Sharon Butala is helping the Historic Joy Kogawa House Society with our goal to establish a writers in residence programs at the former childhood home of author Joy Kogawa.
Tonight, Sharon Butala gives a 7:30pm reading at 1450 West 64th Ave.
On Saturday and Sunday, she conducts a writing workshop workshop about memoir writing.
This is the house that the then 6 year old Joy and her family left
behind their wonderful home in 1942, when they were sent to internment
camps because they were Japanese-Canadian.
A writing workshop and public reading with Sharon Butala
Writing the Memoir
Location: Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 West 64th Avenue, Vancouver
Date:
Reading on Friday, February 22, 7:30 to 9 p.m.; writing workshop on
Saturday, February 23, and Sunday, February 24, 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Cost: To be determined. Space is limited. To secure a seat, please register by emailing ametten at telus dot net.
Many
writers have demonstrated that even the most glamorous lives–of
celebrities, war heroes, or politicians–can make for dull reading. Yet
the most ordinary lives can make thrilling reading. How does the
storyteller capture the essence of the story and develop a reader's
interest? What are memoirs really about, and why write them? Through
discussion, question and answer, exercises, and examining successful
memoirs, this workshop will endeavour to answer such questions, as well
as to show how memoirs might be structured, and how a writer decides
what to put in and what to leave out. Memoirs are therapy for both
writer and reader, but they are also good stories: at their best, they
are art.
Sharon Butala is an award-winning author of both fiction
and non-fiction. Her memoir, The Perfection of the Morning, was a
Canadian bestseller and a finalist for the Governor General's Award. Ms
Butala has been called one of Canada's true visionaries. In 2002 she
was honoured as an Officer of the Order of Canada. Her newest work, The
Girl in Saskatoon: A Meditation on Memory and Murder (HarperCollins
Canada), will be in bookstores in March.
Watch this website over the next few days for more information