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• Literary Festivals Preview

  • When
    17 Apr 2025
  •  
    7:00 PM - 8:00 PM
  • Location
    Zoom

  Register

  
  

  
  

  Join us Thursday, April 17 at 7:00 pm Pacific for a Literary Festivals Preview, with host Bryan Mortensen and our special guests -- representatives of writer festivals and conferences throughout BC and the Yukon. They'll offer a brief overview of their festival and/or literary events. This session will be attractive to anyone seeking connection and camaraderie within the literary community, writers looking for opportunities for skills enhancement, and for those who are looking to hang out with established writers and authors. 

  
  

  Register here and we'll send you a link. When it's time for the event, click on the link to join the live Zoom event. We look forward to seeing you there!

  Digital Doors Open at 6:55 pm!

  *This event will be recorded.

  Show details
• May Writers' Social

  • When
    13 May 2025
  •  
    7:00 PM - 8:15 PM
  • Location
    Zoom

  Register

  
  

  Join us for a Writers' Social on Tuesday, May 13 from 7:00 - 8:15 PM Pacific 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.

  
  

  Many of us strive for a connection with our fellow writers. This members-only monthly event is designed to bring us together for casual chats with breakout rooms. Join us to talk craft, career, and connection for about 75 minutes over Zoom. Meet new people and get the most out of being a part of a provincial organization! Below are the proposed discussion groups for April's meeting (subject to change). Please consider which discussion group you would like to join before you arrive, and email meaghan@bcwriters.ca if you would like to suggest a discussion topic. See you soon!

  
  

  Discussion Groups:

  • Memoir/CNF writers connect
  • Writing in the age of AI
  • Agents and publishers
  • All about poetry
  • Shorts stories and flash fiction
  • Connecting writers with chronic illnesses
  • Self-editing and revising your own work
  • General writing discussion

  
  

  Digital Doors Open at 6:55 pm, Event Starts at 7:00 PM Pacific

  Show details
• Book Club for Writers: "Writing the Breakout Novel" with special guest Frances Peck

  • When
    15 May 2025
  •  
    7:00 PM - 8:15 PM
  • Location
    Zoom

  Register

  
  

  Member Price: Free (with donation options)

  Non-Member Price: $10

  **Digital doors open at 6:55 pm; event starts at 7:00 pm

  **Portions of this event will be recorded and made available to registrants to view for 30 days. Breakout room discussions will not be recorded.

  
  

  The Federation of BC Writers invites you to participate in our newest programming initiative: Book Club for Writers! This online book club for writers offers an opportunity to read and discuss books related to the craft of writing. Book Club events are 75 minutes long and feature a combination of small group discussion using breakout rooms, large group discussion in the main room, as well as an opportunity to hear the author, contributor, editor, or special guest’s insights and ask questions.

  
  

  Our May 2025 pick is Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass. We are thrilled that award-nominated writer and FBCW Ambassador Frances Peck will join us to share her insights and lead the conversation. Register here (bcwriters.ca/events-for-writers) to receive the event link, discussion questions, and reminders. Purchase the book, review the discussion questions, and when it's time for the event, click on the link to join the live Zoom event. We look forward to seeing you there!

  
  

  BOOK BLURB:

  
  

  Maybe you're a first-time novelist looking for practical guidance. Maybe you've already been published, but your latest effort is stuck in mid-list limbo. Whatever the case may be, author and literary agent Donald Maass can show you how to take your prose to the next level and write a breakout novel - one that rises out of obscurity and hits the best-seller lists.
  

  
  Maass details the elements that all breakout novels share - regardless of genre - then shows you writing techniques that can make your own books stand out and succeed in a crowded marketplace.
  
  You'll learn:
     • establish a powerful and sweeping sense of time and place
     • weave subplots into the main action for a complex, engrossing story
     • create larger-than-life characters that step right off the page
     • explore universal themes that will interest a broad audience of readers
     • sustain a high degree of narrative tension from start to finish
     • develop an inspired premise that sets your novel apart from the competition
  
  
  Then, using examples from the recent works of several best-selling authors - including novelist Anne Perry - Maass illustrates methods for upping the ante in every aspect of your novel writing. You'll capture the eye of an agent, generate publisher interest and lay the foundation for a promising career.

  
  

  PRESENTER BIO:

  
  

  Frances Peck worked as an editor, ghostwriter, and instructor of editing and writing for three decades. Then she returned to her childhood preoccupation, creative writing. Her debut novel, The Broken Places, about a major earthquake rocking Vancouver, was a Globe and Mail best book of 2022 and a finalist for the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize. Her second novel, Uncontrolled Flight, about the death of a BC firefighting pilot, made 2023 book-of-the-year lists at 49th Shelf and Consumed by Ink. Frances grew up in Cape Breton, lived in Ottawa, and in 2005 moved to North Vancouver. She is at work on a new novel.
  

  
  

  STEPS:

  1. Register here to receive the discussion questions and event link

  2. Purchase your print or electronic version of the book

  3. Read the book and consider the discussion questions (emailed two weeks before meeting)

  • Find Writing the Breakout Novel at your local bookstore 
    
  • Find on Kindle
    

  4. Join the Book Club meeting using the Zoom link to discuss your responses and hear from the authors!

  
  

  Please email Meaghan@bcwriters.ca if you have any questions, or would like to suggest a book.

  Show details
• June Writers' Social

  • When
    10 Jun 2025
  •  
    7:00 PM - 8:15 PM
  • Location
    Zoom

  Register

  
  

  Join us for a Writers' Social on Tuesday, June 10th from 7:00 - 8:15 PM Pacific 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.

  
  

  Many of us strive for a connection with our fellow writers. This members-only monthly event is designed to bring us together for casual chats with breakout rooms. Join us to talk craft, career, and connection for about 75 minutes over Zoom. Meet new people and get the most out of being a part of a provincial organization! Below are the proposed discussion groups for April's meeting (subject to change). Please consider which discussion group you would like to join before you arrive, and email meaghan@bcwriters.ca if you would like to suggest a discussion topic. See you soon!

  
  

  Discussion Groups:

  • Summer writing goals 
  • Favourites books! Share the literature that has shaped your writing, and grow your booklist with recommendations
  • Telling the truth in memoir/CNF
  • All about poetry
  • Self publishing
  • Connecting writers with chronic illnesses
  • General writing discussion

  
  

  Digital Doors Open at 6:55 pm, Event Starts at 7:00 PM Pacific

  Show details
• July Writers' Social

  • When
    8 Jul 2025
  •  
    7:00 PM - 8:15 PM
  • Location
    Zoom

  Register

  
  

  Join us for a Writers' Social on Tuesday, July 8th from 7:00 - 8:15 PM Pacific 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.

  
  

  Many of us strive for a connection with our fellow writers. This members-only monthly event is designed to bring us together for casual chats with breakout rooms. Join us to talk craft, career, and connection for about 75 minutes over Zoom. Meet new people and get the most out of being a part of a provincial organization! Below are the proposed discussion groups for April's meeting (subject to change). Please consider which discussion group you would like to join before you arrive, and email meaghan@bcwriters.ca if you would like to suggest a discussion topic. See you soon!

  
  

  Discussion Groups:

  • All about poetry 
  • Resources share: which writing resources (websites, books, newsletters, apps, etc.) have you found useful? Share and learn from others experience.
  • CNF/memoir writers connect
  • All about poetry
  • Getting in the zone: creative practices and routines
  • Connecting writers with chronic illnesses
  • General writing discussion

  
  

  Digital Doors Open at 6:55 pm, Event Starts at 7:00 PM Pacific

  Show details
• Book Club for Writers: "In / Appropriate" with special guests Kim Davids Mandar & Chelene Knight

  • When
    10 Jul 2025
  •  
    7:00 PM - 8:15 PM
  • Location
    Zoom

  Register

  
  

  Member Price: Free (with donation options)

  Non-Member Price: $10

  **Digital doors open at 6:55 pm; event starts at 7:00 pm Pacific Time

  **Portions of this event will be recorded and made available to registrants to view for 30 days. Breakout room discussions will not be recorded.

  
  

  The Federation of BC Writers invites you to participate in our newest programming initiative: Book Club for Writers! This online book club for writers offers an opportunity to read and discuss books related to the craft of writing. Book Club events are 75 minutes long and feature a combination of small group discussion using breakout rooms, large group discussion in the main room, as well as an opportunity to hear the author, contributor, editor, or special guest’s insights and ask questions.

  
  

  Our July 2025 pick is In | Appropriate: Interviews with Canadian authors on the writing of difference. We are thrilled that Kim Davids Mandar (editor) and Chelene Knight (interviewed in the collection) will join us to share their insights. Register here (bcwriters.ca/events-for-writers) to receive the event link, discussion questions, and reminders. Purchase the book, review the discussion questions, and when it's time for the event, click on the link to join the live Zoom event. We look forward to seeing you there!

  
  

  BOOK BLURB:

  In | Appropriate is a collection of interviews with Canadian authors, exploring how they work through questions of difference, identity, and appropriation in their writing.

  Edited by Kim Davids Mandar, and introduced by Daniel Heath Justice, the collection features interviews with Ian Williams, Ayelet Tsabari, Sanchari Sur, Eden Robinson, Jael Richardson, Waubgeshig Rice, Amanda Leduc, Chelene Knight, Mahak Jain, Wayne Grady, Alicia Elliott, Farzana Doctor, Michael Crummey, Arif Anwar, and Angie Abdou.
  
  The interviews address questions of appropriation that go beyond race and culture, extending also to gender, sexuality, ability, age, and other categories of difference. They ask how writers work to represent an increasingly diverse and complex culture in ways that avoid falling into appropriation.

  
  

  PRESENTER BIOS:

  
  

  Kim Davids Mandar: In | Appropriate was published by Gordon Hill Press in 2020 (pandemic release) concurrent with completion of an MSc in Capacity Development (topic: Intercultural Competence) at the University of Guelph. Kim works full-time at Wilfrid Laurier University in Accessible Learning while completing her PhD at the University of Toronto (Leadership in Higher Education). Kim primary learning continues in transformative community development through the Association for Baha'i Studies and with the Guelph Neighbourhood Support Coalition in her home town of Guelph, Ontario alongside furry four-leggeds, friends, family and neighbours. Published creative writing includes: a flash CNF piece in Sustenance, Anvil Press; A CNF essay entitled My First Non-White Christmas, Prairie Fire.

  Chelene Knight is the author of five books including Safekeeping: A Writer’s Guided Journal For Launching a Book With Love (Anansi 2025), and Let It Go: Free Yourself From Old Beliefs and Find a New Path To Joy (HarperCollins Canada 2024). She is founder of her own creative studio, Breathing Space Creative through which she’s launched the BSC Writing Mentorships which are thoughtfully designed to help writers elevate their craft, shape and develop their manuscripts, and deepen their connection to who they are as creatives. www.breathingspacecreative.com

  
  

  STEPS:

  
  

  1. Register here to receive the discussion questions and event link

  2. Purchase your print or electronic version of the book

  3. Read the book and consider the discussion questions (emailed two weeks before meeting)

  • Find In | Appropriate at your local bookstore
  • Purchase from Gordon Hill Press (paperback, Epub, PDF)

  4. Join the Book Club meeting using the Zoom link to discuss your responses and hear from the authors!

  
  

  Please email Meaghan@bcwriters.ca if you have any questions, or would like to suggest a book.

  Show details