How to Get a Spot in a QWF Workshop
Eight-week workshops: $170 per course ($150 for QWF members)
Quebec City workshop $150
Wakefield workshop and Saturday sessions: $75 each
Arts Journalism workshops $200 (some scholarships available)
Call or email the office to see if there's still space available, and register. Pay for the workshop by cheque, cash or via PayPal.
Pmt by cheque to:
Quebec Writers' Federation
1200 Atwater, Suite 3
Montreal
H3Z 1X4
or by cash at the QWF office (by appointment).
For more information:
(514) 933-0878
info@qwf.org
www.qwf.org
If you're paying with PayPal:
You must contact the office first to get registered. Log on to www.paypal.com and click "Send Money." Recipient's email address is admin@qwf.org In the "Note" box, provide your full name, email address, daytime phone number and the name of the workshop you're registering for.
Note that there is a small service charge for the convenience of paying with a credit card.
Quebec Writers' Federation Workshops
Spring Session 2008
Develop your writing with the mentorship of an acclaimed professional writer and feedback from your peers.
Workshops take place at the QWF office, Suite 3, Atwater Library unless otherwise indicated.
NON-FICTION: ALL WRITING IS FICTION, NON-FICTION EVEN MORE SO
Eight Thursdays, 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. (March 6–April 24)
1200 Atwater Avenue, Suite 3
Workshop leader: Will Aitken
The first rule of writing is: there are no rules about writing. Well, one: Make it new (Ezra Pound). Maybe two: Avoid cliché like the plague. As someone whose journalism is frequently laced with fiction and whose fiction is often fact-based, I’m interested in breaking down the barriers between categories of writing. So yes, we’ll look at straightforward, ‘objective’ journalism, just as we’ll deal with the memoir, the essay, autobiography, journals, epistolary exchanges, diary entries, blogs, creative non-fiction, and any other form anyone else wishes to check out. We will also spend a lot of time on structure: how to best shape your material, whether chronologically, non-chronological or fragmentary. And voice — how do you arrive at a distinctive one?
My assumption is that you are taking this course because you have something you want to work on. Please bring that to the first class. If you don’t have something you want to work on, think of something, fast. If you have trouble finding something you want to write about, a terrible man but gifted editor once said, "Find the one thing you think you could never, ever write about, and write about that."
Also, please bring along, or have in your mind, a model for the piece you’re working on. A model is something you’ve read that has inspired you deeply, that’s made you say to yourself, I wish I could write like that. This model will be your touchstone for your own work: something you can turn to for solutions or solace when you’re having difficulty with your own stuff.
Method: For some of you, this is the continuation of a course that began in autumn; for others, it’s a completely new course. For this reason, this term I’d like to emphasize production and interaction. Each week, each person is expected to produce five (count ‘em) five new pages—either from a current project or from one that’s just starting up. Each person will then have a writing/editing partner, and new pages will be exchanged. Then for each new class, we’ll look at selections from these new pages. In addition, there will be more in-class writing and experimentation to keep us fresh.
Will Aitken has published three novels: Realia (Random House, 2000), A Visit Home (Simon & Schuster, 1993) and Terre Haute (Doubleday, 1989). His critical writing about film, architecture and the visual arts has appeared in (or been broadcast on) The Globe and Mail, National Post, Paris Review, Threepenny Review, MacLean’s, CBC-Radio One, CBC-TV, TVOntario, BBC-Radio, NPR and a variety of other publications and electronic media. His travel journalism has appeared in The Globe and Mail, National Post, EnRoute, Elle Canada and Doctor’s Review. In collaboration with poet-essayist Anne Carson, he has directed the Montreal, Berlin and London (UK) productions of her spoken-word opera, Decreation. Aitken is a MacLean Hunter Fellow in Arts Journalism, and was guest curator at Harvard University’s Film Archives.
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Eight-week workshops: $170 per course ($150 for QWF members) • Quebec City workshop: $150 • Wakefield workshop and Saturday sessions: $75 each • Arts Journalism workshops $200 (some scholarships available) • Call to register and for cancellation policy • Payment by cheque to Quebec Writers' Federation, 1200 Atwater, Suite 3, Montreal H3Z 1X4, by PayPal (additional fee-please check with office) or by cash at the QWF office (by appointment).
TO REGISTER, CALL (514) 933-0878
QWF gratefully acknowledges the assistance of the Canada Council for the Arts.
