Member Price: $15
Non-Member Price is $25
Have you ever wondered how a manuscript becomes an audiobook? Join us for a deep dive into the audiobook production process with specific examples of best-selling, diverse titles. Discover what is involved with creating an audiobook script, casting a narrator, recording, editing sound files, correcting errors, and creating a finished product that is ready to be sent out into the world.
Bio
Cassie Smyth is the Audiobooks Manager at ECW Press. In her role, she manages the production of more than 120 audiobooks per year, all by Canadian publishers and authors, and narrated by Canadian voice talent. She holds a BA in English, minor in Business from Carleton University, and a certificate in Creative Book Publishing from Humber College.
Digital Doors Open at 1:55, Event Starts at 2PM
This event will be recorded.
Join us Tuesday, March 28th at 7pm for Regional Spotlight: Clayoquot Writers Group with host Meaghan Hackinen. Register here (bcwriters.ca/events-for-writers) and a link will be sent to you. When it's time for the event, click on the link to join the live Zoom event. Looking forward to seeing you there!
Digital Doors Open at 655pm!
David Floody M.Ed. is a retired academic English teacher living and writing novels in Tofino, BC. His novels have at their core a theme of retributive justice. He is a member of the Federation of BC Writers, the Canadian Authors Association, and Clayoquot Writers Group.
Heather Hendry is a school teacher and Tofino's Poet Laureate 2022-2024. A member of the Federation of British Columbia Writers and an associate member of the Canadian League of Poets, Heather’s work has appeared in Sea & Cedar Magazine, Van Isle Poetry Collection and League of Canadian Poets Poetry Pause. Handmade Binoculars is her debut collection.
Helen Mavoa has been privileged to write and capture photo-images in this unceded Tla-o-qui-aht territory of exceptional beauty since 2012. Work within this creative community includes a photo-essay exploring intergenerational impacts of COVID in Clayoquot Sound. She’s currently finalising a travel memoir capturing some of her adventures, literal and figurative.
Joanna Streetly’s most recent book, Wild Fierce Life: Dangerous Moments on the Outer Coast, is a BC Bestseller published by Caitlin Press. Find her in Best Canadian Essays 2017 , April’s Prairie Fire and many anthologies. She has lived in Tofino since 1990 and was the 2018-2020 Tofino Poet Laureate.
Meaghan Hackinen (FBCW host): is a bike-obsessed bookworm on a lifelong hunt for exceptional cycling routes, both on and off the pavement.She lives on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Syilx/Okanagan People in Kelowna, BC.
*This event will be recorded.
Join us Saturday, April 1st at 7pm for The Write Stuff - Segues: Memoir to Fiction with Joseph Kakwinokanasum. This session is part of The Write Stuff new virtual series focused on writing craft in various genres.
The how and why, Joseph Kakwinokanasum transitioned from writing memoir to fiction. How memoir prepared him for writing fiction, and some of the methods/tools he used to write his first fiction novel.
Joseph is a member of the James Smith Cree Nation. He grew up in Northeastern BC and moved to Vancouver in 1989. A graduate of SFU’s Writer’s Studio, he wrote his first novel, My Indian Summer, with Tidewater Press (2022.) He continues to write on the unceded territory of the T’souke Nation. For more about Joseph visit starblanketstoryteller.com
Register and a link will be sent to you. When it's time for the event, click on the link to join the live Zoom event. Looking forward to seeing you there!
Digital Doors Open at 655pm! (Pacific Time)
Join us for In/Verse on Saturday, April 8th at 2:00 pm by registering here (bcwriters.ca/events-for-writers) and a Zoom link for the event will be sent to you. When it’s time for the event you can click on the Zoom link to join the event.
Speakers:
Kayla Czaga is the author of three poetry collections—For Your Safety Please Hold On, Dunk Tank, and Midway (House of Anansi, forthcoming 2024). Her work has been nominated for the Governor General’s Award for Poetry and the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. Frequently anthologized in The Best Canadian Poetry in English series, her writing also appears in The Walrus, Grain, Event, The Fiddlehead, and elsewhere. She lives with her wife on the traditional territory of the Lekwungen people, also known as the Esquimalt and Songhees nations.
Junie Désil is a poet. Born of immigrant (Haitian) parents on the Traditional Territories of the Kanien’kehá:ka in the island known as Tiohtià:ke (Montréal), raised in Treaty 1 Territory (Winnipeg). Junie’s debut poetry collection Eat Salt|Gaze at the Ocean (TalonBooks, 2020) was a finalist for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. Junie currently lives on the traditional territories of the Homalco, Tla'amin and Klahoose where she is currently working on a novel and a poetry manuscript.
Alex Leslie has published two collections of short stories - People Who Disappear, shortlisted for a Lambda Award for debut fiction, and We All Need to Eat, shortlisted for the Ethel Wilson BC Book Prize for fiction - and two collections of prose poetry - 'The things I heard about you' and Vancouver for Beginners, shortlisted for the City of Vancouver Book Prize and winner of the Western Canada Jewish book prize for poetry from the Lohn Foundation. Alex's fiction has been published in the Journey Prize anthology, Granta, Best Canadian Stories 2020, Catapult, and many journals. Alex recently finished writing their first novel, wants to give you unsolicited advice about training your rescue dog, and makes a great risotto
Host:
Neil Surkan was born in Penticton, BC. He is the author of two full-length poetry collections — Unbecoming (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2021), which was selected as one of three finalists for the City of Calgary’s W.O. Mitchell Award, and On High (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2018) — and the chapbooks Their Queer Tenderness (Knife-Fork-Book, 2020) and Super, Natural (Anstruther Press, 2017). His award-winning poems have appeared in numerous Canadian magazines. Neil currently lives and teaches in Nanaimo, on the traditional and unceded territory of the Snuneymuxw First Nation, with Luca, Edi, and Lloyd.
*This event is not being recorded
This In/Verse event is supported by the League of Canadian Poets, The Canada Council for the Arts, and the British Columbia Arts Council. The Federation of BC Writers is grateful for their ongoing support.
Interior Dialogues is back! Join us for two poetry workshops that will have you bringing new energy and creativity to your work. The workshops will be led by Al Rempel and Kerry Gilbert.
Workshop with Kerry Gilbert:
“Good writing gives energy, whatever it is about.”—Marilyn Hacker
How can you make your writing more attractive to readers by paying close attention to energy? This workshop explores ideas around the core principles of energy, including movement/heat, leaps/gaps, energetic word choice, and the use of specifics. “Energy gives your writing power, drama, originality, and life. Energy is what makes your creative writing stand out from everyone else’s” (Heather Sellers). This will be a hands-on exploration, with some literary models to look at, and a lot of room for experimentation in your own writing during the workshop.
Workshop with Al Rempel:
What does zooming, spelunking, and tumbling have in common? Find out all the ways in Painting Powerful Images, a workshop that will focus on generating and tightening up your poetic imagery. You will be presented with a few tools and techniques you can take with you into your writing practice, and there will be time to try them out and ask questions during the workshop.
Bio:
Al Rempel’s books of poetry are Undiscovered Country, This Isn't the Apocalypse We Hoped For, and Understories, along with a handful of chapbooks, most recently Behind the Bladed Green from the Alfred Gustav Press. His poems have also appeared in various journals and anthologies, including the forthcoming Cascadia Field Guide. He has written reviews and led workshops, and his videopoem collaborations have been screened internationally. He can be found at alrempel.com.
Kerry Gilbert lives in the Okanagan, where she teaches Creative Writing at Okanagan College. Her first book, (kerplnk): a verse novel of development, was published in 2005 with Kalamalka Press. Her second book of poetry, Tight Wire, was published in 2016 with Mother Tongue Publishing. Little Red, is Gilbert’s newest poetry collection with Mother Tongue, released in 2019. Gilbert has won the Gwendolyn MacEwen Poetry Award for Best Suite by an Emerging Writer and has been shortlisted for ReLit, for the Ralph Gustafson Prize for the Best Poem, for the Pacific Spirit Poetry Contest and for the Gwendolyn MacEwen Poetry for Best Suite by an Established Writer.
www.kerrygilbert.ca
Digital Doors Open at 12:55, Event Starts at 1PM
*This event will be recorded
Join us for Writing Sprint Serenade on Monday, March 20th by registering here (bcwriters.ca/events-for-writers) and a Zoom link for the event will be sent to you. When it’s time for the event you can click on the Zoom link to join the event.
Pianist Andrew Sims creates a space for us all to be inspired. He accompanies us while we engage in our craft. This monthly event has a simple, but creative premise. Andrew plays while we write.
Each session will start with a brief introduction to the music being played and from there we launch into a creative space wherein writers are serenaded by live music to inspire us. All are welcome.
Andrew Sims completed the Bachelor of Music in piano from Baylor University and Master of Music in piano from the University of Alberta. He maintains a busy teaching studio of students ranging from beginners to advanced. Andrew is an examiner for the Canadian National Conservatory of Music and is in demand as an accompanist in the Comox Valley; he specializes in creative, wholistic, and positive teaching, particularly with music learning theory and developing music audiation and literacy. andrewsimspiano.com
Digital Doors Open at 11:55, Event Starts at 12PM
*This event is being recorded
Join us Tuesday, April 25th at 7pm for Regional Spotlight: Yukon's solstice haiku host Meaghan Hackinen. Register here (bcwriters.ca/events-for-writers) and a link will be sent to you. When it's time for the event, click on the link to join the live Zoom event. Looking forward to seeing you there!
Originally from Vancouver, kjmunro lives in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. In 2014, she founded ‘solstice haiku’, a monthly haiku discussion group that she continues to facilitate. She has recently completed Vancouver Manuscript Intensive, revising a poetry manuscript with her mentor Betsy Warland. Her debut poetry collection is contractions (Red Moon Press, 2019).
Charmaine Arjoonlal is a social worker who lives with her husband and two spoiled dogs in Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada. When she’s not squeezing in writing, she enjoys hanging out in coffee shops, biking and swimming in cold lakes. Charmaine’s writing has appeared or is forthcoming in The Rumpus, MUTHA, Lothlorien Poetry Journal and elsewhere.
Corinna Cook is the author of Leavetakings, an essay collection (University of Alaska Press, 2020). She is a former Fulbright Fellow, an Alaska Literary Award recipient, and a Rasmuson Foundation awardee. Her next book project explores Alaska-Yukon art, ecology, and history. More at corinnacook.com.
Pamela Jeanne is a writer and poet living in Whitehorse, Yukon, on Kwanlin Dun First Nation and Ta'an Kwach'an Council traditional territory. She has kept a journal since she was a teenager and is working on a memoir. Her haiku have been published in an online blog and tri-folds.
Lillian Nakamura Maguire is a second-generation Japanese Canadian writer, living near Whitehorse, Yukon on the traditional territory of the Kwanlin Dün First Nation and Ta'an Kwäch'än Council. Currently she is exploring her Japanese Canadian history through a “story collage” of Japanese poetry with prose, memoir, film and storytelling integrated with family photos/films and other documents.
Email us at hello@bcwriters.ca
PO BOX 3503 Courtenay, BC, V9N 6Z8
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