1. What inspired you to practice yoga, and how did you decide to become a yoga teacher? I took a class over 30 years ago and liked it well enough to keep signing up for many years. Nothing dramatic motivated me, it was just something that felt good. But roots were being laid that began […]
Archive | WGA Blog
Meet Writer, Blogger & Advocate of the People, Mike Morrison
Mike Morrison is the writer behind Mike’s Bloggity Blog, a thriving Canadian website based in Calgary that attracts more than one million unique readers a year. He wrote the #1 bestselling book Calgary By Bike, a guide to everything to see and do along Calgary’s cycle tracks. Mike is one of Alberta’s most popular Twitter personalities; he’s been […]
Meet the Amazing Yasuko Thanh (WGA Conference Keynote)
Meet Yasuko Nguyen Thanh, Canadian novelist and short story writer born to a German mother and a Vietnamese father. At 15, Thanh dropped out of school and lived on the streets. Previous to winning the Journey Prize for her short story Floating Like the Dead in 2009, she earned her living as a busker, opium dealer, cleaner of goat […]
WGA Blog: Meet the 2017 Mentorship Program Participants
Have you ever been curious about the WGA’s Mentorship Program? Here’s a chance to find out a bit more from this year’s participants! Jacqueline Kwan is a short fiction writer from Calgary who has been reading and studying the craft of writing for many years. Her first story “In the Skin of Grapes” was […]
WGA Blog: Meet the 2017 Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize Shortlist Authors
Here’s your chance to learn a bit more about the 2017 Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize finalists! Lauralyn Chow (Paper Teeth, NeWest Press) was born and raised in Edmonton. She received a B.A. and an LL.B. from the University of Alberta. Edmonton is the setting for many of the interconnected stories in her […]
Meet my Friendolleagues: WGA Office Staff on Favourite Books, Best Advice and Top Travel Destinations by Samantha Warwick
Inspired by a productive day of program meetings and camaraderie up in Edmonton this month, I decided to ask my WGA colleagues three questions about themselves: what books have made a profound impact on them (and why), the best creative (or life) advice they’ve ever received, and third—the #1 destination they would love to visit […]
WGA Blog: Wanderings and Rootings: Reflections on Language, Identity and Adaptation by Julie Robinson
“I will continue my story of a failed hipster,” Fahim jokes with the crowd at Massawa Café in Edmonton. In the first half of the event “A Place Called Home: Immigrant Writers’ Stories,” he related the differences between his “Hollywood” idea of the writer’s life prior to arriving in North America, and the overwhelming […]
Greg Hollingshead: Golden Pens, Pilot Pens and Telepathic Communication
Happy Friday, Literary Intrepids! Have you heard award-winning Greg Hollingshead is the 2016 recipient of the WGA Golden Pen Award? Hurray to Greg and special pens! The Golden Pen Award acknowledges lifetime achievements of outstanding writers who’ve spent a significant portion of their writing life in Alberta and produced a distinguished body of work over a longstanding […]