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Past Events

September 20, 2009
The Geist Art of the Short Review at the Listel Hotel, Vancouver
Location: Listel Hotel, Vancouver BC
Time: 01:00 PM

A hands-on workshop for anyone who wants to write what they think—in as few words as possible. Patty Osborne, a regular contributor to Endnotes, will lead participants through the process of honing in on what needs to be said in a short review and what is the best way to say it.

Bring along a book you want to review, a pen or pencil and a pad of paper. By the end of the workshop you will have written a short review!

Sunday, September 20, 2009, 1–4:30 p.m.
Listel Hotel
1300 Robson St., Vancouver
For more information call 604-681-9161 or visit Geist.com
September 19, 2009
The Geist Poetry Workout at the Listel Hotel, Vancouver
Location: Listel Hotel, Vancouver BC
Time: 01:00 PM

A workshop to strengthen your poetic muscles! Poets Elizabeth Bachinsky and Gillian Jerome will put you through your poetic paces in a sweaty, fun-filled three-hour session. Eat a hearty breakfast beforehand because you’re gonna need all the energy you can muster.

Ten exercises. Ten poems. Three hours. Super fun. Wear a sweatband.

(We’re not kidding!)
Elizabeth Bachinsky is the author of three collections of poetry, Curio (BookThug, 2005), Home of Sudden Service (Nightwood, 2006), and God of Missed Connections (Nightwood, 2009). Her work was nominated for the Governor General’s Award for Poetry in 2006 and the Bronwen Wallace Award in 2004 and has appeared in literary journals, anthologies, and on film in Canada, the United States, France, Ireland, England, and China. She is an instructor of creative writing at Douglas College in New Westminster where she is Poetry Editor for Event magazine. Read her work in Geist.

Gillian Jerome’s first book of poems will be published by Nightwood Editions this fall. Her writing has been published in Geist, Grain, Canadian Literature, Colorado Review and other publications in the U.S. and Canada. Her first book of non-fiction, Hope In Shadows: Stories and Photographs from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, co-edited with Brad Cran, won the City of Vancouver Book Award and has just been nominated for the B.C. Book Award Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize for Non-Fiction. She teaches English at UBC and poetry to children as often as possible. Read her work in Geist.

Saturday, September 19, 2009, 1–4 p.m.
Listel Hotel
1300 Robson St., Vancouver
For more information call 604-681-9161 or visit Geist.com
September 12, 2009
Haiku Idol in Whistler, BC
Location: Players Chophouse, Whistler Creekside, BC
Time: 07:30 PM

Inspired by the Calgary 1988 Olympics, the home of the 2010 Games is about to play host to a contest that organisers worry might get out of control.

After all, the stakes don’t get any higher for a poet than when there’s a chance to get paid.

Haiku Idol debuts in Whistler on Saturday September 12 2009, to mark the 6 month countdown to the 2010 Winter Olympics. It is a live, high-speed, poetry-writing contest that involves one bag of money, one thesaurus, 20 writers ranging from the celebrated to the obscure, and the pressure of a deadline.

At Haiku Idol, writers will test their mettle, with hopefully, a minimum of spittle, when they’re given one torn-out page from the thesaurus, one pencil, one half hour as everyone else heads to the bar (or circles to watch the animals at work), to scribe a poem, of any length and any style. When the bell rings, its pencils down and mikes up, as they take the spotlight to read, and reveal what the crucible created. The winner takes the money, and runs.

Says Whistler Readers and Writers Festival Director Stella Harvey, “If competition truly breeds excellence, then it is time the poets stopped swanning about and put themselves in the starting gate.”

Whistler’s Haiku Idol was inspired by a National Poetry Sweatshop that took place as part of Calgary’s 1998 Cultural Olympiad.

Whistler writer Leslie Anthony remembers the event, at which he represented Ontario, involved much gnashing of teeth. “People would occasionally glance up from their drinks to watch the poets, elevated under harsh glaring light with their allotted sharpened pencils as they sweated over their papers, tore out their hair and crumpled their notes up in aborted efforts.”

Whistler’s reprise of the event will kick off with a performance from spoken word maestro, the first Canadian poet to win the USA Individual National Poetry Slam, Shane Koyzan.

20 competitors will then take to the sweatshop to cook out a little poetry. Whistler’s unofficial Poet Laureaute Pam Barnsley and veteran ski scribe Michel Beaudry have already signed on. Local hip hop artist MC Nobody Really has also been invited to strut his impromptu stuff.

Due to limited seating, potential poetry-slammers and audience members are advised to purchase their tickets in advance at http://www.theviciouscircle.ca .
The Whistler Readers and Writers Festival, September 11-13 2009 presents:
He Read, She Read: The Battle of the Book Clubs
followed by Haiku Idol
Saturday, September 12, 7:30pm,
at Players Chophouse, Whistler Creekside,
$25
September 11, 2009
Whistler Readers and Writers Festival
Location: Legends at Creekside, Whistler BC
Time:

WHISTLER PLANS FOR LARGEST GATHERING OF WORD-NERDS EVER

8th Whistler Readers and Writers Festival, Sept 11-13 2009

More than twenty invited Canadian authors and editors will descend on Whistler this fall as special guests in a weekend-long siege of word-wielding and poetry-slinging at the eighth Whistler Readers and Writers Festival.

Guest writers include the 2009 Writers-in-Residence (who will spend the fall at Alta Lake Station House) - Wayne Grady (Tree) and Merilyn Simonds (The Convict Lover), as well as 2009 BC Book Prize winner, Lee Henderson (The Man Game), Vancouver author, Annabel Lyon (The Golden Mean) and Claire Mulligan, long listed for the Giller Prize for her book, The Reckoning of Boston Jim. Whistler writer Sara Leach will also be celebrating the publication of her first book, Jake Reynolds: Chicken or Eagle.

The Festival moves to Creekside this year, turning Whistler’s oldest neighbourhood into ground zero for a creative boot-camp that will allow writers at all levels of practice, from green circle to double black diamond scribblers, to learn some tricks, meet some legends, pitch stories, workshop their drafts, avoid push-ups, and generally enjoy a creative recharge. The Festival is also budget-friendly – with free sessions on offer, two and a half hour workshops at just $25, and a full Festival pass (not including the month-long residency) for $180.

Says Festival Director, Stella Harvey, “The Whistler Readers and Writers Festival is the most accessible way people can give their creative selves a boost. It also offers a one-day immersion in a choice of writing streams.”

With various sessions to choose from, participants can pick, mix and dabble their way through the program, or can follow a more intensive stream in Writing for Children, Writing for the Screen, Writing for Magazines, or the Technique Tune-up: Getting your Prose Lean, your Characters Mean (or meaningful), and your Writing Voice Tuned Up.

Also new for 2009, the Festival will bring together five of Canada’s leading magazine editors for The Pitching Mound, a lunch-hour session presented by the Association of BC Magazine Publishers. Audience members will walk away with a full belly, a full brain and a bag full of magazines for just $35. A limited number of aspiring magazine and non-fiction writers will have the chance to step up to the plate and go all-star, selling their best story ideas to James Little from Explore magazine, Leslie Anthony from Skier magazine, Sandro Grayson from Color magazine, Matt O’Grady from BC Business magazine and Charlene Rooke from Western Living magazine.

The festival program will be available for download at www.theviciouscircle.ca on Wednesday, June 17, 2009. Tickets can be purchased online on the same day. All events will be taking place at Legends at Creekside, with the Saturday night Gala taking place at Players Chophouse. All day parking at Creekside is free.

Contact: Stella Harvey, Festival Director
phone: 604 932 4518
email: Stella25@telus.net
June 27, 2009
Going Public: Managing and Promoting your Writing Life
Location: SFU at Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings, Vancouver
Time: 09:30 AM

The Writer's Studio at Simon Fraser University presents a day of workshops focussed on skills to help build your writing career.

Click here for more information
June 26, 2009
Creative Writing and Editing Workshop with Dr. John Asfour and Elee Kraljii
Location: Rhizome Cafe, 317 Broadway (at Kingsway), 604-872-3166
Time: 02:00 PM

How do you protect the voice while sharpening the piece? Join the editors of Thursdays: Writings from the Carnegie Centre to discuss the process of sharpening your work. During the first hour, we will discuss the before and after of a published piece, pointing out the changes that took the writing from raw to polished. Learn how minimal changes can affect the message, when to dive deeper and when to stop fiddling. The second hour is for your questions and concerns.

Dr. Asfour is Lebanese-Canadian poet and translator. He was the first writer-in-residence at the Historic Joy Kagawa house in 2009 and is the author of four books of poetry in English and two in Arabic. He resides in Montreal, where he has taught creative writing for 25 years. He translated the poetry of Muhammad al-Maghut into English under the title Joy Is Not My Profession (Véhicule Press), and he selected, edited and introduced the landmark anthology When the Words Burn: An Anthology of Modern Arabic Poetry, 1945-1987 (Cormorant Books).

Elee Kraljii Gardiner is a freelance writer and the editor of Thursdays: Poems and Prose from the Downtown Eastside. She is the 2009 Poetry Adjunct at SFU's Writers Studio, where she studied creative nonfiction in 2006. She is the founder of Otter Press.

Please email thursdayseditor@telus.net to reserve a spot.
June 25, 2009
Chapbook Launch-Thursdays 2: Writings from the Carnegie Centre
Location: Brickhouse, 730 Main Street (at Prior) in Vancouver
Time: 08:00 PM

Otter Press presents the launch of Thursdays 2: Writings from the Carnegie Centre. This second anthology of work from the writers of the Thursdays class, taught by The Writer's Studio (TWS) adjunct and alumna Elee Kraljii Gardiner (TWS 2006) with apprentice Danielle Arsenault (TWS 2005), includes 20 contributors from the Downtown Eastside. The chapbook is edited by Elee Kraljii Gardiner and poet Dr. John Asfour, the inaugural Kogawa House writer-in-residence, and is designed by Trica Thompson and Kei Baritugo of the Writing and Publishing Program. The evening will include readings by the contributors plus a chance to chat with them about their experience. Both editions of the chapbooks will be available for sale.

Dr. Asfour is Lebanese-Canadian poet and translator. He was the first writer-in-residence at the Historic Joy Kagawa house in 2009 and is the author of four books of poetry in English and two in Arabic. He resides in Montreal, where he has taught creative writing for 25 years. He translated the poetry of Muhammad al-Maghut into English under the title Joy Is Not My Profession (Véhicule Press), and he selected, edited and introduced the landmark anthology When the Words Burn: An Anthology of Modern Arabic Poetry, 1945-1987 (Cormorant Books).

Elee Kraljii Gardiner is a freelance writer and the editor of Thursdays: Poems and Prose from the Downtown Eastside. She is the 2009 Poetry Adjunct at SFU's Writers Studio, where she studied creative nonfiction in 2006. She is the founder of Otter Press.

Please email thursdayseditor@telus.net to reserve a spot.
April 10, 2009
TWS READING SERIES
Location: Blenz Coffee Shop
Time: 07:00 PM
Next TWS Reading Series event is on Friday, April 10 at Blenz Coffee Shop, Hastings at Richards in downtown Vancouver, from 7 to 9 pm. Guest poets Akerke Mussabekova and John Asfour will present their work along with other poets, creative fiction and nonfiction writers. This event is FREE.
March 12, 2009
MARCH TWS READING SERIES EVENT AT RHIZOME CAFE, 7:30 TO 9:30 PM
Location: RHIZOME CAFE, 317 EAST BROADWAY AT KINGSWAY
Time: 07:30 PM
TWS READING SERIES MARCH READING WILL DEBUT 'THURSDAYS: POEMS AND PROSE FROM THE DTES', AS WELL AS OTHER POETS, FICTION AND NONFICTION WRITERS. PLEASE JOIN US. THE EVENT IS FREE. (SEE TWS READING SERIES ON THIS SITE)
December 11, 2008
TWS Reading Series Event at Rhizome Cafe
Location: Rhizome Café at 317 East Broadway at Kingsway
Time: 07:30 PM
Performance & Celebration!
November 15, 2008
TWS Reading at Blenz
Location: Blenz Coffee Shop, on the corner of Hastings and Richards in downtown Vancouver
Time: 03:00 AM
Mixed Genre reading by TWS Alumni and current participants. Blenz readings are held the second Friday of each month.
October 26, 2008
emerge 2008 Launch
Location: Vancouver International Writers (& Readers) Festival
Time: 11:00 PM

emerge 2008 Launch and Reading of this year’s Writer’s Studio anthology emerge at the Vancouver International Writers (& Readers) Festival. To be followed by a cash bar reception at Waterfront Theatre, Granville Island.

www.writersfest.bc.ca or call 604-681-6330 for ticket information.
October 11, 2008
TWS Poetry Reading at Blenz
Location: Blenz at Hastings and Richards
Time: 02:00 AM
October’s reading event at Blenz Coffee Shop, Hastings and Richards in downtown Vancouver, will feature TWS poets.
September 18, 2008
emerge Anthology 2008: the Sneak Preview
Location: Chivana Restaurant Bar Lounge
Time: 02:00 AM
Discover why The Writer’s Studio at SFU consistently produces some of Canada’s most promising new writers when you hear the diverse voices from the Class of 2008 perform original works from the soon-to-be-launched Emerge, an anthology of new writing by participants from The Writer’s Studio.
September 12, 2008
TWS Retreat
Location: TBA
Time: 07:00 AM
On September 12, TWS Alumni and current students will gather for a writing retreat that will provide space and time for quiet writing & great conversation, along with good food, wine and friends. On Saturday night we’ve planned to have an informal reading of our crafted work, around a campfire at the beach. Enclosed are the details for signing up and some information informal workshops that various alumni have offered to lead.
September 12, 2008
TWS Reading Series at Rhizome Café
Location: 317 East Broadway at Kingsway
Time: 02:30 AM
Creative Nonfiction, Fiction & Poetry About Family Open Mic, Time Permitting. With Special Thanks to Lisa and the gang and Rhizome Café.