Programs & Services: Calgary WGA Events 2011/2012

WGA PRESENTS: EXCHANGING IDEAS & EDITS—WHAT IT TAKES TO START AND SUSTAIN A SUCCESSFUL WRITING GROUP WITH RICHARD HARRISON

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

7:00-9:00pm

Rose & Crown Pub, 1503 4th Street SW, Calgary—private room upstairs.

WGA members Free.  Non-members $10 at the door (students $5). 

Please RSVP to swarwick@writersguild.ab.ca.

We thank you in advance for supporting the Rose & Crown (that is supporting us!) by purchasing something to eat and/or drink at the venue.  Members are welcome to arrive as early as 6pm should anyone be interested in ordering dinner before the event begins at 7pm.  WGA social will follow the presentation. 

Are you looking for feedback on your writing? A regular opportunity to discuss the craft and market place? Join Calgary author, Richard Harrison, for a discussion about what makes a writing group work; how to go about starting one; how to keep a group thriving; how to give and receive feedback; how a writer benefits from sharing their work with other writers; the creative process and the writing life.

Richard is the author of six collections of poetry and has had much experience as an editor. In 1995 he moved to Calgary as the incoming Canadian Writer-in-Residence under the Markin/Flanagan Writer-in-Residence Program at the University of Calgary. He stayed in Calgary and became a teacher of English and Creative Writing at Mount Royal College (now Mount Royal University). He has facilitated a weekly poetry critiquing group in the city for many years.

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CELEBRATE FREEDOM TO READ WEEK WITH THE WGA AND WORDFEST

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

7:00 pm

Barley Mill Restaurant & Pub, 201 Barclay Parade (Eau Claire)—private room upstairs. 

FREE. 

RSVP required.  Please RSVP by February 24th to swarwick@writersguild.ab.ca.

Join WordFest and the Writers Guild of Alberta to celebrate Freedom to Read Week with special presentations from Richard Wagamese, one of Canada’s foremost Native authors and storytellers, and award-winning journalist Valerie Fortney, followed by an in-conversation segment on the internal and external factors of censorship that writers deal with today. Attendees are welcome to arrive as early as 6pm should anyone be interested in ordering dinner before the presentation begins at 7pm.  Party will continue following the presentation and Q & A.

Valerie Fortney is a veteran Canadian journalist with a successful career in broadcasting, magazines and newspapers. Fortney’s writing has appeared across North America and around the world, in publications such as Chatelaine, the Los Angeles Times and Readers Digest International. She has worked at the Calgary Herald since 1988 and recently released her first book, Sunray.

Richard Wagamese is one of Canada’s foremost Aboriginal authors and journalists with a career spanning 30 years. He has written several books, including the critically acclaimed Keeper’n Me and One Native Life a collection of essays. Wagamese’s latest book, Indian Horse, will be released in 2012. Wagamese is an Ojibway from the Wabaseemoong First Nation in North-western Ontario and currently resides in Kamloops, BC.

We thank you in advance for supporting the Barley Mill (that is supporting us!) by purchasing something to eat and/or drink at the venue.

Media Inquiries: Mary Kapusta, WordFest Marketing Manager mkapusta@wordfest.com 403.237.9068

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WGA PRESENTS: THE EVER-EVOLVING WORLD OF PUBLISHING (AS IT RELATES TO WRITERS)

WITH CHARLENE DOBMEIER AND SARAH IVANY

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

7:00-9:00pm

Rose & Crown Pub, 1503 4th Street SW, Calgary—private room upstairs

WGA members Free.  Non-members $10 at the door (students $5)

Please RSVP to swarwick@writersguild.ab.ca.

We thank you in advance for supporting the Rose & Crown (that is supporting us!) by purchasing something to eat and/or drink at the venue.  Members are welcome to arrive as early as 6pm should anyone be interested in ordering dinner before the event begins at 7pm.  WGA social will follow the presentation.

The world of publishing is constantly evolving, and many of these changes impact the writer’s experience of getting (and being) published. Sarah Ivany, Managing Editor of Freehand Books will interview long-time publisher and president of Kingsley Publishing Services, Charlene Dobmeier. They will discuss traditional publishing, the challenges and role of e-books, self-publishing and marketing; the balance between publisher-driven book promotion and self-promotion, and what it means to be looking for a publisher or getting published in 2012. A Q&A and WGA social will follow their conversation.

Charlene Dobmeier, president of Kingsley Publishing Services, has been an editor and publisher for more than twenty years and has extensive experience in project management. As publisher at Fifth House Ltd from 2001 to 2008, she led the company to successive Alberta Publisher of the Year awards in 2006 and 2007 as well as dozens of book awards, provincially and nationally. Charlene believes that publishing and its delivery has to change if it is to remain viable, vibrant, and relevant, and that each project requires a unique approach. She started Kingsley Publishing Services in 2008 to meet the changing needs of writers, businesses, publishers, and the reading public.

Sarah Ivany is the Managing Editor of Freehand Books, an award-winning literary press based in Calgary, Alberta. She is a former member of the Executive Board of the Book Publishers Association of Alberta, and she teaches a creative writing workshop for teens through the Writers Guild of Alberta. She has conducted publishing workshops for the Writers Guild of Alberta, the Get Publishing Society, the Calgary Public Library, and the Whitehorse Poetry Society. Sarah has an Honours BA from the University of Toronto, and her writing has appeared in numerous publications, including the Globe and Mail and the Calgary Herald.

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THE WGA & GLENBOW MUSEUM PRESENT:

A WRITING WORKSHOP WITH FRED STENSON—LANDSCAPE INTO LANGUAGE
Saturday, March 24, 2012

10:00 am-4:30 pm

Morris Shumiatcher Room, Glenbow Museum

Adult $90; Glenbow Member/ WGA member $70

Program includes a guided tour of the exhibition “Edward Burtynsky: Encounters,” and a catered lunch. 

Limited capacity - please call 403.268.4110 to register!

It is often said that, when a writer writes landscape well, it is like the landscape becomes an active character in the story. This workshop will look at how writers make landscape live in the minds of readers, whether that landscape is wild, rural or urban; pretty or not-so-pretty. How do we find the words to make these landscapes speak? What are the right details to select? What’s the difference between an engaging and quickly recognizable description and one that the reader’s eyes pass over without engagement? How does the writer get the landscape to express the mood of the person looking at the landscape?

Fred Stenson will introduce participants to the work of writers who create evocative landscapes in their work. The goal of the workshop is to equip writers with techniques for their own writing.  Stenson is one of the guest curators of the Edward Burtynksy exhibition. In this role he was asked to select and write about one of Mr. Burtynsky’s works for the exhibition. Stenson will describe that process and how it relates to the workshop’s discussion of turning landscape into language. 

Fred Stenson is an Alberta based writer of fiction, non-fiction and film. His three historical novels, The Trade, Lightning and The Great Karoo are respected for their treatment and use of landscape. The first of these novels was nominated for the Giller Prize; the last was a finalist in 2008 for the Governor General’s Award for Fiction. Both The Trade and Lightning won Alberta’s Grant MacEwan Prize. He lives in Cochrane, Alberta.