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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230422T100000
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SUMMARY:Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival
DESCRIPTION:The Blue Metropolis Festival is one of the largest multilingual literary events in North America. Each year\, writers from Quebec\, Canada and around the world converge on Montreal for a couple of days. Festivalgoers are treated to live interviews\, roundtable discussions\, public readings\, debates\, master classes\, reading and writing workshops. Every year\, the Festival is structured around several strong themes that bear testimony to a keen social awareness and to a passion for literature in all its richness.\nIn 2023\, Blue Metropolis turns 25.\nThe anniversary edition of the Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival will take place April 27 to 30\, 2023\, in Montreal (in-person program). The online program will premiere April 22 to 27\, 2023.\nIn addition to our usual program\, part of our programming will be dedicated to this 25th anniversary.\nFor more information\, visit our website (bluemetropolis.org) as of March 17\, 2023.
URL:https://qwf.org/event/blue-metropolis-international-literary-festival/
LOCATION:Hotel 10\, 10 Sherbrooke Street West\, Montreal\, Quebec\, H2X 4C9\, Canada
CATEGORIES:Performance
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230430T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230430T200000
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SUMMARY:The Words & Music Show: Spring 2023
DESCRIPTION:Sunday\, April 30\, 5:00–8:00 pm\n\n\n\nThis spring edition of the Words and Music Show will feature spoken word performances by Roen Higgins\, Erin Moure\, and Lucia De Luca\, the three winners of the inaugural (2022) Spoken Word Prize awarded by the Quebec Writers Federation.  Other featured artists on the programme include poets Misha Solomon and Hannah Karpinski\, and singer-songwriter\, member of the band Bluebird\, Dan Beasy. \n\n\n\nHosted by poet\, trumpeter\, and community worker Jason “Blackbird” Selman \n\n\n\nAdmission: Free or Pay What You Can (to support future Words & Music shows) \n\n\n\nCo-produced by the Quebec Writers’ Federation\, Words & Music\, and SpokenWeb. We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for this project. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPerformers’ Bios\n\n\n\n\nDan Beasy (Beaulieu) is a singer-songwriter\, and central member of Bluebird\, a band and musical collective based in Montreal. Dan is originally from Prince George\, British Columbia\, and grew up surrounded by significantly more diesel pickups than artists and musicians. After years of trying to fit into a conservative city geared towards capitalism Dan hit the road and began a journey of inspiration and creativity. Travelling through Canada Dan landed in Dawson City\, Yukon and began writing poetry and stories to pass the time. Finding other poets and songwriters along the way encouraged Dan to keep writing and eventually to sing as well. After several years in Yukon Dan set off for Montreal and began pursuing a career as a songwriter. 2 EPs and a full album later Dan is just getting started. The music continues to be guided first and foremost by poetry and the human experience. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRoen “Blu’Rva” Higgins is an award-winning spoken word poet\, educator\, speaker\, and creative evangelist. As the founder of The Elevated Creative\, her mission is to elevate others through creative literacy and help them find their flow and tap into their genius zone. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nHannah Karpinski is a queer writer and editor living in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Lemon Hound\, Commo Magazine\, My Loves: Digital Anthology of Queer Love Poems (Ghost City Press)\, and Lesbians are Miracles\, among others. She is currently finishing her MA at Concordia University and working as the Publishing Assistant for Montreal-based independent press\, Metatron. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLucia De Luca is an English teacher and spoken word artist\, who plays with stories in the classroom and at the mic. Her poetry cradles past versions of herself\, her family\, and her Italian heritage. Lucia is a recipient of the 2022 QWF Spoken Word Prize and was a finalist at the 2021 Canadian Individual Poetry Slam. As an organizer\, she brought McGill University its first-ever slam (2020) and oversaw the Grove Campus Poetry Show (2022). Her work is published to the TEDx\, Brickyard Spoken Word\, Toronto Poetry Slam\, and Bankstown Poetry Slam YouTube channels\, as well as in online and print publications. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nErín Moure is a Montreal poet and translator from Galician\, Portuguese\, French and Spanish to English and from Galician and English to French. Her next book\, a hybrid book of texts and poems\, Theophylline: an a-poretic migration via the modernisms of Rukeyser\, Bishop\, Grimké (de Castro\, Vallejo)will appear in August 2023 from House of Anansi Press. You can find her reading new stories once in awhile on YouTube too. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMisha Solomon (he/him) is a homosexual poet in and of Tiohti:áke/Montréal. He is the author of two chapbooks\, FLORALS (above/ground press\, 2020) and Full Sentences (Turret House Press\, 2022)\, and his work has also appeared in journals including The /tƐmz/ Review\, Yolk\, andLeste Magazine\, and is forthcoming in Vallum and Plenitude. He is currently pursuing his MA at Concordia University. \n\n\n\n\nThe Host\n\n\n\n\nJason “Blackbird” Selman is a Montreal born poet\, trumpet player and community worker. He is the author The Freedom I Stole (2007\, Cumulus Press)\, Africa As A Dream That Travels Through My Heart (2016\, Howl) and co-editor of the poetry anthology Talking Book (2006\, Cumulus Press) which chronicles the writings of Kalm Unity Vibe Collective (of which he is a founding member). He works as a teaching artist\, conducting poetry workshops in schools across the Montréal area and beyond. His work is grounded in the themes of ethno-musicology\, surrealist expression\, love and the intersection of masculinity and emotional vulnerability.
URL:https://qwf.org/event/the-words-music-show-spring-2023/
LOCATION:les sans-taverne\, 1900 rue Le Ber\, suite 101\, Montreal\, Quebec\, H3K 2A4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:Words and Music
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230502T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230502T150000
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SUMMARY:How to Pitch the Media
DESCRIPTION:Virtual Session: April 27\, 2-3:30pm (No registration limit)In-Person Session: May 2\, 1-3pm (Registration currently full)Free for all QWF members \n\n\n\nQWF is pleased to offer this free workshop with CBC Montreal’s Debbie Hynes\, Manager of Communications\, Marketing & Brand. \n\n\n\n“How to Pitch Your Work to CBC” will give you practical\, hands-on advice on how to get your work out to the media\, with a particular focus on CBC. You’ll learn what producers expect (and want) in a pitch\, how to market your work to media outlets\, and how to craft a pitch that sets you and your story apart.  \n\n\n\nThis workshop is offered two times: once online and once in person. The in-person workshop will be held at the CBC Montreal offices and is limited to 12 participants. The virtual workshop will be held over Zoom and does not have an attendance limit. The content of both sessions is essentially the same\, but the in-person workshop will be a bit more hands-on\, given the nature of the format. \n\n\n\nTo Register for a Virtual Spot on April 27: \n\n\n\n(1) Send an email to Riley at riley@qwf.org with the subject line “How to Pitch the Media – Virtual Registration.” Make sure that your email includes both your name and email address.  \n\n\n\n(2) A Zoom link will be sent out a few days prior to the session. \n\n\n\nTo Register for an In-Person Spot on May 2: \n\n\n\nIn-person registration is now closed. If you are interested in this workshop\, please register for a virtual spot. \n\n\n\nImportant: This workshop is free for all QWF members. QWF membership status will be checked for both virtual and in-person participants. Not yet a member? Learn about being a member here!
URL:https://qwf.org/event/how-to-pitch-the-media/2023-05-02/
LOCATION:Online – Please RSVP to receive a Zoom link
CATEGORIES:QWF Workshops,Workshops
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230503T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230503T200000
DTSTAMP:20260406T133012
CREATED:20230109T170626Z
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SUMMARY:The Joys and Pitfalls of Memoir
DESCRIPTION:This workshop will explore the hazards and rewards of writing a personal memoir. Throughout the eight weeks\, we will look at ways to produce a compelling narrative out of the chaos of the past. We’ll discuss the tremendous value of research\, but we’ll also consider whether research can sometimes handicap a project. We will explore the creation of a narrative voice. And we will ask if and how a writer knows that a memoir has achieved its ideal focus and shape. \n\n\n\nEach participant will be expected to produce one or two finished (or near-finished) pieces of writing. They could be either stand-alone essays or excerpts from a longer work. I will provide a detailed response to these pieces\, and other participants in the workshop will be asked to give their feedback too. A good portion of time each week will be spent on a discussion of the work submitted by participants. Throughout the workshops\, I plan to emphasize the crucial importance not just of remembering but of rethinking and rewriting.  \n\n\n\nIn the remainder of each session\, we will examine and debate issues that memoir-writing brings to the fore. We will delve into some thorny issues that memoirs often raise: the unreliability of memory\, an author’s urge to justify\, and the sense of hurt and betrayal that a memoir may provoke in other people. I will ask the participants to read selected materials (none of them too lengthy) as a basis for discussion.   \n\n\n\n“Memoir\,” for the purposes of this workshop\, can include small-scale personal essays as well as longer\, more ambitious texts. The participants may choose to focus on a particular relationship\, place\, or time. But the pieces they submit for discussion should all be personal in nature\, and unless there are unusual reasons to the contrary\, they should make use of the first-person pronoun. Memoir can be a demanding form; it allows the author no place to hide. Yet it can be immensely rewarding to write. \n\n\n\nThe overall aim is to equip participants with more awareness\, more skills\, and more confidence in their own work.
URL:https://qwf.org/event/the-joys-and-pitfalls-of-memoir-2/2023-05-03/
LOCATION:QWF Office\, 1200 Atwater Avenue\, Room 3\, Westmount\, QC\, H3Z 1X4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:QWF Workshops,Workshops
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230503T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230503T220000
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SUMMARY:The Ghost at the Heart of a Short Story
DESCRIPTION:A man down on his luck has moved everything he owns out onto his lawn\, and for no reason anybody can articulate\, he pawns some of it to two young passersby; in northern Ontario\, a woman whose cancer is in remission lets a teenaged boy\, half her age\, kiss her on a floating bridge—she doesn’t know why; in a hotel room in Wenatchee\, a man has a strange\, galvanizing sexual encounter with a bare-knuckle boxer\, and it leaves him more sure of himself\, or more sure of his past\, or more sure of who he might yet become. But if you asked him what had changed\, he wouldn’t be able to tell you. \n\n\n\nThere is something ineffable in every good short story\, something that cannot bepinned down\, a question—perhaps insignificant—whose answer is not merely unknown\, but unknowable\, and whose presence haunts us long after we’ve put a story down. \n\n\n\nThis workshop is a guided discussion about the plot\, characters\, point of view\, structure\, and language (the mechanics or “craft”) of participants’ short stories\, as well as an investigation of each story’s aboutness\, patterns\, emotional plot\, and central question(s)—that is\, all those hard-to-define elements that make fiction what it is. \n\n\n\nAdditionally\, the workshop aims to foster community among the attendees\, to bring together \n\n\n\nwriters of similar skill and drive\, and to encourage the kind of creative energy that crackles \n\n\n\nbetween new practitioners. \n\n\n\n Some Learning Objectives \n\n\n\n\nCritical reading\, and the ability to identify the roots of a story’s problems\, particularly with regard to dramatic structure and conflict. Conversely: the ability to identify the roots of a story’s successes\, especially when it seems intangible or difficult to pin down.\n\n\n\nClose reading\, even of your own work\, for strongest possible sentences. (They are\, after all\, the building blocks of fiction.)\n\n\n\nImmersing yourself in\, and engaging with\, literature among a cohort of people who are similarly immersed and engaged in literature; enjoying it.\n\n\n\n\nIn our first meeting\, we will establish a schedule\, review workshop etiquette\, spend some time meeting each other\, and do a few writing exercises. From then on\, each session will consist of detailed discussion and feedback of participants’ stories. The goal\, always\, is to offer the writer of each story constructive suggestions to help them improve the story and their craft. We are\, I always say\, in this together. \n\n\n\nIn preparation: Please bring a short story you’ve written of no more than 2500 words to the first session. \n\n\n\nD. W. Wilson is the author of Once You Break a Knuckle\, a collection of short stories\, and Ballistics\, a novel. His work has appeared in lit mags across the globe\, and in 2011 he won the BBC National Short Story Award for “The Dead Roads.” Since then he has been shortlisted for numerous fiction prizes\, and has won the CBC Short Story Prize and the Manchester Fiction Prize. He taught creative writing at the University of Victoria and Brandon University\, as well at literary festivals such as the London Short Story Festival and Wordfest.
URL:https://qwf.org/event/the-ghost-at-the-heart-of-a-short-story/2023-05-03/
LOCATION:QWF Office\, 1200 Atwater Avenue\, Room 3\, Westmount\, QC\, H3Z 1X4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:QWF Workshops,Workshops
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230504T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230504T200000
DTSTAMP:20260406T133012
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SUMMARY:Writing the TV Pilot
DESCRIPTION:In this eight-week workshop\, Montreal-based screenwriter Allen Markuze will give you the tools to be able to write a TV pilot. He’s going to do so by asking and helping answer the following… \n\n\n\n\nWhat is your TV series about?\n\n\n\nIs your idea sustainable?\n\n\n\nWhat happens episode to episode?\n\n\n\nWhat’s the theme of your show?\n\n\n\nWhat are some similar shows?\n\n\n\nWho are your characters?\n\n\n\nIs your pilot going to be a premise episode or an episodic episode?\n\n\n\nWhat is a three-act structure and five-act structure?\n\n\n\n\nThese intimate sessions will involve a mixture of group discussion\, critical analysis of TV pilots and shows\, and workshopping participants’ own ideas with the goal of completing their own TV pilot. Ideas will be workshopped in groups as well as one-on-one with the workshop leader and fellow participants. \n\n\n\nAllen Markuze is an award-winning screenwriter who has taken part in writers rooms and has written for a variety of live-action and animation TV shows that have aired on the likes of Netflix\, Disney\, Nickelodeon\, Hulu\, and CBC. Before embarking on a screenwriting career\, Markuze spent several years working in LA at Dan Halsted’s company\, Manage-ment\, where he helped manage a roster of writers from shows such as Mad Men and Breaking Bad\, and on feature films like Friday Night Lights and Wall Street. Prior to that\, he worked as an assistant to screenwriter Janus Cercone (Leap of Faith with Steve Martin). Markuze’s foray into the entertainment industry began as a development intern in LA at Underground Films (FX’s Snowfall) where he read countless scripts\, books\, and plays\, and eavesdropped on A LOT of conversations.
URL:https://qwf.org/event/writing-the-tv-pilot/2023-05-04/
LOCATION:QWF Office\, 1200 Atwater Avenue\, Room 3\, Westmount\, QC\, H3Z 1X4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:QWF Workshops,Workshops
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230504T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230504T220000
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SUMMARY:Biography\, Autobiography\, and Ghostwriting
DESCRIPTION:The basic tools of biography and autobiography are the same\, and this workshop will show how you can write any life in a meaningful and engaging way. \n\n\n\nThe first challenge is learning how to put lives in a larger context. This means researching the times and places the subject lived in\, then weaving their individual narratives with all of their complex personal relationships\, into the larger world. We will learn how to do this with the use of the illuminating details that bring people and places to life. \n\n\n\nWe will also look at the sub-category of ghostwriting\, where you are writing a first-person biography and\, in a sense\, become the person you are writing for\, internalizing their thoughts and feelings as you use all of the tools at your disposal to tell their story as if was your own. \n\n\n\nGhostwriting also happens to be a field where a writer can make a decent living in Canada\, and at the end of the course\, we will look at the business side and what goes into a ghostwriting contract. \n\n\n\nOne thing you soon discover in writing biographies of any kind\, including ghosting an autobiography\, is the truth of the cliché that everyone has a book in them. At least in the sense that all of our stories—following our lives along the trajectories of time and space and meeting and beating challenges—are worth telling. As a writer you discover that it is a privilege to write someone else’s life. \n\n\n\nIdeally\, you will be working on biographical or autobiographical material of your own in the class\, but this is not necessary. If you are working on a text now or if you are simply planning one for the future\, I look forward to meeting you in the spring of 2023 and exploring the writing of lives together. \n\n\n\nPeter McFarlane has written 4 nonfiction books of his own and five ghostwritten books\, as well as more than 100 newspaper and magazine features. He has specialized in Indigenous history and politics and has worked on several CBC radio programs as a researcher and on-air contributor. He is currently completing another ghostwritten book and a new work of his own nonfiction.
URL:https://qwf.org/event/biography-autobiography-and-ghostwriting/2023-05-04/
LOCATION:QWF Office\, 1200 Atwater Avenue\, Room 3\, Westmount\, QC\, H3Z 1X4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:QWF Workshops,Workshops
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