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.
CREATIVE NON-FICTION: WHAT IS IT?
Eight Wednesdays, 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. (March 5–April 23)
1200 Atwater Avenue, Suite 3
Workshop leader: William Weintraub
What is creative non-fiction? For our purposes it can be journalism, personal essay, biography, autobiography, travelogue, any narrative that is not “made up.” I suppose we could even include narration for a documentary film.
I wanted to call this workshop simply “non-fiction,” but the QWF asked that I include the word “creative” in the title. But in this context, what does that word mean? Does it mean pretentious? Does it mean poetic? Does it mean that you are free to lie in your manuscript? Or that you may stretch the truth a wee bit, if it serves a good purpose (your purpose)? Can’t a grocery-store shopping list be creative? These are interesting questions and I hope we can discuss them during the workshop, if only because I hope to learn something myself.
In the workshop, I would like to work with people who want to write prose that is clear, concise and compelling, that is colourful without obvious straining for effect. I would like to work with writers who can agree that good writing often means re-writing, and then re-writing again. I would like to work with writers whose aim is to capture and retain the attention of readers, rather than with writers whose main motive is “self-expression” (whatever that means). Yet this does not mean that the writer should be totally self-effacing. I think we all want to write with style, and the best style arises from the writer’s personality. An author I admire says, “Good writers are visible just behind their words.”
Participants will be asked to submit small samples of their work – not more than a few pages at a time – and will be asked to write on topics that we will decide on together. We will criticize (please do not use the word critique as a verb) each others’ work – including mine – and we will do this constructively and gently. I am haunted by the tale of a workshop participant whose essay was criticized so harshly that she burst into tears and ran out of the room, never to return. We will at all costs avoid this sort of thing. But in the event of a sudden lachrymose outburst, I will supply a box of Kleenex.
For the first session, participants are asked to bring with them a brief account of what writing they have done in the past and what they want to accomplish in this workshop. This should be printed, double-spaced, on not more than two pages.
William Weintraub has been a newspaper reporter and editor, and has written for magazines, radio and television in Canada and Europe. As a freelancer and while on the staff of the National Film Board, he served as writer, producer and/or director, and as script doctor and cutting-room consultant in the production of some 150 documentary and dramatic films. He is the author of three novels – Why Rock the Boat?, The Underdogs and Crazy About Lili – and two non-fiction books – Getting Started and City Unique: Montreal Days and Nights in the 1940s and ’50s. He has worked in Africa with African filmmakers and has lectured at several universities.
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.
