Summer Dreams Festival

Thursdays Writing Collective has been invited to read at the 2012 Summer Dreams Festival at Trout Lake in East Vancouver on Saturday Aug 25. We will be on the main stage from 5:15-5:30pm with readings by Elee Kraljii Gardiner and Brenn Kapitan. Complete schedule info and details are here.

 

It is a great festival with lots to see and do, and very kid-friendly! There are also two open mike sessions one at 1:45 and the other at 4:30 (sign up at the event).

 

The festival is organized by Pandora’s Collective, a multi-pronged writing organization that holds wonderful arts events and writing workshops.

 

The following workshops are all free and open to the public. Participation is based on a first come, first served basis. These workshops will be held on site at Trout Lake on Saturday August 25th. To sign up please email Bonnie Nish at blnish_pandoras@yahoo.ca.

Book Making Workshop with Joanne Ursino  11:30 -1:30

Summer Dreams: Exploring Book Structures, Prose/Poetry/Images and Sharing
Participants will discuss the structure of handmade books as it relates to capturing the essence of their words and images – inspired by summer dreams.  A workshop in three parts: design, create and share – participants will leave with a dream book — a few words and perhaps an image — to tuck away for a rainy day.
12 People Max

Joanne Ursino is a textile and mixed media artist; quilting and bookmaking anchors her story-telling.  She has been creating quilts for over 20 years and more recently, books and stories.   There are many ways to share a story: Joanne has returned to school delving into theory and the expressive arts to inform and deepen her art practice.

Free Silly presented by RC Weslowski from 12-2pm

RC Weslowski presents Free Silly: a silliness workshop to help re-introduce play and silliness into your work.

As adults it is easy for us to feel like we need to be mature and serious imposing meaning onto our work when it is full of meaningfulness already.  This workshop will hopefully allow you to expand your sense of presence even when working on really heavy subjects.

Be prepared to move around and look foolish.  There will be writing exercises as well.  A maximum of 16 participants in the workshop.

RC Weslowski is the 2012 Canadian Individual Poetry Slam Champion and has recently performed his one man fringe show “My Heart is a Glass Pinata” at the 2012 Winnipeg Fringe Festival.  RC has also led workshops at the Banff Centre for the Arts Spoken Word Program and been named the Victoria Spoken Word Festival Poet of Honour  in 2011.  He has toured around North America, the UK and other parts of Europe and performed at numerous festivals.

Q&A with Evelyn Lau  2:00- 3:30

Evelyn Lau invites emerging writers to attend this informal Q & A session.  Come prepared to ask questions and engage in discussion around various aspects of writing and publishing — from the ‘business’ side of writing (submitting to literary magazines; entering contests; working with editors, agents and publishers) to the personal (writing process; inspiration; issues around autobiographical material).  Evelyn particularly encourages those writers who applied for one-on-one consultations with her at VPL and were not successful to come out to this intimate session and share their questions regarding writing and publishing.
12 People Max

Evelyn Lau is a Vancouver writer who has published ten books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction.  Her first book Runaway:  Diary of a Street Kid, published when she was 18, was made into a CBC movie, and her prose books have been translated into a dozen languages worldwide.  Evelyn’s poetry has received the Milton Acorn People’s Poet Award, a Governor-General’s nomination, and the Pat Lowther Award for best book of poetry by a woman in Canada.   Her next collection, A Grain of Rice, will be released by Oolichan Books this Fall.  Evelyn is the 2011-2014 Poet Laureate of Vancouver.

How to Successfully Publish your Work with James McCann 4:00- 5:00

Confused at all the publishing possibilities? Wonder why you should bother submitting to traditional houses when self-publishing is so easy? Learn the whole story before making your choice so you make the best choice. James McCann will explain how traditional publishing works, the pros and cons, and how to write spectacular proposals that catch the right editor at the right time..

James McCann is the author of the Rancour Chronicles (a trilogy published by Simply Read Books) and Flying Feet (Orca Book Publishers). He grew up on the icy plains of Manitoba, where he spent most of his teenage years reading comics and playing Dungeons and Dragons. Both of these hobbies taught him the storytelling tools that he now uses as an author and creative writing instructor.