Shut Up & Write! with QWF (Virtual)
2026-07-04 10:00 - 12:30, 2026-07-18 10:00 - 12:30, 2026-08-01 10:00 - 12:30, 2026-08-15 10:00 - 12:30, 2026-08-29 10:00 - 12:30 (America/New_York) | Online – Please RSVP to receive a Zoom link
Free, open to QWF members
Register for the session by filling out the RSVP form below.
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 begins. If there is no option to RSVP, RSVPs are closed.

If you are registered but can no longer attend, please email john@qwf.org.

Shut Up & Write! with QWF (In Person)
2026-07-10 12:30 - 15:00, 2026-07-24 12:30 - 15:00, 2026-08-07 12:30 - 15:00, 2026-08-21 12:30 - 15:00 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
Free, open to QWF members
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.

If you registered for the session but can no longer attend, please email john@qwf.org.

Book Launch: It Happened On Harvard Avenue by Cherie Hart
2026-07-11 17:00 - 19:00 | Chez Nick, 1377 Greene Avenue, Westmount, Quebec, Canada
Join Cherie Hart for the launch of her new novel, It Happened On Harvard Avenue, Canadian romp of a romance/mystery that ends in NDG.
The event will have food and wine and music.
Free and open to all. Copies of the book will be available for purchase ($25 each).

Lunch & Learn with QWF
2026-07-14 12:00 - 13:00 | Online – Please RSVP to receive a Zoom link
Register for Zoom link

Looking to learn more about QWF, what we do, and how we can help you as a writer?

Join us for a Lunch & Learn with QWF!

In this quarterly online orientation session, we provide a deep dive into our many programs and services and how we can help you in your writing journey. Whether you’re new to QWF, want to learn about a particular program, or simply want to meet the team, we welcome you to join us.

Riley Palanca (Membership Services Coordinator) will discuss QWF programs and services for emerging and aspiring writers, including our mentorship program, Shut Up & Write writing sessions, and writing workshops.

Lori Schubert (Executive Director) will explain QWF programs and services for more established writers, including the Writers in the Community program, the Hire a Writer Directory, and the QWF Awards.

John Wickham (Communications Manager) will provide a brief tour of the website, highlighting sections and resources that are particularly useful to QWF members.
Zac Remple, QWF’s new Operations Manager, will also be in attendance.

Free and open to all. We hope to see you there!

Register now to get the Zoom link. You’ll receive the link by email shortly after registering.

If you have trouble registering or joining the meeting, contact John Wickham at john@qwf.org.

Lunch & Learn with QWF is our quarterly orientation series to welcome new members and provide an overview of QWF’s activities. The next one after July 14 will be in October. Learn more about our Lunch & Learn series.

Register for Zoom link

Beyond Lovecraft: A Weird Fiction Writing Workshop
2026-07-14 17:00 - 19:00 | Phoenix Books, 5928 Sherbrooke Street West, 5928 Sherbrooke St W, Montreal, QC, H4A 1X7, Canada
Have you always wanted to write a strange and dark tale of your own? Whether you’re new to weird fiction or a passionate acolyte, this two-hour creative writing workshop will give you the tools you need to write in a mode usually associated with H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos. Looking beyond the cosmic horror genre Lovecraft spawned, we will seek inspiration from a range of classic and contemporary writers of the weird, such as Algernon Blackwood, China Miéville, Leena Kohn, and Kelly Link, among others. These authors’ fiction ranges from the Gothic to the surreal and their prose varies from florid and ornate to deceptively simple. While learning how to create a sense of the uncanny, the sublime, and the unknowable, you will leave the workshop with pages of new writing and a seed for your own weird tale.
Workshop offered in English, but participants are welcome to write in the language they are most comfortable with.
Instructor: Matthew Rettino
Please sign up using the Google Form: https://forms.gle/bF3qikV4hZNxvc61A.
$25 fee payment can be made out to Matthew Rettino by Interac etransfer: matthew.rettino@gmail.com.

Book Launch: Nine Bags of Gold
2026-07-16 19:00 | Argo Bookshop, 1841A Ste-Catherine St. West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Join Argo Bookshop for the Montreal launch of Nine Bags of Gold: The Real-Life Hunt for the Lost Treasure of Acadie by Stéphane LeBlanc-Rainville! This event is free, but space is limited, so please RSVP.
Masks are not required, but will be provided for free at the door.
Please contact us at least a day in advance for elevator access to the store.
Please also note that the street in front of the store is under construction. The store is accessible on foot, but not by car, and parking in the vicinity is consequently limited.
ABOUT THE BOOK
In the late 1800s, an elderly man named Simpson travelled from Québec to Moncton, New Brunswick, with a French map from the mid-1700s. The chart, he claimed, pointed to a fortune—nine leather bags of gold—which had been buried in Acadie by mid-eighteenth-century French troops on the run.
Simpson partnered with local excavator Sherman Blakeny. Sponsored by Moncton’s wealthy elite, the two launched a massive search. Dozens of labourers plowed seven acres of land in Irishtown down to a depth of five feet.
What did they find? It’s a question author and skeptic Stéphane LeBlanc-Rainville has spent years researching.
Nine Bags of Gold brings this never-before-told saga of eighteenth-century intrigue to light, excavating age-old legends, furtive protagonists, deathbed confessions, mind-bending plot twists, questionable treasure maps, large-scale digs, and tantalizing cliffhangers.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Stéphane LeBlanc-Rainville earned his PhD from McGill in 2000. He enjoyed a second career as a consulting neuroscientist—most recently for industry—after years in academia. Lately, he turned his focus on his Acadian and Maritimer roots. His first investigative historical non-fiction, Nine Bags of Gold, dives into an ambitious late-1800s treasure hunt near his native Moncton. Stéphane currently lives in the Montréal area with his wife, Farah, and his two children, Gabrielle and Olivier.
RSVP: https://www.ticketsource.com/argo-bookshop/t-oemydrr

Accent Open Mic, Vol. 141
2026-07-19 20:00 | Bar Le Record, 7622 Rue St-Hubert, Montréal, Quebec, H2R 2N6, Canada
Featuring Sena the Queen and David Koloszyc
Theme: Luck
Sign up for the open mic at the door.

July Readings with Montreal Authors
2026-07-22 17:00 - 18:00 | Catanzaro Café, 2754 Saint-Charles Blvd, Kirkland, Montreal, Quebec, H9H 3B6
The Association of Italian-Canadian Writers (AICW) and Accenti Magazine invite you to a Books & Biscotti Literary Event, July 22 from 5 to 6 p.m. (doors open at 4:30 p.m.).
Catanzaro Café, 2754 St-Charles Blvd, Kirkland, QC H9H 3B6
Featuring Montreal authors and poets:

LIANA CUSMANO
LUCIA DE LUCA
FRANCESCA LO DICO
LICIA CANTON
ANNA MERCURI MAIOLO
HEATHER McGUIRE

Light refreshments will be served.
Register at accenti@accenti.ca or 514-329-3254

Youth Book Club at Pulp! Fahrenheit 451
2026-07-22 19:00 - 20:30, 2026-08-26 19:00 - 20:30 | Librairie Pulp Books & Cafe, 3952 Wellington Street, Montreal, Quebec, H4G1V3, Canada
Join Pulp Books summer reading group for teens! We’re reading 2 classics this summer, starting with Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury on July 22nd, and followed up with The Giver by Lois Lowry on August 26th. Geared towards teens ages 14-17, facilitated by Julia Smith-Brake.
RSVP for FAHRENHEIT 451: https://pulpbooks.ca/events/5770020260722
RSVP for THE GIVER: https://pulpbooks.ca/events/5770220260826

Words & Music—This Is Fine: A Musical Improv Show
2026-08-01 20:00 | Monteal Improv Theatre, 3716 rue Notre-Dame Ouest, Montreal, Quebec, H4C 1P7, Canada
You’re invited to This Is Fine: A Musical Improv Show.
Presented in partnership between Unsinkable and QWF’s Words & Music Series, the show will explore mental health through musical improv, humour, and storytelling—creating space for playfulness, connection, and collective exhale without taking ourselves too seriously.
Join us Saturday, August 1, for an evening hosted by Afreina Noor, featuring five incredible acts:

The Harold Angels
High Key/Low Key
JC No Relation
Le feu qui ne s’éteint pas
The Marmaladies

Accessibility Information:
There is a flight of stairs leading to the basement where the venue is located. There is a railing, and restrooms are on the same level as the venue.
No outside food or drinks allowed.
Get Tickets

Violet Hour Literary Series: Peter Dubé Double Launch
2026-08-05 19:00 | Argo Bookshop, 1841A Ste-Catherine St. West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Join us for the double launch of reprints of two of Montreal author Peter Dubé’s seminal works: Hovering World (with a new introduction by Daniel Allen Cox) and At the Bottom of the Sky (with a new forward by Trebor Healey). Published by The Library of Homosexual Congress, an imprint of Rebel Satori Press. Hovering World is the October 2026 selection of the Violet Hour Book Club.
This event is free, but space is limited, so please RSVP.
Masks are not required, but will be provided for free at the door.
Please contact us at least a day in advance for elevator access to the store.
Please also note that the street in front of the store is under construction. The store is accessible on foot, but not by car, and parking in the vicinity is consequently limited.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Peter Dubé is a multi-genre writer, translator, and independent scholar. He is the author, co-author, or editor of fourteen books and chapbooks of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. His most recent publication is the work of literary theory and criticism, Desire as Praxis: Towards a Queer Surrealism. His novella, Subtle Bodies, an imagined life of French surrealist René Crevel was a finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award, and his novel in prose poems entitled The Headless Man, was shortlisted for both the A. M. Klein Prize and the ReLit award. He was a member of the editorial committee of the contemporary art magazine Espace for 18 years and is currently co-editor of The Philosophical Egg, an organ of living surrealism. He lives and works in his hometown of Montreal.

Stage Fright Moment Theatre
2026-08-09 20:00 - 21:30
Moment Theatre Collective is staging seven original short plays at Théâtre VME, with performances on August 8 and 9, curtain at 8 PM.

Re/writing Connection
2026-08-25 17:00 - 18:30 | McLennan-Redpath Humanities and Social Sciences Library
Save the date for Re/writing Connection, a spoken word event featuring magnificent stories from the Writers Collective of Canada (WCC) community.

21st Annual Lac Café Retreat, September 11-13, 2026, Rawdon, QC
2026-09-11 18:00 - 2026-09-13 15:00
A women’s writing weekend (non-binary writers welcome), open to experienced writers of fiction, nonfiction, poetry and all in-between genres. The retreat is designed to help you bring what you are writing into alignment with what wants to be written, for the sake of all creation. In a quiet natural setting by a pristine lake, we will open ourselves to whatever wants to speak through us, in conscious alliance with both nonhuman and human intelligences. As our deepest knowing often shows up in our dreams, we will begin each day with dreamwork.
We’ll be staying in chalets beside a small lake in a quiet wooded area ten minutes north of Rawdon, which is just over an hour north of Montreal. There will be time off in the afternoon for hiking, boating, swimming. Vegetarian meals will be shared in the main cabin. Cost for the weekend is $300 Can which includes a single room and meals. Cost is lower for shared rooms and tenting.
If interested please send statement of interest and writing sample (no more than 10 pages) to lweil22@gmail.com
Lise Weil has over forty years’ experience teaching writing in both academic and alternative settings. www.liseweil.com.

Book Launch of Carrying War, a memoir-in-essays
2026-08-29 14:00 - 17:00 | Gillygooly Gallery
Everyone is welcome!
Live Music and munchies
Guest reading by novelist Brent Van Staalduinen, author of Peace Thieves (Thistledown Press, 2026).

Book Launch: The Roughling
2026-10-04 16:00 - 18:00 | WILLS Brewery, 6729 Avenue de l’Esplanade, Montreal, Quebec, H2V 4P9, Canada
Join Linda Leith Publishing and author Alex Costa for the Montreal launch of THE ROUGHLING, a fantasy adventure for 8 to 12 year olds!
About the Book
“You must find the Key. You are the only one who can.”
With these words, Ambrose Peters learns that the bedtime stories his parents told him are real.
On his twelfth birthday, he and his friends Stan and Aurora discover a curious note in the library of his home, an old estate in the heart of Toronto. When peculiar creatures start turning up, the three of them stumble on a mysterious world hidden in the wild spaces of their once-familiar city.
But Ambrose’s time is running out. With an ancient menace closing in on him, Ambrose must find the key to save himself, his friends, and the extraordinary––and dangerous––new world they only just discovered.
The Roughling is an epic adventure teeming with mystery, friendship, action, unforgettable characters and perilous secrets.
About the Author
Alex Costa has degrees in biology and dentistry from McGill University. Born and raised in the neighbourhood of North Toronto, she grew up near the ravines that inspired this story. She now lives in Montreal with her husband Mark, also a dentist, her two sons, and a big shaggy dog named Rookie who has excellent teeth. The first in a planned trilogy, The Roughling is her first novel.

The Art of the Braided Essay
2026-10-05 20:00 - 22:00 | Online via Zoom
Eight Mondays, Oct 5–Nov 30, 8:00–10:00 p.m. (no meeting Oct 12)
Open to all
Limited to 12 participants

Creative nonfiction thrives on surprising connections and shocking twists. The essay in particular is a form that often seeks to find truth by bringing together disparate narratives. Creating depth and tension through unexpected juxtaposition of themes, images and even styles, it allows us to examine a subject anew from multiple angles–personal, historical, cultural, whatever catches your imagination!

But how do you find those different threads, and once you’ve got them, how do you structure your thoughts? How do you go from a mass of disparate observations to a cohesive, powerful and surprising work of creative nonfiction?

That’s where braiding comes in. As essayist Nicole Walker writes, “radical braiding is a foundation of creative nonfiction.” It exists in almost every mode, from personal essay to literary journalism. It even pops up in fiction. Braiding narratives can bring breadth to a personal story, intimacy to a scientific subject, and drama to the mundane. As with the hairstyle, a braid can be neat or messy, simple or endlessly complex, with a pattern that breaks apart only to come together in the end as a fascinating, unexpected whole.

Whether you’re starting a new project or looking to bring fresh complexity to a work in progress, this eight-week workshop will offer a deep dive into the craft of braiding. Through readings, writing activities and peer and instructor feedback, participants will learn from writers who use the form with great skill and apply that knowledge to their own work. Participants should be prepared to complete the session with a draft of a braided essay.

Before our first meeting, please read “The Braided Essay as Social Justice Action” by Nicole Walker and come prepared to write!

Erika Thorkelson is the author of two forthcoming books of creative nonfiction: How to Look at a Volcano, an essay collection that explores the intimate effects of large-scale instability and disaster, both human made and natural (Book*Hug Press 2027), and Clumsy, a memoir about growing up poor and nerdy on the prairies at the end of the 20th Century (NeWest Press 2028). Her work has appeared in local and national publications including Geist, Prairie Fire and The Walrus. Her essay “A Girl Needs a Mech Suit” will appear in the Best Canadian Essays 2027.

https://linktr.ee/ethorkel

Getting Elemental: Fundamentals of Short Fiction
2026-10-06 20:00 - 22:00 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
Open to all
Limited to 12 participants
Hybrid workshop*

Workshop Description: Getting Elemental: Exploring the Fundamentals of Short Fiction is a two-month long, weekly 2-hour workshop that focuses on a different element of style each week. These topics include; setting, character development, dialogue, description, voice, theme, point of view, and structure.
In a satisfying short story, all the elements of fiction listed above are working in concert to create an immersive world populated with complex characters. Of course, all of these elements are overlapping and influencing each other. However, by focusing on one element per week, we can try to understand how to make sure each element is in harmony with the others.
Over the course of the workshop, participants will submit one full-length story (2500-3000 words) to the group for discussion. In addition to the full-length story, participants will have opportunities to share scenes generated in response to weekly prompts.
The critique of short scenes will focus on the elements of short fiction discussed in the exercises as well as on sentence-level decisions about diction and rhythm. By flipping between critiques of full stories and shorter pieces, we will be able to have conversations that both delve deep into sentence level concerns and address big-picture structural questions. This format also allows participants multiple opportunities to share their work with the group.
This workshop centers on delivering and receiving feedback. Isolating what is and isn’t working in other people’s work is crucial to honing your own craft. Further, learning to give incisive and compassionate feedback is a valuable skill that will help you build a writing community.
Participants should have a short story of 2500-3000 words prepared in advance of the first session of the workshop.

*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 because of distance or disability. By default, all workshop registrations are for in-person spots. If you would like to request a virtual slot, contact John at john@qwf.org stating the reason for which you would need the virtual spot, then wait for a response before registering. Please do not register until you receive confirmation of a virtual spot for you.

Eva Crocker is a writer and editor based in Tiohtià:ke (Montreal). She is the author of two critically acclaimed novels, Back in the Land of the Living (House of Anansi Press 2023) and All I Ask (House of Anansi Press 2020), which won the BMO Winterset Award. Her debut short story collection, Barrelling Forward (House of Anansi Press 2015), won the Alistair MacLeod Prize for Short Fiction and the CAA Emerging Writer Award, was a finalist for the Writers’ Trust Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ Emerging Writers and the NLCU Fresh Fish Award for Emerging Writers, and was a National Post Best Book. Her new short story collection, Bargain Bargain Bargain, will be published by McClelland & Stewart in 2027.

Eva holds a PhD in Interdisciplinary Humanities from Concordia University.

Writing Outside the Box: An Edgy Fiction Workshop
2026-10-07 08:00 - 17:00 | Online via Zoom
Eight Wednesdays, Oct 7–Nov 25, 5:45–7:45 p.m.
Open to all
Limited to 12 participants
Online workshop*
Due to the content in some of the exercises, this workshop is restricted to participants aged 18+.
Looking to shake up your process? Interested in breaking the rules a little? Designed to inspire unique approaches to creative writing, this workshop will help squash your inner editor and provoke your inner rebel, giving you the confidence you need to write more openly and honestly.
Over the course of eight weeks, you’ll explore the work of unconventional writers like Italo Calvino, Zsuzsi Gartner, Kelly Link, John Elizabeth Stintzi, Tamas Dobozy, and George Saunders. You’ll learn tips and techniques for producing work quickly and fearlessly while dabbling in ekphrasis, magic realism, and second-person perspective. You’ll also hone your ability to give and receive constructive feedback in a creative working environment.
This is a fun, provocative, and productive workshop that’s generated award-winning fiction and long-term friendships. It’s suitable for writers of any experience level, working in any medium or genre—from the shy beginner to the established professional. And while filled with lesson-based exercises and guided assignments, this workshop is happily (and willfully) anti-academic. Participants are not taught writing theory but are encouraged to develop their skills through the acts of reading and writing alone.
There is no submission required prior to the first session. Participants will be expected to share fiction with the group as the workshop progresses.
This is the perfect way to kickstart a project, rejuvenate your existing process, or to simply step outside of your comfort zone by experimenting with new approaches to creativity.
Come play with the weird kids of the writing world.
(One of us. One of us.)
*This workshop will take place online via Zoom. A Zoom link will be sent to all registered participants a week or so prior to the first session.

Tracey Waddleton is a Newfoundland writer living in Montréal. A finalist for the NLCU Fresh Fish Award for Emerging Writers and recipient of the 2015 Lawrence Jackson Writers’ Award, Waddleton’s work has been described as weird minimalist dark realism. Her first book, Send More Tourists… the Last Ones Were Delicious, was published in July of 2019 and won the 2020 ReLit Award for Short Fiction. Tracey was the inaugural recipient of the Quebec Writers’ Federation Max Margles Writing Residency in 2020 and was awarded a Hawthornden Fellowship in May of 2023. She is finishing her first novel.
www.traceywaddleton.com

Narrative Non-Fiction: Creating Scenes
2026-10-07 17:30 - 19:30 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
Eight Wednesdays, Oct 7–Dec 2, 5:45–7:45 p.m. (no meeting Oct 28)
Open to all
Limited to 12 participants
Hybrid Workshop*
Narrative non-fiction took off in the 1960s, when writers like Tom Wolfe, Joan Didion, and Gay Talese started using the techniques of fiction writers to tell true stories. Sometimes called New Journalism, the genre exploded when fiction writers like Truman Capote and Norman Mailer switched over to non-fiction, attaining major critical and popular success. The ever-increasing demand for non-fiction writing highlights readers’ desire to connect with stories that make sense of their surroundings.
Narrative non-fiction blends reporting, research, and storytelling. In this workshop we’ll learn about how to write scenes that are true to life. Instead of simply stating what
happened, or recounting events chronologically, we’ll explore how to create a scene, as a screenwriter or novelist or non-fiction author might. Your task will be to impose a narrative on reality – and make it interesting to readers. We’ll talk about the techniques behind writing about your own experience, and about documenting other people’s lives. We’ll discuss what constitutes non-fiction – and what doesn’t. We’ll also speak about mining rich veins of source material from dusty old books, or weird scientific studies, or unusual academic treatises.
Each of you will be asked to present one piece of writing to the group, which will be workshopped by the group. (Participants will read and discuss each other’s writing.) I will also hand out some examples of narrative non-fiction to illustrate what it is we’re speaking about. These will also inform and inspire your own work in the workshop. No advance work is required for the workshop, but do have an idea of what you’d like to work on in our time together. In our second session, we’ll be discussing what each student plans on workshopping.
*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 because of distance or disability. By default, all workshop registrations are for in-person spots. If you would like to request a virtual slot, contact John at john@qwf.org stating the reason for which you would need the virtual spot, then wait for a response before registering. Please do not register until you receive confirmation of a virtual spot for you.

Adam Leith Gollner is the author of The Fruit Hunters (a New York Times Editors’ Choice) and The Book of Immortality (recipient of The QWF’s Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction), as well as several collaborative books on nature, art, and literature. A contributing editor at Vanity Fair, and the former editor of Vice Magazine, his work has been published by The Paris Review, The New Yorker, GQ, and The New York Times. His forthcoming non-fiction book is the story of an amateur art sleuth who tracks down lost masterpieces—and who cracked one of the most confounding art heists in American history.
social media: @adamgollner

Expanding Our Poetic Range Through Memory, Place, and the Senses
2026-10-08 17:30 - 19:30 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
Eight Thursdays, 5:45–7:45 p.m.
Open to all
Limited to 12 participants
Hybrid workshop*

How, as writers, can we break the surface of the everyday and go deep? This workshop is for poets of any level of experience who are seeking to expand the range of their subject matter. Over the eight sessions of the workshop, we will take some time to dwell in the places our writers’ sensibility can travel when we tune into our senses and journey into memory and place.

The aim of the workshop will be to generate a rich pool of new material, from which our best work can emerge. Workshops will consist of in-class writing exercises, weekly writing assignments, and time for participating poets to receive constructive feedback from the workshop leader and their peers. As a group, we will also perform close readings of works by a range of published writers that constellate around a series of themes selected to help us mine our own memories and sensory experiences of the world around us. Some proposed themes include: a child’s-eye view: writing through the lens of childhood; lost and found: orienting through poetry; (re)mapping our world: a sense of place; entering the myth: poetic exchanges with mythology; and mapping the landscape of the body.

You will be encouraged, for the duration of the course, to “apprentice” yourself to the work of a published poet of your choice, whose voice will be a steady and nourishing guide as you work on your own material. You will also have the opportunity (though it is by no means obligatory) to read your own work aloud, both as a practice tool for giving future poetry readings, and to “lend an ear” to the editing process. The workshop will be a safe and friendly space, with an emphasis on diving into the messiness of creation and getting excited about new ideas.

*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 because of distance or disability. By default, all workshop registrations are for in-person spots. If you would like to request a virtual slot, contact John at john@qwf.org stating the reason for which you would need the virtual spot, then wait for a response before registering. Please do not register until you receive confirmation of a virtual spot for you.

Kelly Norah Drukker is a Montréal-based poet and nonfiction writer. Her poetry collection Small Fires (McGill-Queen’s University Press) won the A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry and the Concordia University First Book Prize, and was a finalist for the Grand Prix du livre de Montréal. Petits feux, the French-language translation, was published by Le lézard amoureux in 2018. Most recently, Kelly’s work has appeared in The Goose: A Journal of Arts, Environment, and Culture in Canada, The Temz Review, Burning House Press (UK), and Rabbit Poetry (Australia). Kelly holds an MA in English and Creative Writing and a PhD in interdisciplinary Humanities from Concordia University.

Writing for Games and Interactive Media
2026-10-08 20:00 - 22:00 | QWF Office, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC, H3Z 1X4, Canada
Eight Thursdays, Oct 8–Nov 26, 8:00–10:00 p.m.
Open to all
Limited to 12 participants
Hybrid workshop*

Interactive storytelling isn’t just for videogames, tabletop or board games. Immersive theatre, public art installations, museum exhibits, and educational experiences can all spring to life from narrative techniques that place the audience at the centre of the experience.
In this workshop, we’ll develop foundational storytelling skills that you can use in your own interactive projects, or to build your knowledge to work as a storyteller in interactive media, including games.
We’ll begin with evergreen writing skills, like character, worldbuilding and dialogue, and then consider the audience as a character, branching narrative and stories that respond to audience inputs and actions, and what all of this means for plot and structure.
Finally, we’ll discuss how to collaborate with other disciplines to make each part of an experience tell one great story.

Each session will include:

A lecture and discussion of the topic of the week
A participant-led analysis of an interactive story
A generative writing exercise for hands-on practice
Time for advice and Q&A about personal interactive projects

Notes:
Sharing in-session writing is optional. Given the collaborative nature of interactive media, occasional group work will be encouraged.
No special equipment is necessary. Please bring a notebook, pen, and all the curiosity and enthusiasm you can muster. You may bring a laptop or tablet if it’s your preference, but all exercises can be completed with a pen and paper.
This is a human-led workshop about human-made experiences for human audiences. While we may employ technology in the pursuit of this goal, this is not an appropriate space to use AI (like LLMs) or to undertake AI projects.

Recommended Reading:
The Game Narrative Kaleidoscope, collated by Jon Ingold (https://www.inklestudios.com/kaleidoscope/)
This anthology of over 100 current narrative practitioners, writing about the topics that move them also has a free podcast, in which contributors are interviewed.
Emily Short’s Interactive Storytelling: Narrative and games and new media (https://emshort.blog)

*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 because of distance or disability. By default, all workshop registrations are for in-person spots. If you would like to request a virtual slot, contact John at john@qwf.org stating the reason for which you would need the virtual spot, then wait for a response before registering. Please do not register until you receive confirmation of a virtual spot for you.

Former theatre kid Jill Murray has designed and written for videogames since 2011. She has over 25 games to her name, from AAA titles (Shadow of the Tomb Raider) to big indie games (Subnautica: Below Zero), and small ones (The Big Con). Her art games have been showcased at the Young V&A museum, and poetry festivals in the UK. She previously published two young adult novels and is now completing her MFA in Creative Nonfiction. She has taught game design and writing in workshops and classes to writers of all stripes and is excited to do it again.

Social Media: Bluesky: @jillmurray.bsky.social, LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jill-murray/
