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King’s Writing Workshops

King’s Writing Workshops

Making your writing dreams
a reality!

Registration is now closed for all workshops

Whether you’re working on a novel, a memoir, or journalistic piece, or are just developing your writing skills, the King’s Writing Workshops can help you become the author you want to be. Our non-credit 4- and 8-week workshops are open to everyone, whether you’re still at the idea phase or already have words down on the page!

Courses in Winter 2024 run in February and March.

 

SPECIAL PRICING:

Members of the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia as well as King’s students, faculty, staff, parents and alumni get $50 off the price of each workshop!

King’s has a limited number of bursaries available for students requiring financial assistance. Bursary applications for King’s Writing Workshops are now closed – applications are being processed.

 

Writing Workshop Brochure [PDF]

Winter/Spring 2024 Workshops


 

food writing

Tuesdays, March 5 – March 26, 6:30 – 9 p.m. Atlantic*, ONLINE
Registration closed

*note: Atlantic Daylight Time (ADT) starts March 10

Combine your love of food and your passion for writing into a deliciously creative talent. Learn the principles of great food writing and the techniques for recipe development – even the skills for interviewing and story pitching – whether your goal is to create newspaper and magazine articles, blog posts, social-media content or a longer-format work such as a book.

Bonny Reichert is a National Magazine Award winning journalist, a chef and a debut memoirist. For more than a decade, she honed her editorial skills at Today’s Parent and Chatelaine before packing up her knives and heading to culinary school. In the years following, she has focused almost exclusively on food writing, penning a chef column in the Globe and Mail, as well as regular features in publications such as Style Advisor, Report on Business and Best Health. On the corporate side, Reichert’s clients have included Sobeys, where she was executive chef in charge of communications, as well as Unilever and RBC.

Reichert holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction from King’s University. Her upcoming memoir, How to Share an Egg: A True Story of Hunger, Love and Plenty, won the Dave Greber Award for social justice writing in 2022, and will be published by Appetite Random House in Canada, and Ballantine Random House in the US.

Let’s Go! Writing Your Travel Memoir

Tuesdays, February 6 – February 27, 6:30 – 9 p.m. AT, ONLINE
Registration closed

Writer’s Digest defines a travel memoir as “…a delicate mix of recollection and reflection that reveals how a journey transformed a writer.” Have you been on a journey that changed you as a person? Are you open to embarking on one? Join author RC Shaw on a deep dive into the world of the travel memoir. Beginning with a look at how successful travel memoirists use compelling themes to drive their work, this lively course teaches you how to prepare for an adventure, take effective notes, conduct illuminating research, brainstorm, plan and outline your manuscript. Learn how to craft your writing with honesty, humour and humility. A great travel memoir can spur readers to chase their own travel dreams. Do you have a travel memoir inside you, just waiting to see the light? If so, let’s go!

RC Shaw is the author of Captain Solitude and Louisbourg or Bust, a finalist for the Margaret and John Savage First Book Award for Non-Fiction. He has written for the Globe and Mail, the Surfer’s Journal, [EDIT] Magazine, Beach Grit, The Coast, and the Chronicle Herald. He also founded the Cow Bay Concert Series, bringing musical acts such as Bahamas, Matt Mays, and Jenn Grant to his community hall. He holds an MFA in Creative Non-Fiction from King’s University College.

When not teaching high school English, RC Shaw can be found in the waves near his home in Cow Bay, Nova Scotia. He yearns to sail, but reading a dozen sailing books is the extent of his experience. He plans to enroll in a ‘Learn to Sail’ summer camp in the near future, likely alongside his pre-teen daughters.

Introduction to Memoir

Wednesdays, February 7 – March 27, 6:30 – 9 p.m. Atlantic*, ONLINE

*note: Atlantic Daylight Time starts March 10

Registration closed

Introduction to Memoir Writing is a creative writing workshop for writers of all levels who wish to learn the power of memoir to harness personal experience into literary art. Aspiring authors without any formal writing experience are welcome too. Through the art of storytelling and writer’s craft, you’ll discover how to transform your unique life events into memorable tales that hold universal power and will resonate with readers.

Heather Conn is author of the 2023 memoir No Letter in Your Pocket (Guernica Editions), which the late Sylvia Fraser said was “beautifully written.” Her nonfiction has appeared in numerous anthologies and more than 50 publications, including The Globe and Mail, Vancouver Sun, Edmonton Journal, and Canadian Geographic. Heather is the author of four other books: two nonfiction histories and two children’s fiction, including Six Stinky Feet and a Sasquatch (Peppermint Toast Publishing, 2019). She has won writing awards from Southam Communications, the Writers’ Union of Canada, the Federation of B.C. Writers and others.

As a freelance editor, Heather has edited dozens of books, a B.C.-wide magazine, employee newsletters and an array of corporate materials. She coaches authors one-on-one and has taught diverse genres at a variety of venues, including Selkirk College and Capilano University in B.C. Heather has a master of fine arts degree in creative nonfiction from Goucher College in Baltimore. Find out more at heatherconn.com.

Fiction Fundamentals

Wednesdays, February 7 – March 27, 6:30 – 9 p.m. Atlantic*, ONLINE

*note: Atlantic Daylight Time starts March 10

Registration closed

What makes a story leap off the page? How does fiction come to life, and why do some stories stay with us? In this introductory workshop for emerging writers, we will explore the core building blocks of great fiction. Writing exercises will develop your appreciation and understanding of the techniques of fiction writing craft. We’ll look at plot, character, POV, voice, scene and setting to help you build your fiction ideas. And we’ll cover editing and revising techniques, particularly with attention to sentences—because there is a good argument that sentences are all that matter.

D.W. Wilson is the author of Once You Break a Knuckle, a collection of short stories, and Ballistics, a novel. His fiction and essays have appeared in lit mags across the globe, and in 2011 he won the BBC National Short Story Award for “The Dead Roads.” Since then he has been shortlisted for numerous fiction prizes, and has won the CBC Canada Writes short story prize and the Manchester Fiction Prize. He studied creative writing at the University of Victoria and the University of East Anglia, and is currently at work on a novel, a short story collection and a video game.

Black Voices, Black Stories

Thursdays, February 8 – March 28, 6:30 – 9 p.m. Atlantic*, ONLINE

*Note: Atlantic Daylight Saving starts March 10

Registration closed

Do you have a story that’s been sitting on your mind and heart, or collecting dust on the page? Are you an emerging writer of African descent? Have you faced obstacles to moving your work forward? Have you been looking for someone who has experience navigating the publishing industry as a Black writer? If you answered yes to any one of those questions, this may be the course you’ve been waiting for.

Wanda Taylor is an award-winning writer, filmmaker, journalist and college professor. As an author of fiction and non-fiction, Wanda writes across both children’s and adult markets. Her recently released middle grade novel; The Grover School Pledge (HarperCollins, 2023) is currently listed by Kobo as one of the top middle grade books for young readers. Her middle grade non-fiction book; Birchtown and the Black Loyalists (Nimbus, 2014) is still one of the top Black History Month books for young readers. Her next two books are set for release in 2024. As a former producer, Wanda has written and produced content for daytime television and documentaries. Her documentary; Still Here: A Journey to Triumph – a retracing of the path of the first major migration of Blacks to Nova Scotia – which previously screened across Canada and the globe, recently re-aired on Eastlink Television as part of their Films That Teach Series, and also on Tenk, Quebec’s streaming platform as part of their Docs From The Vault series.

Wanda’s freelance work, magazine features, poems, and essays appear in publications across Canada, the US and the UK. As a former Acquisitions Editor, Wanda has acquired and championed titles from notable emerging and established BIPOC writers. As an editor and sensitivity reader, she currently works with publishers and authors on manuscripts-in-progress, ensuring accuracy and authenticity on subjects such as cultural history, social work policy, race and trauma. She also serves as a Mentor for the Writers Union of Canada’s BIPOC Writers Connect Program, that pairs emerging writers of color with established authors. Wanda teaches courses in screenwriting, journalism, and writing for media; and is also a Faculty/Mentor in the MFA Fiction Writing Program at King’s College. She serves as Vice-Chair of the Creative Non-Fiction Collective and volunteers with many non-profit organizations. Her awards include the prestigious Women of Excellence Award for Arts and Culture.

Writing Your Family Story

Thursdays, February 8 – March 28, 6:30 – 9 p.m. Atlantic*, ONLINE

Registration closed

Writing Your Family Story is a virtual workshop for writers at all stages of their practice interested in crafting memoir and intergenerational stories. The eight-week session will ask students to consider the reasons they want to tell their personal and family stories and to broaden their understanding of how they know what they think they know. The course, which will include workshopping and light homework, will address approaches to memorializing, witnessing, or interrogating familiar stories, and also build in discussions of concrete skills, such as framing, structure, point of view, interviewing and research.

Lezlie Lowe teaches in the journalism program at the University of King’s College, the Dalhousie University Creative Writing program, and the King’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction program. Her first book, No Place To Go: How Public Toilets Fail Our Private Needs, was listed as a top-25 pick by CBC Books and The Toronto Star, and one of the top 100 books of the year by The Globe and MailThe Volunteers: How Halifax Women Won the Second World War was released in 2022.