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• Sunday Webinar: The Art of Editing Poetry

  • When
    21 Apr 2024
  •  
    2:00 PM - 3:30 PM
  • Location
    Zoom

  Register

  
  

  The Art of Editing Poetry

  Member Price: $15

  Non-Member Price is $25

  **This event will be recorded. Registrants can access the recording for 30 days.
  

  **We are changing our registration systems, so reminders may look a little different from normal after we migrate to the new platform.

  Description: Join us for a special Sunday Webinar celebrating National Poetry Month with former poet laureate, Yvonne Blomer! In this interactive session, Yvonne will dive into already written poems and work on the big question: How can I tell when a poem is finished? We will do a short writing to start the class, discuss elements of editing, and then dive into a poem or two that participants bring. Note: Please bring pen and paper and two poems that you’d like to work on though we may only get to one.

  Outcomes: You will have some tools on how to edit a poem, some questions as well as a short amount of time to write a new poem, and edit an existing poem.

  Audience: This session is for all poets. Specifically, those who are seeking to improve their work will benefit the most. 

  Presenter bio: Yvonne Blomer is a past poet laureate of Victoria, BC and the 2022-2023 Arc poetry magazines poet-in-residence. She creates and teaches poetry classes to a deeply engaged group of poets on Zoom and lives on the territories of the Lək̓ʷəŋən (Lekwungen) speaking people. Her sixth book of poetry, “Death of Persephone: A Murder” is forthcoming in the fall of 2024 and she is currently accepting poems on the theme of ice for a third water-based poetry anthology, details here: https://caitlinpress.com/Blog/Call-for-Submissions-ICE.

  Digital doors open at 1:55 pm, event starts at 2:00 pm

  
  

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• Regional Spotlight: the Soup Group poets from Kelowna

  • When
    23 Apr 2024
  •  
    7:00 PM - 8:15 PM
  • Location
    Zoom

  Register

  
  

  Join us Tuesday, April 23 at 7:00 pm Pacific for a special National Poetry Month Regional Spotlight featuring the Soup Group poets from Kelowna with host Meaghan Hackinen and readers Carrie Mitchell, Michele Rule, Jaki Sawyer, Robin Broderick, and Sally Quon. Register here (bcwriters.ca/events-for-writers) and a link will be sent to you. When it's time for the event, click on the link to join the live Zoom event. We look forward to seeing you there!

  Digital Doors Open at 6:55 pm!

  
  

  Carrie Mitchell gratefully lives on unceded Syilx Okanagan land, Lake Country BC. Born with a longing to create, she began interpreting her rich inner world at an early age by writing poems, drawing and collecting nature’s ephemera. A mother, sister, daughter, witch; Mitchell spends her time dismantling paradigms that kept her from authenticity by making art and walking near the geese of Wood Lake. In 2022 she returned to her lifelong dream of studying for a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the age of 56 at The University of British Columbia.

  
  

  
  

  Jaki Sawyer has always loved poetry and has been writing for many years. After living in northern Alberta until she was 39, Jaki moved to New Hampshire, USA, took a number of writing classes, and joined a writing group that met for ten years. In 2014 she and her husband Geoff retired to Kelowna, British Columbia. Jaki has continued to write poetry, and is a member of several writing groups in the Kelowna area.

  
  

  
  

  Michele Rule is a disabled writer from Kelowna BC. She is especially interested in the topic of chronic illness. Michele is recently published in Five Minute Lit, Spillwords, Okay Donkey, and Chicken Soup for the Soul, among others. Michele’s first chapbook is Around the World in Fifteen Haiku. Michele lives in a beautiful garden surrounded by people who love her just the way she is. 

  
  

  
  

  
  

  With a lifelong commitment to writing, Robin Broderick has explored a variety of formats including short story, poetry, prose, and the screenplay. Her education spans a diverse range, with credentials from college programs in photography and creative writing, a BFA in sculpture, and an International MBA. Robin continually seeks to refine and expand her skills, actively participating in classes, workshops, and writing groups wherever she resides. For nearly two decades, she has contributed to the academic world as a term teacher at both college and university levels. Residing in a serene small town in British Columbia by a lake for most of the year, Robin's surroundings provide endless inspiration for her creative expression in both words and images.

  
  

  
  

  Sally Quon is a dirt-road diva and teller of tales, living in British Columbia, Canada. In addition to being an associate member of the League of Canadian Poets, she is a member of the Federation of BC Writers and Haiku Canada. Her first book of poetry, Beauty, Born of Pain, was followed up by her first children’s book, Billy and the Dragon. Both are available from Okanagan Publishing House. Sally co-edits a twice monthly haiku newsletter, The Solitary Daisy, with her haiku cohort, Michele Rule. She also writes a monthly blog found at https://featherstone-creative.com. In her spare time, Sally enjoys teaching writing workshops and looking for bears.

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Meaghan Hackinen (FBCW host): is a bike-obsessed bookworm on a lifelonghunt for exceptional cycling routes, both on and off the pavement. Her cross-continental bike race memoir, Shifting Gears, was released by NeWest Press in 2023. This year, Meaghan is gearing up to compete in the Tour Divide: a self-supported 4,400-kilometre mountain bike race down the Continental Divide from Banff, Alberta to Antelope Wells, New Mexico. 

  
  

  
  

  *This event will be recorded.

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• Sunday Webinar: Great Story: 12 Writing Tips from Aristotle's Poetics

  • When
    5 May 2024
  •  
    2:00 PM - 3:30 PM
  • Location
    Zoom

  Register

  
  

  Great Story: 12 Writing Tips from Aristotle's Poetics

  Member Price: $15

  Non-Member Price is $25

  **This event will be recorded. Registrants can access the recording for 30 days.
  

  **We are changing our registration systems, so reminders may look a little different from normal after we migrate to the new platform.

  Description: Aristotle’s Poetics was the first book to offer advice as to what makes a story . . . a story, and what makes for a great story, and it is as relevant today as when gods strode the earth. We will learn his top twelve tips, how to build our own tragedy, how to show moral ambiguity, and how to create characters who will make your readers cry their eyes out.

  Audience: Anyone and everyone.

  Presenter bio: Claire’s first novel, The Reckoning of Boston Jim (Touchwood Editions) was nominated for the Giller Prize as well as for the BC Book Prize. Her second novel, The Dark (Random House, Double Day), was nominated for the Canadian Author’s award. Claire’s award winning short fiction has been published in Writer’s Magazine, The Hourglass, Canadian Author, The Tulane Review, The Dalhousie Review, Grain, The Antigonish Review, amongst others. She teaches historical fiction at Uvic’s Continuing education dept and offers editing and monthly classes through her website: www.mulliganmethod.ca.

  Digital doors open at 1:55 pm, event starts at 2:00 pm

  
  

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• Book Club for Writers: "Breathing the Page" by Betsy Warland

  • When
    9 May 2024
  •  
    7:00 PM - 8:15 PM
  • Location
    Zoom

  Register

  
  

  Member Price: Free (but donations are welcome and appreciated)

  Non-Member Price: $10

  **Digital doors open at 6:55 pm; event starts at 7:00 pm

  **Portions of this event will be recorded and made available to registrants to view for 30 days. Breakout room discussions will not be recorded.

  
  

  The Federation of BC Writers invites you to participate in our newest programming initiative: Book Club for Writers! This online book club for writers offers an opportunity to read and discuss books related to the craft of writing. Book Club events are 75 minutes long and feature a combination of small group discussion using breakout rooms, large group discussion in the main room, as well as an opportunity to hear the author’s insights and ask questions.

  
  

  Our first pick is Breathing the Page: Reading the Act of Writing (Cormorant Books) by award-winning author and former FBCW Ambassador, Betsy Warland, who will be joining us to answer audience questions and share her insights. Register here (bcwriters.ca/events-for-writers) to receive the purchase links, discussion questions, and event link. Purchase the book, review the discussion questions, and when it's time for the event, click on the link to join the live Zoom event. We look forward to seeing you there!

  
  

  Steps:

  1. Register here to receive the discussion questions and event link.

  2. Purchase your print or electronic version of the book

     • Find Breathing the Page at a bookstore near you on Shop Local 

     • Purchase the ebook on Kobo or Kindle 

  3. Read the book and consider the discussion questions (emailed 2 weeks before meeting)

  4. Join the Book Club meeting using the Zoom link to discuss your responses and hear from the author!

  Please email Meaghan@bcwriters.ca if you have any questions, or would like to suggest a book.

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• 2024 FBCW Writers Summit

  • Start
    27 May 2024
  •  
    11:00 AM
  • End
    2 Jun 2024
  •  
    8:00 PM
  • Location
    Zoom

  Register

  

  Join us for 7 days of digital learning from May 27th to June 2, 2024.

  Visit the summit information page for full details. Summit Info Page

  The theme this year is “for the love of genre.” We want to celebrate our love for all genres and to glean the best learnings from each to strengthen our works regardless of what realm our writing inhabits. Whether you consider yourself a genre writer or not, there will be something for everyone. We look forward to welcoming you all digitally to the summit in May.

  We are continuing our much loved format of multiple events spaced out over each day.  No sessions will be running concurrently.  We have 27 sessions scheduled including our keynote, workshops, gala, and writing sprints. Back by popular demand are also our blue Pencil sessions from the Darling Axe.

  
  

  KEYNOTE:

  Premee Mohamed is a Nebula, World Fantasy, and Aurora award-winning Indo-Caribbean scientist and speculative fiction author based in Edmonton, Alberta. She has also been a finalist for the Hugo, Ignyte, Locus, British Fantasy, and Crawford awards. Currently, she is the Edmonton Public Library writer-in-residence and an Assistant Editor at the short fiction audio venue Escape Pod. She is the author of the 'Beneath the Rising' series of novels as well as several novellas. Her short fiction has appeared in many venues and she can be found on her website at www.premeemohamed.com
  

  Premee will be presenting a keynote on May 27th at 11am and a Workshop over the course of the Summit.

  SESSION TIMES:

  May 27th: 11am, 2pm, and 7pm

  May 28th-June 2nd: 9am (Writing Sprints), 11am , 2pm, and 7pm (Session)

  
  

  
  

  
  

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