WGA Annual Conference 2021: Re/Orientation

In Conversation: The Trickster, Fantasy Series, Eden Robinson and Aritha Van Herk

Saturday, May 29
10:00 am - 11:15 am

In Conversation: The Trickster, Fantasy Series, Eden Robinson and Aritha Van Herk

Join Eden Robinson and Aritha Van Herk as they discuss Robinson's popular Fantasy-Thriller series, and her books' development into a television series.
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Haisla/Heiltsuk novelist EDEN ROBINSON is the author of a collection of novellas written when she was a Goth called Traplines, which won the Winifred Holtby Prize in the UK. Her next novels, Monkey Beach and Blood Sports, were written before she discovered she was gluten- intolerant and tend to be quite grim, the latter being especially gruesome because half-way through writing it, Robinson gave up a two-pack-a-day cigarette habit and the more she suffered, the more her characters suffered. Even so, Monkey Beach won the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize and was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Award for Fiction. By the time Eden began her Trickster Trilogy, however, she had given full rein to her matriarchal tendencies. The first book, Son of a Trickster, became a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and Canada Reads. Trickster Drift, the second book in the trilogy, won the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. In 2017, Eden was awarded the Writers’ Trust Fellowship. She lives in Kitamaat Village, BC.

Return of the Trickster, by Eden Robinson – Pub date March 6, 2021

ARITHA VAN HERK (CM, AOE, FRSC) is the author of five novels, two books of criticism, and many non-fiction and ficto-critical texts, especially works investigating the perspectives of women, both contemporary and historical. She is currently researching geographical and historical temperament as tonal accompaniment to landscape. Her latest publications are Prairie Gothic, and In This Place (with photographer George Webber) and the prose/poetry work, Stampede and the Westness of West. She has published hundreds of stories, articles, reviews and essays on Canadian literature and culture. An adamant Calgarian, she teaches Fiction and Creative Writing in the Department of English at the University of Calgary in Alberta.

Eden Robinson photo © Red Works Photography 2018

Workshop: Crossing Borders—Writing Across Genre, with Jen Sookfong Lee

Workshop: Crossing Borders—Writing Across Genre, with Jen Sookfong Lee

Workshop: Orientating the Past—Writing Memoir, with Naomi Lewis

Workshop: Orientating the Past—Writing Memoir, with Naomi Lewis

Workshop: Mind F***—Writing Thrillers, with PJ Vernon

Workshop: Mind F***—Writing Thrillers, with PJ Vernon

Meet Eden Robinson (Winners of a Draw)

Meet Eden Robinson (Winners of a Draw)

Saturday, May 29
11:30 am - 12:45 am

Meet Eden Robinson (Winners of a Draw) Host: Sue-Shane Tsomondo

The lucky winners of a draw will meet Eden Robinson and learn about her writing life and success with the Trickster series in a moderated conversation.
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Haisla/Heiltsuk novelist EDEN ROBINSON is the author of a collection of novellas written when she was a Goth called Traplines, which won the Winifred Holtby Prize in the UK. Her next novels, Monkey Beach and Blood Sports, were written before she discovered she was gluten- intolerant and tend to be quite grim, the latter being especially gruesome because half-way through writing it, Robinson gave up a two-pack-a-day cigarette habit and the more she suffered, the more her characters suffered. Even so, Monkey Beach won the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize and was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Award for Fiction. By the time Eden began her Trickster Trilogy, however, she had given full rein to her matriarchal tendencies. The first book, Son of a Trickster, became a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and Canada Reads. Trickster Drift, the second book in the trilogy, won the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. In 2017, Eden was awarded the Writers’ Trust Fellowship. She lives in Kitamaat Village, BC.

Return of the Trickster, by Eden Robinson – Pub date March 6, 2021

HOST: SUE-SHANE TSOMONDO is a poet, curator and the creator of Sue’s Stokvel, a Calgary-based literary arts platform. Sue’s Stokvel highlights the work of Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) writers. Sue-Shane’s poetry deals with issues of diasporan guilt, blackness, womanhood and intergenerational trauma. She has previously performed for Woolfs’ Voices and Single Onion. In 2020, Sue-Shane appeared on the cover of the Calgary Journal. Sue-Shane has also been featured in Avenue Magazine, The Calgarian podcast, In Rehearsal podcast and the Artful Conversations podcast. Her debut collection of poems A Long Way From Home is set to be published in September 2021.

Website: suestokvel.com | FB: Sue’s Stokvel |Personal IG: @whoissueshane | Sue’s Stokvel IG: @suestokvel

Eden Robinson photo © Red Works Photography 2018

Panel: The View—Crafting P.O.V. in Fiction, with host Dolly Dennis

Panel: The View—Crafting P.O.V. in Fiction, with host Dolly Dennis

Saturday, May 29
11:30 am - 12:45 pm

Panel: The View—Crafting P.O.V. in Fiction
Host: Dolly Dennis
Featuring: Lori Hahnel, Sabrina Uswak, & C.J. Lavigne

Have no fear. POV is not a new virus. Learn how Alberta authors Dolly Dennis, Lori Hahnel, Sabrina Uswak, and C.J. Lavigne, navigate the intricacies and challenges of their characters' perspectives.
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LORI HAHNEL is the author of the novels Love Minus Zero and After You’ve Gone, and two story collections; Nothing Sacred, which shortlisted for an Alberta Literary Award, and Vermin: Stories. Her work has appeared widely in journals including The Fiddlehead, Joyland and The Saturday Evening Post, and broadcast on CBC Radio. She recently served as Calgary Public Library’s 2020 Author-in-Residence.

SABRINA USWAK has worked as a prose editor for Loft on EIGHTH press, FreeFall, and filling Station magazines. Recently, she won New Forum Magazine’s 2020 inaugural flash fiction contest and had some of her short fiction selected for the Tap Press Read 1-3-5 anthology. Sabrina holds an MSc with distinction in creative writing from the University of Edinburgh and MA with distinction in digital publishing from Oxford Brookes University. All the Night Gone is her first book.

C.J. LAVIGNE is a Canadian speculative fiction author and communications scholar whose urban fantasy novel, In Veritas, was published by NeWest Press in 2020. She lives in Red Deer, Alberta.

TW: @seajaylav

HOST: DOLLY DENNIS Raised in Montreal, Quebec, Dolly Dennis has called Edmonton home since 1993. Her work has appeared in various formats. Her first play won two awards at the Quebec Drama Festival of One Act plays, and a creative non-fiction piece was shortlisted for the James H. Gray Award. In 2014, Guernica Editions published her first book, Loddy-Dah, which landed on the syllabus for first year university students in the Women’s Literature class at Central Connecticut State University, New Britain, Connecticut. Her, second book, The Complex Arms, published by Toronto’s Dundurn Press was released in May 2020. She is currently working on her third book, The Quiet Wound. She has followed many paths but writing is her first love.

C.J. Lavigne photo - credit Berni Scott

12:45 - 13:30

Feature Presentation: Joshua Whitehead—Speculative Perspectives

Feature Presentation: Joshua Whitehead—Speculative Perspectives

Saturday, May 29
1:30 pm - 2:45 pm

Feature Presentation: Joshua Whitehead—Speculative Perspectives
Host: Gabe Calderon

I have long read the body of a writer as inherently and inextricably tied to the body of text produced, in which too the bodies of land and water upon which we write from are tied into this web of relations. I'm asking: can a body of text be consumed like a body? What are the ethics of and for writing, reading, and producing as or from BIPOC and/or queer writers? And, how do we as writers ethically and moralistically engage with our stories and the world beyond the page if we are continually recording and archiving for future oral use? How do we situate ourselves as people first, writers second? This talk will attempt to answer some of these questions and interrogate myself as the exemplified subject of both consumer and producer, of text and bodies, writer and reader.
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JOSHUA WHITEHEAD (he/him) is a Two-Spirit, Oji-nêhiyaw member of Peguis First Nation (Treaty 1). He is currently a Ph.D. candidate, lecturer, and Killam scholar at the University of Calgary where he studies Indigenous literatures and cultures with a focus on gender and sexuality. His dissertation, tentatively titled "Feral Fatalisms," is a hybrid narrative of theory, essay, and non- fiction that interrogates the role of "ferality" inherent within Indigenous ways of being (with a strong focus on nêhiyawewin). He is the author of full-metal indigiqueer (Talonbooks 2017) which was shortlisted for the inaugural Indigenous Voices Award and the Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry. He is also the author of Jonny Appleseed (Arsenal Pulp Press 2018) which was long listed for the Giller Prize, shortlisted for the Indigenous Voices Award, the Governor General's Literary Award, the Amazon Canada First Novel Award, the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award, and won the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction and the Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction. Whitehead is currently working on a third manuscript titled, Making Love with the Land to be published with Knopf Canada, which explores the intersections of Indigeneity, queerness, and, most prominently, mental health through a nêhiyaw lens. Currently, Whitehead is premiering his newly edited anthology, Love after the End: an Anthology of Two- Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction. You can find his work published widely in such venues as Prairie Fire, CV2, EVENT, Arc Poetry Magazine, The Fiddlehead, Grain, CNQ, Write, and Red Rising Magazine.

HOST: GABE CALDERON (they/them) is nij-manidowag & îhkwew (two spirit/trans), queer and Mi'kmaq/L’nu, Algonquin/Omamiwinini, Scottish and French Canadian thriving with disAbilities and neurodivergence. They currently live in Treaty 6 territory's Amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton) as an author, poet, mixed media artist, activist and educator. Most notably known as the author of: Andwànikàdjigan in the anthology: Love After the End published by Arsenal Pulp Press and their first poetry chapbook: Noojimo’ nishki’ biijina published by Moon Jelly House.

TK & IG: nishingabe

Joshua Whitehead photo: sweetmoon photography, Tenille Campbell

Workshop: Dark Journeys—Writing Middle-Grade Horror During Frightening Times, with Marina Cohen

Workshop: Dark Journeys—Writing Middle-Grade Horror During Frightening Times, with Marina Cohen

Workshop: Distractions on the Journey—Writing Believable Sexual Tension and Romantic Elements, with Sarah Kades

Workshop: Distractions on the Journey—Writing Believable Sexual Tension and Romantic Elements, with Sarah Kades

Panel: Reimagined Narratives, with host Peter Midgley

Panel: Reimagined Narratives, with host Peter Midgley

Saturday, May 29
3:00 pm - 4:15 pm

Panel: Reimagined Narratives
Host: Peter Midgley
Feat: Natalie Meisner, Ali Bryan, Genki Ferguson

Beyond typical narratives, the works of these authors explore fresh characters and unexpected conclusions. At times the writings serve as resistance to patriarchal, colonial, and capitalist forms, and at other times they are simply expressions of our changing society and ideals.
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HOST: Thirty years working as a festival director, freelance editor, university lecturer, managing editor, acquisitions editor, clerk of court, bartender, janitor, and door-to-door salesman (and other unmentionable jobs), has given PETER MIDGLEY enough material for twelve books for children and adults. He also edits and translates--his editorial acumen has netted him both the Tom Fairley Award for Editorial Excellence and the Lois Hole Award for Editorial Excellence. He is a past president of the Writers' Guild of Alberta. His latest book of poetry, let us not think of them as barbarians (NeWest Press), was shortlisted for the Stephan G. Stephansson Award.

Website: midgley.ca | FB: PeterMidgley

NATALIE MEISNER is a playwright, an award-winning multi-genre author and 5th Poet Laureate of Calgary. Her work often deploys the power of comedy for social change. Baddie One Shoe (Frontenac) is a collection of odes to renegade women who fight the powers that be with laughter. Legislating Love: The Everett Klippert Story (University of Calgary Press) illuminates the life of a beloved Calgary bus driver and the last Canadian to be jailed for homosexuality. Her play Boom Baby won both the Canadian National & the Alberta Playwriting Award. Speed Dating for Sperm Donors (Playwright’s Canada Press) was a hit at Lunchbox & Neptune. Double Pregnant: Two Lesbians Make a Family (Fernwood) topped non-fiction lists and her first book for kids, My Mommy, My Mama, My Brother & Me (Nimbus) is about a two-mom biracial family finding community. Meisner is a wife and mom to two great boys and a Professor in the Department of English at Mount Royal University where she works in the areas of creative writing, drama and gender/ sexuality studies.

Website: nataliemeisner.com | FB: Natalie Meisner | TW: @ndmeisner | IG: natalie.meisner

ALI BRYAN is a novelist and creative nonfiction writer based in Calgary. Her first novel, Roost, won the Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction and was the official selection of One Book Nova Scotia. Her second novel, The Figgs, was a finalist for the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour and has been optioned for TV by Sony Pictures. She’s longlisted for the CBC Canada Writes Creative Nonfiction prize, shortlisted for the Jon Whyte Memorial Essay Award and won the 2020 Howard O’Hagan Award for Short Story. She is a Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Awards Emerging Artist recipient. Her debut YA novel, The Hill, was released in March from Dottir Press. She has a wrestling room in her garage and regularly gets choked out by her family.

GENKI FERGUSON was born in New Brunswick to a family of writers and grew up in Calgary. He spent much of his childhood in the subtropical island of Kyushu, Japan, where his mother’s family still resides. Fluent in Japanese and capable of making a decent sushi roll, Genki recently completed a degree in Film Production while working part-time at Book Warehouse, an indie store in Vancouver.

Website: genkiferguson.com | TW: @genki_ferguson | IG: @genki_ferguson

Peter Midgley photo - credit Shawna Lemay

Panel: Disorientations: Writing Crime, Thriller, and Mystery

Panel: Disorientations: Writing Crime, Thriller, and Mystery

Saturday, May 29
3:00 pm - 4:15 pm

Panel: Disorientations: Writing Crime, Thriller, and Mystery
Host: Sue-Shane Tsomondo
Feat: C.B. Forrest, Danika Stone & Cecilia Ekbäck

Authors work to drop clues and rivet-up suspense, while making their stories believable. Listen in while these authors discuss their novels, genre expectations, as well as their strategies for keeping readers at the edge of their seats.
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CB FORREST is the author of the McKelvey crime trilogy (The Weight of Stones, Slow Recoil, The Devil’s Dust). His novels have twice been nominated for an Arthur Ellis Award and his short crime fiction was shortlisted for a Shamus Award. He was Airdrie Public Library’s inaugural Writer-in-Residence in 2020.

Website: cbforrest.com | TW: @cbforrest | IG: @cbforrest25

D.K. STONE/DANIKA STONE (a.k.a Karin Gobel) is an author, artist, and educator who discovered a passion for writing fiction while in the throes of her Masters thesis. A self-declared bibliophile, Stone now writes novels for both teens: Switchback (Macmillan, 2019), Internet Famous (Macmillan, 2017) and All the Feels (Macmillan, 2016); and adults The Dark Divide (Stonehouse, 2018) and Edge Of Wild (Stonehouse, 2016).

When not writing, Danika can be found hiking in the Rockies, planning grand adventures, and spending far too much time online. She lives with her husband, three sons, and a houseful of imaginary characters in a windy corner of Canada, Lethbridge, Alberta.

Ms. Stone is represented by Moe Ferrara of BookEnds Literary Agency.

CECILIA EKBÄCK was born in Sweden in a northern fishing town. Her parents come from Lapland. After university she specialised in marketing and worked for a multinational for twenty years with postings in the UK, Russia, Germany, France, Portugal and the Middle East. In 2010, she finished Royal Holloway’s Master in Creative Writing. She is now living in Canmore, Alberta, ‘returning home’ to the landscape and the characters of her childhood in her writing. Her first novel Wolf Winter was published in 2015. It won the 2016 HWA Goldsboro Debut Crown. In the Month of the Midnight Sun, her second novel was published in 2016. The Historians, her third, in 2020.

HOST: SUE-SHANE TSOMONDO is a poet, curator and the creator of Sue’s Stokvel, a Calgary-based literary arts platform. Sue’s Stokvel highlights the work of Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) writers. Sue-Shane’s poetry deals with issues of diasporan guilt, blackness, womanhood and intergenerational trauma. She has previously performed for Woolfs’ Voices and Single Onion. In 2020, Sue-Shane appeared on the cover of the Calgary Journal. Sue-Shane has also been featured in Avenue Magazine, The Calgarian podcast, In Rehearsal podcast and the Artful Conversations podcast. Her debut collection of poems A Long Way From Home is set to be published in September 2021.

Website: suestokvel.com | FB: Sue’s Stokvel |Personal IG: @whoissueshane | Sue’s Stokvel IG: @suestokvel

Panel: True North—Writing Nonfiction, with host Scott Messenger

Panel: True North—Writing Nonfiction, with host Scott Messenger

Saturday, May 29
3:00 pm - 4:15 pm

Panel: True North—Writing Nonfiction
Host: Scott Messenger
Featuring: Marcello Di Cintio, Trina Moyles, & Angie Abdou

Writing nonfiction may not be as straightforward as it appears. Beyond research, what are the specifics of writing a book publishers will eat-up? Learn about new releases by these authors and how their topics fill the bill.
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MARCELLO DI CINTIO is the author of five books, including Walls: Travels Along the Barricades which won the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing and Pay No Heed to the Rockets: Palestine in the Present Tense, winner of the W. O. Mitchell City of Calgary Book Prize. Di Cintio’s magazine writing has appeared in appeared in publications such as The International New York Times, The Walrus, Canadian Geographic and Afar. Di Cintio’s newest book is Driven: The Secret Lives of Taxi Drivers.

FB: Marcellodicintioauthor | TW: @DiCintio | IG: marcello.di.cintio

TRINA MOYLES is a writer, photographer, potter, and seasonal smoke spotter in the northern boreal. She is the author of Women Who Dig: Farming, Feminism, and the Fight to Feed the World. Her award-winning writing has been published in The Globe and Mail, The Walrus, Alberta Views, Maisonneuve, Hakai Magazine, and many other publications. She lives, writes, and adventures in northwestern Alberta with her canine sidekick, Holly.

Website: trinamoyles.com | IG: @womenwhodig | TW: @trinamoyles

ANGIE ABDOU has published seven books and co-edited Writing the Body in Motion, a collection of essays on Canadian Sport Literature. Her sport novel The Bone Cage was a Canada Reads finalist. A starred-review in New York’s Booklist declared her best-selling memoir, Home Ice: Reflections of a Reluctant Hockey Mom, “a first rate memoir and a fine example of narrative nonfiction.” Angie Abdou is Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Athabasca University. Her latest book is This One Wild Life: A Mother-Daughter Memoir.

FB: Angie Abdou | TW: @angie_abdou | IG: @angie.abdou

HOST: SCOTT MESSENGER is a writer and editor from Edmonton, Alberta, where he lives with his wife and two daughters. His work has appeared in magazines and newspapers across Canada and in the U.K. In 2016, he kept a blog called One Year of Alberta Beer in which he began to investigate the province's craft beer boom. Through that research - which covered everything from agriculture to legislation to the passions of the people who dedicate themselves to the industry - he discovered a rich history that led to his first book, Tapping the West: How Alberta’s Craft Beer Industry Bubbled Out of an Economy Gone Flat, published by TouchWood Editions in spring 2020. He does his best to keep up with craft beer innovations in moderation, but knows there is much more research to be done.

TW & IG: @scottlmessenger

Marcello Di Cintio photo - credit James May
Trina Moyles photo © Marie Pierre Pariseau 2020

Happy Hour, Alberta Beer & Book Pairings with Scott Messenger

16:30 - 17:30

Happy Hour, Alberta Beer & Book Pairings with Scott Messenger

Saturday, May 29

Meet Souvankham Thammavongsa (For Sponsors)

Meet Souvankham Thammavongsa (For Sponsors)

Meet Souvankham Thammavongsa (For Sponsors)

Workshop: Breaking the “Pre-” off the “-Dictable,” with Anthony Doerr

10:00 - 14:00

Workshop: Breaking the “Pre-” off the “-Dictable,” with Anthony Doerr

Connection Cafe

Youth Connect: Creative Writing 101

Connection Cafe

Saturday, May 29
11:30 am - 12:45 am

Connection Cafe
Co-Hosts: Jack Richardson and Robert Proudfoot.

Drop in to discuss writing and indie publishing with these Alberta authors.
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ROBERT PROUDFOOT is an Edmonton-based freelance and creative writer, and a member of the Writers’ Guild of Alberta. Robert was born and raised in Edmonton, but his life was enriched by cross-cultural experiences in Africa when, in the early 1970s, he completed high-school and studied at the University of Zambia; and later worked as an agro-forester in Nigeria for Mennonite Central Committee from 1988 to 1991. As an environmental scientist, Robert writes technical documents related to natural sciences assessments, but he also follows his passion for creative writing. Recently, he published the following: Come By Here, My Lord – Seen in a Mirror Dimly, a novel that celebrates friendships made across racial barriers in southern Africa of 1974; A Playful Policeman Meets the Citizen-Making Teacher, a biography of his grandparents’ lives and times in Edmonton (1906 to 1919); and Enduring Art, Active Faith – a collection of poetry, short stories, essays, and photographic depictions of art work created by three generations of his family. He previously researched and wrote the historical backgrounder for a DVD commemorating First Mennonite Church’s 50 th Anniversary in 2009. Robert published 35 essays in various church, community, and professional magazines between 1980 and 2010.

JACK RICHARDSON is an author from Calgary, Alberta who prioritizes family, travel, and writing. His first book, For a Daughter’s Love, is a work of purposeful fiction intended to engage and inform readers while inspiring them to consider new possibilities. For a Daughter’s Love follows a fractured father-daughter relationship for 40 years into a future defined by positivity and human connectedness, an ideal they struggle to achieve on a personal level.

Circles of Humanity, a facilitated program that promotes understanding, acceptance, and respect, is a concept that delivers the future described in the story. Jack’s current project is to recruit a diverse group of 12 Alberta writers to co-author a book based on their common experience of participation in the first Circles of Humanity experience. More information can be found on his website, circlesofhumanity.com.

Youth Connect: Creative Writing 101

Saturday, May 29
1:30 pm - 2:45 pm

Youth Connect: Creative Writing 101
Instructor: Caterina Edwards

It’s often difficult for young writers to find out about the professional writing market. This Youth Connect session is here to fill the gap by providing information to those interested in honing their creative writing skills.

This session is provided in partnership with the WGA Youth Committee, and is free of charge. Registration for the Youth Connect sessions is separate from the rest of the conference package.
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CATERINA EDWARDS: My last novel, The Sicilian Wife was named a Best Book of 2015 by The National Post, who described it as “a masterful tale of family, murder, and the inescapable pull of the past.” The literary noir received rave reviews in Canada, the U.S. and Sicily; a French edition, L’Epouse Sicilienne, was published in 2019. I began writing my previous book, Finding Rosa: A Mother with Alzheimer’s, a Daughter in Search of the Past, as a record of my experience caring for my mother during the last years of her life; it became a work of creative nonfiction that included history, memoir, biography, and travel writing. It won the Writers' Guild of Alberta Nonfiction Award, the Bressani prize, and was shortlisted for the City of Edmonton Book Prize. The hard cover and paperback editions are currently sold out, but I hope an ebook version will soon be available. Also, the Italian edition, Alla Ricerca di Rosa, will be published in the fall of 2020.

I have also published a novel, The Lion’s Mouth, a book of novellas, Whiter Shade of Pale/Becoming Emma and a collection of short stories, The Island of the Nightingales, which won the Writers' Guild of Alberta Short Fiction Award. I wrote a play, which was produced professionally in Edmonton as Terra Straniera and published as Homeground. My radio drama, The Great Antonio, was twice broadcast on CBC Sunday Showcase and chosen to represent Canada in an international competition. I have also won several prizes for my essays, including the Edna Staebler Personal Essay Competition for Light and Space in the Piazza, which is about the Moldovan women who work in Venezia as badanti.

I grew up in Alberta but my many summers in Venezia as a child and frequent visits to Italy over the years, have shaped my concerns as a writer. I am fascinated by the themes of immigration and identity, the collision of multiple selves and cultures, private memory and public history, here and there.

Caterina Edwards: Essays on Her Work (edited by Joseph Pivato) was the first book in Guernica Editions’ Series on Canadian Writers. In 2016, I was inducted into the City of Edmonton’s Cultural Hall of Fame.

Panel: Orienting to Diverse Voices—Anthologies, with host Rona Altrows

Panel: Orienting to Diverse Voices—Anthologies, with host Rona Altrows

Saturday, May 29
3:00 pm - 4:15 pm

Panel: Orienting to Diverse Voices—Anthologies
Host: Rona Altrows
Featuring: Joan Crate, Janet Gurtler, & Luciana Erregue

Anthologies present unique challenges in terms of sculpting a theme, extending the "call," selecting from the submissions, and seeing the project through to publication. These Anthology editors and authors reveal the process of writing and shaping diverse narratives for cohesive collections.
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HOST: RONA ALTROWS is a fiction writer, editor, essayist, and playwright. She is editor of the new book You Look Good for Your Age, an anthology on women, aging, and ageism (University of Alberta Press, spring, 2021) and co-edited the anthologies Shy, with Naomi K. Lewis, and Waiting, with Julie Sedivy. She is the author of three books of short fiction, most recently At This Juncture, as well as the children’s book The River Throws a Tantrum. Her 10-minute plays have been produced and published in Canada and the US and she is co-founder and co-producer of Gimme 10 Minutes, a celebration of 10-minute plays. Her honours include the W.O. Mitchell Book Prize and the Jon Whyte Memorial Essay Award.

Website: ronaaltrows.com | FB: Rona Altrows | TW: @Rona Altrows

JANET GURTLER is a multi-published author, and recent editor of You Too?, an anthology about teen sexual harassment, published by Harper Collins. Currently publishing personalized books for pets and kids under Eman Books, she is walked daily by her Golden Retriever Betty White, and joined by her Chihuahua Bruce, weather permitting.

FB: janet.gurtler | TW: @janetgurtler | IG: @janetthedoglady

LUCIANA ERREGUE is an Argentinian-Canadian art historian, writer, translator, and editor. She is the owner of Laberinto Press, Western Canada’s press for underrepresented writers and world literature in translation. Luciana is alumni of the WGA’s Borderlines Writers Circle, a former Edmonton Arts Council Artist in Residence, and a Banff Centre Literary Arts Program alumni. Her works have appeared in Canadian and international anthologies. Luciana also maintains her blog SpectatorCurator where she reflects on her professional life as a hyphened Canadian. She lives in Edmonton, AB.

Website: laberintopress.com | Blog: spectatorcurator.wordpress.com | FB: laberintopress | YouTube: youtube.com/channel/UCzyja29vjy6wI4oNkalBmBQ

JOAN CRATE has published short stories, poems, essays, two novels, three books of poetry, and is now part of a playwrighting collective. Most recently, she was a winner of the Princemere Poetry Contest 2020. She won the W.O. Mitchell, City of Calgary Book Award, was short-listed for the Frank Heygi Award in 2017, and made CBC’s Ten Books You Must Read list in 2016, for her novel Black Apple. She believes experimentation and exploration are crucial for keeping writers and their creative projects relevant and dynamic.

Rona Altrows photo - Credit Lucy Altrows

WGA Conference 2021:Re/Orientation - Saturday, May 29

Saturday May 29

Welcome & Land Acknowledgement. Jared Tailfeathers & Elder

Welcome & Land Acknowledgement. Jared Tailfeathers & Elder

08:45 - 09:00
Saturday Morning Keynote: The Drop, with Souvankham Thammavongsa

Saturday Morning Keynote: The Drop, with Souvankham Thammavongsa

09:00 - 10:00
In Conversation: The Trickster, Fantasy Series, Eden Robinson and Aritha Van Herk

In Conversation: The Trickster, Fantasy Series, Eden Robinson and Aritha Van Herk

10:00 - 11:15
Workshop: Crossing Borders—Writing Across Genre, with Jen Sookfong Lee

Workshop: Crossing Borders—Writing Across Genre, with Jen Sookfong Lee

10:00 - 11:15
Workshop: Orientating the Past—Writing Memoir, with Naomi Lewis

Workshop: Orientating the Past—Writing Memoir, with Naomi Lewis

10:00 - 11:15
Discord

Discord

11:15 - 11:30
Workshop: Mind F***—Writing Thrillers, with PJ Vernon

Workshop: Mind F***—Writing Thrillers, with PJ Vernon

11:30 - 12:45
Meet Eden Robinson (Winners of a Draw)

Meet Eden Robinson (Winners of a Draw)

11:30 - 12:45
Panel: The View—Crafting P.O.V. in Fiction, with host Dolly Dennis

Panel: The View—Crafting P.O.V. in Fiction, with host Dolly Dennis

11:30 - 12:45
(Lunch) Connection Café

(Lunch) Connection Café

12:45 - 13:30
Feature Presentation: Joshua Whitehead—Speculative Perspectives

Feature Presentation: Joshua Whitehead—Speculative Perspectives

13:30 - 14:45
Workshop: Dark Journeys—Writing Middle-Grade Horror During Frightening Times, with Marina Cohen

Workshop: Dark Journeys—Writing Middle-Grade Horror During Frightening Times, with Marina Cohen

13:30 - 14:45
Workshop: Distractions on the Journey—Writing Believable Sexual Tension and Romantic Elements, with Sarah Kades

Workshop: Distractions on the Journey—Writing Believable Sexual Tension and Romantic Elements, with Sarah Kades

13:30 - 14:45
Discord

Discord

14:45 - 15:00
Panel: Reimagined Narratives, with host Peter Midgley

Panel: Reimagined Narratives, with host Peter Midgley

15:00 - 16:15
Panel: Disorientations: Writing Crime, Thriller, and Mystery

Panel: Disorientations: Writing Crime, Thriller, and Mystery

15:00 - 16:15
Panel: True North—Writing Nonfiction, with host Scott Messenger

Panel: True North—Writing Nonfiction, with host Scott Messenger

15:00 - 16:15
Discord

Discord

16:15 - 16:30
Happy Hour, Alberta Beer & Book Pairings with Scott Messenger

Happy Hour, Alberta Beer & Book Pairings with Scott Messenger

16:30 - 17:30

Saturday, May 29

Meet Souvankham Thammavongsa (For Sponsors)

Meet Souvankham Thammavongsa (For Sponsors)

10:00 - 11:15
Meet Souvankham Thammavongsa (For Sponsors)

Meet Souvankham Thammavongsa (For Sponsors)

10:00 - 11:15
Workshop: Breaking the “Pre-” off the “-Dictable,” with Anthony Doerr

Workshop: Breaking the “Pre-” off the “-Dictable,” with Anthony Doerr

10:00 - 14:00
Connection Cafe

Connection Cafe

11:30 - 12:45
Youth Connect: Creative Writing 101

Youth Connect: Creative Writing 101

13:30 - 14:45
Panel: Orienting to Diverse Voices—Anthologies, with host Rona Altrows

Panel: Orienting to Diverse Voices—Anthologies, with host Rona Altrows

15:00 - 16:15

WGA Conference 2021:Re/Orientation - Sunday, May 30

Sunday, May 30

Connection Café - Meet the Presidents

Sunday, May 30
9:30 am - 9:50 am

Connection Café - Meet the Presidents
Host: Angie Gordema

Drop in to meet Colin Martin, President of the Alexandra Writers' Centre Society Board of Directors, and Carol Parchewsky, President of the Writers' Guild of Alberta Board of Directors.
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HOST: ANGIE GORDEMA completed the Leadership Wood Buffalo Program which is an eight-month educational program designed for people who are interested in community development. During this program, Angie and her team examined issues that were affecting the community and devised a roadmap to help organizations with ideas on collaborating and making a bigger impact.

Angie was part of the Global Young Leaders Conference (GYLC) which took place in the United States. GYLC is a unique leadership program that brings together outstanding young people from all over the world (195 countries were represented) to build critical leadership skills in a global context. Angie was representing Zimbabwe.

Angie loves to write and has published a children’s book called Living in Different Countries. The book explores different cultures and, in this book, Angie connects the two main characters living in different continents. Angie has also contributed published articles to Northword magazine as well as Edmonton’s Child Magazine.

Angie spent time working with seniors documenting their stories, touching on important social issues including ageism and changing gender roles in community. The intergenerational film initiative brought together younger and older Canadians across Red Deer and the crucial conversations were impactful and life changing for the community.

In 2019, Angie organized a Human Rights Conference for youth and she hopes to continue to be a positive influence to young people who will bring change to Red Deer and beyond. Angie is a recipient of the 2020 Canadians for a Civil Society Award.

COLIN MARTIN is a Calgary-area writer and university instructor who currently serves in his fourth year as the President of the Alexandra Writers' Centre Society. Long involved in Calgary's writing community, he previously served as the President of Filling Station Magazine, and was the founding editor of the University of Calgary's literary journal NōD Magazine.

CAROL PARCHEWSKY is a writer based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Carol writes fiction and is working on a collection of short stories and two novels. Her poetry and paintings have been published in Alberta Skies. Carol is President of the Writers’ Guild of Alberta Board of Directors. She received her Master of Fine Arts, Creative Writing from Queens University of Charlotte, her Bachelor of Science, Mechanical Engineering, from the University of Saskatchewan, and her Postgraduate Certificate in Creative Writing from the University of Calgary.

In Conversation: Natalie Jenner, The Jane Austen Society

In Conversation: Natalie Jenner, The Jane Austen Society

Sunday, May 30
10:00 am - 11:15 am

In Conversation: Natalie Jenner, The Jane Austen Society
Host: Katherine Koller

Born in England and raised in Canada with a passion for all things Jane Austen, researching the Regency author with characters set in post-WWII was the perfect fit. Equally smitten by Austen's work, host Katherine Koller will explore the landscape of the Jane Austen Society with this international best-selling author.
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NATALIE JENNER is the internationally bestselling author of The Jane Austen Society, a fictional telling of the start of the society in the 1940s in the village of Chawton, where Austen lived. Born in England and raised in Canada, Natalie is a former lawyer who also once founded Archetype Books, an independent bookstore in Oakville, Ontario, where she lives with her family and two rescue dogs. A #1 National, USA Today and LA Times bestseller, The Jane Austen Society will be translated into eighteen different languages around the world.

TW: @NatalieMJenner | IG: @authornataliejenner | FB: Natalie Jenner

KATHERINE KOLLER writes for stage, screen and page. Her first plays were for CBC radio. Her Alberta LandWorks Trilogy is Coal Valley: The Making of a Miner, The Seed Savers and Alberta Playwriting Competition winner, Last Chance Leduc. Her opera, The Handless Maiden, received a recital reading in Vancouver and Hope Soup, for radio, was recorded at the 2019 Edmonton Fringe and available at playwrightsguild.ca/edmonton-script-salon-podcasts. Riverkeeper, her new play, was a Finalist in the Jane Chambers Award. Her web series, about Edmonton youth changing their world, is at sustainablemeyeg.ca. Art Lessons, her novel, was a finalist for the Edmonton Book Prize and the Alberta Readers’ Choice Award. Winner of a High Plains Book Award and the Exporting Alberta Award, Winning Chance is her recent collection of short stories.

TW: @katkoll | IG: @kathscrab | FB: Katherine Koller

Natalie Jenner photo - credit Sarah Sims

Workshop: Many Hats, One Head: Building a Writing Career in the 21st Century with Marty Chan

Workshop: Many Hats, One Head: Building a Writing Career in the 21st Century with Marty Chan

Panel: Literary Translation—How to get your book translated and published, with host Dr. Leilei Chen

Panel: Literary Translation—How to get your book translated and published, with host Dr. Leilei Chen

Sunday, May 30
10:00 am - 11:15 am

Panel: Literary Translation
Host: Dr. Leilei Chen
Featuring: Susan Ouriou & Peter Midgley

Presented in collaboration with the Association des traducteurs et traductrices littéraires du Canada / Literary Translators’ Association of Canada (ATTLC/LTAC), this session features Susan Ouriou and Peter Midgley, who will share their insights on how to get your book translated and published. Topics to be discussed include the craft of literary translation, the editing process, the role you can play in finding a suitable translator and publisher, as well as how best to navigate all of these relationships. The 75-minute session will be moderated by Dr. Leilei Chen, WGA member and LTAC’s Vice-President for Western Canada.
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SUSAN OURIOU is an award-winning literary translator and fiction writer who has published numerous translations from Spanish and French for which she has won the Governor General’s Award for Literary Translation and been short-listed on several other occasions. Among her translations for publication in 2021/22 are The Lover, the Lake by Virginia Pesemapeo, Resin White by Audrée Wilhelmy and Catherine Leroux’sThe Future.

Thirty years working as a festival director, freelance editor, university lecturer, managing editor, acquisitions editor, clerk of court, bartender, janitor, and door-to-door salesman (and other unmentionable jobs), has given PETER MIDGLEY enough material for twelve books for children and adults. He also edits and translates--his editorial acumen has netted him both the Tom Fairley Award for Editorial Excellence and the Lois Hole Award for Editorial Excellence. He is a past president of the Writers' Guild of Alberta. His latest book of poetry, let us not think of them as barbarians (NeWest Press), was shortlisted for the Stephan G. Stephansson Award.

HOST: LEILEI CHEN is a literary translator, writer, and scholar. She published the Mandarin version of Steven Grosby's Nationalism: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press) with Yilin Press (Nanjing, China) in 2017 and Oxford University Press (Hong Kong) in 2020. She is the author of Re-orienting China: Travel Writing and Cross-cultural Understanding (University of Regina Press, 2016). Her poetry and prose translations, and personal essays appear in anthologies and magazines in Canada and beyond.

Peter Midgley photo - credit Shawna Lemay

Workshop: Writing Diverse YA, with Nadia Hohn

Workshop: Writing Diverse YA, with Nadia Hohn

Workshop: Telling Horror Stories in a Recovering World—Writing for Film, with Susie Moloney

Workshop: Telling Horror Stories in a Recovering World—Writing for Film, with Susie Moloney

Workshop: Packing a Punch: Big Stories in Small Spaces—Flash Fiction, with Katie Bickell

Workshop: Packing a Punch: Big Stories in Small Spaces—Flash Fiction, with Katie Bickell

12:45 - 13:30

Sunday Keynote: Using Artifacts to Plot Your Course, with Gil Adamson

13:30 - 14:30

Sunday Keynote: Using Artifacts to Plot Your Course, with Gil Adamson

Workshop: Signposts—Dialogue as More Than Banalities, with Danny Ramadan

Workshop: Signposts—Dialogue as More Than Banalities, with Danny Ramadan

Youth Connect: Publishing 101

Youth Connect: Publishing 101

Workshop: Getting Graphic, graphic novel with Jared Tailfeathers

Workshop: Getting Graphic, graphic novel with Jared Tailfeathers

Panel: Navigational Tools—Writing YA/Children’s Literature, with host Ali Bryan

Panel: Navigational Tools—Writing YA/Children’s Literature, with host Ali Bryan

Sunday, May 30
4:00 pm - 5:15 pm

Panel: Navigational Tools—Writing YA/Children’s Literature
Host: Ali Bryan
Featuring: Marty Chan, Leslie Davidson, Lucy Falcone & Danny Ramadan

Children and Youth face ongoing challenges with their own developmental stages as well as the complexities which society presents. Award-winning author, Ali Bryan, sifts through the colourful and ever-changing world of YA and children's literature to see how these authors tackle difficult subjects in their books.
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MARTY CHAN writes books for kids, plays for adults, and tweets for fun. He’s best known for his Marty Chan Mystery Series, a funny mystery series inspired by his childhood experiences growing up in small-town Alberta. His newest book is Haunted Hospital, a ghost story for reluctant reading teens. You can learn more about Marty at his website (martychan.com).

FB: MartyChanAuthor | TW: @Marty_Chan | IG: @MartyChanWriter | YouTube: Youtube.com/martychanauthor

LESLIE DAVIDSON has always been a writer but it wasn’t until retirement that she found time to finally put down in print the stories that had been tapping on her consciousness during her busy years of teaching and parenting. In 2106, her first picture book, In The Red Canoe, was published by Orca Book Publishers. In The Red Canoe was nominated for a Shining Willow award. Also in 2016, Leslie won the CBC Canada Writes Creative Nonfiction competition for her personal essay, "Adaptation." This spring, April 20121, Leslie’s second picture book, The Sun is a Shine, was released by Orca. Leslie lives in the beautiful mountain town of Revelstoke, BC.

Website: leslieadavidson.com | FB: Leslie Davidson or Leslie A Davidson | TW: @ladvidson19514 | IG: @lesliedavidson92

LUCY FALCONE is a former television writer for such series as The Littlest Hobo and Nickelodeon’s hugely popular, Are you Afraid of the Dark? She’s also a children’s author of middle-grade supernatural thrillers, comedic chapter books and, most recently, picture books. I Didn’t Stand Up won the 2019 Elementary Teacher’s Federation of Ontario Children’s Literature Award. The Librarian’s Stories is her second emotionally-resonant picture book.

Website: LucyFalcone.com | FB: LM.Falcone | TW: @LucyFalcone | IG: @lucymfalcone

DANNY RAMADAN is a Syrian-Canadian author and LGBTQ-refugees advocate. His debut novel, The Clothesline Swing, won the Independent Publisher Book Award, The Canadian Authors Association’s award, and was shortlisted for a Lambda Award, and longlisted for Canada Reads. The novel is translated to French, German and Hebrew.

His children’s book, Salma the Syrian Chef is nominated to the Forest of Reading’s Blue Spruce award, and named amongst the Best Books of 2020 by Kirkus Reviews and Library School Journal. It won the Middle East Book Award 2020. His forthcoming novel, The Foghorn Echoes, to be released by Penguin Canada and Canongate UK in Summer 2022. Danny graduated from UBC with an MFA in Creative Writing and lives in Vancouver with his husband, Matthew Ramadan.

Website: dannyramadan.com | TW: @TheDannyRamadan

HOST: ALI BRYAN is a novelist and creative nonfiction writer based in Calgary. Her first novel, Roost, won the Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction and was the official selection of One Book Nova Scotia. Her second novel, The Figgs, was a finalist for the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour and has been optioned for TV by Sony Pictures. She’s longlisted for the CBC Canada Writes Creative Nonfiction prize, shortlisted for the Jon Whyte Memorial Essay Award and won the 2020 Howard O’Hagan Award for Short Story. She is a Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Awards Emerging Artist recipient. Her debut YA novel, The Hill, was released in March from Dottir Press. She has a wrestling room in her garage and regularly gets choked out by her family.

FB: Author Ali Bryan | TW: @AliBryan | IG: @alikbryan

Panel: Going to Market—Editor/Agent Panel, with host Marina Endicott

Panel: Going to Market—Editor/Agent Panel, with host Marina Endicott

Sunday, May 30
4:00 pm - 5:15 pm

Going to Market: Editor/Agent Panel
Host: Marina Endicott
Featuring: Kelsey Attard, Netta Johnson, Sarah L. Johnson, & Rob Firing

Three publishers and one agent make for a lively discussion of what is hot, what is not, and how to find publishing success.
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KELSEY ATTARD is the managing editor of Freehand Books. She has a Master of Publishing degree from Simon Fraser University. She is currently on the boards of the Book Publishers Association of Alberta and the Literary Press Group.

NETTA JOHNSON is the Publisher at one of Edmonton’s newest Publishing houses, Stonehouse Publishing. She loves coffee, tea and a story well told. In her fleeting free time, you will find her curled up with an historical novel, putting everything else on hold until she has finished. Aside from being a writer, editor, reader and lover of literature, she dabbles in bread-making and stone masonry. Netta currently serves on the board of the Book Publishers Association of Alberta and the Waldorf Education Society of Edmonton.

SARAH L. JOHNSON is a curly hair gladiator, ultra marathoner, literary events wrangler, and misfit fictioneer. When not writing or teaching, she is a freelance editor as well as an editor/publisher with The Seventh Terrace, a Calgary based publisher of dark, weird, and horror literature. She is the author of two collections of short stories, Suicide Stitch and Wall of Fire, as well as one novel, Infractus.

Website: the-seventh-terrace.com | FB: TheSeventhTerrace | TW: @The7thTerrace | IG: @the7thterrace

ROB FIRING has been working as a promoter and publicist for more than 25 years, 15 of those at HarperCollins as their Senior Director of Publicity, Communications and Speakers’ Bureau. Rob has worked closely with everyone from JK Rowling to Tom Wolfe, from Margaret Trudeau to Margaret Drabble—literally hundreds of writers across many genres. He has won awards for his work from the Canadian Marketing Association and other marketing and PR organizations. He is also the co-author of The Everyday Squash Cook (HarperCollins, 2014), and the author of STEAK REVOLUTION (HarperCollins, 2018), which was a Gourmand World Cookbook Award finalist. Rob moved to Transatlantic Agency three years ago where he is a literary agent and speakers' agent. Rob works with authors of all genres but his client list is mostly populated by author-journalists writing memoir and narrative nonfiction, and by authors of lifestyle-genre books, especially food and drink.

HOST: MARINA ENDICOTT’s Good to a Fault was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and CBC Radio’s Canada Reads, and won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. The Little Shadows was short-listed for the Governor General’s award and long-listed for the Giller Prize, as was Close to Hugh. Her latest, The Difference (published in the US as The Voyage of the Morning Light), won the Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton book award and the City of Dartmouth fiction prize. She teaches creative writing at the University of Alberta, Humber Writing School, and the Banff Centre for the Arts.

FB: Marina Endicott | TW: @marinaendicott | IG: @marinaendicott

Panel: Writing in your Backyard, with host Robin Van Eck

Panel: Writing in your Backyard, with host Robin Van Eck

Sunday, May 30
4:00 pm - 5:15 pm

Panel: Writing in your Backyard
Host: Robin Van Eck
Featuring: Anna Marie Sewell, Alexis Kienlen, & Doreen Vanderstoop

Executive Director of the Alexandra Writers' Centre Society and debut novelist Robin Van Eck leads this discussion on finding inspiration for writing during lock-down and through any challenge, right in your own backyard.
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ANNA MARIE SEWELL, award-winning multi-genre writer/performer, specializes in collaborative multidisciplinary work. She’s MacEwan University's 2019/20 Writer in Residence, Edmonton's 4th Poet Laureate, author of poetry collections Fifth World Drum (Frontenac House, 2009), and 2018's For the Changing Moon: Poems & Songs (Thistledown). Humane is her first novel.

ALEXIS KIENLEN was born in Saskatoon, and currently lives in Edmonton. She has published two books of poetry, She dreams in Red and 13 both with Frontenac House. Her poetry, fiction and journalism pieces have appeared in numerous publications across Canada and on the world wide web. Alexis currently works as an agricultural journalist for Alberta Farmer newspaper. Her first novel, Mad Cow, examines the BSE crisis in Alberta, and the effects of the crisis on one farm family.

Website: alexiskienlen.com | TW: @alexiskienlen

DOREEN VANDERSTOOP is a writer based in Calgary, Alberta whose short fiction has appeared in Prairie Fire Magazine and online at Montreal Serai, prairiejournal.org, epiphmag.com, and Alexandra Writers' Centre, among others. Doreen's debut novel, Watershed, was published by Freehand Books in May 2020. Watershed has received critical acclaim, appearing frequently on best seller lists in Alberta. Doreen has participated in author panels at Word on the Street Toronto, Victoria Festival of Authors and the Calgary Public Library. She also appeared on the National Arts Centre’ Canada Performs series. Watershed was picked as the second book in the Alberta Reads Book Club hosted by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta. Doreen also sings, plays guitar, and performs oral stories of all kinds for audiences of all ages.

FB: doreen.vanderstoop| TW: @Doreenvdstoop| IG: @doreenvanderstoop

HOST: ROBIN VAN ECK's short stories and personal essays have appeared in many literary journals and anthologies across Canada and internationally. Her debut novel, Rough, was published by Stonehouse Publishing, November 1, 2020. She has been active in the Calgary literary community for almost 20 years through her connection to the Alexandra Writers' Centre where she is currently the Executive Director.

Conference Close & Farewell

Sunday, May 30

Panel: A Poetic Journey, with host Anne Sorbie

Panel: A Poetic Journey, with host Anne Sorbie

Sunday, May 30
10:00 am - 11:15 am

Panel Discussion: A Poetic Journey
Host: Anne Sorbie
Featuring: Alison Clarke, Laurie Anne Fuhr, Tyler B. Perry, & Alex Williamson

Poetry is a mirror which makes beautiful that which is distorted.
-Percy Bysshe Shelley

The poet works to orient themselves and their readers in place, mood, experience, and within larger discourses about meaning and purpose. Listen in on these poets discussing their poetic journeys through these uncharted times.
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ALISON CLARKE is a poet, fantasy author, and visual artist who is also a creative writing and visual arts instructor. Alison has a Master’s degree in English focussing on Children’s literature from Hollins University. She is the author of Phillis: A Poetry Collection that has been published by the University of Calgary Press in October 2020. She is also the author of the award winning young adult fantasy trilogy, The Sisterhood. The Sisterhood, Book One, the magical tale about Oppie, a sorceress’ daughter, and her best friend Aurie, a dragon, is the novel for which Alison won the award 2016 Writer of The Year by Diversity Magazine. Alison is also the Writer In Residence of the Alexandra Writers' Centre from March to May 2021. She has also recently won the Fil Fraser award for her contributions to literary and visual art. Alison believes that storytelling can change the world.

LAURIE ANNE FUHR is a poet, musician, and WGA member based in Calgary. Her first poetry collection, night flying, was published by Frontenac House in 2018. Her work has also appeared in anthologies such as Leonard Cohen: You’re Our Man (Foundation for Public Poetry, Montreal), Shadowy Technicians: New Ottawa Poets (Broken Jaw Press 2000), and in periodicals including Bywords, Peter F. Yacht Club, THIS Magazine, and Freefall. Her poems will appear this year in Uncommon Grounds: Poems by the Espresso Collective; Alexandra Writers' Centre 40th Anniversary anthology; and the annual Stroll of Poets anthology. Currently, she’s working on a book of wanderlusty post-lyrics called DROMOMANIA and a writing reference book called Poetry, Promptly: Prompts, Encouragement, and Tips for Writers. She has been a poetry instructor with Alexandra Writers Centre Society in Calgary for the last five years, and has been a member for many more. Please see alexandrawriters.org to find and register for classes and workshops. In April, for Poetry Month, she'll start a new online open mic series called ASCEND. To sign up for updates, please email lauriefuhr at gmail dot com.

Website: birdheat.com | FB: multimodalpoet | TW & IG: @multimodal_poet or @multimodalpoet | Music: birdheat.bandcamp.com | Youtube: tiny.cc/uuwltz

TYLER B. PERRY is a Calgary poet and high school English teacher. He is one of the organizers of Can You Hear Me Now?, the Alberta provincial junior high and high school poetry slam, and has performed his poetry to audiences across Canada and as far away as Japan. He is the author of three collections of poetry: Lessons in Falling (B House Publications, 2010), Belly Full of Rocks (Oolichan Books, 2016), and Plausible Wrong Answers (Frontenac House, 2020). He holds a MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia.

FB: tyler.perry | TW: @TBPerry | IG: @tylerbperry | YouTube book trailer: youtu.be/_CzdQk0QfLs

ALEXANDER WILLIAMSON is a Canadian living with cystic fibrosis, and he is very lucky to be in Canada while having CF. Mostly Alex only cares about books and fighting people. He writes scary stories and sad poems; he fences and boxes too. He had a BA in English from Mount Royal University, and that made a big difference, but most of what he learned came from falling off of things, getting lost, or being punched in the face. Very Bright, Almost Pretty is his first book. FB: Alex Williamson | IG: @alexander.j.williamson

HOST: ANNE SORBIE is a Scottish immigrant who has lived in Calgary since 1973. Her third book, Falling Backwards Into Mirrors, was released by Inanna Publications in fall, 2019. In 2020 she published poetry and fiction in YYC POP (Frontenac House), in the Calgary Public Library short story dispenser, and in Loft 112’s, Missing You Mondays travelling book project. In January, 2021, her poetry was translated into Farsi and broadcast on Namaashoum, PersianRadio.net in Ottawa. It was also broadcast on, Not Your Mother’s Poetry, on CKXU 88.3 FM southern Alberta.

Anne’s fiction, poetry, essays and book reviews have also been published by, The University of Alberta Press, Frontenac House, House of Blue Skies, and Thistledown Press; in magazines and journals such as FreeFall, Alberta Views, Geist, and Other Voices; and online with Brick Books, CBC Canada Writes, Geist, and Wax Poetry and Art.

Website: annesorbie.com | FB: @annesorbie | TW: @AnneSorbie | IG: @anneso3593

Workshop: The Divine Carnal Experience—Poetry with Micheline Maylor

Workshop: The Divine Carnal Experience—Poetry with Micheline Maylor

Connection Cafe - Ask a Historian

Connection Cafe - Ask a Historian

Workshop: Rough Writing to Raw Reciting, Spoken Word with Wakefield Brewster

Workshop: Rough Writing to Raw Reciting, Spoken Word with Wakefield Brewster

Workshop: Social Media & Marketing Your Book, with Kat Flannery

Workshop: Social Media & Marketing Your Book, with Kat Flannery

Panel: Detours on the Journey—Meeting Interesting Characters, with host Anne Logan