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  • October 23: Telling the Truth: Conversations about Creative Nonfiction with Megan Cole

    • 23 Oct 2021
    • 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM
    • Zoom
    Register


    Join us Saturday, October 23 at 7pm for FBCW's Telling the Truth, an event with non-fiction writers, hosted by Megan Cole. 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 645pm!

    Leanne Dunic was a child growing up on Vancouver Island when she first started dreaming about Paul McCartney. Those dreams led her to words and music, arms reaching for instruments, random library discoveries, and opportunities to make you laugh. She transgresses genres and form to produce projects such as To Love the Coming End (Book*hug/ Chin Music Press 2017) and The Gift (Book*hug 2019). Her lyric memoir, One and Half of You, was published Spring 2021 by Talonbooks.

    Leanne is an adjunct professor at University of British Columbia, the fiction mentor at Simon Fraser University’s The Writer’s Studio, and the fiction editor at Tahoma Literary Review. 

    She is the leader of the band The Deep Cove, and lives on the unceded and occupied traditional territories of the Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh people.

    Liz Levine is a producer, transmedia ideator and writer whose 2 decades of creative contributions span platforms and genres.

    Liz’s produced films include Kyra Sedgwick’s directorial debut Story of  a Girl starring Kevin Bacon (DGA Nom), Jason Banker’s critically acclaimed Toad Road and Across My Land (Palme D’or nominated, Cannes) and most recently she executive produced Two Sentence Horror Stories season 2 (CW/Netflix).  Liz has also developed television at SonyTV, CBStv, TBS and is currently developing a film with Disney Channel.

    She completed her master of journalism degree at the University of British Columbia and has written for the National Post, The Walrus, Playback magazine, and The Vancouver Sun.  She is a Finalist for the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize, for her book “Nobody Ever Talks About Anything But The End”.

    Megan Cole:

    Megan is a tattooed food enthusiast with an obsessive reading habit. Her writing has appeared in The Puritan, Invisiblog, Kootenay Mountain Culture and more. She's currently working on her first book titled Head Over Feet: The Lasting Heart Ache of First Loves. When she's not writing, reading or cooking, she's working as the director of audience development for the BC and Yukon Book Prizes and recording interviews for the podcast Writing the Coast.


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  • October 24th: Pantser or Planner? Approaches to plotting your novel, with Gail Anderson-Dargatz

    • 24 Oct 2021
    • 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
    • Zoom
    Register


    Join us at 1pm, Sunday October 24th for this one hour session.

    Pantser or Planner? Approaches to plotting your novel, with Gail Anderson-Dargatz

    The real work of the novelist is developing conflict and structure, and most writers struggle with it. Fortunately, the heavy-lifting has been done for us by past writers. Gail will offer an overview of approaches to constructing plot, whether you’re writing literary or commercial fiction. She’ll follow up with exercises you can do at home to help you better understand story, and the outlining process.

    Gail is an award-winning and internationally bestselling author who writes both literary and commercial fiction, as well as hi-lo books for ESL and literacy learner readers. Two of her novels were short-listed for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. Her thriller The Almost Wife, released this summer, was a Toronto Star and Globe and Mail bestseller. She taught in the UBC optional-residency CW MFA program for almost a decade, and now mentors writers privately through her own teaching forums. For more, please see her website: www.gailanderson-dargatz.ca

    Also, if you are participating in Nanowrimo this year, the FBCW has got you covered.  With weekly sessions on Tuesdays at 1pm, and Thursdays at 10am, you will find accountability partners, people to bounce ideas off of, and be able to participate in writing sprints.

    After Nano, we will also be hosting an Open Mic so you can read some of your work, and in early 2022, we will be having an editing session, so keep your eyes peeled!

    Register here 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 1245pm! (Pacific Time)


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  • October 27th: Wise Words - Elder Abuse, with Justin Lee of Seniors First BC

    • 27 Oct 2021
    • 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
    • Zoom
    Register


    Join us Wednesday, October 27th at 1pm for Wise Words - Elder Abuse with Justin Lee of Seniors First BC.  This sessions are part of our Wise Words Program.  A unique writing and communication initiative for Seniors in all corners of our lovely province.  This program is Funded by the Government of Canada's New Horizons for Seniors Program.

    This 90-minute workshop addresses the correlation between social isolation and abuse of older adults, types of abuse and people involved, and strategies to deal with abuse. We discuss the importance of staying connected to others through brainstorming community resources, and view a short video depicting a fictional story of social isolation and elder abuse

    If you are uncomfortable signing in the first time, or need extra help to log-in, email us at hello@bcwriters.ca and one of our staff will touch base with you.

    Register here 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 1245pm! (Pacific Time)


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  • Nov. 2, 9, 16, 23 & 30th: Nanowrimo Tuesday Lunch & Sprint

    • 2 Nov 2021
    • 1:00 PM
    • 30 Nov 2021
    • 2:00 PM
    • Zoom
    Register


    Join us at 1pm, every Tuesday in November (2, 9, 16, 23 & 30th) for a one hour session.

    Are you participating in National Novel Writing Month (Nanowrimo) this year?Nano can be more successful with accountability partners. The FBCW is hosting weekly sessions - Tuesdays at 1 and Thursdays at 10am.  It can be hard to find the time to write, join us with Tuesdays at 1pm, bring your lunch and something to write with/on.

    The sessions will include word count accountability, roundtable discussion about wins and obstacles, followed by timed writing sprints.

    Angela Douglas writes mostly non-fiction (especially travel stories) and loves entering writing contests.  At the Fed, she handles the social media, writeON and readON newsletters, press, and other communications.  When she isn’t working or chasing her children, she is ripping her hair out at her desk trying to edit her first novel.  https://www.angeladouglas.ca @anglynndouglas

    Getting ready for Nanowrimo, the FBCW has got you covered.  There is a 'Panster or Planner?' session with Gail Anderson-Dargatz on Oct. 24th at 1pm.  Register at: https://www.bcwriters.ca/events-for-writers

    After Nano, we will also be hosting an Open Mic so you can read some of your work, and in early 2022, we will be having an editing session, so keep your eyes peeled!

    Your registration email will have a link for all 5 sessions. 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 just before 1pm PST.


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  • Nov. 4, 11, 18, 25: Nanowrimo Thursday Check-ins & Writing Sprints

    • 4 Nov 2021
    • 10:00 AM
    • 25 Nov 2021
    • 11:00 AM
    • Zoom
    Register


    Join us at 10am, every Thursday in November (4, 11, 18 & 25th) for a one hour session.

    Are you participating in National Novel Writing Month (Nanowrimo) this year? Nano can be more successful with accountability partners. The FBCW is hosting weekly sessions - Tuesdays at 1 and Thursdays at 10am.  Join us with Thursdays at 10am, bring something to write with/on.

    The sessions will include word count accountability, round table discussion about wins and obstacles, followed by timed writing sprints.

    Meaghan Hackinen is a writer and ultra-endurance cyclist whose two-wheeled adventures have taken her from Haida Gwaii to Mexico’s high plateaus, across Canada and the United States, and from North Cape to Tarifa along some of Europe’s highest paved roads. Her debut travel memoir, South Away: The Pacific Coast on Two Wheels (NeWest Press, 2019) was shortlisted for two Canadian book awards. Meaghan has an MFA in Writing from the University of Saskatchewan and lives on the traditional, ancestral, unceded territory of the Syilx/Okanagan People in the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia. 

    Getting ready for Nanowrimo, the FBCW has got you covered.  There is a 'Panster or Planner?' session with Gail Anderson-Dargatz on Oct. 24th at 1pm.  Register at: https://www.bcwriters.ca/events-for-writers

    After Nano, we will also be hosting an Open Mic so you can read some of your work, and in early 2022, we will be having an editing session, so keep your eyes peeled!

    Your registration email will have a link for all 4 sessions. 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 just before 10am PST.


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  • November 10th: Wise Words - Creativity in Later Years

    • 10 Nov 2021
    • 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
    • Zoom
    Register


    Join us Wednesday, November 10th at 1pm for Wise Words - Creativity in Later Years with M.A.C. Farrant.  This session is part of our Wise Words Program.  A unique writing and communication initiative for Seniors in all corners of our lovely province.  This program is Funded by the Government of Canada's New Horizons for Seniors Program.

    This will be a lively panel discussion with M.A.C. Farrant, and our Wise Words Committee about Creativity in Later Years.

    M.A.C. Farrant is the author of seventeen works of fiction, non-fiction, memoir, two plays, and over one hundred book reviews and essays for the Vancouver Sun and the Toronto Globe & Mail. Her memoir, My Turquoise Years, which she adapted for the stage, premiered in 2013 at the Arts Club Theatre’s Granville Island Stage in Vancouver, British Columbia. One Good Thing—a living memoir, was published by Talon Books in February, 2021.

    “Farrant’s work is infused with iconoclastic innovation.” (Globe & Mail). Bill Richardson has called her “a master of the Zen-like art of delivering weight in a way that is feather-light”.

    For those of you new to zoom - if you are uncomfortable signing in the first time, or need extra help to log-in, email us at hello@bcwriters.ca and one of our staff will touch base with you.

    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 1245pm! (Pacific Time)


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  • November 13: In/Verse Monthly Poetry Reading

    • 13 Nov 2021
    • 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
    • Zoom
    Register

    Digital Doors Open at 1:45, Event Starts at 2PM



    Join us for In/Verse on Saturday, November 13 at 1:45 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.

    Kyla Jamieson is a disabled poet and organizer who lives and relies on the unceded traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations, in the city currently known as Vancouver. Her writing reimagines time, embodiment, care, and intimacy in the aftermath of a brain injury. Body Count (Nightwood Editions, 2020), her début collection of poems, was shortlisted for the 2021 Pat Lowther Memorial Award, and her work has twice been longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize. Find her at kylajamieson.com or on a rock next to a river.

    David Ly is a writer and editor whose work has appeared in PRISM international, The Puritan, carte blanche, The /tƐmz/ Review, Arc Poetry Magazine, Best Canadian Poetry 2021, and elsewhere. His debut poetry collection, Mythical Man (Palimpsest Press, 2020), was shortlisted for the 2021 ReLit Poetry Award. His sophomore poetry collection, Dream of Me as Water, is forthcoming in Fall 2022. David is the Poetry Editor at This Magazine, part of the Anstruther Press Editorial Collective, and a Poetry Manuscript Consultant with The Writers’ Studio at SFU. 

    Poet, author, and public speaker Valerie Mason-John (a.k.a. “Queenie”) highlights issues of the African Diaspora and the Black, female, Queer identity, and resists the currently existing overt and covert forms of colonialism through their fierce and brave writing. I Am Still Your Negro, An Homage to James Baldwin, a collection of social justice poetry, is testament to that. They are the author /editor of ten books. Their debut novel, Borrowed Body, won the 2006 Mind Book of the Year Award. They co-edited the award-winning anthology, The Great Black North: Contemporary African Canadian Poetry, and co-produced blackhalifax.com. Their most recent book is an edited collection: Afrikan Wisdom: New Voices Talk Black Liberation, Buddhism, and Beyond. Valerie lives in Vancouver. Find them online at valeriemason-john.com


    Host:

    Susan Alexander is the author of two collections of poems, The Dance Floor Tilts and Nothing You Can Carry and a former journalist. Her work has won multiple awards, including the Mitchell Prize for Faith and Poetry in 2019. Susan’s poems appear in anthologies and literary magazines in Canada, the U.K. and the U.S., have ridden Vancouver buses as part of Poetry in Transit and even shown up in the woods around Whistler. She lives on Nexwlélexm/Bowen Island, the traditional territory of the Squamish people. 
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  • November 20: Telling the Truth: Conversations about Creative Nonfiction with Megan Cole

    • 20 Nov 2021
    • 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM
    • Zoom
    Register


    Join us Saturday, November 20th at 7pm for FBCW's Telling the Truth, an event with non-fiction writers, hosted by Megan Cole. 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 645pm!

    Joanna Streetly’s work is published in Best Canadian Essays 2017 and in anthologies, magazines and literary journals. Her memoir, Wild Fierce Life: Dangerous Moments on the Outer Coast, is a BC Bestseller published by Caitlin Press. Other titles include Paddling Through Time (Raincoast Books) and Silent Inlet (Oolichan) as well as This Dark (poetry, Postelsia).  She has been short-listed for the Shiva Naipaul Memorial Prize for travel writing, the FBCW Literary Writes Poetry Contest, and the Canada Writes Creative Non-fiction Prize. Joanna grew up in Trinidad and moved to Canada when she was seventeen. She has lived within the traditional territory of the Tla-o-qui-aht people since 1990 and was the 2018-2020 Tofino Poet Laureate. 

    JJ Lee is the author of The Measure of a Man: The Story of a Father, a Son, and a Suit. It was shortlisted for the 2011 Governor-General's Literary Award for Non-Fiction, the 2012 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction, and the 2012 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Non-Fiction.

    In 2012, he was awarded GOLD for Best Short Feature by the National Magazine Awards for his essay "ELLE First: You are beautiful." Since 2013, he has written and performed a Christmas ghost story for CBC Radio's On The Coast. In 2014, he hosted the CBC Radio summer show, Head to Toe. In 2015, he served on the jury for the Hilary Weston Writer's Trust Prize for Non-Fiction. In 2019, his horror-fantasy character The Man In The Long Black Coat, a.k.a. Bekker, made his second appearance in Pulp Literature.

    He lives in New Westminster where he is working on a sequel to The Measure of a Man.

    Megan Cole is a tattooed food enthusiast with an obsessive reading habit. Her writing has appeared in The Puritan, Invisiblog, Kootenay Mountain Culture and more. She's currently working on her first book titled Head Over Feet: The Lasting Heart Ache of First Loves. When she's not writing, reading or cooking, she's working as the director of audience development for the BC and Yukon Book Prizes and recording interviews for the podcast Writing the Coast.


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  • November 24th: Wise Words - Climate Writing Workshop

    • 24 Nov 2021
    • 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
    • Zoom
    Register


    Join us Wednesday, November 24th at 1pm for Wise Words - Climate Writing Workshop with Kathryn Mockler.  This session is part of our Wise Words Program.  A unique writing and communication initiative for Seniors in all corners of our lovely province.  This program is Funded by the Government of Canada's New Horizons for Seniors Program.

    In this workshop, Kathryn Mockler, publisher of Watch Your Head, will discuss writing creatively about the climate crisis. Climate writing and art can be a powerful tool for imagining new futures, dealing with climate grief, raising awareness, taking action, resisting, engaging in community, and much more. Kathryn will discuss the Watch Your Head website and print anthology, will share some strategies and prompts for writing poems, stories, or plays about the climate crisis, and will provide information about groups and collectives who are also doing work in this area.

    Kathryn Mockler is a writer, screenwriter, experimental filmmaker, editor, and publisher. She co-edited the print anthology Watch Your Head: Writers and Artists Respond to the Climate Crisis (Coach House Books, 2020) and is the publisher of the Watch Your Head website. Her films have screened at TIFF, EMFA, the Palm Springs Film Festival and most recently at the Arizona Underground Film Festival and REELPoetry/HoustonTX. Her debut collection of stories is forthcoming from Book*hug in 2023, and she is an Assistant Professor of Screenwriting at the University of Victoria.

    For those of you new to zoom - if you are uncomfortable signing in the first time, or need extra help to log-in, email us at hello@bcwriters.ca and one of our staff will touch base with you.

    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 1245pm! (Pacific Time)


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  • Missed a Sunday webinar? View the recording

    • 1 Dec 2021
    • 31 Dec 2021

    Disappointed you missed Ev Bishop's popular webinar on marketing and promotion from a small town? Looking for editing tips from Darling Axe senior editors David Brown and Michelle Barker? 

    You can still access one of our popular Sunday webinars if you did not get a chance to participate live. Recordings of all past webinars can be viewed here. You just need to create an account to access the Teachable platform. Recordings are accessible for the discounted rate of $12 (live webinars are $20). 

    Webinars available include:

    Rearranging Words - with Darling Axe senior editors Michelle Barker and David Brown

    The Monster - errr, ART - of Marketing & Promotion from a Small Town - with author Ev Bishop

    Understanding the Publishing Landscape in 2020 - with author Barb Drozdowich

    5 Tips to Improve Your Confidence in a Social Media World - with author Barb Drozdowich

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  • December 8th: Wise Words - Dream Delving: Prospecting in your Sleep for New Writing Ideas

    • 8 Dec 2021
    • 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
    • Zoom
    Register


    Join us Wednesday, December 8th at 1pm for Wise Words - Dream Delving: Prospecting in your Sleep for New Writing Ideas, with Carla Stein.  This session is part of our Wise Words Program.  A unique writing and communication initiative for Seniors in all corners of our lovely province.  This program is Funded by the Government of Canada's New Horizons for Seniors Program.

    How can you use dream interpretation and lucid dreaming to vitalize and enhance your writing? Carla Stein will introduce you to techniques for understanding your dreams and ways to make the most of the writing gold that’s been waiting to be discovered under your pillow.  

    Carla Stein’s poetry and images have been published in Sustenance, Friday's Poems, Stonecoast Review, Sad Girl Review, Pocket Lint, Please Hear What I’m Not Saying, Lemonspouting, The Belladonna, Polar Starlight and others. She has released two poetry chapbooks, Sideways Glances of an Everyday Sailor and Shrieking from the Shore. Until leaving the field to focus on writing and art, Carla practiced for 20+ years as a counselor and accredited mental health and addictions therapist. She holds a M.Ed. degree as well as a diploma in Fine Art. Her career has included writing as both a freelance and broadcast journalist. Carla is artistic director of Wordstorm Society of the Arts, based in Nanaimo, B.C. View her artwork at: www.roaeriestudio.com 

    For those of you new to zoom - if you are uncomfortable signing in the first time, or need extra help to log-in, email us at hello@bcwriters.ca and one of our staff will touch base with you.

    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 1245pm! (Pacific Time)


    Show details

Supported by the British Columbia Arts Council

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