Workshop fees are $35 (includes $10 for ACWW membership)
Additional workshops are $10 each.

Friday – November 22, 3.00-5.00PM

Writers Beware: how to avoid scams, vanity press and find happiness as a published author

As writers, we want to be published.  But publications cost money and publishers therefore look for manuscripts that fall into their mandate.  They cannot publish everyone.  They are honest about it and will reject without feeling guilty.  To emerging and some mid-list writers the publishing process can be quite a mystery.  Writers can be manipulated and exploited by unscrupulous “publishers”.  The following questions must be asked.  What are the positives and negatives of being published?  Why publish in the first place?  What is needed to approach a publisher?  Are multiple submissions allowed?  What are the pitfalls along the way?  Is the Vanity Press the way to go?  What are the scams?  What are the advantages and disadvantages to on-line publishing?  What good is an agent?  Can the Writers Union and other associations help?  What other resources are available?  These and other questions will be looked at in this workshop sharing experiences with the process of getting publishing.

Instructor:  Terry Watada’s publications include Kuroshio: The Blood of Foxes, (novel, Arsenal Pulp Press 2007), three books of poetry, Daruma Days (short fiction, Ronsdale Press 1997), and Bukkyo Tozen: a History of Buddhism in Canada (non-fiction, HpF Press & the Toronto Buddhist Church 1996).  His essays have appeared in Maclean’s Magazine (March 2011) and Canadian Literature (UBC) to name two.  He maintains a monthly column in the JCCA Bulletin, a national magazine out of Vancouver.  He was presented the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2013.  His archives of books, records, manuscripts, and significant artifacts have been collected as the Terry Watada Special Collection and housed in the East Asian Library, Robarts Library, University of Toronto.

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Your story or poem as a ‘brand’: Leveraging literature in new media

When you write a story or a suite of poems, they shouldn’t end up in your drawer. In this age of digital media, a literary work could also become an article, a blog piece, a Huffington Post blog, an iPad app. This gets your work read more widely, but even more interestingly, it allows your work to morph into new forms. In essence you can begin to think of each work as a kind of ‘brand’ that could be proliferated across media.  Participants in this workshop will look at case studies including Ann Shin’s poetry book/video/interactive e-book The Family China. Other projects referenced include Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad and Sarah Sheard’s latest blog/nonfiction memoir project.

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Saturday November 23, 1.00pm – 3.00pm

How to Succeed in Writing by Kinda-Sorta Trying

Discussion on writing through five levels – vocation, trade, craft, passion, calling – framed with the authors own experience writing and publishing Banana Boys.  Examples of how race, culture, school, relationships, politics, activism, money affects the process of writing will be amply provided.  If you’re looking on a quick “how-to” workshop on publishing a book and making a lot of money, this isn’t it; rather, I’d like to have a frank talk and open discussion on how writing is ultimately a process traversing all five levels, with varying degrees of functionality, dysfunctionality, and satisfaction… if there is such a thing.

Instructor:  An engineer turned fiction writer, Terry Woo has received acclaim for his first novel Banana Boys, which was short-listed for the 1999 Asian-Canadian Writer’s Workshop Award, and published by The Riverbank Press – an imprint of Cormorant Books – in 2000.  He also went back to school for Journalism, joined the Army for a hitch, and has ended up doing corporate writing for a software company which he says “is not as good a writing haikus, but somewhat better than writing obituaries.”  Terry currently resides in Toronto.

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Sunday November 24, 10.00AM – 12.00PM 

The Debut Author and the Business of Mainstream Publishing

In November 2012 Janie Chang’s debut novel was acquired by HarperCollins Canada in a pre-emptive offer. In August 2013Three Souls went on sale in bookstores all over Canada — including Costco. When all the pieces fall into place, is it due to luck and timing or does an understanding of the publishing business play a role? Janie talks about the decisions, both deliberate and serendipitous, that contributed to the success of Three Souls. In particular, she discusses the business realities of getting published in today’s turbulent mainstream market.

Instructor: Janie Chang draws upon family history for her writing. She grew up listening to stories about ancestors who encountered dragons, ghosts and immortals, and about family life in a small Chinese town in the years before the Second World War. She is a graduate of The Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser University. Born in Taiwan, Janie has lived in the Philippines, Iran, Thailand, and New Zealand. She now lives in Vancouver with her husband and Mischa, a rescue cat who thinks the staff could be doing a better job. Three Souls is her first novel.

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Sunday November 24, 10.00AM – 12.00PM 

Techniques for Finding the Emotional Core of a Story

Have you ever read a story that had absolutely no emotional impact and thought what a pity the writer hadn’t been able to find the emotional core of the story?  Powerful writing often elicits strong emotions in readers.  Stories without an emotional core usually fall flat.  But how does a writer find the emotional core of a story when staring at a blank page?  This workshop examines the elements of emotional storytelling and introduces some techniques to help create stories with emotional weight.  Please come with writing implements or laptops.  This is a hands-on workshop.  With luck, you may be able to walk away with the beginnings of a short story or even the climatic scene of a novel.

Instructor:  Julia Lin, author of the short story collection Miah (TSAR Publications, 2012), was born in Taiwan and lived there and in Vietnam before her family immigrated to Canada when she was nine.  Since then, Julia has lived in Vancouver and its environs, Toronto, and northern British Columbia.  She holds a graduate degree in Immunology (M.Sc., University of Toronto) and a post-graduate degree in computing education (University of British Columbia) and has taught high school math, science, and computing science in British Columbia for a number of years.  Her writing mentor, M.G. Vassanji, encouraged her to complete Miah after she submitted the first stories in the 2009 Humber Creative Writing Program.  For more information, please go to www.julialinbooks.com.

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