Quebec Writers' Federation Workshops

Spring Session 2009

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.

EMPTY HEADED WRITING: A DAY OF SPONTANEOUS WRITING AND JOY

Friday, March 6, 2009, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Front Hall, Main Floor, Newman Centre, 3484 Peel Street, Montreal
Workshop leader: Peter Levitt

This one-day workshop is designed for people writing in all genres. Participants will enjoy using some of the tried and true writing exercises and creative techniques workshop leader Peter Levitt has developed over decades of teaching writers how to spontaneously access and give voice to their imagination. Known for his warmth, good humour and gentle approach, Levitt is an inspiring teacher who shows how to easily step past obstacles and engage the creative, spiritual, emotional and sensual parts of ourselves that long to find expression and be heard.

"We were born to create," Levitt says. "It's our birthright, our nature. It is one of my greatest pleasures to show people how to give themselves complete permission to know what they need to know and say what they need to say in their writing. When people do this in the workshop, the release of freedom and joy is immense."

All participants are asked to bring a flower of their choosing to the workshop.

Peter Levitt is an award-winning writer, poet and writing teacher. He is the author of Fingerpainting on the Moon: Writing and Creativity as a Path to Freedom, and ten books of poetry. His teaching has been highly praised by writers of great renown. Peter Mathiessen wrote that Peter's offerings are "warm and joyful, full of insights and delights," and Joanna Macy has written, "With this gentle and fearless guide, the way of self-expression becomes a path of liberation. The wisdom and practices he offers free me to walk out into the world as into my own heart – and discover that they are one."

In 1989 Peter received the Lannan Foundation Literary Award in Poetry for works that "represent exceptional literary achievement, foster imaginative critical thinking, and call attention to essential humanistic values in creative, skilful and provocative ways." In the autumn of 2008, Black Moss Press published Peter's new collection of poetry, Within Within, about which Governor General Award recipient, Robert Hilles, wrote, "These are complex, master works that know the world better than most. They reveal the interconnected fabric of it all in ways that will leave you stunned." The poet Robert Creeley has written that Peter Levitt's writing "sounds the honour of our common dance."

Peter has also published journalism, essays, fiction and translations from Chinese, Japanese and Spanish. Formerly an MFA faculty member in poetry for Antioch University, Peter Levitt currently teaches in the UBC Creative Writing Optional Residency MFA Program and leads private online writing workshops of his own.

Offered in collaboration with the Montreal Zen Poetry Festival.

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