Writing about community
November 09th, 2020
A writing workshop focused on people writing about community will be held Nov. 28 and 29 at the Slocan Lake Arts Centre (formerly the Silverton Gallery) at 421 Lake Ave. (Highway 6 and 4th St.), Silverton, B.C.
The workshop, sponsored by the Slocan Lake Arts Council and entitled “What is Happening Here? Writing About Community,” will run from 9 a.m. to noon both days. Due to pandemic health guidelines, workshop attendance will be limited to six people, and social distancing will be observed.
“We’ll be looking at how best to capture in words the people around us, whether in the form of fiction, memoir, family history, or poems,” said workshop convenor Tom Wayman, a Winlaw writer.
Half the workshop time will be spent considering participants’ own writing, Wayman said. Registrants are asked to send five to ten pages of material they’d like considered by the workshop to him at appledor@netidea.com by Friday, Nov. 20.
“This allows participants’ writing to be circulated to workshop members to read and think about before the workshop begins,” Wayman said. “
“Submitted writing could be works-in-progress you’d like feedback on, or something you’re pretty sure is finished but want to hear what others think.”
The other half of workshop time will involve writing exercises and consideration of work by other authors who have written about community. A workshop in Silverton on the same theme was offered in August, with such enthusiastic responses from participants that the Arts Council invited Wayman to return and facilitate another.
Pre-registration is required. The fee is $60, which can be sent via etransfer to slocanlakeartscouncil@gmail.com, with the password “Writing.” SLAC will also accept a Kootenay Savings Credit Union direct transfer to SLAC’s Community Chequing account. Alternatively, a cheque can be mailed directly to SLAC at PO Box 123, Silverton, BC V0G 2B0.
Wayman’s books about the Slocan Valley include Winter’s Skin (Oolichan Books, 2013), poems about the valley in winter, illustrated with photos by local photographers Jeremy Addington and Rod Currie. A collection of Wayman’s short fiction about the valley, The Shadows We Mistake For Love, was published by Douglas & McIntyre in 2015. His most recent volume was published in March by Harbour, Watching a Man Break a Dog’s Back: Poems for a Dark Time.
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Contact:
Martine denBok, president, Slocan Lake Arts Council, slocanlakeartscounci@gmail.com
Tom Wayman, appledor@netidea.com; 250-226-7390
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