Saturday, November 7: Sunday, November 8: Saturday, November 21: 11:00 am - 12:00 pm

Youth Writing: An Interactive Workshop Series

with Erin Bow and Heather Smith



This is a limited registration workshop series for writers aged 14-18. 

Youth writers will join award-winning writers Erin Bow and Heather Smith for three workshop sessions over two weekends in November. Participants will have the opportunity to ask questions, discuss writing techniques, and workshop creative writing material with their instructors. This workshop series will be held on Zoom and will be recorded.

Placements in this workshop will be offered free-of-charge to successful applicants. Donate to support youth writing! 

Saturday, November 7 from (11AM-12PM)

Heather Smith will talk about crafting beginnings and endings—what makes them great, and why they matter.

Sunday, November 8 from (11AM-12PM)

Erin Bow will talk about pacing, when to pause for details and when to leave them out. 

Writing Break

After the first two workshops, Heather Smith and Erin Bow will provide students with writing prompts. The workshop participants can use these prompts to develop a piece of writing of up to 1500 words to send to the Heather and Erin for feedback. The workshop participants will then give their piece some extra polish in preparation for a “read-around” at the final workshop.

Saturday, November 21 (11AM-12PM)

Workshop participants will present their creative writing for a reading of up to three minutes each.

Applications are now closed.

  • ERIN BOW is an award-winning poet and novelist, whose honors include the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award, the CBC Literary Award for poetry, and a Governor General’s Award. She was trained as a physicist, and does science writing about things like black holes and quantum gravity. Her novels are written in her garden shed, in the rotating company of her novelist-husband, two joyfully creative tween-aged kids, and an unnerving number of shed spiders.

  • Originally from Newfoundland, HEATHER SMITH now lives in Waterloo, Ontario. Her middle-grade novel, Ebb & Flow, was short-listed for the 2018 Governor General’s Literary Award and was the winner of the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award. Her picture book, The Phone Booth in Mr. Hirota’s Garden, was recently named the winner of the 2019 Freeman Book Award for Children’s Literature. Heather has written several other books for young people including the award-winning, The Agony of Bun O’Keefe. Heather’s Newfoundland roots inspire much of her writing. Her newest young adult book, Barry Squires, Full Tilt, will be out on September 22.