MARK FRUTKIN"The Alchemy of Fiction"
Saturday, June 7, 2008
1pm - 3pm
Library & Archives Canada
Ottawa, ON
The workshop will focus on four main areas: How to Begin, Plot, Characters, and The Writing Itself. We will investigate the following: How do we transcend hesitation? Should the writer use a map or wander in the wilderness? How do we make characters come alive?
Following this short discussion of the writing process, particularly in relation to fiction, the main portion of the workshop will involve an on-site short writing exercise that will be reviewed and analyzed during the workshop.
Mark Frutkin has published seven books of fiction and three books of poetry. His work has appeared in Canada, the US, England, Russia, Poland, Holland, South Korea, Spain and India. In 2007, his novel, Fabrizio’s Return, won the Trillium Prize for Best Book and the Sunburst Award, and was nominated for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (Canada/Caribbean region). In 1988, his novel, Atmospheres Apollinaire, was short-listed for the Governor General's Award for fiction and for the Trillium Award. He has also written articles and reviews for The Globe & Mail, Harper's, the Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, Amazon and numerous other publications.
This is a free workshop however space is limited. To register, or for more information, please email or call 416.504.8222 x 243.
EILEEN WHITFIELD"Secrets of Biography"
Saturday, June 14, 2008
1pm – 3pm
Toronto Public Library - Beaches Branch
Toronto, ON
A good biographer must combine the skills of an historian, investigative reporter, and researcher. He must have the imaginative empathy of an actor, and the narrative skills to endow historical facts with the pace and excitement of a novel.
Workshop participants will learn how biographers choose a subject, research the life, articulate their point of view and shape the results into compelling narrative. They will learn such framing devices as epilogues, prologues and chapter titles. Research techniques will be examined, as well as accuracy, footnotes and bibliography. Finally, writing another's life will be discussed as an act of self-exploration, as every good biography tells us as much about the writer as it does about the subject.
Eileen Whitfield is an actor, writer and editor whose work has appeared in Saturday
Night and Toronto Life. Her play, Alice and Emily, about artist Emily Carr, was produced at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton which was closely followed by her 1997 biography Pickford: The Woman Who Made Hollywood which inspired three documentaries, including PBS's “The American Experience.” Presently, Eileen lives in Toronto and is writing a biography about silent film clown and director Buster Keaton.
This is a free workshop however space is limited. To register, or for more information, please email or call 416.504.8222 x 243.
ANNE LAUREL CARTER"Writing for Children"
Saturday, June 21, 2008
1pm – 3pm
Toronto Public Library - Lillian H. Smith Branch
Toronto, ON
Mine your childhood memories and daydreams for story ideas. Could they become a picture book or Young Adult novel? Explore the elements of story and learn how to get published with the award-winning author of Last Chance Bay and Under a Prairie Sky.
Anne Laurel Carter has an M.Ed and taught primary school in Ontario and Quebec before staying home to raise a family and write stories. With four active children she finds stories are always happening. Her published work includes six picture books, several juvenile and YA novels and a collection of YA short stories.
This is a free workshop however space is limited. To register, or for more information, please email or call 416.504.8222 x 243.
PHYLLIS SMALLMAN“The Writing Workshop”
Saturday, June 28, 2008
1pm – 4pm
Salt Spring Island Public Library
Salt Spring Island, BC
The award-winning author of Margarita Nights leads a lively discussion on what makes a great novel and other mechanics of writing (what are the easiest things to fix in a finished manuscript but the hardest to see?).
Margarita Nights was short listed for the Debut Dagger in the UK and won the Arthur Ellis award for Unhanged Arthur in June 2007. Phyllis Smallman was a potter before moving to British Columbia and turning to a life of crime. Now, depending on the weather, she can be found on Salt Spring Island, B.C., Hamilton, Ontario or a beach in South Florida.
This is a free workshop however space is limited. To register, or for more information, please email or call 416.504.8222 x 243.
LINDA GRIFFITHS"Overheard Conversations"
Saturday, July 5, 2008
2pm - 4pm
Toronto Public Library - Beaches Branch
Toronto, ON
One of the major building blocks of theatre is the two person scene. How to move from dependence on monologues to the interactive dynamism necessary to keep a play alive. In this workshop, participants come having done the preliminary homework. They must come with an overheard conversation between two or more people. In this exercise the writer becomes a spy, but also hones skills in observation both of language and character. Participants will be asked to describe the characters they observe, the interaction between them, as well as what was said. Good spying places are coffee shops, malls, bus shelters, libraries...or a conversation may arrive in your lap. You may only get a snippet of the conversation, this is fine. Then we’ll work with the dialogue and characters in the workshop. Conversations in a language you don’t understand are fine, as long as there is a dynamic between characters.
Linda Griffiths is a playwright and actor, the winner of five Dora Mavor Moore awards, a Gemini award, two Chalmer’s awards, the Quizanne International Festival Award for Jessica, and Los Angeles’ A.G.A. Award for her performance in John Sayles’ film Liana. She has twice been nominated for the Governor General’s Award for playwrighting (The Darling Family, 1992 Alien Creature, 2000). Best known for writing (in collaboration with Paul Thompson) and performing a triple role in the play Maggie & Pierre. She is an Adjunct Professor to the University of Toronto’s Masters Program in Creative Writing. New projects include two one-person-shows, The Last Dog of War and Baby Finger and a Victorian epic, Age of Arousal.
This is a free workshop however space is limited. To register, or for more information, please email or call 416.504.8222 x 243.
BRAD CRAN“My Story: From Life to Fiction”
Saturday, July 12, 2008
2pm – 5pm
Vancouver Public Library – Carnegie Branch
Vancouver, BC
Brad Cran will lead a discussion and workshop on narrative writing in poetry and prose. Presenting a selection of successful narrative works to find out what makes them worthy of print with an emphasis on the music of language, structures of story telling and the simple sentence. We’ll end the day with a discussion on the publishing industry and what it takes to get published, with some advice on where to send your writing.
A portion of the discussion will be dedicated to discussing participants’ own work and participants are encouraged to submit a sample of writing (no more than ten pages) of either poetry, fiction or non-fiction. A reading package to be read prior to the workshop will be distributed upon registration.
Brad Cran is a poet, essayist and photographer. He is the publisher of Smoking Lung Press, a co-founder of the Vancouver based Stillworks photography collective, and a contributing editor at Geist magazine. He recently co-edited Hope in Shadows, a collection of stories and photographs of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. His book of poetry, The Good Life, was published in 2002.
This is a free workshop however space is limited. To register, or for more information, please email or call 416.504.8222 x 243.
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