Workshops

Denman Island Readers & Writers Festival

Note:

Registration is now open,
Registration fees are $60 per workshop,
Registration will be limited to ten per workshop, on a first-come, first-served basis,
Registration will be completed only upon payment of fees in full.

Writing to Know Life with Joy Kogawa SOLD OUT

Some people live to write. Some write to know life. This workshop is for those in the latter category. All kinds of writing force us into examining not only our own lives, but those of others. In this workshop we will examine the ways in which writing can be used as a tool to look for meaning in life. Participants will engage in conversations about their written work and their passions. Bring some of your recent work and a willingness to engage in discussion. Work with one of Canada’s most beloved authors.

When: Thursday, July 15, 2:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.

Where: Community School

Writing Popular History with Richard Mackie

Many popular and local historians come at their subject from one of two places: from having written academic history, or from having written no history at all. Those with academic exposure have to drop much of the university historian’s apparatus, which usually includes spooky creatures like thesis statement, literature review, theoretical framework, and footnotes or endnotes. Those without academic exposure have usually retained a combination of curiosity, passion, and enthusiasm, which are the most important ingredients of all. In this course, aspiring historians of all backgrounds will learn how to combine their central text with sidebars, photos, captions, maps, and diagrams. Whatever their background, popular historians should strive for clarity and rigour in their thinking and accessibility and simplicity in their writing.

When: Thursday, July 15, 2:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.

Where: Community School

The Cold Reading: Building on Intuition with Philip Kevin Paul

American poet Robert Lowell complained about his contemporaries’ exuberant attention to the forms and tools of poetry writing. In comparison, Alden Nowlan’s poems epitomize the struggle and harmony between emotion and its ability to be skillfully expressed. Inspiration and epiphany live along a similar path, in relation to one another. While inspired poems are often among the best poems in all regards, relying on inspiration is not a whole recipe for writing affecting poems. In addition, as James Joyce gestured to: while epiphany may be the only moment in which we experience Reality, epiphany is only as reliable as inspiration in its ability to offer a consistent “well” to draw from.

bring 11 copies of one of your poems (one for those in the workshop, yourself and for me).
write your name and the title of the poem on the back of each copy.
be prepared to hand your poem out, poem side down.
consider the language and skills one needs to react to the first reading of a poem (perhaps spend some time reading poetry you’re not familiar with in order to hone this particular skill)
be prepared to read your poem aloud to those attending the workshop.

When: Thursday, July 15, 2:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.

Where: Community School

Writing For Your Life with Brian Brett

Recently writers have rediscovered the magic in memoir. Writers everywhere are telling their stories in a fantastic mixture of levels and forms. Whether you are writing memoir for the public record, income, family heirloom, or your own pleasure you will find this workshop valuable. Our lives are full of story and this is your opportunity to learn to tell that story in a variety of forms. Brian has been telling his story in many forms and voices for most of his life and has much to teach in this most personal of genres.

When: Friday, July 16, 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Where: Community School

2nd session just added:

When: Saturday, July 17, 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m

Where: Community School

Me, You, Her, Him: The Power of POV with Zsuzsi Gartner

Short fiction’s possibilities are delightful, startling and seemingly endless. Of the vital mechanics of the form (including structure, time-frame and tense choices, narrative momentum, dialogue, character) the single most important choice you can make in writing short fiction is deciding on what point of view (or points of view) a story should be told from. Your POV choice (together with the more elusive quality of Voice) will dictate HOW you will write WHAT you want to write.

Beginning and emerging writers often adhere unconsciously to a particular POV -- what I call the default mode (and we all have one). During this workshop you’ll discover a multiplicity of POV choices and how a story can radically shift depending on who’s doing the telling or through whose eyes we’re witnessing things from.

You’ll be doing writing exercises, as well as reading your work out loud and discussing your writing with the class. I will provide a mini Course Pack that we’ll be using for examples and inspiration and that you are welcome to take home with you.

We’ll also be looking at The Writer’s Voice and why finding your own Voice as a writer is so important.

When: Saturday, July 17, 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Where: Arts Centre

Also see Writer-In-Residence program and Manuscript Assessment program

Host

Visiting Writers