WORKSHOP #1: Kathryn Walsh Kuitenbrouwer

Writing happens when you write!

What is creativity? Where does your imagination come from? In this workshop you will have an opportunity to get your hands dirty. You will work through a series of exercises designed to remind your body and your mind how to play. You will draw and doodle (play!) your way toward story. Mess around! Stop thinking and start doing! Let’s see to which story YOUR hands take you! NO previous art or writing experience necessary.

Bio: Kathryn Walsh Kuitenbrouwer is the bestselling author of the novel All the Broken Things, which was nominated for Canada Reads and the Toronto Book Award. She is also the author of the novels Perfecting and The Nettle Spinner, the latter of which was a finalist for the Amazon.ca First Novel Award. Her short-story collection Way Up won a Danuta Gleed Award and was a finalist for the ReLit Award. Kuitenbrouwer’s recent short fiction has been published in Granta, The Walrus, Maclean’s, Joyland, 7X7 LA, and Storyville, where it won the Sidney Prize (US). She is an award-winning instructor with the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies, Associate Faculty with the University of Guelph’s Creative Writing MFA, and a PhD Candidate in the English Department at the University of Toronto, where she works on creativity, language, and enchantment. For more information and to read some of her online work go to www.kathrynkuitenbrouwer.com

WORKSHOP #2: Christine Fischer Guy

Where do your ideas come from? Finding the extraordinary in the ordinary

Authors get asked this question all the time, and the answer is simpler than most people suppose. This workshop will use a series of exercises (plus a walking meditation) to show participants where to look for inspiration and how the ordinary can engage creative imaginations. 

Bio: Christine Fischer Guy’s short fiction has appeared in Descant, Prairie Fire, and The Austin Review, and has been nominated for the Journey and Pushcart Prizes. Her novel The Umbrella Mender debuted in September 2014 and was excerpted in Descant and Ars Medica. She is also an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in The Globe and Mail, Eighteen Bridges, Toronto Life, and Reader’s Digest, among others. She’s a fiction critic at The Globe and Mail and is currently a contributor at the LA Review of Books, The Millions, Hazlitt, The Hamilton Review of Books, The Puritan, and Ryeberg.com. She teaches creative writing for the School of Continuing Studies at the University of Toronto. She has lived and worked in London, England and now lives in Toronto. www.christinefischerguy.com

WORKSHOP #3: Amanda Lewis

I Want to Publish a Book…Now What?

You have a great idea for a book. You may have even written an outline or a full draft. But now what do you do with it? Editor Amanda Lewis will walk you through the writing, editing, and publishing process for your book. Experienced in both traditional publishing and self-publishing, she will help you determine which model is the best fit for you, and also help you navigate the changing publishing landscape. 

Bio: Amanda Lewis has been helping writers tell their stories for more than a decade. After working as an editor at Penguin Random House Canada in Toronto for eight years, she is now Editorial Director with Page Two, a publishing agency based in Vancouver. Amanda has edited such stellar non-fiction as Up Ghost River by Edmund Metatawabin (with Alexandra Shimo), finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction; Mountain City Girls by Anna and Jane McGarrigle; The End of Protest by Micah White; and Startle and Illuminate: Carol Shields on Writing, edited by Anne Giardini and Nicholas Giardini. She was one of the editors of the Giller Prize–winning novel Us Conductors by Sean Michaels and edited the Giller- and Governor General’s Award-shortlisted Yiddish for Pirates by Gary Barwin, for which she was nominated for the 2016 Tom Fairley Award for Editorial Excellence. 

Weekend Package Schedule (tentative)

Sunday April 22nd                 

8am: Breakfast
Depart after Breakfast.

Pricing