Wild Writers Literary Festival 2019
Online ticket sales open September 3 to October 29. Ticket prices go up at the door.
Early Bird Discounts run September 3-September 17!
Online ticket sales are closed. Limited tickets will be available at the door.
Friday, November 1st
Saturday, November 2nd
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Three of These Things Belong Together: The 2019 Publishing Panel
with Noelle Allen, Marilyn Biderman, Hazel Millar, Pamela Mulloy & Susan Scott
SOLD OUT!
SOLD OUT!
The sing-song title says it all: some groupings are just a perfect fit. The publishing panel celebrates agents, small magazines, and small presses: why and how they belong together, and why understanding their linked roles and relationships is vital if you want to publish, or deepen your connection to publishing in general. Ideal for writers, editors, agents, and anyone who wonders about the rhythm and rhyme of literary fortunes. Moderated by Susan Scott.
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Facing Your Fear of Poetry
with Sarah Tolmie
Early Bird $20 • Online $22 • At the Door $25
-
Different Worlds and Different Bodies
with Amanda Leduc
-
Youth Writing Masterclass (Ages 13-18)
with Francine Cunningham
Online ticket sales are closed. Limited tickets will be available at the door.
For writers aged 13-18.
Led by award-winning Indigenous writer Francine Cunningham, this masterclass will help you learn to connect with your memories to create a visceral piece of writing that springs alive with sensory details. We will then be using our writing to craft personal zines that showcase the words we have carefully crafted. Francine has over ten years experience teaching writing, visual art, and zine making. If you feel inspired please bring any art making supplies to enhance your zine with some visual art.
Early Bird $40 • Online $42 • At the Door $45
-
Poetry and Healing: In Conversation
with George Elliott Clarke
-
Ten Tips For Writing Great Creative Nonfiction
with Ayelet Tsabari
SOLD OUT!
Early Bird $20 • Online $22 • At the Door $25
-
Character Reinvention in Fiction Writing
with Philip Huynh, Nadja Lubiw-Hazard, Casey Plett, Claire Tacon & Jessica Westhead
Online ticket sales are closed. Limited tickets will be available at the door.These authors grapple with issues that challenge the inhabitants of their story in unique and unforeseen ways—family secrets, anxiety, displacement, abandonment, addiction, grief, the struggle for identity. Through discussions and readings from their work, we learn how these authors navigate complex realities and find ways for their characters to reinvent themselves in the process. Moderated by Claire Tacon. -
Gourmet Boxed Lunches
from EVO Kitchen
-
Home and Away: A Roundtable Conversation
with Lamees Al Ethari, Helen Knott, Vinh Nguyen & Ayelet Tsabari
Online ticket sales are closed. Tickets will be available at the door.
How do displaced writers locate themselves in their writing? Refugee, immigrant, and Indigenous writers have pushed the boundaries of language to express their experiences. But they’re also challenging expectations of what it means to be a displaced writer in Canada. Join this intimate roundtable conversation to traverse these topics and more.
Please note: Helen Knott is unable to attend this event and sends her sincere regrets.
-
Self-Care for Writers 101
with Maya Ameyaw, Eufemia Fantetti, Kathy Friedman, Stuart Ross & Leanne Toshiko Simpson
SOLD OUT!
SOLD OUT!
Mental health and wellness concerns can be particularly acute in the writing community, as writers navigate creative and professional highs and lows. This roundtable discussion focuses on how writers can build strong self-care practices, boundaries, and support systems. It will also touch on the risks involved in writing about mental illness, including what it means to go public with our stories and the challenges of writing about traumatic personal histories.
The discussion will be led by special guests from InkWell Workshops. InkWell runs free creative-writing workshops for people with mental health and addictions issues facilitated by award-winning writers with lived experience.
Early Bird $10 • Online $12 • At the Door $15
If you want to attend this session but are facing financial barriers, please reach out to ebednarz[at]tnq.ca.
-
Poetry Masterclass
with George Elliott Clarke
SOLD OUT!
George Elliott Clarke believes that poetic mastery consists in having command of too-often-overlooked or taken-for-granted basics: Vocabulary/Diction (incl. English “roots” and “routes”), Rhythm/Meter, and Forms/Constraints. He will offer a series of exercises (developed over 36 years of praxis), both of his own invention or borrowed–with acknowledgment–from others, all introduced with a discussion of the underlying theory, and all intended to help the participating writer or poet, at whatever stage of creative “mastery,” to range further, stretch, advance. Clarke has offered courses in Creative Writing at Duke University and the University of Toronto, and has also taught at Banff and at Green College (UBC) and in writing workshops from coast to coast. He promises participants increased excellence in craft and a charged atmosphere of due humility before the Muse(s) and irreverent humour for all (mere) mortals.
Early Bird $40 • Online $42
SOLD OUT!
-
How to Promote Yourself
with Casey Plett
SOLD OUT!
-
How to Turn the Written Word into Podcast Magic
with Michelle Parise
Online ticket sales are closed. Limited tickets will be available at the door.
Want to know tips and tricks for lifting your words off the page and into the ears of millions*? Find out how to write for the most intimate medium with award-winning journalist, writer and performer Michelle Parise, who adapted her memoir, Alone: A Love Story into a hit international podcast. In this workshop, she will share her process, thoughts on craft, and get you to think about writing with your ears.
*millions not guaranteed
Early Bird $20 • Online $22 • At the Door $25
-
Creating Character
with Kathy Page
SOLD OUT!
-
Shaming or Celebrating? Challenging Norms in Personal Nonfiction
with Carolina Echeverria, Sheniz Janmohamed, Amanda Leduc, Heidi Reimer & Susan Scott
Online ticket sales are closed. Tickets will be available at the door.It’s hard to write deeply personal nonfiction, harder still to get it published. Yet there is a crying need, we know, to confront what is hidden and taboo. What to do in the face of standoff? Are there strategies we can all adopt, conversations we can each initiate—and with whom? Join us in celebrating how one wildly unpopular topic (spiritual memoir) could become a beloved book (Body & Soul from Caitlin Press) that breaks down barriers for others—and possibly, for you. Moderated by Susan Scott.
Sunday, November 3rd
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$25 Donation to the Wild Writers Literary Festival
By donating $25 to the Wild Writers Festival, you will also receive a complementary ticket to our Opening Showcase featuring Heather O'Neill.
Please Note: Since the Wild Writers Literary Festival is not a registered charity, we are unable to issue a tax-receipt for your donation.
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$50 Donation to the Wild Writers Literary Festival
By donating $50 to the Wild Writers Literary Festival, you will also receive a complementary ticket to one of our workshop classes.
Please Note: Since the Wild Writers Literary Festival is not a registered charity, we are unable to issue a tax-receipt for your donation.
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All-Inclusive Pass to the 2019 Wild Writers Festival
Why choose when you can have it all?
Book your All-Inclusive Pass today and enjoy:
✔ Entrance to the Opening Showcase with Kathy Page, Elizabeth Hay & Eufemia Fantetti
✔ 3 Writer's Craft Classes OR 1 Masterclass + 1 Writer's Craft Class
✔ A Gourmet Boxed Lunch from EVO Kitchen
✔ Entrance to The Literary Brunch with David Bezmozgis & Michael Crummey
✔ A One-Year Subscription to The New Quarterly, a national literary magazine based in Waterloo!
Early Bird $135 • Online $140 • Not Available at the Door!
SOLD OUT
-
Character Reinvention in Fiction Writing
with Philip Huynh, Nadja Lubiw-Hazard, Casey Plett, Claire Tacon & Jessica Westhead
Online ticket sales are closed. Limited tickets will be available at the door.These authors grapple with issues that challenge the inhabitants of their story in unique and unforeseen ways—family secrets, anxiety, displacement, abandonment, addiction, grief, the struggle for identity. Through discussions and readings from their work, we learn how these authors navigate complex realities and find ways for their characters to reinvent themselves in the process. Moderated by Claire Tacon. -
Creating Character
with Kathy Page
SOLD OUT!
-
Different Worlds and Different Bodies
with Amanda Leduc
-
Facing Your Fear of Poetry
with Sarah Tolmie
Early Bird $20 • Online $22 • At the Door $25
-
Gourmet Boxed Lunches
from EVO Kitchen
-
Home and Away: A Roundtable Conversation
with Lamees Al Ethari, Helen Knott, Vinh Nguyen & Ayelet Tsabari
Online ticket sales are closed. Tickets will be available at the door.
How do displaced writers locate themselves in their writing? Refugee, immigrant, and Indigenous writers have pushed the boundaries of language to express their experiences. But they’re also challenging expectations of what it means to be a displaced writer in Canada. Join this intimate roundtable conversation to traverse these topics and more.
Please note: Helen Knott is unable to attend this event and sends her sincere regrets.
-
How to Promote Yourself
with Casey Plett
SOLD OUT!
-
How to Turn the Written Word into Podcast Magic
with Michelle Parise
Online ticket sales are closed. Limited tickets will be available at the door.
Want to know tips and tricks for lifting your words off the page and into the ears of millions*? Find out how to write for the most intimate medium with award-winning journalist, writer and performer Michelle Parise, who adapted her memoir, Alone: A Love Story into a hit international podcast. In this workshop, she will share her process, thoughts on craft, and get you to think about writing with your ears.
*millions not guaranteed
Early Bird $20 • Online $22 • At the Door $25
-
Opening Showcase: Parental Guidance Advised
with Elizabeth Hay, Kathy Page & Eufemia Fantetti
Online ticket sales are closed. Tickets will be available at the door.
Parents make for great source material. Award-winning writers Elizabeth Hay and Kathy Page know this all too well. Kathy Page’s Dear Evelyn grew from her father’s war-time love letters to her mother. Elizabeth Hay’s All Things Consoled details the decline of her ferociously independent elderly parents.
Source material isn’t the only thing that links these writers. Both earned Writers’ Trust Prizes in November, 2018—Kathy Page for fiction, Elizabeth Hay for nonfiction. Almost exactly one year later, Kathy Page and Elizabeth Hay unite onstage to reflect on their process and tackle tough questions. Why do we return to stories about our parents? Why do these stories continue to draw such attention and acclaim?
-
Poetry and Healing: In Conversation
with George Elliott Clarke
-
Poetry Masterclass
with George Elliott Clarke
SOLD OUT!
George Elliott Clarke believes that poetic mastery consists in having command of too-often-overlooked or taken-for-granted basics: Vocabulary/Diction (incl. English “roots” and “routes”), Rhythm/Meter, and Forms/Constraints. He will offer a series of exercises (developed over 36 years of praxis), both of his own invention or borrowed–with acknowledgment–from others, all introduced with a discussion of the underlying theory, and all intended to help the participating writer or poet, at whatever stage of creative “mastery,” to range further, stretch, advance. Clarke has offered courses in Creative Writing at Duke University and the University of Toronto, and has also taught at Banff and at Green College (UBC) and in writing workshops from coast to coast. He promises participants increased excellence in craft and a charged atmosphere of due humility before the Muse(s) and irreverent humour for all (mere) mortals.
Early Bird $40 • Online $42
SOLD OUT!
-
Self-Care for Writers 101
with Maya Ameyaw, Eufemia Fantetti, Kathy Friedman, Stuart Ross & Leanne Toshiko Simpson
SOLD OUT!
SOLD OUT!
Mental health and wellness concerns can be particularly acute in the writing community, as writers navigate creative and professional highs and lows. This roundtable discussion focuses on how writers can build strong self-care practices, boundaries, and support systems. It will also touch on the risks involved in writing about mental illness, including what it means to go public with our stories and the challenges of writing about traumatic personal histories.
The discussion will be led by special guests from InkWell Workshops. InkWell runs free creative-writing workshops for people with mental health and addictions issues facilitated by award-winning writers with lived experience.
Early Bird $10 • Online $12 • At the Door $15
If you want to attend this session but are facing financial barriers, please reach out to ebednarz[at]tnq.ca.
-
Shaming or Celebrating? Challenging Norms in Personal Nonfiction
with Carolina Echeverria, Sheniz Janmohamed, Amanda Leduc, Heidi Reimer & Susan Scott
Online ticket sales are closed. Tickets will be available at the door.It’s hard to write deeply personal nonfiction, harder still to get it published. Yet there is a crying need, we know, to confront what is hidden and taboo. What to do in the face of standoff? Are there strategies we can all adopt, conversations we can each initiate—and with whom? Join us in celebrating how one wildly unpopular topic (spiritual memoir) could become a beloved book (Body & Soul from Caitlin Press) that breaks down barriers for others—and possibly, for you. Moderated by Susan Scott.
-
Ten Tips For Writing Great Creative Nonfiction
with Ayelet Tsabari
SOLD OUT!
Early Bird $20 • Online $22 • At the Door $25
-
The Literary Brunch
with David Bezmozgis, Michael Crummey & K.D. Miller
SOLD OUT!
Join us for a refreshing Sunday morning with award-winning authors David Bezmozgis, Michael Crummey, and K.D. Miller who will discuss their latest work, writing process, and lives as a writers. Intimate, casual, engaging – an ideal way to spend a Sunday morning. Moderated by Sharron Smith.
Hosted at Rhapsody Barrel Bar (179 King Street West, Kitchener). Doors open and coffee is served at 9:30am. Brunch is served piping hot at 10:15am sharp. Mimosas and dessert served at 11:00am. Brunch is your choice between Rhapsody Benedict, Cinnamon Crunch French Toast, and Mixed Berry Parfait.
Early Bird $38 • Online $40 • At the Door $45
SOLD OUT!
-
Three of These Things Belong Together: The 2019 Publishing Panel
with Noelle Allen, Marilyn Biderman, Hazel Millar, Pamela Mulloy & Susan Scott
SOLD OUT!
SOLD OUT!
The sing-song title says it all: some groupings are just a perfect fit. The publishing panel celebrates agents, small magazines, and small presses: why and how they belong together, and why understanding their linked roles and relationships is vital if you want to publish, or deepen your connection to publishing in general. Ideal for writers, editors, agents, and anyone who wonders about the rhythm and rhyme of literary fortunes. Moderated by Susan Scott.
-
Youth Writing Masterclass (Ages 13-18)
with Francine Cunningham
Online ticket sales are closed. Limited tickets will be available at the door.
For writers aged 13-18.
Led by award-winning Indigenous writer Francine Cunningham, this masterclass will help you learn to connect with your memories to create a visceral piece of writing that springs alive with sensory details. We will then be using our writing to craft personal zines that showcase the words we have carefully crafted. Francine has over ten years experience teaching writing, visual art, and zine making. If you feel inspired please bring any art making supplies to enhance your zine with some visual art.
Early Bird $40 • Online $42 • At the Door $45