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Schedule

Current brochure for the 2010 Writer’s Studio (pdf document)

Calendar of courses and program readings for 2010 (pdf 592 Kb)

Certificate Requirements

The cohort of up to 24 writers who participate in the certificate must complete a minimum of 135 hours of instruction. You may receive credit for elective courses successfully completed prior to entering or at any time after completing The Writer’s Studio. No certificate credit will be given to entry level creative writing courses.

Required courses

The Writer’s Studio Program is made up of 135 hours of core instruction as described below. These hours are included in the Studio tuition fee.

Elective courses

The remaining 24 elective hours may be chosen from any of the intermediate or advanced courses in Creative Writing and Journalism, or any course in the Editing or Publishing areas of the Writing and Publishing Program. These hours are not included in the Studio tuition. They must be paid for at the time of registration in the desired course(s).

The Writer’s Studio Winter January - March 2010

Orientation Day (course)

Saturday noon–4:30 pm January 9, 2010

Mentors and students will meet and begin to get to know one another. There will be a presentation on, and discussion of, the philosophy shaping the design and structure of The Writer’s Studio and an opportunity for everyone to explore their expectations and ask questions.

Mentor Groups (workshops)

January–March, 2010
Alternating Tuesdays or Wednesdays or Thursdays, 6:30 pm-9 pm

Students will begin meeting in their biweekly mentor-led, genre-specific workshop groups. Students will read a selection of their writing, clarify together how their workshop group will function, identify the focus of each of their final portfolios and begin to workshop their writing. Final portfolio manuscript requirements are personal narrative/creative non-fiction and lyric prose (minimum of 20–25 final draft pages), fiction (minimum of 30 final draft pages) and poetry (minimum of 20 final draft pages).

Manuscript Critique for Writers (course)

Saturday 10 am–2 pm January 16, 2010

How can peer feedback and the workshop process help your manuscript? How does a thoughtful writer respond to the work of others? Students will examine the workshop process, do exercises and study how professionals evaluate and respond to unfinished work. Participants will learn how to approach a piece of writing and give general feedback as well as specific comments and suggestions. There will be a full-class discussion on the benefits and perils of the workshop process as we determine the most productive and respectful ways to help a writer and manuscript move closer to the point of intention.

Instructor: Nancy Lee

Nancy Lee’s first book, Dead Girls (McClelland and Stewart, 2002), was hailed by The Globe and Mail as “a masterwork of revelation.” It was named Book of the Year by NOW Magazine, and has been published in the UK, France, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands. She was recipient of the VanCity Book Prize, a National Magazine Award and a Gabriel Award for Radio, and served as Canadian Writer-in-Residence at the prestigious University of East Anglia Writing Program in Great Britain. Her second book, Born Slippy, is forthcoming with McClelland and Stewart.

The RPMs of Writing (course)

6 Saturdays 1 pm–4 pm January 23–February 27, 2010

Rhetoric-Process-Material: an introductory course that will stimulate students’ awareness of practical and intuitive considerations, which come to bear during the writing process. The course will focus on: acquiring strategies and techniques designed to increase practical skills as creative and professional writers; beginning to articulate the most effective writing process of each student; working more consciously with a writer’s everyday working materials (i.e., the collaborative and generative nature of the page, the body); and questions of genre.

Instructors: Colin Browne, Anne Hungerford and Betsy Warland

Colin Browne is a writer and filmmaker. His most recent book, Ground Water(Talonbooks, 2002), spans 10 years of work and includes short and long poems, an experimental film script and a performance text. It was nominated for a Governor General’s Award for poetry and a BC Book Prize. He is a co-founder of the Kootenay School of Writing and the Praxis Centre for Screenwriters, and is on the faculty of the School for the Contemporary Arts at SFU, where he currently teaches film production, film history and screenwriting. His newest book, The Shovel, is available from Talonbooks.

Anne Hungerford, BA, MA, PhD candidate, has extensive experience in teaching writing in the business community. She has a joint faculty appointment to Simon Fraser University’s Department of English and the Writing and Publishing Program. An active researcher and writer, she has designed and taught many customized workshops and courses.

Betsy Warland has authored 10 books of non-fiction and poetry. Her most recent book of poetry, Only This Blue, is comprised of a long poem and essay on poetry. Bloodroot — Tracing the Untelling of Motherloss, is her most recent book of non-fiction. She has been teaching creative writing across Canada for over 20 years, and has been a manuscript consultant for over a decade. Her current manuscript is a collection of 22 essays on the writing process. She is the director of The Writer’s Studio at SFU.

Mentors’ Readings (reading)

Tuesday 7 pm–9 pm February 23, 2010 Ivan E. Coyote
Wednesday 7 pm–9 pm March 10, 2010 Rachel Rose
Thursday 7 pm-9 pm March 25, 2010 Anne Stone

Each mentor will read from a selection of his or her published work and give an informal talk on his or her writing process and professional life, and on giving a public reading.

The Writer’s Studio Spring April - June 2010

Mentor Groups (workshops)

April - June 2010
Alternating Tuesdays or Wednesdays or Thursdays, 6:30 pm-9 pm

All students will determine their narrative focus as well as style(s) and form(s) in which they are writing their final portfolio, and continue to workshop their writing within their mentor group.

Guest Writers’ Readings and Talks (reading/discussion)

Tuesday 7 pm-9 pm April 6, 2010 Ivan E. Coyote
Wednesday 7 pm-9 pm April 21, 2010 Rachel Rose
Thursday 7 pm-9 pm May 6, 2010 Anne Stone

Local and regional writers will read from their recently published books. Each will give an informal talk on his or her writing process and professional life, and answer questions of The Writer’s Studio students.

Possibilities of Form in Poetry and Prose (course)

3 Saturdays, 1–4 pm May 8-May 29, 2010 (no class May 22)

Every narrative, whether lyric or prose-based, requires its appropriate form. All writers work in either deliberate, traditional forms or in personal, habitual forms. Mentors will address the ways in which they conceptualize and work with form in their own writing and discuss other writers’ works that companion and inspire them formally. Students will begin to analyse the forms in which they are working, and forms they might consider exploring.

Instructors: Ivan E. Coyote, Rachel Rose and Anne Stone (see Mentors.)

Students’ Readings (reading)

3 Mondays 7 pm-9 pm June 7-21, 2010

In these three “in-house” readings (for mentors and the student body), students will read from their works-in-progress, will hear one another’s work, gain confidence in giving a reading and receive feedback.

Pen and Sword: Legal and Ethical Issues in the Creative Writing Profession (course)

Saturday 9:30 am-4 pm June 12, 2010 Ann Carlsen
Saturday 9 am-5 pm June 19, 2010 Leslie Hall Pinder

Who owns story? What is a writer’s responsibility to their self, to the story’s community and subjects, to their publisher, to the reader? As writers, we encounter questions of ethical and legal concerns throughout our writing lives. Some of these questions fall within the realm of personal right and belief, and we make our decisions accordingly. Some fall within the realm of the community’s collective sense of responsibility and norm, and we make our decisions in relation to them. Some of these questions, such as copyright and protection of personality, fall within the realm of the public legal system and our decisions are often proscribed. How each writer navigates these questions inevitably differs. What is essential is that each writer learns how to constructively think through these questions; enter into these essential discussions; become well informed legally. In this course you will begin to engage with the most common ethical and legal questions through lectures, discussions, and visiting authors speaking about their relevant experiences.

Instructors: Ann Carlsen and Leslie Hall Pinder

Ann Carlsen, of Carlsen & Company, is a lawyer who has been practising in British Columbia since 1991. Her practice is limited to intellectual property law, including copyrights, trade marks, trade secrets and industrial designs. She advises clients on protection strategies for their intellectual property and how to implement such strategies through registration, licensing, franchising and assignments. She is a registered trademark agent in Canada and the United States.  She is a member of the Canadian Bar Association, a fellow of the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada, and an honorary member in the Association of Fellows and Legal Scholars of the Center for International Legal Studies.

Leslie Hall Pinder is the author of two novels, Under the House and On Double Tracks. Her second book was nominated for a Governor General’s Award. She has also published short stories and has had two dramatic monologues performed. For 28 years she has practiced law, working as a courtroom lawyer on Native land claims cases.

The Writer’s Studio Summer June - October 2010

Mentor Groups and Salons (workshops and discussions)

In addition to ongoing mentor groups, each mentor will also offer a Salon in their genre to all students who write or have an interest in that genre.

Book Production Option

All students volunteer to work on one aspect of the book production of emerge, The Writer’s Studio annual anthology: book production (June-September) or promotion (August-October).

The Writer’s Studio Fall September - December 2010

Reconnection Day (course)

Saturday 10 am–12 noon September 11, 2010 Hal Wake
Saturday 1 pm-4 pm September 11, 2010 Mentors

In the morning, learn about the importance and techniques of performance at Lifting It Off the Page with Hal Wake. Then in the afternoon, reconnect with The Writer’s Studio mentors and student body and hear about the final two months leading up to the launch of emerge, the student anthology. This is also a time to reflect on each student’s progress and on The Writer’s Studio program.

Instructor: Hal Wake

Hal Wake has been engaged with the literary community in Canada for more than 30 years. In the mid 1980s he was the book producer for CBC Radio’s Morningside with Peter Gzowski. He has hosted or moderated more than 100 literary events at festivals in Vancouver and Victoria. He has even given a reading or two. He is currently the artistic director of the Vancouver International Writers Festival.

Mentor Groups (workshop)

Workshopping of each student’s final portfolio, completing the writing, and revising to final draft.

Students’ Reading and emerge Anthology Launch (reading)

The students of each mentor group present an excerpt from their final portfolios or anthology piece to invited guests, colleagues in The Writer’s Studio and the general public.

Manuscript Course

The Writer’s Studio students will choose one of the following two manuscript courses. The manuscript course is included in the Writer’s Studio tuition. The second course can be registered and paid for as an elective. To register, please contact Kirsten Masse at
778-782-5073 or by email at masse@sfu.ca.

• Realizing Your Manuscript
  4 Mondays 6-9 pm September 13–October 4, 2010
  Instructor: Betsy Warland
  
• Getting Published: From Manuscript to Book
  4 Mondays 6:30-9:30 pm October 18–November 8, 2010
  Instructor: Mary Schendlinger