Join us for our new 3-part series - The Heliconian Writing Workshops
Registrants may register for all three parts using the available subscription model or may register for one or more of the individual events, which are detailed below.
Individual Workshop Cost: $45 for members, $55 for non-members (Includes HST)
*Member registration opens January 1, 2025. Priority to members until Jan 31.
*Non-member registration opens February 1, 2025
Workshop Series Cost: $120 for members, $150 for non-members (Includes HST)
Nailing Your Opening Pages with Bianca Marais
Friday, May 16, 2025, 1:00 - 4:00 PM (Prose writers at all levels welcome)
Readers' attention spans are shorter than ever. If you don't grab and hold their attention within the first few pages, you've already lost them. The same goes for literary agents looking for submissions that grip them from the very first paragraph.
There's so much heavy lifting your opening pages need to do in terms of:
- Setting the tone
- Introducing the kinds of characters that readers want to go on a journey with
- Establishing pacing
- Creating tension
- Setting up worldbuilding
- Tipping the dominoes with a story-forward plot
- Making the reader actively curious
Learn how to hook your readers through masterful storytelling, and what pitfalls to avoid. This session is participatory, involving prompt-based writing.
Bianca Marais is the author of the bestselling The Witches of Moonshyne Manor as well as the beloved Hum If You Don't Know the Words, If You Want to Make God Laugh, and the Audible Original The Prynne Viper. She taught at the University of Toronto's School of Continuing Studies where she was awarded an Excellence in Teaching Award for Creative Writing. She’s the co-host of the popular podcast, The Shit No One Tells You About Writing, which is aimed at helping emerging writers become published. Her forthcoming novel, A Most Puzzling Murder, will be out in April 2025. (Photo Credit: Brendan Fisher)
Writing & Developing Authentic Characters with Writer-in-Residence Elizabeth Ruth
Thursday, June 12, 1:00 - 4:00 PM (Prose writers at all levels welcome)
Please join us for an inspiring and interactive creative writing workshop which will include:
- Delivery of technical content in a mini-lecture style format
- Writing exercises/prompts to facilitate putting theory into practice
- Time for (many) participants to workshop writings and receive useful feedback in a supportive environment
- A brief break at the midpoint
- Time for Q & A
Participants will receive sample readings in advance and will come away with a greater sense of confidence in their ability to skillfully develop believable characters on the page. Please bring your notebook and pen or computer/device.
Elizabeth Ruth is the author of the novels Semi-Detached, Matadora, Smoke and Ten Good Seconds of Silence. Her debut poetry collection This Report Is Strictly Confidential appeared in 2024. Elizabeth's work has been recognized by the Writers’ Trust of Canada, the City of Toronto Book Award and the Amazon.ca First Novel Award. CBC named her “One of the Ten Canadian Women Writers You Must Read.” She authored a plain language novella for adult literacy learners titled Love You to Death and edited the anthology Bent on Writing: Contemporary Queer Tales. Elizabeth teaches creative writing at U of T and mentors through various organizations. (Photo Credit: Samuel Engelking)
Mining for Memoire with Kate Marshall Flaherty
Tuesday July 29, 2025, 1:00 - 4:00 PM (Prose writers at all levels welcome)
Memoire is a magical platform for self-discovery. Through memoire we make sense of memories. A simple smell, object, photograph or line can crack open our world, bringing us back to a past scene that sheds light on the present.
We’ll delve into prompts that stimulate writing, realizing the power of story. We all have touching, terrifying, tearful stories worthy of writing down. Themes we explore in memoire are both personal and universal, which connects us to ourselves as well as our readers.
Come … “Write your way home.”
Kate Marshall Flaherty has published seven poetry books, one play produced at the Great Canadian Theatre Co., many CNF essays, and one memoire-in-the-making. She's been published in CV2, Vallum, Grain, Room, Trinity Review, The Literary Review of Canada, Event and Tamarack Review and others, and has won many awards. She has currently gives memoire workshops online, in libraries and community centres. She guides workshops in the AWA Method, a safe space to take writing risks and develop craft organically, where each unique voice is valued, and the power of story is supported. She guides StillPoint Writing and Editing Circles in person and online. (Photo Credit: Sue Reynolds)
