Explore how to write a glosa, a courtly form that steals a quatrail from another poet’s work to structure a poem of your own, in the course of which you create a glosa – or gloss on that poet’s work. Tangling with your chosen poet may allow her or his subtle influence to inform your tone and expand your expressive range. Workshop includes a copy of instructor Bonnie Quan Symon’s beautiful chapbook of glosas and handouts.
Tag: literary
GPAG: Tarot for Writers
Use Tarot cards to write your next story with Tarot Cards tapping into your intuition to create:
– Characters
– Conflict
– Plot
A technique used by Stephen King, Italo Calvino, John Steinbeck and others.
No previous experience with Tarot Required. Beginner decks with the meanings written on them to save time, Tarot journal pages and stickers provided.
Bring your own decks with booklets if you wish.
SC Botanical Gardens: Jan DeGrass Book Launch of “Temptations and Travels”
Author Jan DeGrass will launch her new book of stories, Temptations and Travels, that are part imagination, part memory in the natural beauty of the Sunshine Coast Botanical Gardens. Temptations and Travels is a collection of stories that wander freely between fiction and lived experience. Here are tales of travels, trials and temptations. Some tales grow from remembered journeys; others from moments half-forgotten but reshaped and embellished by the storyteller.
A medieval monk is sorely tempted by a visit from a mysterious woodland woman. The author travels across the stark, volatile landscapes of Iceland, where volcanoes and rushing rivers invite wonder and introspection. A mother and daughter guard secrets from one another—each believing silence is an act of love. Elsewhere, life’s lessons are learned in unlikely forms: from a curious emu, from chance meetings with passengers on a train or from a handsome stranger in a remote British Columbia gold-rush town. Together they form a rich mosaic of travel, reflection, and the small
temptations that test human nature.
Gibsons Library: Poetry Reading: Arleen Paré
Join us for a poetry reading with Arleen Paré, featuring poems from her recent collection Encrypted, an intimate and moving exploration of family, mental health, and intergenerational connection through her relationship with her grandson.
Arleen Paré is a Victoria writer with ten collections of poetry, one chapbook and one co-edited anthology. She’s been short-listed for the Dorothy Livesay BC Award, and has won the Victoria Butler Book Prize, a CBC Bookie Prize, the bpNichol Chapbook Award, the American Golden Crown Award for Lesbian Poetry, twice, and a Governor Generals’ Award for Poetry. She lives with her wife, Chris Fox, in Victoria on the traditional lands of the Coast Salish people.
Registration required.
Davis Bay Hall: Spring Author Readings
The dedicated authors from the Mini One-Day Writer’s Retreat will be reading from their manuscripts at the SCWES May Meeting, Sunday, May 31st, 2-4:30 pm, featuring Joan Fletcher’s launch of her scifi novel, “The Data Raiders.”
Roberts Creek Elementary Writers’ Showcase
Join us for an hour of stories celebrating the Roberts Creek Elementary writer-in-residency program with bestselling children’s author Tanya Lloyd Kyi. The event will showcase writing by students in grades 5, 6 and 7 and will be hosted by Kyi. All are welcome, and refreshments will be served. No registration required.
The event is sponsored by Celebration of Authors, Books and Community (CABC), an initiative of School District 46 and the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts, and funded by a responsive community grant from the Sunshine Coast Foundation.
Davis Bay Hall: Mini Writers Retreat
Join us for our one-day writers’ retreat to give yourself time away from distractions to focus on your work-in-progress, and/or engage in activities, like a group poem, in a peaceful, scene setting at Davis Bay by the sea. Come and go as you wish.
Your polished pieces may be submitted to Not An Island literary quarterly for consideration for publication.
Read your work from the retreat at the Sunday, May 31st, SCWES Meeting, Davis Bay Hall, 2 pm.
By donation. Suggested donation $10 for members $20 for nonmembers.
Sechelt Library: Poetry Circle
An informal space to share and discuss poems you love, poems that you are currently reading, or poems you have written! Poems can be from any publication or book, as well as from online resources. For teens and adults
This event happens on the first Tuesday of the month, 10:30-11:30am in the Community Room
Gibsons Public Art Gallery: Artist Talk & Reading with Andrea Fritz
Come learn about Coast Salish art, culture and storytelling on Saturday Dec. 20th, 2pm – 4pm. Andrea Fritz will read from her newest book Woolly Dog Warms His Family and talk about its relation to her serigraph Sqwiqwi, on display now in her Eve Smart exhibition Lyackson Place Names. This event is free and open to all!
Lyackson Place Names features hand produced silk screen prints in the traditional style of the Coast Salish People, exploring place names and different aspects of storytelling and culture. Each print in Andrea Fritz’s exhibition focuses on a place within Lyackson territory on the Salish Sea or on an aspect of Coast Salish storytelling, and is accompanied by the story relating to the piece. Lyackson Place Names will be closing on Saturday, December 20th at 4pm.
How to Enter a Writing Contest & Win
Want to enter a Writing Contest and Win but don’t know how to do so? Join Jan DeGrass, journalist and author, to learn the basics and be on your way to entering your first literary contest.
The fee is by donation to cover Jan’s time and the venue rental (suggested donation is $15).
Opportunity: Call for Submissions to Sunshine Coast Anthology
Call for submissions for “Snippets from a Small Town: Understanding Life on the Sunshine Coast,” sponsored by the Small Neighbourhood Grant program. Send your poetry, fiction, nonfiction, photography, and art to cathalynn@gmail.com by Monday, November 17th. Small honorariums available. Launch at Gibsons & District Public Library Wednesday, December 17th, 11 am. Cover art by Sheri Peters.
Davis Bay Hall: Charlotte Morganti Book Launch
The Sunshine Coast Writers and Editors Society is pleased to host local award-winning mystery writer Charlotte Morganti’s book launch of The Karma Murders.
The Karma Murders
A driver falling asleep at the wheel. A truck slipping out of gear. A sailboat boom striking a sailor’s skull.
Someone is delivering fatal justice in Cheakamus, B.C. He has anointed himself as Karma’s Helper, delivering justice where it’s long overdue.
Townspeople see these accidents as random acts of fate. But P.I. Gabe Gabrieli believes the truth is more sinister. He recognizes the pattern—a killer’s signature hidden in plain sight—and studies the threads connecting the victims, searching for a common link.
Brief AGM will be held prior to the launch. Goodies at the break. All welcome. Free.
SC Arts Centre: Sechelt Arts Festival: Writing Theatre in Response to the Climate Crisis with Elaine Ávila
Max 10 Registration required.
In this fun, interactive, hands-on workshop, you will write a short play in response to the climate crisis, by identifying issues that are essential to write about now, as well as exploring and expanding your sense of the possible. Playwriting has much to offer writers in other genres, such as developing your skills with dialogue, structure, story, vivid details and experimentation. Playwriting gives theatre artists unparalleled agency and an opportunity to identify the core of what they want to make work about.
We will explore a variety of approaches to making plays that have relevance for communities and connection to the natural world. You will learn what a theatre action is, how to workshop your short play, and explore where to go next. If you ar
An Afternoon with Bob McDonald – Host of CBC’s Quirks and Quarks
We’re thrilled to welcome Bob McDonald—acclaimed author, CBC broadcaster, and longtime host of Quirks & Quarks—to the Raven’s Cry Theatre for a very special fundraising event.
With over 800,000 weekly listeners across Canada, Bob is one of the country’s most trusted voices in science communication. He’s just released his memoir “Just Say Yes” and has generously offered his time to support this cause.
This event will benefit the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts, now in its 43rd year. The Festival continues to enrich our community through storytelling, author events, and literacy initiatives—like the much-loved Literacy Week in local elementary schools.
Click on the link below for ticket options.
https://writersfestival.ca/2025/an-afternoon-with-bob-mcdonald/?fbclid=IwY2xjawMsMj
Gibsons Library: Word Whips
Writing Workshop with Fran Bourassa
Calling all poets, writers, and would-be writers of all ages and experience levels! Bypass your inner “editor” to find your authentic voice. Practice “free writing” short pieces from “word whip” prompts that elicit memories, emotions, and powerful ideas for poetry and stories. This method is quick, powerful, and everyone can enjoy it.
Fran Bourassa is an award-winning poet and contributing writer to numerous anthologies, including Breaking the Surface, Pacific Poetry Anthology, Force Field: 77 BC Poets.
Free but space is limited (in person only).
Registration opens on the 1st of the month here.
Opportunity: Literary Judges Wanted for Book Contest
to Mar 31st. Literary Judges Wanted for the Sunshine Coast Book Awards for BC Authors Contest. Genres include Poetry, Fiction, Nonfiction, Childrens/YA, and Youth books.
Award ceremony is Saturday, August 23rd, afternoon, Gibsons Public Market, Coastal Room.
Living with Grief: Writing Group Series with David Roche
Grief can be a challenging companion. Whether you have recently started experiencing grief or it’s been many years, this series can be helpful. No writing experience is necessary, just an open mind and an open heart. This weekly series on six Tuesdays gives you a way to engage with grief on a daily basis, helping you find and listen your own story. The writing activities also help you connect with one another; helping people who truly understand what it’s like to live within life-changing loss share and support one another. No platitudes, no advice, just a community of fellow grievers, writing alone, together. Offered in partnership with Sunshine Coast Hospice Society, with support from the Town of Gibsons. Free, but space is limited: advance registration for all 6 sessions required.
Living with Grief: Writing Group Series with David Roche
Grief can be a challenging companion. Whether you have recently started experiencing grief or it’s been many years, this series can be helpful. No writing experience is necessary, just an open mind and an open heart. This weekly series on six Tuesdays gives you a way to engage with grief on a daily basis, helping you find and listen your own story. The writing activities also help you connect with one another; helping people who truly understand what it’s like to live within life-changing loss share and support one another. No platitudes, no advice, just a community of fellow grievers, writing alone, together. Offered in partnership with Sunshine Coast Hospice Society, with support from the Town of Gibsons. Free, but space is limited: advance registration for all 6 sessions required.