian Poets are Abu Toha, Remi Kanazi, Hala Alyan, Ahlam Bsharat, Dalia Taha and Refaat Alareer.

The aim of the event is to raise consciousness about the role of the poet in the ongoing struggle for peace and justice and to show that the creative act is also an act of giving voice to those who can’t.

Curated by Carolyn Marie Souaid and Endre Farkas.

Featuring

April 4

Fortner Anderson

Misha Solomon

Carolyn Marie Souaid

Meryem Yildiz

April 18

Endre Farkas

Liz Howard

Zeina Jhais

Steve Luxton

There will also be a raffle and a passing of a hat for donations. All proceeds will go to the PCRF (Palestinian Children Relief Fund).

Book Launch: National Animal by Derek Webster
2024-04-18 19:00 | De Stiil Booksellers, 351 Avenue Duluth, Montreal, Quebec, H2W1J3, Canada
Thursday, April 18, 2024, 7:00 pm EDT

Librairie De Stiil and Véhicule Press invite you to the launch of Derek Webster’s new collection of poetry, National Animal. The event will start at 7 p.m. and feature readings and conversation, and is free and open to all. Refreshments will be served.

National Animal, Derek Webster’s second book of poetry, inhabits a wider public space than his acclaimed debut Mockingbird. In poems that extend beyond the biographical toward the political, Webster’s quiet, sharp-eyed narrator—a man “tripping / my way forward, trying to lead my own life”—watches history being erased in favour of more socially palatable ideas and comforting self-portraits. Uncompromising and substantial, National Animal explores our “civic moment” where “birds sing oblivion / estranged from all things,” and meditates, in a final image-rich sequence, on our place in a science-based cosmos.

Derek Webster’s Mockingbird (2015) was a finalist for the Gerald Lampert Award for best first book of poems in Canada. He received an MFA from Washington University in St. Louis, where he studied with Carl Phillips, and was the founding editor of Maisonneuve magazine. He lives in Montreal and Toronto.

Speculative Fiction Master Class: Readying Your Work for Publication
2024-04-18 20:00 - 22:00, 2024-04-25 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)
2024-04-19 12:30 - 15:00 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
Friday, April 19, 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.

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Writing Residencies!
2024-04-20 10:30 - 12:30, 2024-04-27 10:30 - 12:30 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
Have you ever longed to get away to write? Do you have a manuscript that needs uninterrupted time and attention away from your everyday life? Is your writing practice in a rut? Writing residencies are ideal for focusing time on large projects, meeting other artists, and re-booting your creative life.

In this two-day workshop, we will explore how writers can benefit from different residency opportunities and how to put forward the strongest application possible. From sharing resources on where to find the best residency experience for your needs to drafting your artist statement, we will discuss the benefits and pitfalls of both national and international residencies. During the workshop sessions, we will also touch on available grant funding for residencies. Participants will leave with a shortlist of residencies (with deadlines), a draft of an application, and a submission plan.

In the first session we will discuss:

· The purpose of residencies

· Different kinds of residency experiences and what to expect

· Where and how to find out about residencies

· Opportunities in Canada and internationally

· The basic components of an application

· Budgeting for a residency and funding

Between sessions, you will choose a residency and draft your application. At the second meeting, you will share your project description or artist statement. Through group discussion, we will hone and help each other strengthen and clarify goals.

Marcia Walker’s writing has appeared in Electric Literature’s Recommended Reads, The Chicago Review, The New Quarterly, Fiddlehead, The New York Times, PRISM International, Room, EVENT, The Globe and Mail, CBC radio, and elsewhere. She has been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, PRISM’s fiction and non-fiction prize, and the Writers’ Union of Canada short prose competition. She has attended residencies at Yaddo (U.S.), the Banff Centre (Canada), Saari (Finland), Can Serrat (Spain), KH Messen (Norway) and others. Before becoming a writer, Marcia worked in theatre and as a lawyer. Find her online at www.marciawalker.ca.

Book Launch: Vancouvered Out by Norman Nawrocki
2024-04-20 16:00 | Milton Parc Community Library, 3518 avenue du Parc, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Saturday, April 20, 2024, 4:00 pm ET

Acclaimed Montreal author Norman Nawrocki launches his exciting and timely new novella, Vancouvered Out, Saturday April 20, 2024 at the Milton-Parc Community Library, 3516 ave du Parc, Montreal, H2X 2H7. The 4pm launch is free.

Vancouvered Out (Nawrocki’s 17th book) is a dramatic and timely story about roots, gentrification, housing rights, community and the fight for a city. Although the story is set in Vancouver, the issues it raises concern Montrealers also. We see the city through the eyes of Steve, a poor and unemployed labourer. Demons and drug dealers drove him out of town ten years earlier in 2004. Now he’s back seeking a new life and answers to the mysterious death of his teen daughter. But in this west coast paradise he once called home, he feels strangely out-of- place. As the love of family and friends stokes his own smouldering defiance of the new soul- destroying urban order, he aches for justice and a livable city for all.

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Watch Book Trailer

Confabulation presents: Food Fights — Stories of family traditions, minced words and soul food
2024-04-20 20:00 - 22:00 | Mainline Theatre, 3997 St Laurent Blvd, Montreal, Quebec, H2W 1Y4, Canada
Confabulation Montreal presents: “Food Fights — Stories of family traditions, minced words and soul food.”
Saturday April 20, 2024 @ 20h
Mainline Theatre 3997 St Laurent Blvd, Montreal, Quebec H2W 1Y4

Enchanted April: A Poetry Tea
2024-04-21 14:00 - 16:00 | Uplands Culture & Heritage Centre, 9 Spied St., Lennoxville, QC, Canada
Sunday, April 21, 2–4 pm EDT

You are warmly invited to our Poetry Tea on Sunday, April 21, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Uplands Cultural & Heritage Centre, 9 Spied St., Lennoxville. Admission is free, courtesy of Uplands, and tea and treats are complimentary, courtesy of participating poets.

A series of Townships poets will read from their work (2 minutes each).

If you would like to read from your work (if time allows), please email townshipssunRSVP@gmail.com before April 19. You will be asked to limit your reading time to 2 minutes, introduce the poet who reads next after you (name and town of residence), and bring a small plate of treats to be part of the buffet.

This event is organized in celebration of the National Poetry Month, and co-sponsored by the Townships Sun, Uplands Cultural & Heritage Centre, Quebec Writers’ Federation, Lennoxville Library, & Write Here, Write Now!

Happy Poetry Month!

RSVP on FAcebook

Poetry Express with Stuart Ross
2024-04-21 15:00 - 17:00 | Morrin Centre, 44 Chaussée des Écossais, Quebec City, Quebec, G1R 4H3, Canada
Stuart Ross is recipient of the Trillium Book Award, the Harbourfront Festival Prize, the Relit
Prize for Short Fiction and the Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Poetry, among others. He has authored over twenty books of poetry, fiction, and essays, the more recent being a book of poetry – Motel of the Opposable Thumbs. Ross runs the surrealist poetry imprint “A Feed Dog Book” through Anvil Press and the experimental fiction imprint “1366 Books” through Guernica Editions. He has been writer in residence at Queen’s University and the University of Ottawa, and has given readings internationally.
On April 21 2024 Stuart Ross will be giving a poetry reading and workshop in Quebec City at the Morrin Centre, 15h-17h. Register via the Morrin Centre’s Eventbrite portal https://www.morrin.org/en/event/my-morrin-stuart-ross/.

Writing Comic Poetry: Seriously?!
2024-04-22 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.

2024 Annual General Meeting
2024-04-22 19:00 | Adair Auditorium, Atwater Library, 1200 Atwater Avenue (top floor), Montreal, Quebec, H3Z 1T4, Canada
The Quebec Writers’ Federation Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held

Wednesday, April 24, 2024 at 7:00 pm ESTatAdair Auditorium, Atwater Library1200 Atwater Avenue (top floor)and online via Zoom

At the meeting, the President will review the year’s activities and the Executive Director will present the financial report. An election will be held for the Board of Directors for the coming year—April 2024 to April 2025. If you wish to nominate someone for a position on the Board, or to put your own name forward, please contact Riley Palanca (riley@qwf.org) and request the Introduction for Potential Board Members document and a nomination form. Completed nomination forms, including the signatures of two other QWF members, must be submitted to Riley by Friday, April 11, 2025.

Please note that you must be a member in good standing to be eligible to run for the board, nominate someone for the board, or vote at the AGM.

Agenda

7:00-7:15: Schmoozing

7:15: Call to order

Report from the outgoing QWF President, Tawhida Tanya Evanson

Financial report, presented by the QWF Executive Director, Lori Schubert

Election or acclamation of new Board of Directors

Registration

To register, fill out the RSVP form at the bottom of this page. Please indicate whether you will be attending in person or online via Zoom. If attending online, you’ll receive a link to the Zoom meeting a day or two before the meeting takes place.

Registration will close on Wednesday, April 22, at 5:00 pm EST. If you would like to register to attend after registration has closed, please contact John Wickham at john@qwf.org to be put on the attendance list. Please include in your email whether you’d like to attend in person or over Zoom.

Memoir: How to Tell Your Story
2024-04-22 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.”

Exploring Childhood Through Stories: Writing Picture Books and Early Chapter Books
2024-04-23 18:00 - 20:00 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
This is a workshop for writers interested in writing picture books and early chapter books, and also for illustrators who would like to hone their writing skills.

Writing a good picture book requires the storytelling ability of a novelist and close attention to a clear, simple, and often poetic language pared down to arrive at the essential.

In this workshop we will explore:

Visual literacy as well as verbal literacy, since picture books and early readers rely heavily on both.

Short writing exercises in class to inspire ideas, to reignite the emotions of childhood, and to revisit the landscapes of childhood.

Longer writing exercises at home.

Reading and studying picture books for their structure and the balancing act of words and pictures.

Revising, editing, and submitting manuscripts, including the state of the children’s book publishing industry and new technologies.

Participants should emerge with one or two drafts of a picture book or a first chapter of an early reader.

Bring one or two of your all-time favorite picture books to the first meeting. Be prepared to present each book, read a short passage and explain why it appeals to you.

Bring writing materials. We will be doing short writing exercises that will test your imagination and creativity and awake the visual awareness of childhood.

If you have a picture book manuscript in progress that you would like to submit for discussion and comments, please send a copy (four pages maximum) to riley@qwf.org by March 1. The subject line should read “For Marie-Louise Gay.”

Marie-Louise Gay studied graphic design at L’institut des arts graphiques, animation at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts School, and illustration at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco. She has written and/or illustrated over seventy books for children: board books, picture books, and chapter books. Her books have been published in twenty languages and have won many awards.

She has also written three puppet plays for which she created the sets, puppets, and costumes. Marie-Louise worked as a creative consultant on the scripts and animation of the television series that was created based on her Stella and Sam books. Over the years she has given writing and illustration workshops to children and adults.

Unlock Your Filmmaking Dreams: A Short Film Screenwriting Workshop
2024-04-23 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.

Edit Your Own Prose: The Art of Rewriting
2024-04-24 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.

Book Launch: Summer in Furnished Rooms by Marc Plourde
2024-04-24 19:30 | The Word Bookstore, 469 Milton Street, Montreal, Quebec, H2X 1W3, Canada
Wednesday, April 24, 2024, 7:30 pm EDTThe Word Bookstore (469 rue Milton)

Please join us for the launch of Marc Plourde’s new poetry collection, Summer in Furnished Rooms, from Cormorant Books, with special guest Robyn Sarah.

Robyn edited Marc’s previous collection from Cormorant, and Marc helped her choose poems for her 2017 Selected Poems, Wherever We Mean to Be, from Biblioasis. Robyn will open by reading a few new poems of her own from the spring issue of The New Quarterly, and Marc will read from his new collection.

2024 BLUE METROPOLI S INTERNATIONAL LITERARY FESTIVAL
2024-04-25 16:30 - 2024-04-28 18:00 | Hotel 10, 10 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec, H2X 4C9, Canada
Each year the Festival is structured aroundone theme. In 2024, our theme will be: ”Dreams & Utopias”. Shakespeare inspired us that theme with his famous line ”We are such stuff as dreams are made on”(The Tempest), adding, as you know, ”and our little life is rounded with a sleep”. Now that’s something to think about. If human life is fragile, it is also rich in the imponderable, in mystery, in everything that escapes material things, it is rich in dreams, in short. So many questions arise from that theme, including this one: Can we have confidence in human beings?
Once more, public discussions, roundtables, debates, readings, master classes, and podcasts will provide a rich display for both authors and the public to relish.
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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.

Remember This: Book Launch
2024-04-25 17:00 - 19:00 | Biblio Caf´e, 5853 Sherbrooke St. W., NDG, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Monique Polak launches her latest book for kids, Remember This: The Fascinating World of Memory (Orca). The event is part of the TD-Blue Metropolis 2024 Children’s Festival. Monique’s share of book sales will go to the Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration in Aging. For more information, contact Livres Babar (514) 694-0380.

MacLennan Lecture | Book challenges and their impact on Canadian communities, a round table discussion (hybrid)
2024-04-25 17:30 - 19:00 | McGill University, Leacock Building, Room 26, 855 rue Sherbrooke Ouest, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 2T7, Canada
The Friends of the McGill Library, in partnership with Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival, are pleased to present the 2024 Hugh MacLennan Lecture, a roundtable discussion on book challenges, the Canadian context, the power of community action, and the path forward.
Panelists:
– Michelle Arbuckle, Executive Director of the Ontario Library Association and the chair of Canada’s Book and Periodical Council
– Brendan de Caires, Executive Director of PEN Canada
– Robin Stevenson, award-winning Canadian author
The discussion will be moderated by librarian Joseph Hafner, Associate Dean, Collections at the McGill Libraries.
This event is hybrid. Registrants can select in-person or online attendance. A YouTube link will be sent to those who register for virtual attendance.
The 2024 Hugh MacLennan Lecture is generously supported by Donald Walcot.

Shut Up & Write! with QWF (Virtual)
2024-04-27 10:00 - 12:30 | Online – Please RSVP to receive a Zoom link
Saturday, April 27, 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-minute breaks 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.

Writing/Righting the World
2024-04-27 13:00 | QC
Saturday, April 27, 2024, 1:00 pm EDT

by Quebec Writers’ Federation (QWF), Metropolis Bleu

In this event, Douglas Sanderson (Amo Binashi) and Andrew Stobo Sniderman speak with writer and host of the podcast Getting Lit with Linda, Linda Morra, about their award-winning book, Valley of the Birdtail—a revision of past accounts from two neighbouring communities (Rossburn and the Waywayseecappo) — which illuminates a better path towards reconciliation.

A live recording of a Getting Lit with Linda podcast episode with writer/host, Linda Morra

In partnership between the Blue Metropolis Literary Festival and the Quebec Writer’s Federation

Participants: Andrew Stobo Sniderman, Douglas Sanderson (Amo Binashii)

Host: Linda Morra

Language(s): English

Date and Time: Saturday, April 27th, 2024, 1:00 pm

Venue: Hôtel 10 – Salle Saint-Laurent

Duration: 60 minutes

Event on BlueMetropolis.org

Eighty Thousand Steps
2024-04-27 14:00 | QC
Saturday, April 27, 2024, 2:00 pm EDT

by Secrétariat aux relations avec les Québécois d’expression anglaise, CBC, Metropolis Bleu

CBC presents a first-of-its-kind literary experience, powered by you. Eighty Thousand Steps is a cinematic podcast/audiobook specially designed to listen to while you walk and starring international bestselling author Denise Chong. Writer Crystal Chan presents this work, inviting the audience to step into the shoes of a refugee and journey into a land of fable and mystery. Participants enjoy a guided tour where they can listen to the show together. The tour features several stops, where the author goes behind the scenes to reveal the creative process and the story behind the story. This tour offers insights into oral and intergenerational storytelling, diaspora and migrant literature, and writing political and personal works as embodied experiences. Bring along your smartphone, earbuds or headphones. Throughout the festival, participants can enjoy the full show at cbc.ca/eightythousandsteps and an author discussion between Crystal Chan and Denise Chong in our virtual programming. A family-friendly event (single admission price for an adult with two children under 12).

Rain date: Sunday, April 28th, 2024, 2:00 pm

With the support of the Secrétariat aux relations avec les Québécois d’expression anglaise.

Participants: Crystal Chan, Denise Chong

Language(s): English

Date and Time: Saturday, April 27th, 2024, 2:00 pm

Venue: Hôtel 10 – Meeting point and departure in the lobby

Duration: 60 minutes

Event on BlueMetropolis.org
