May 9 - 13, 2011
The Instructors for 2011 School of Writing
Marina Endicott (Fiction)
Marina Endicott of Edmonton is the author of Good to a Fault (2008), winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize (Canada and Caribbean) and finalist for the Giller Prize. That novel was also part of Canada Reads in 2010. Her first novel, Open Arms (2001), was a finalist for the Amazon/Books in Canada First Novel Award and was featured on CBC Radio's Between the Covers. She has taught creative writing at the Augustana Campus of the University of Alberta. Her first career was as an actor and director, and she worked for several years as the dramaturge of the Saskatchewan Playwrights Centre.
“It’s an incredible pleasure to write when it’s going well. To get to the point where it’s going well, you have to crawl, stagger, or blast your way through a thicket of boredom and stupidity and bad starts and doubt. Some days the muse whacks you with her wonder-stick, but it’s sadly true that most of writing is applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair.”
Marina Endicott
Allan Rudy-Froese (Writing Out Loud: The Art of the Sermon)
Allan Rudy-Froese of Kitchener has been a pastor and preacher for over 25 years in Manitoba and Ontario. He has written a few pieces which are in print -- dramas and stories for children hidden in Sunday school curricula, his regular column “This Preacher Has 22 Minutes” in the Canadian Mennonite, and his soon to be completed PhD dissertation in homiletics (the art and theology of preaching) at the Toronto School of Theology, but the bulk of his passion for writing has gone into that which is not read but heard: the weekly sermon. In addition to his addiction to writing and listening to sermons, Allan's interest in the sound of writing makes him a fan, student, and sometimes actor in local theatre.
A sermon is an event of sound for the listening congregation but often the preacher writes the sermon in the stone cold silence of the church office. Many preachers write the sermon as though it is something like an essay, where a silent writer expresses herself to a silent reader. In this class we will explore and experiment with writing for the ear not for the eye. We will pay attention to William Shakespeare, Martin Luther King Jr., the Apostle Paul, Emily Dickinson, Barbara Brown Taylor, Bob Dylan, Fanny Crosby, and others who write for the ear. This stimulating course is for anyone who preaches, lay or ordained.
Myrna Kostash (Creative Nonfiction)
Myrna Kostash has recently been named to the City of Edmonton's Salute to Excellence Arts and Culture Hall of Fame and awarded the Writers Guild of Alberta Golden Pen Award for lifetime achievement. She also is the recipient of the 2010 Matt Cohen Award: In Celebration of the Writing Life from the Writers’ Trust of Canada. Her most recent books are the creative nonfiction Prodigal Daughter: A Journey to Byzantium (2010) and The Frog Lake Reader (2009), a comprehensive chronology, by documents, about the 1885 Frog Lake Massacre. She has served as chair of The Writers’ Union of Canada and is a founding member of the Creative Nonfiction Collective. Some of her many titles are Long Way From Home: The Story of the Sixties Generation in Canada (1980), All of Baba's Children (1987), No Kidding: Inside the World of Teenage Girls (1989), Bloodlines: A Journey into Eastern Europe (1993), The Doomed Bridegroom: A Memoir (1998), The Next Canada: In Search of Our Future Canada (2000), and Reading the River: A Traveller’s Companion to the North Saskatchewan (2006).
“Call it creative nonfiction, literary nonfiction, literary journalism, creative documentary, whatever, the point was that, since the literary establishment turned its nose up at nonfiction as unliterary, then, dammit, we would not be ‘just’ nonfiction writers but creative nonfiction writers who had every right to be treated as equal to fiction writers and poets in the creation of Canadian literature.”
From Myrna Kostash’s “Writing Nonfiction in Canada: A Manifesto” (2006) available at http://www.dooneyscafe.com/archives/476.
Joanne Klassen (Life Writing)
Joanne Klassen sees Life Writing as a healing vehicle for both writers and readers as they discover the sacred or life-enriching moments between the peaks and valleys in the journey of a life. Since 1997 she has helped hundreds of writers achieve their goals. She is founder and director of Winnipeg’s Heartspace Writing School, and originator of Transformative Writing.™ Joanne is the author and editor of a dozen books and anthologies including Tools of Transformation, Trouble in Grandpa’s Golf Bag, Family Tree and Learning to Live, Learning to Love, which was translated into Russian and Greek. In 2010 Joanne co-founded the European Centre for Transformative Life Writing with Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre in Birmingham, England. She is training a team of facilitators to bring Life Writing to audiences around the world.
The Life Writing class gives non-career writers an ideal opportunity to retreat, relax, reflect, and move closer to their writing goals. This class gives students an opportunity to join an encouraging community of both new and experienced Life Writers whose support and feedback can elevate writing skills to new levels of mastery. The class will introduce experiential learning activities to the students designed to strengthen each writer’s natural voice, and increase both confidence and competence. Through a unique process called Transformative Writing™, the students will use a collection of twenty-five tools to glide past the “inner critic,” giving or restoring motivation and satisfaction to the writing process.
Note: No portfolio is required for the Life Writing class. Spaces for the Life Writing class will be filled on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Marina Endicott (Fiction)
Marina Endicott of Edmonton is the author of Good to a Fault (2008), winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize (Canada and Caribbean) and finalist for the Giller Prize. That novel was also part of Canada Reads in 2010. Her first novel, Open Arms (2001), was a finalist for the Amazon/Books in Canada First Novel Award and was featured on CBC Radio's Between the Covers. She has taught creative writing at the Augustana Campus of the University of Alberta. Her first career was as an actor and director, and she worked for several years as the dramaturge of the Saskatchewan Playwrights Centre.
“It’s an incredible pleasure to write when it’s going well. To get to the point where it’s going well, you have to crawl, stagger, or blast your way through a thicket of boredom and stupidity and bad starts and doubt. Some days the muse whacks you with her wonder-stick, but it’s sadly true that most of writing is applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair.”
Marina Endicott
Allan Rudy-Froese (Writing Out Loud: The Art of the Sermon)Allan Rudy-Froese of Kitchener has been a pastor and preacher for over 25 years in Manitoba and Ontario. He has written a few pieces which are in print -- dramas and stories for children hidden in Sunday school curricula, his regular column “This Preacher Has 22 Minutes” in the Canadian Mennonite, and his soon to be completed PhD dissertation in homiletics (the art and theology of preaching) at the Toronto School of Theology, but the bulk of his passion for writing has gone into that which is not read but heard: the weekly sermon. In addition to his addiction to writing and listening to sermons, Allan's interest in the sound of writing makes him a fan, student, and sometimes actor in local theatre.
A sermon is an event of sound for the listening congregation but often the preacher writes the sermon in the stone cold silence of the church office. Many preachers write the sermon as though it is something like an essay, where a silent writer expresses herself to a silent reader. In this class we will explore and experiment with writing for the ear not for the eye. We will pay attention to William Shakespeare, Martin Luther King Jr., the Apostle Paul, Emily Dickinson, Barbara Brown Taylor, Bob Dylan, Fanny Crosby, and others who write for the ear. This stimulating course is for anyone who preaches, lay or ordained.
Myrna Kostash (Creative Nonfiction)
Myrna Kostash has recently been named to the City of Edmonton's Salute to Excellence Arts and Culture Hall of Fame and awarded the Writers Guild of Alberta Golden Pen Award for lifetime achievement. She also is the recipient of the 2010 Matt Cohen Award: In Celebration of the Writing Life from the Writers’ Trust of Canada. Her most recent books are the creative nonfiction Prodigal Daughter: A Journey to Byzantium (2010) and The Frog Lake Reader (2009), a comprehensive chronology, by documents, about the 1885 Frog Lake Massacre. She has served as chair of The Writers’ Union of Canada and is a founding member of the Creative Nonfiction Collective. Some of her many titles are Long Way From Home: The Story of the Sixties Generation in Canada (1980), All of Baba's Children (1987), No Kidding: Inside the World of Teenage Girls (1989), Bloodlines: A Journey into Eastern Europe (1993), The Doomed Bridegroom: A Memoir (1998), The Next Canada: In Search of Our Future Canada (2000), and Reading the River: A Traveller’s Companion to the North Saskatchewan (2006).
“Call it creative nonfiction, literary nonfiction, literary journalism, creative documentary, whatever, the point was that, since the literary establishment turned its nose up at nonfiction as unliterary, then, dammit, we would not be ‘just’ nonfiction writers but creative nonfiction writers who had every right to be treated as equal to fiction writers and poets in the creation of Canadian literature.”
From Myrna Kostash’s “Writing Nonfiction in Canada: A Manifesto” (2006) available at http://www.dooneyscafe.com/archives/476.
Joanne Klassen (Life Writing)
Joanne Klassen sees Life Writing as a healing vehicle for both writers and readers as they discover the sacred or life-enriching moments between the peaks and valleys in the journey of a life. Since 1997 she has helped hundreds of writers achieve their goals. She is founder and director of Winnipeg’s Heartspace Writing School, and originator of Transformative Writing.™ Joanne is the author and editor of a dozen books and anthologies including Tools of Transformation, Trouble in Grandpa’s Golf Bag, Family Tree and Learning to Live, Learning to Love, which was translated into Russian and Greek. In 2010 Joanne co-founded the European Centre for Transformative Life Writing with Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre in Birmingham, England. She is training a team of facilitators to bring Life Writing to audiences around the world.The Life Writing class gives non-career writers an ideal opportunity to retreat, relax, reflect, and move closer to their writing goals. This class gives students an opportunity to join an encouraging community of both new and experienced Life Writers whose support and feedback can elevate writing skills to new levels of mastery. The class will introduce experiential learning activities to the students designed to strengthen each writer’s natural voice, and increase both confidence and competence. Through a unique process called Transformative Writing™, the students will use a collection of twenty-five tools to glide past the “inner critic,” giving or restoring motivation and satisfaction to the writing process.
Note: No portfolio is required for the Life Writing class. Spaces for the Life Writing class will be filled on a first-come, first-serve basis.