BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Quebec Writers' Federation - ECPv6.15.17.1//NONSGML v1.0//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
X-WR-CALNAME:Quebec Writers' Federation
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://qwf.org
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Quebec Writers' Federation
REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H
X-Robots-Tag:noindex
X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/New_York
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20210314T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20211107T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20220313T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20221106T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20230312T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20231105T060000
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20221128T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20221128T200000
DTSTAMP:20260407T093939
CREATED:20220727T160507Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220803T160708Z
UID:10002947-1669658400-1669665600@qwf.org
SUMMARY:Advanced Memoir: The Second Draft
DESCRIPTION:This workshop on memoir is designed for people who have already studied at the intermediate level with Elaine Kalman Naves. Don’t be daunted by the “advanced” label. If you’ve completed an intermediate workshop with Elaine and are interested in writing\, reading\, and talking about memoir\, you are at a level to benefit from this workshop. \n\n\n\nAs of now\, we plan to host this workshop in-person at the QWF office\, with some slots open for remote participation. \n\n\n\nThough you need not be working on a book-length narrative\, you will be expected to have a specific project in mind. It can be something you were working on in a previous workshop or something entirely new. \n\n\n\nDuring the course of the eight-week workshop\, you will have the opportunity to submit a piece of up to 3000 words\, and with luck you will have a chance to present a second time. (More details about this once we get rolling.) \n\n\n\nInstead of a text\, you will have the opportunity to read some fine memoirs\, and the long lead-up to this fall workshop will give you a chance to do some advance reading. Please give priority in your summer reading to the terrific memoirs by the four writers who will be guest lecturers over the course of the session. (See below.) Once we have established who the actual workshop participants will be\, we will also supply you with a list of suggested optional works to enjoy over the course of the summer. \n\n\n\nThe emphasis will be on student input. Participants will not only be presenting their own work to the group but will also be expected to give careful reading of each other’s pieces in order to provide vital critical feedback. This element of the program is equally important to the writing. As in the past there will also be in-class exercises and discussion of topics of writerly interest. In a new departure\, we will start critiquing participants’ pieces at the very first session. Participants who volunteer to present early in the session will be much appreciated! Getting a head start will make it possible to present second drafts. Again\, we will work out these details ahead of time once the class list is established. \n\n\n\nHere are the names of the guest lecturers and their respective titles: \n\n\n\nMark Abley\, The Organist \n\n\n\nLinda Leith\, The Girl from Dream City \n\n\n\nHarriet Alida Lye\, Natural Killer \n\n\n\nRobyn Sarah\, Music\, Late and Soon \n\n\n\nAnd please don’t forget that William Zinsser’s On Writing Well is useful to have as a reference at your fingertips! \n\n\n\nTo apply\, please send the following to riley@qwf.org no later than July 6\, 2022. \n\n\n\nA 3- to 5-page double-spaced writing sample (nonfiction or fiction) that you feel is representative of your abilities.A paragraph or two outlining the writing project you plan to pursue in the workshop.\n\n\n\nElaine Kalman Naves is a long-time literary journalist and the author of seven non-fiction titles\, and of a novel.  She is a two-time recipient of the Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction\, the winner of two Canadian Jewish Book Awards\, and of a Canadian Literary Award for Personal Essay. Her memoir Journey to Vaja: Reconstructing the World of a Hungarian-Jewish Family has been made into a documentary film. Elaine’s novel\, The Book of Faith\, was nominated for the Leacock Prize for Humour. She has led workshops at the QWF since their inception in 1998.  To find out more about Elaine\, visit her website athttp://www.elainekalmannaves.com/
URL:https://qwf.org/event/advanced-memoir-the-second-draft/2022-11-28/
LOCATION:QWF Office\, 1200 Atwater Avenue\, Room 3\, Westmount\, QC\, H3Z 1X4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:QWF Workshops,Workshops
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://qwf.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Naves_CREDIT_Studio-Iris.jpg
GEO:45.4886431;-73.5864377
X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=QWF Office 1200 Atwater Avenue Room 3 Westmount QC H3Z 1X4 Canada;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=1200 Atwater Avenue\, Room 3:geo:-73.5864377,45.4886431
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20221128T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20221128T220000
DTSTAMP:20260407T093939
CREATED:20220808T152458Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220818T164258Z
UID:10003020-1669665600-1669672800@qwf.org
SUMMARY:Writing About Trauma (Without Being Super Annoying)
DESCRIPTION:Open to all. \n\n\n\nLimited to 12 participants \n\n\n\nWe plan to hold this workshop in person at the QWF office\, with up to two virtual slots available for people who are unable to come to our office. If public health conditions necessitate it\, this workshop may transition to a purely online model.  \n\n\n\nThere was a time when bad things would happen to me\, and I would be like\, this is so terrible\, my life is so awful. Then\, I became a writer. Now\, when bad things happen to me\, I think: this kind of thing is so awful… for people who are not writers. This is going to make such a good essay. \n\n\n\nBeing a writer is a superpower. Writers are often uniquely sensitive\, which can make us vulnerable — but that sensitivity\, when channelled appropriately\, can turn into our greatest strength. When we learn to transmute our challenging\, painful\, and even traumatic experiences into art\, we learn a very real kind of invulnerability: a capacity to spin agony into gold\, a way in which we are always safe\, always on top\, and can always have the last word. At its best\, this skill can allow us to wrest power back from our worst experiences and literally pave a road to fame\, fortune\, healing\, and transcendence. There are\, however\, a few essential skills we must learn along the way. \n\n\n\nIn this eight-week workshop\, Montreal-based poet and nonfiction writer Tara McGowan-Ross will take the participants on a journey through their shadows\, mistakes\, betrayals\, and heartbreaks\, towards the end of creating a powerful and transformative piece of work. She will cover subjects ranging from basic critical thinking and how to apply it\, to how to create a safe container for your difficult feelings\, to the ethics of writing nonfiction\, which inevitably includes other people with opinions and boundaries — to injecting the kind of skill\, humour\, and humanity required of a work so that it may avoid the most common pitfall of writing trauma narratives: being\, like\, super annoying. \n\n\n\nTara McGowan-Ross is an urban Mi’kmaw multidisciplinary artist and writer. She graduated from Concordia University’s philosophy program with a minor in Creative Writing in 2016. She is the author of poetry collections Girth and Scorpion Season\, and the memoir Nothing Will Be Different. She has served on numerous editorial boards\, including Goose Lane’s Icehouse imprint\, and has been anthologized in Best Canadian Poetry and Anthologie de la poésie actuelle des femmes au Québec. She lives in Montreal\, where she is a theatre critic\, a rebel educator\, a Substack columnist\, and the host of Drawn & Quarterly’s Indigenous Literatures Book Club. \n\n\n\ngirthgirl.ca \n\n\n\ntaramcgowanross.substack.com \n\n\n\n@girthgirl (Instagram/Twitter)
URL:https://qwf.org/event/writing-about-trauma-without-being-super-annoying/2022-11-28/
LOCATION:QWF Office\, 1200 Atwater Avenue\, Room 3\, Westmount\, QC\, H3Z 1X4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:QWF Workshops,Workshops
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://qwf.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/McGowan-Ross-Photo-scaled-e1660592554664.jpg
GEO:45.4886431;-73.5864377
X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=QWF Office 1200 Atwater Avenue Room 3 Westmount QC H3Z 1X4 Canada;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=1200 Atwater Avenue\, Room 3:geo:-73.5864377,45.4886431
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20221129T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20221129T200000
DTSTAMP:20260407T093939
CREATED:20220803T160501Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220808T151538Z
UID:10002956-1669744800-1669752000@qwf.org
SUMMARY:(Un)broken: Leveraging the Poetic Line
DESCRIPTION:Open to all. \n\n\n\nLimited to 12 participants. \n\n\n\nWe plan to hold this workshop in person at the QWF office\, with up to two virtual slots available for people who are unable to come to our office. If public health conditions necessitate it\, this workshop may transition to a purely online model. \n\n\n\nWith few exceptions\, poets have access to one tool that other writers do not: the line. A defining feature of its genre\, the poetic line plays many roles in shaping a poem’s character. The line can serve simultaneously as pacing device\, secondary grammar\, image container\, rhythm driver\, and spotlight for sound. \n\n\n\nIn contemporary free verse\, attention is often paid to breaking the line. While valuable\, this thinking locates a line’s gravitational pull largely at its end\, sometimes excluding other possibilities. Lines\, after all\, are made as well as broken. And through this making\, a poem’s fingerprint takes shape. \n\n\n\nThis generative poetry workshop offers poets of all levels the chance to develop a broader and more nuanced understanding of how poems derive power from the line’s possibilities—including\, but also extending beyond\, its breaking. We’ll consider first lines\, line integrity\, flavours of enjambment\, and the line as both sound-vessel and gloss. We’ll also reflect on what happens between lines by thinking about juxtaposition\, stanza\, and pacing. \n\n\n\nOverall\, the goal is to support participants in enhancing their free verse at the line level as they generate new work. Participants can expect to draft four to six new poems and have at least one poem workshopped by the group. Early sessions will involve generative writing prompts and craft discussions\, while later sessions will focus on workshopping. To anchor our craft discussions\, we’ll look at work from a variety of contemporary poets. Writers should bring one of their own poems to the first session as a way of introducing themselves and their work. \n\n\n\nSarah Wolfson is the author of A Common Name for Everything\, which won the A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Canadian and American journals such as The Walrus\, The Fiddlehead\, TriQuarterly\, Prairie Fire\, CV2\, Michigan Quarterly Review\, and PRISM international. Her work has earned notable mention in Best Canadian Poetry and funding from the Bread Loaf Environmental Writers’ Conference. She holds an MFA from the University of Michigan. Originally from Vermont\, she now lives in Montreal\, where she teaches writing at McGill University. \n\n\n\n@SarahWolfson1 (Twitter) \n\n\n\nhttps://www.facebook.com/sarah.wolfson.14 (Facebook)
URL:https://qwf.org/event/unbroken-leveraging-the-poetic-line/2022-11-29/
LOCATION:QWF Office\, 1200 Atwater Avenue\, Room 3\, Westmount\, QC\, H3Z 1X4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:QWF Workshops,Workshops
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://qwf.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Wolfson-photo.jpeg
GEO:45.4886431;-73.5864377
X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=QWF Office 1200 Atwater Avenue Room 3 Westmount QC H3Z 1X4 Canada;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=1200 Atwater Avenue\, Room 3:geo:-73.5864377,45.4886431
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20221129T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20221129T220000
DTSTAMP:20260407T093939
CREATED:20220803T161912Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220808T152156Z
UID:10002964-1669752000-1669759200@qwf.org
SUMMARY:The Art of Writing Speculative Fiction
DESCRIPTION:Open to all. \n\n\n\nLimited to 12 participants. \n\n\n\nWe plan to hold this workshop in person at the QWF office\, with up to two virtual slots available for people who are unable to come to our office. If public health conditions necessitate it\, this workshop may transition to a purely online model. \n\n\n\nSpeculative Fiction\, a literary genre that can encompass anything from science-fiction and fantasy to magic realism\, slipstream\, alternate history\, horror\, steampunk\, fairy tales and fables\, dystopia\, and surrealism\, has been with us for as long as we’ve been telling stories. In recent years\, it has grown in importance as writing genres continue to cross and blur\, and even the most conventional writers of literary fiction experiment with speculative tools as a means to add wonder and power to their tales. \n\n\n\nThis workshop is open to both new and experienced writers\, whether of speculative fiction or of other genres. In each session of this eight-week workshop\, we will delve into a different topic and/or element of craft. The sessions will typically include a presentation\, examples from the work of experienced writers\, an in-depth\, participative discussion\, and a hands-on exercise. In addition\, each participant will have the opportunity to present their own work of speculative fiction—be it a short story or an excerpt from something longer—for detailed discussion and feedback. There will be clear ground rules for workshopping that are designed to ensure that our discussions remain constructive and respectful at all times. \n\n\n\nSome of the topics that the workshop will cover include: \n\n\n\nWhat is speculative fiction and what distinguishes it from other types of fiction? What are its special powers and challenges?Questions of content and your story’s four limbs: idea\, world\, character\, plot;Questions of structure and your story’s bones: point-of-view and narration\, chronology\, tense\, tone;Special focus on world-building;Special focus on character-building\, voice\, and dialogue;What kind of story are you writing? What are you trying to say?How to edit and improve your speculative fiction and prepare it for publication.\n\n\n\nSu J  Sokol is a social rights advocate and a writer of speculative and interstitial fiction. Originally from Brooklyn\, xe now resides in Montréal. Sokol is the author of Cycling to Asylum (2014)\, long-listed for the Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic; Run J Run  (2019); and Zee (2020)\, finalist for the Janet Savage Blachford Prize for Children’s and Young Adult Literature. Sokol’s short work has appeared in various magazines and anthologies. This summer\, Sokol’s debut novel was translated into French and published under the title Les lignes invisibles by VLB Imaginaire.  Check out Sokol’s website at www.sujsokol.com \n\n\n\nFacebook: cyclingtoasylum \n\n\n\nInstagram: cycling2asylum \n\n\n\nTwitter: cyclingtoasylum
URL:https://qwf.org/event/the-art-of-writing-speculative-fiction/2022-11-29/
LOCATION:QWF Office\, 1200 Atwater Avenue\, Room 3\, Westmount\, QC\, H3Z 1X4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:QWF Workshops,Workshops
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://qwf.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Sokol-photo-by-Matt-Lee.jpeg
GEO:45.4886431;-73.5864377
X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=QWF Office 1200 Atwater Avenue Room 3 Westmount QC H3Z 1X4 Canada;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=1200 Atwater Avenue\, Room 3:geo:-73.5864377,45.4886431
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20221130T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20221130T220000
DTSTAMP:20260407T093939
CREATED:20220803T164302Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220805T201243Z
UID:10002980-1669838400-1669845600@qwf.org
SUMMARY:Playwriting 101: A Playwriting Intensive
DESCRIPTION:Open to all. \n\n\n\nLimited to 12 participants. \n\n\n\nThis workshop will be conducted via Zoom. \n\n\n\nPlaywriting is an artform about curiosity\, obsession\, energy\, entertainment\, transformation\, and illumination. It’s about inspiration\, dedication\, and practice. It’s about following your impulses and shaping those impulses; about creating a series of freedoms and constraints that focus inspiration into a text that can be used as a blueprint for performance. Unlike most other forms of writing\, a play text must leave space for other creators to bring their artistry to the work. Director\, actors\, designers and technicians eventually fill in those spaces left by the writer to transform what is on the page into a three-dimensional performance that necessitates an audience for it to be fully realized. Having written plays that have been staged throughout Canada and beyond (Stratford Festival\, Shaw Festival\, Soulpepper Theatre\, Segal Centre\, Centaur Theatre)\, Erin Shields has developed a number of exercises\, strategies and best practices to imagine\, explore\, and write plays. \n\n\n\nPlaywriting 101 is an invitation for writers of other genres to try their hand at playwriting and for playwrights to deepen their practice. Throughout this eight-week workshop\, participants will bring their own particular understanding of story\, character\, and theme to the table\, to explore how to apply those same skills to the art of playwriting. Each class will focus on one of the following dramatic elements: character\, conflict\, desire\, premise\, form\, plot\, and structure. Through conversations\, focused exercises\, and sharing work\, participants will gain an understanding of how to organically and technically write a play. The process will alternate focus each class between the micro elements (character\, dialogue) and macro elements (theme\, story structure)\, as writers gradually learn how to build the world of the play with nuanced characters. \n\n\n\nDuring these eight weeks\, participants will write. A lot. By the end of the workshop\, writers \n\n\n\nwill have a strong understanding of the basic elements of a play and how to use those elements to write their own play. \n\n\n\nErin Shields (www.erinshields.ca) is a Canadian playwright. Most of her work highlights the negation or misrepresentation of women in classical texts by adapting these stories through a feminist lens for a contemporary audience. Erin’s adaptation of Paradise Lost premiered at The Stratford Festival of Canada and won the Quebec Writers Federation Prize for Playwriting. Erin won the 2011 Governor General’s Award for her play If We Were Birds\, which premiered at Tarragon Theatre. Other theatre credits include: Jane Eyre (Citadel Theatre)\, Piaf/Dietrich (Mirvish Productions/Segal Centre)\,The Lady from the Sea (The Shaw Festival). Upcoming productions include Queen Goneril for Soulpepper Theatre and Ransacking Troy for The Stratford Festival.  \n\n\n\nFacebook: Erin Shields \n\n\n\nInstagram: shieldserin1 \n\n\n\nWebsite: www.erinshields.ca
URL:https://qwf.org/event/playwriting-101-a-playwriting-intensive/2022-11-30/
LOCATION:Online via Zoom
CATEGORIES:QWF Workshops,Workshops
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://qwf.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Shields-photo-e1660592697888.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20221201T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20221201T200000
DTSTAMP:20260407T093939
CREATED:20220803T165449Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220803T165503Z
UID:10002989-1669917600-1669924800@qwf.org
SUMMARY:The Art of the Short Story
DESCRIPTION:Open to all. \n\n\n\nLimited to 12 participants. \n\n\n\nWe plan to hold this workshop in person at the QWF office\, with up to two virtual slots available for people who are unable to come to our office. If public health conditions necessitate it\, this workshop may transition to a purely online model. \n\n\n\nOpen to writers of all levels\, this 10-week workshop is an investigation of the modern short story. What exactly is a story? What distinguishes it from an anecdote\, or a lie?  Most of us recognize a good one when we meet it on the page. It moves us\, often unexpectedly\, to laughter or tears. And it marks us\, reaching inside us and shifting\, sometimes subtly and other times with a jolt\, our views about ourselves and the world. The best stories articulate truths that we hadn’t\, until the moment of reading\, thought to put into words. \n\n\n\nThere is no set of rules for how to write a good story.  Each writer has to find their own way\, and each story demands fresh experiments. Writing is like living. It requires close listening and relentless improvisation.  The best way to learn how to write a good story is to read one. In this workshop\, we’ll read “In the Cart” (1897) by Anton Chekhov\, and investigate Chekhov’s views about this genre. We’ll also look at his technique: how he used elements like detail\, narrative point of view\, and speech to create a story strong enough to withstand the tests of time and translation. Over a century after Chekhov’s death\, his stories are still read and loved in places totally unlike Czarist Russia. What secrets can his work reveal to us in 21st-century Quebec? \n\n\n\nOur first four meetings will be devoted to discussing “In the Cart” (accessible online; also translated as “The Schoolmistress\,” and “A Journey by Cart”). Exercises relating to various elements of craft will be offered. The last six meetings will be reserved for workshopping our own stories and continuing the exploration of what exactly a story is\, and how to write one. \n\n\n\nClaire Holden Rothman is a Montreal writer\, translator\, and fiction editor who has published two collections of stories and three novels. The Heart Specialist (2009) was long-listed for The Scotia Bank-Giller Prize\, and My October was long-listed for the Giller and short-listed for the Governor General’s Award. Her most recent novel\, Lear’s Shadow\, was short-listed for Quebec’s 2020 Jacob Isaac Segal Award\, and won the 2019 Vine Award for Jewish Canadian Fiction. For many years\, Claire taught English literature and creative writing at Marianopolis College. She has also taught fiction workshops at McGill and Bishop’s Universities.
URL:https://qwf.org/event/the-art-of-the-short-story/2022-12-01/
LOCATION:QWF Office\, 1200 Atwater Avenue\, Room 3\, Westmount\, QC\, H3Z 1X4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:QWF Workshops,Workshops
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://qwf.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Rothman-photo-scaled.jpeg
GEO:45.4886431;-73.5864377
X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=QWF Office 1200 Atwater Avenue Room 3 Westmount QC H3Z 1X4 Canada;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=1200 Atwater Avenue\, Room 3:geo:-73.5864377,45.4886431
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR