Opportunities
Below are opportunities currently being offered by AOE members. Take advantage of this method of promoting your upcoming opportunities. Become a member today! Existing members can add their opportunities by logging into the member's section.
Aspiring writers will want to check out the 2010 Writers in the Community writing workshops for adults from May 1 to 29. This annual spring series organized by the City of Ottawa's Community Arts Program in collaboration with AOE Arts Council -now in its eight year. Local writers and poets who are making their mark on the local and national literary scene explore different creative writing themes this year ranging from poetry, to writing short stories, memoir, and humour. To learn more about each instructor visit www.artsoe.ca.
Registration begins March 11, 2010. Visit www.ottawa.ca or call 613-580-2588 to register, or you can register at your local City recreation facility or Client Service Centre.
Drawing A Short Story
Saturday, May 1, 1-4 p.m.
With Ian Roy, Author and Poet
Dalhousie Community Centre, 755 Somerset West
Writing a story is not unlike drawing a picture. One line connects to another and then to another to form an image. The same could be said of constructing a good sentence. Author and poet Ian Roy will make you look at how we see things, how we describe and record that which we see and how we make it fiction.
About Ian Roy
In 1999, Ian published his first book: The Longest Winter, a collaboration with Julie Doiron. 2001 saw the publication of a collection of short stories entitled, People Leaving. A third book, a collection of poems with the avian-themed title, Red Bird, arrived in the spring of 2007. Also arriving that spring: a modest appearance in the anthology, Decalogue 2. For more info see: www.ianroy.ca
From One Poem To Many: Approaches To Developing A Body of Work
Saturday, May 8, 1-4 p.m.
With Sandra Ridley, Poet
Fisher Park Community Centre, 250 Holland Avenue
A workshop for new and emerging writers, Sandra Ridley will help you look at ways to build and expand on stand-alone poems. Touching on how to strengthen your style and voice, you will learn how to put together and tighten a larger body of work - whether a magazine submission, a serial/long poem, a chapbook or book manuscript. Idea-generating writing exercises, complementary readings, and supportive discussion of participant work will be part of the workshop. Though not required, participants are encouraged to bring a sample of poems.
About Sandra Ridley
Sandra Ridley won the bpNichol Chapbook Award for her chapbook Lift (2008, JackPine Press) and was a finalist for the Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry in 2009. Her first book of poetry, Fallout (Downwinders), won the 2008 Alfred G. Bailey Prize and will be published in the Spring 2010 by Hagios Press. A past associate editor with Arc Magazine and a previous facilitator of poetry workshops for the Tree Reading Series, Ridley’s work can also be found in such journals as The Antigonish Review, CV2, Fiddlehead, Grain, Prairie Fire, RAMPIKE, This Magazine, and as a recent chapbook titled Rest Cure published by Ottawa’s Apt. 9 Press.
Fleshing out life stories: The art and craft of memoir writing
Saturday, May 15, 1-4 p.m.
With Richard Taylor, Writer
Ron Kolbus Lakeside Centre, Britannia Park
Everyone has a story that could break, uplift or engage your heart. Richard Taylor will guide you on how to shape your personal experiences together with a little research to craft your own memoir. If you think of it as writing a non fiction short story, then memoir is a wonderful stew of narration, reflection, storytelling and essay writing. Using published memoirs and fictional techniques such as characterization, description, setting, dialogue, you will learn how to give voice to your own life stories to make them universal, and touch readers.
About Richard Taylor
Richard Taylor has taught writing in Australia, Hong Kong, Tuscany. He teaches workshops at Collected Works Bookstore, Algonquin College and Carleton University. He has published a novel, a collection of short stories and the travel memoir House Inside the Waves: Domesticity, Art and the Surfing Life. Many of his feature articles/memoirs on subjects as diverse as Lord Byron, open water swimming, surfing, hiking, pit pulls and the perils and pleasures of being a house husband have appeared in magazines. He is writing a memoir about swimming with writers, Water and Desire. www.taylorswave.ca
What do Pablo Picasso, Emily Carr and Claude Monet have in common? They all drew cartoons! Come learn this art form of the Masters from Sheree Bradford-Lea, Cartoonist and Mixed Media Artist. Emphasis is on line drawing, composition, character building and storytelling.
The eight-week, Wednesday night course in 'Cartooning Fundamentals' is starting April 21, 2010. Registration opens on March 11.
'Cartooning Fundamentals'
Ridgemont High School
Wednesday Nights 7-8:30 pm
April 21 to June 9, 2010
Please email Sheree for more information about workshops: sheree@shereebradfordlea.com