Events Listings | Atwater Writers Exhibition

Events

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Behind the Words: Creating New Visual and Verbal Images in Texts — IN PERSON

Tuesday, November 12, 2024 – 10:30 am to 1:30 pm

In this workshop, artist Maria Ezcurra will lead the group through a couple of playful activities inspired by the work of local writers. One will be a collaborative and fun game involving mis/communication that combines the classic telephone game with drawing, and the other is about creating poems with words from the pages of books by drawing around and covering the rest of the text with various materials. No previous experience is necessary!

Maria Ezcurra (she/elle/ella) is a Latina-Canadian artist, educator and mother living in Tiohtià:ke-Montreal. She has presented her artwork in Canada, USA, Europe, Latin America and Mexico. She has also developed diverse public, participatory and community art projects in various contexts, and is a founding member of the Intervals art collective. She is the recipient of the Prix de la diversité en arts visuels from the Conseil des arts de Montréal (2019), the Prix Powerhouse from La Centrale galerie (2022), and the Prix d’Art Contemporain du MNBAQ (2023). Ezcurra holds a PhD in Art Education from Concordia University and is currently a course lecturer at McGill University. Being a double immigrant, her artwork explores notions of memory, identity, belonging and immigration, and the cultural power of personal and social objects—mostly clothing.

This workshop is FREE and open to all. It will be held in the Bookshop Back Room on the Library’s lower level. Due to limited space, advance registration is recommended: awe@atwaterlibrary.ca.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage

PAST EVENTS

Migratory Roots: Two Eaton Valley Workshops from Literacy in Action — IN PERSON

Friday, October 25, 2024 – 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm

Spooky writing workshop for all AGES with Beth Rothney. In this workshop you will explore local haunted stories, and share or create your own.

A. Rothney is a writer born and raised in rural Quebec. She studied History and Creative Writing at Bishop’s University before completing a Master of Library and Information Science at Western University. All of her books can be found on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited.

Friday, November 8, 2024 – 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm

Storytelling workshop for ALL AGES with Ann Rothfels. In this workshop you will discover the richness of personal story and how to transform a memory into a memorable story.

Ann Rothfels has been a professional storyteller for over thirty-five years. She has performed in festivals and Storytellers of Canada / Conteurs du Canada conferences across Canada, including the one she helped to organize this past July at Bishop’s University in Sherbrooke, Quebec.

Both activities will take place at the Eaton Corner Museum, 374 Route 253, Cookshire-Eaton, QC. These activities are free. A meal will be provided. To attend please register with Literacy in Action: 5 Connolly Street, Sherbrooke, QC J1M 1L8, (819) 346-7009, connect@lia-estrie.org.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka. Literacy in Action is located on the traditional territory of the Abenaki.

Brick, Mortar, Word, Paragraph — IN PERSON

Tuesday, October 8, 2024 – 10:30 am to 12:30 pm

Can your writing be as concrete as, well, concrete? In this writing activity, we take our inspiration from prompts derived from Mary Soderstrom’s riveting non-fiction look at how we have built the world around us: Concrete: From Ancient Origins to a Problematic Future. What is particularly interesting about this book is how she weaves her personal story and reflections throughout: as creatures of the built environment, we reflect the world around us, even its bricks and mortar — and it reflects us back.

In this session Leila Marshy will lead us in writing ourselves into the concrete world. What can we say about that bridge, that house, that street, that hole in the ground? And what does it say about us? We’ll keep our writing spare, clear, fun, and yes, concrete.

Leila Marshy is Fiction Editor at Baraka Books in Montreal. Her novel The Philistine (LLP, 2018) has been translated into French and Arabic. Her collection of stories, My Thievery of the People, will be published in March 2025.

This workshop is FREE and open to all. It will be held in the Bookshop Back Room on the Library’s lower level. Due to limited space, advance registration is recommended: awe@atwaterlibrary.ca.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage

The City in Poetry: Montreal as Inspiration — BY ZOOM

Tuesday, September 17, 2024 – 10:30 am to 12:30 pm

As a proud Montrealer, Jason “Blackbird” Selman has used the city of his birth as inspiration for several poems.
Within this workshop, the group will explore several of these works and the techniques that he used to create them, especially writing to music. Participants will be asked to engage with prompts similar to the ones that created the poems that Mr. Selman will present and find ways to describe and give ode to the city of Montreal or other places they hold dear.

Jason “Blackbird” Selman is a Montreal-born spoken word artist, poet, and trumpet player. He is the author of The Freedom I Stole (2007, Cumulus Press) and Africa as a Dream That Travels Through My Heart (2016, Howl). He creates and facilitates poetry workshops in schools across the Montreal area, and beyond. His work is inspired by music from the African diaspora, surrealist expression, love, and intersectional masculinity.

This workshop is FREE and open to all — ON ZOOM ONLY. Advance registration is required, so we can send you the Zoom link: awe@atwaterlibrary.ca.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Ballooning to Safety — IN PERSON

Tuesday, June 4, 2024 – 10:30 am to 1:30 pm
Join Montreal artist and writer Billy Mavreas in a mixed-media exploration inspired by prompts from English-language writing from Quebec, combining words and images to create unique visual poetry that can be both read and appreciated as visual art. Open to all. FREE. No previous experience required.
Billy Mavreas is a multidisciplinary artist and creativity workshop leader specializing in jumpstarting inspiration through collaborative creative play. He was director of gallery boutique Monastiraki (1998 – 2021). He is a gifted teacher who has done writing and art activities with seniors, kids, and adults, people with a range of past experience or none at all. He has published Mutations: The Posters Of Billy Mavreas, Conundrum Press, The Overlords Of Glee, Conundrum Press & Crunchy Comics, Inside Outside Overlap, Timeless Books, Next Time Around, Conundrum Press.

This will be a special 3-hour session, held in the Bookshop Back Room on the Library’s lower level. This workshop is FREE and open to all. Due to limited space we suggest you register in advance: awe@atwaterlibrary.ca.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Casting Spells: Poetry — On ZOOM

Tuesday, May 14, 2024 – 10:30 am to 12:30 pm

An economy of language is for text messages and marketing. Let’s not apply it to poetry. Isn’t every word of poetry superfluous anyway? Words are an unlimited resource. And there is no bottom line. In this workshop, we will hoard all the words, then generously release them. We will say too much, then not enough. We will use all the wrong words at all the wrong times. What spirits might be conjured into the universe? Let’s find out. We will recklessly let the lid off the jar—-then slam it shut. We will measure and dispense, we will stupidly spill the contents. (No experience necessary. Bring two very bland words and two extravagant ones.)

Emily Tristan Jones is an alumna of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Banff Centre, and University of Chicago where she won the emerging poet prize. Her first full-length book, Buttercup, is forthcoming from Verge Books in Chicago. (Pieces have been in The Puritan, Harvard Review, Denver Quarterly, Dalhousie Review, and many other journals.) She lives in Montreal where she edits Columba, which publishes poetry online and in print.

This workshop is FREE and open to all — ON ZOOM ONLY. Advance registration is required, so we can send you the Zoom link: awe@atwaterlibrary.ca.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

All This Stuff — Personal forms and found materials — IN PERSON

Tuesday, April 9, 2024 – 10:30 am to 1:30 pm

From the knick-knacky to family ephemera to the downright historical, Darby Minott Bradford has a lot of love for found materials. Both for writers and readers, they can be grounding, a partner of sorts in the work, and a generative force — at least once you figure out a way for all that stuff, and all the writing that comes out of it, to live together on the page.

Taking some of the forms the poet has deployed in their work as inspiration, Bradford will lead a workshop on shaping, organizing, and creating new forms for writing with and alongside found materials. Participants are encouraged to bring their own collection of textual materials to work with, whether they be bits of past work, hoarded song lyrics or quotations, curiosities from the archive, or another rich trove altogether.

Darby Minott Bradford is a poet and translator based in Tio’tia:ke (Montreal). They are the author of Dream of No One but Myself (Brick Books, 2021), which won the A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry and was a finalist for the Griffin Poetry Prize and Governor General’s Literary Awards. House Within a House by Nicholas Dawson (Brick Books, 2023), Bradford’s first translation, won the VMI Betsy Warland Between Genres Award, the John Glassco Translation Prize, and was a GG finalist. Bottom Rail on Top is their second book.

This will be a special 3-hour session, held in the Bookshop Back Room on the Library’s lower level. This workshop is FREE and open to all. Due to limited space we suggest you register in advance: awe@atwaterlibrary.ca.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Memory Objects as Gateways to Poetry — IN PERSON

Tuesday, March 26, 2024 – 10:30 am to 12:30 pm

Objects don’t speak—or do they? Why are some “things” easily discarded and forgotten, while others remain potent with meanings that can evolve over time? This workshop proposes “things”—personal objects, photographs, clothing, and items that have passed through our lives—as repositories for memory, rich with stories (and poems) yet to be written. Using a selection of readings by Montreal writers as sources of inspiration, this workshop aims to generate new writing by using memory objects as points of focus. As a group, we will tease out the images, sensations, and layers of experience these objects hold, and translate them into poetry.

*Note: Participants are invited to bring an object, photograph, article of clothing, etc. to the workshop to use as a writing prompt, but this is by no means obligatory. Objects can also be conjured through the “memory work” of writing.

This workshop is open to all. No previous writing experience is necessary. You may use clipboards, pens, and paper provided, or bring your own writing materials.

Kelly Norah Drukker is a poet and nonfiction writer. Her collection of poems, Small Fires (McGill-Queen’s University Press), won the A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry and the Concordia University First Book Prize, and was a finalist for the Grand Prix du livre de Montréal (2016). Petits feux, the French-language translation of Small Fires by Lori Saint-Martin and Paul Gagné, was published by Le lézard amoureux in 2018. Kelly’s poetry and nonfiction can be found in The Malahat Review, Room, The Goose, Vallum, carte blanche, The Montreal Poetry Prize Anthology 2022, the chapbook Nights at the Calcutta Café, and other publications. She has taught creative writing workshops at Concordia University, the Quebec Writers’ Federation, and through the Writers in the CEGEPS program. Kelly holds a Master’s degree in English and Creative Writing from Concordia University, and is currently pursuing her PhD in interdisciplinary Humanities at Concordia, where she explores the intersections between memory, place, oral history, and family narratives.

This workshop is FREE and open to all — IN PERSON — in the Adair Auditorium of the Atwater Library. Advance registration is not required, but we suggest it: awe@atwaterlibrary.ca.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

How the Light Gets In: Casting Shadows — IN PERSON

Tuesday, March 12, 2024 – 10:30 am to 1:30 pm

Using the work of Quebec graphic novelists writing in English for inspiration, we will conceive, develop and finish a small chapbook complete with illustrations.

Beginning with the prompt “Casting Shadows” we will explore our internal shadows through experimental prose. What lies in the underbelly of light? The unseen, hidden from view? Aspects of ourselves we rarely see under the clarity of light will be the inspiration for the writing.

The aim of this workshop is to ignite the creative spirit and utilize the combined potency of image and prose. No experience is necessary to join. Participants are welcome to bring writing they have already done, but it is not a requirement. There will be time in the workshop to develop your prose. Writing and drawing implements will also be available.

This activity will be held in the Bookshop Meeting Room on the BASEMENT level of the Library.

We will gratefully receive a $5 donation toward art materials from participants who are able to offer it.

Kuh Del Rosario investigates the potential of everyday materials as collaborators. Inspired by Philippine cosmologies, Indigenous beliefs, tactile memories and the language of things, Del Rosario explores alternative possibilities and world-building. Supported by a robust writing and drawing practice, Del Rosario works diligently to examine the complexities of her subjects.

Kuh Del Rosario (Manila, PH) is a sculptor working on the unceded Indigenous lands of Tiohtià:ke / Montréal. Del Rosario has exhibited across Canada, and recently completed her MFA in Studio Arts – Sculpture & Ceramics Dept at Concordia University. She is also a recipient of the 2023-2026 Montreal Studio program at Fonderie Darling. Her works are currently on view at Centre des arts actuels Skol, as part of the group exhibition, Catalogues des Ruines (Jan. 18 – Mar. 30 2024).

This workshop is FREE and open to all — IN PERSON. Advance registration is not required, but we suggest it: awe@atwaterlibrary.ca.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Ballooning to Safety — IN PERSON at the Morrin Centre, Quebec City

Monday, March 4, 2024 – 7 pm to 9 pm

Wednesday, March 6, 2024 – 7 pm to 9 pm

Join Montréal artist and writer Billy Mavreas in a mixed-media exploration inspired by prompts from English-language writing from Quebec, combining words and images to create unique visual poetry that is both read and appreciated as visual art. Open to all, FREE. You may attend either or both sessions. No previous experience required.

Billy Mavreas is a multidisciplinary artist and creativity workshop leader specializing in jumpstarting inspiration through collaborative creative play. The author of four graphic novels and director of gallery boutique Monastiraki (1998 – 2021), he has been involved in the Montreal arts community since the 1980s. He is also a gifted teacher who has done writing and art activities with seniors, kids, and adults, people with a range of past experience or none at all. His artwork often includes text. He has published Mutations: The Posters Of Billy Mavreas, Conundrum Press, The Overlords Of Glee, Conundrum Press & Crunchy Comics, Inside Outside Overlap, Timeless Books, Next Time Around, Conundrum Press.

Sessions will take place at the Morrin Centre, 44, chaussée des Écossais, Québec City.

To register for March 4: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/ballooning-to-safety-mixed-media-art-workshop-tickets-829023992077?aff=oddtdtcreator.

To register for March 6: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/ballooning-to-safety-mixed-media-art-workshop-tickets-829036820447?aff=oddtdtcreator

For more information: www.morrin.org, (418) 694-9147.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Letting the Light In — IN PERSON at Literacy in Action, 5 Connolly Street, Sherbrooke, QC

Sunday, February 18, 2024 – 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm

Sunday, February 25, 2024 – 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm

This 2-part workshop series animated by artist Elle van Berg in partnership with the Atwater Writers Exhibition will explore the theme of letting the light in as we create, play and share stories together using prompts from the works of Quebec English-language writers! These activities are free and open to ages 16+, materials and refreshments will be provided!

This activity will take place at Literacy in Action, 5 Connolly Street, Sherbrooke, QC.

Sign up to reserve your spot by contacting Sam at 819-346-7009 or skillbuilders@lia-estrie.org or fill out the form: https://airtable.com/appog1Y454LhO8wWo/shrUYfCujU6VBicuF

Elle van Berg has been creating art of all types ever since she was a child. Painting, drawing, ceramics and collage to name a few. She gets her inspiration from nature and her daily walks. Her approach is inspired by games, play, music and laughter. Elle was born in Montreal in 1964. She has lived abroad and in different parts of Canada, and she now calls Sherbrooke home.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka. Literacy in Action is located on the traditional territory of the Abenaki.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

How the Light Gets In: Translating the Self — ON ZOOM

Tuesday, January 9, 2024 – 10:00 am to 12:00 noon

“Out of the individualistic act of asking “who am I?” comes the communal answer of “we are this.” – Oana Avasilichioaei.

In this workshop, we will explore writing from fresh perspectives, flexing our creative empathy, returning to our selves refreshed and inspired.

Questions to consider:

How can we draw compassionate, ethical, and respectful connections between ourselves and our literary creations? Do we have the right to write from our Other’s perspective? What is the value, in an increasingly fractured world, of creative empathy, for writers and readers?

We will explore how far our individual lanes can take us, and the surprising places where they intersect. Writing prompts will draw from the poetry, fiction, and nonfiction by such creators as Oana Avasilichioaei, Susan Elmslie, Klara du Plessis, and Claire Holden Rothman.

Rebecca Păpucaru‘s first novel, As Good a Place as Any, will be published by Guernica Editions in 2025. Her first book, The Panic Room (Nightwood Editions) was awarded the 2018 Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Poetry and was also a finalist for the A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry and longlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. “Yentas” won the Malahat Review’s 2020 Novella Prize and was the editors’ submission for a 2021 National Magazine Award. “Booming” appeared in the Dalhousie Review (Spring 2022) and was the editor’s nomination for Best Canadian Stories 2024. Her short fiction has also appeared in the 50th anniversary edition of EVENT, among others.

This workshop is FREE and open to all — ON ZOOM ONLY. Advance registration is required, so we can send you the Zoom link: awe@atwaterlibrary.ca.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

How the Light Gets In: Writing Poetry Informed by Our Relationship to Place — ON ZOOM

Tuesday, November 14, 2023 – 10:00 am to 12:00 noon

In this workshop, we will explore writing that emphasizes experimentation and play by creators in poetry and other genres. We will discover the expansiveness of form, reading pieces by Québec English-language writers and English translations of French writing. Through discussion, writing prompts and engagement, we will consider our relationship to place.

Questions to reflect on: What transforms language into art? How does form impact creation? Can we gain a deeper understanding of relationality in examining place? How do we occupy space? What allows us to expand as writers and thinkers? In our reading / writing, we will contemplate the function of perspective, environment and the body.

We will exchange ideas while locating poetry. Participants will be encouraged to create their own pieces, and we will favour a generative approach, centring works-in progress. Please bring whatever writing tools you would like to use.

Authors we may discuss include Erín Moure, Lisa Robertson, Sina Queyras, Gail Scott, Naomi Fontaine, Kaie Kellough, Kama La Mackerel, T. Liem, Gillian Sze, D.M. Bradford, Natasha Kanapé Fontaine, and others.

Poonam Dhir is a queer poet, playwright, Punjabi descendent, and settler currently based in Tiohtiá:ke (Montréal). Poonam’s work explores identity, trauma, memory and the relationship between belief and belonging. They contemplate themes of migration, displacement and loss. They are the recipient of a 2022 Lambda Literary Fellowship in Playwriting and a finalist for the 2021 PEN Canada New Voices Award, Poetry. Poonam is an Artist-in-Residence at Infinithéâtre and the Creative Nonfiction Editor at carte blanche literary magazine. You can read her latest pieces in The Capilano Review, Vallum, Contemporary Verse 2, Minola Review and PRISM International. Find them online @pnmdhir.

This workshop is FREE and open to all — ON ZOOM ONLY. Advance registration is required, so we can send you the Zoom link: awe@atwaterlibrary.ca.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

An “Anthem” of One’s Own: Writing and Visual Creation IN PERSON at Saint Columba House’s Seniors’ Pavillion

Mondays, October 16 and 30, 2023 – 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm

Registration will be through Saint Columba House and is open to all.

Workshop leader Billy Mavreas will lead participants through a series of activities based on Leonard Cohen’s famous song/poem “Anthem.”

This series of two in-person sessions is a collaboration with Saint Columba House, the venerable Point Saint Charles community centre. The session will take place at the Seniors’ Pavillion across the park from Saint Columba House, 2401, rue Mullins. For information: (514) 932-6202.

Vasilios Billy Mavreas (he/him) is a multidisciplinary artist and creativity workshop leader specializing in jumpstarting inspiration through collaborative creative play. The author of four graphic novels and director of gallery boutique Monastiraki (1998 – 2021), he has been involved in the Montreal arts community since the 1980s.

Information: awe@atwaterlibrary.ca.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Wild Lyric — IN PERSON

Tuesday, October 10, 2023 – 10:00 am to 12:00 noon

In this introduction to the lyric essay, participants will explore different ways to “rewild” autobiographical writing, that is, to combine the autobiographical information of a personal essay with the unruly forms and experimentations of poetry. With memory as our entry point, this workshop asks: how does writing about the self through the lyric form allow us to see the past, and perhaps the present, with more acuity? How can it re-invoke an astonishment with the everyday? This two-hour session will include a combination of generative prompts, writing exercises, and short inspirational readings, all of which will be provided. We will focus on building scenes from moments, conjuring intimate detail, interweaving story and reflection, and playing with collage, juxtaposition and surprise.

This workshop is open to all. No previous writing experience is necessary. You may use clipboards, pens, and paper provided, or bring your own pen and notebook.

Kasia Van Schaik is the author of the linked story collection We Have Never Lived on Earth, which was nominated for the 2023 Scotiabank Giller Prize and the 2022 Concordia University First Book Prize. Her writing has appeared in the LA Review of Books, CBC Books, Maisonneuve Magazine, Best Canadian Poetry, Electric Literature, The Rumpus and more. Kasia holds a PhD in Literature from McGill University, where she teaches creative writing. She is currently working on a book of cultural criticism and memoir entitled Women Among Monuments. In 2021, Kasia served as a CBC QWF writer-in-residence.

This workshop is FREE and open to all — IN PERSON. Advance registration is not required, but we suggest it: awe@atwaterlibrary.ca.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Creative Literacy: Open the Door to Your Imagination

Sunday, March 26, 2023 – 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm

In collaboration with Literacy in Action, AWE presents an in-person afternoon of creative activity in Sherbrooke, Quebec with writer Patti Warnock and multimedia artist Yolanda Weeks. They will explore family histories and are open to folks exploring their creative ideas as well. The afternoon session will start with writing, break for collage mid-workshop, and come back to writing-sharing at the end.

In the tradition of the Seanchai and the age-old art of Storytelling, Patti Warnock aka La Contesse travels the globe, participating in festivals, teaching, collecting and sharing stories. Her travels, the legacy of the Blarney stone and her Irish origins, her childhood in rural Quebec and northern Canada all blend to inspire her own mischievous creations. The storyteller and teaching artist invites us to listen, to learn and to share our stories. Each of us has a voice and a story to be heard.

Yolanda Weeks (Yo) is an installation artist, community arts facilitator, and art director based in the Eastern Townships of Québec, Abenaki Territory. Rooted in land art and fiber arts, she forages, sources and needle felts natural materials into large scale creations. Yo’s Nomadic Nest installation and performance series contemplates constructs and concepts of home, territory, security, migration, and movement. Her work in community arts centers on accessible frameworks, environmentally engaged expression and creative empowerment.

This workshop is FREE and IN PERSON. For information please contact Literacy in Action: https://www.lia-estrie.org/contact-us.html

(819) 346-7009

5 Connolly Street,
Lennoxville, Quebec
J1M 1L8

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

A Picture and a Thousand Words: Pairing Art and Writing

Tuesday, January 10, 2023 – 10:15 am to 11:15 am — break — 11:30 am to 12:30 pm

Tuesday, February 14, 2023 – 10:15 am to 11:15 am — break — 11:30 am to 12:30 pm

Tuesday, March 14, 2023 – 10:15 am to 11:15 am — break — 11:30 am to 12:30 pm

The Atwater Writers Exhibition presents A Picture and a Thousand Words, a series of paired workshops featuring an hour of visual art and craft activities followed by an hour of writing. These cross-pollinating sessions will take place by Zoom. They will be held from 10:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., with a 15-minute break between the two parts.

Art activities will be led by Anna Jane McIntyre. They may include collage-making, zine-making, drawing, mini-sculptures, and other creative work requiring no previous training. The January-February-March writing activities will be led by H. Nigel Thomas. He will use prompts and short activities as jumping-off points for writing.

Anna Jane McIntyre is an artist and educator with a playful practice that combines storytelling, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, performance, and microactivism. Her work is an ever-shifting visual mashup of British, Trinidadian and Canadian traditions. Her philosophy of teaching is based in creating warm congenial intergenerational environments encouraging participants to experiment, play and take the artistic risks necessary for their own artistic growth. Her work has been presented widely, in Canada and abroad.

H. Nigel Thomas is a retired professor of United States literature, the author of 13 books, and the recipient of the 2022 Canada Council for the Arts John Molson Prize for the Arts.

These workshops are FREE but you must register to receive the Zoom link and information about the art materials you will be using. Please specify which date you want to register for: awe@atwaterlibrary.ca.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Collaborative Poems: Writing with the Natural World, for Kool Kids 10+

Thursday, March 9, 2023 – 4:10 pm to 5:10 pm

In collaboration with Neighbours Abitibi-Témiscamingue, the Atwater Writers Exhibition presents a workshop in person at the Neighbours office in Rouyn, with Zoom access for others.

Poet and teacher Larissa Andrusyshyn will lead the Kool Kids in a fun writing activity using interesting prompts to spark creative poems, working together or individually, with a nature theme.

Larissa Andrusyshyn has published two poetry collections, Proof and Mammoth (DC Books), and she has published widely. She works for non-profits facilitating creative writing workshops for at-risk youth. She is a member of Canada’s National Australian Rules Football team and she lives in Montreal with her adoring cat Lulu.

This workshop is FREE — if you are Zooming in you must register to receive the Zoom link: awe@atwaterlibrary.ca.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Collaborative Poems and Discussion for Seniors

Wednesday, March 8, 2023 – 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm

In collaboration with Neighbours Abitibi-Témiscamingue, the Atwater Writers Exhibition presents a workshop in person at the Neighbours office in Rouyn, with Zoom access for others.

Poet and teacher Larissa Andrusyshyn will lead the group in a fun activity using approachable and familiar creative prompts to spark discussion and writing about life, present or past.

This workshop is FREE — if you are Zooming in you must register to receive the Zoom link: awe@atwaterlibrary.ca.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

A Picture and a Thousand Words: Pairing Art and Writing

Tuesday, September 20, 2022 – 10:15 am to 11:15 am — break — 11:30 am to 12:30 pm

Tuesday, October 11, 2022 – 10:15 am to 11:15 am — break — 11:30 am to 12:30 pm

Tuesday, November 8, 2022 – 10:15 am to 11:15 am — break — 11:30 am to 12:30 pm

Tuesday, December 13, 2022 – 10:15 am to 11:15 am — break — 11:30 am to 12:30 pm

Art activities will be led by Anna Jane McIntyre. They may include collage-making, zine-making, drawing, mini-sculptures, and other creative work requiring no previous training. The four fall writing activities will be led by Carolyn Marie Souaid. She will use prompts and short activities as jumping-off points for writing.

Carolyn Marie Souaid is the Montreal-based author of eight poetry collections and the acclaimed novel, Yasmeen Haddad Loves Joanasi Maqaittik. She has performed at festivals and literary events in Canada and abroad, and her work has been featured on CBC Radio. Carolyn has been guest faculty in creative writing at Bishop’s University and has led several workshops for the Quebec Writers’ Federation. She is currently at work on her second novel.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Piecing Together, In Place: an Art and Writing Workshop at the South Asian Women’s Community Centre (SAWCC). This workshop is open to members of SAWCC’s Unraveling in Rhymes writing group.

SATURDAY, Oct. 22, 2022 – 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm

and

SATURDAY, Oct. 29, 2022 – 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm

In this pair of workshops, sculptor Kuh Del Rosario will engage participants in contemplating their arrival stories through the art of collage, both visual and language-based. Constructing imagery and prose by piecing together found materials and already-existing words, personal stories become a shared chronicle influenced by the world around us.

Kuh Del Rosario is a sculptor based in the unceded Indigenous lands of Tiohtià:ke / Montreal, where she is currently pursuing her master’s degree at Concordia University. Kuh Del Rosario investigates the potential of everyday materials as collaborators. Inspired by Philippine cosmologies and Indigenous beliefs, tactile memories and the language of things, Del Rosario creates works that explore alternative possibilities for world-building. kuhdelrosario.com

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

A Picture and a Thousand Words: Pairing Art and Writing at Saint Columba House

Fridays, September 23 and 30, 2022 – 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm

Registration will be through Saint Columba House and reserved for members of the seniors group.

The Atwater Writers Exhibition presents A Picture and a Thousand Words, a series of paired workshops featuring an hour of visual art and craft activities followed by an hour of writing.

This series of two in-person sessions will be held in collaboration with Saint Columba House, a venerable community centre serving the Point Saint Charles neighbourhood.

Art activities will be led by Billy Mavreas. The writing-activity leader is Carolyn Marie Souaid.

Billy Mavreas (he/him) is a multidisciplinary writer and artist specializing in the zones between text and image. He is the author of three works of graphic fiction and dozens of leaflets, zines and pamphlets of art and poetry and everything in between. He has conducted several workshops and presentations.

Information: awe@atwaterlibrary.ca.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

A Picture and a Thousand Words: Pairing Art and Writing at Neighbours Rouyn-Noranda

Wednesday, July 27, 2022 – 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm by Zoom

The Atwater Writers Exhibition presents A Picture and a Thousand Words. Registration through Neighbours.

In this two-hour activity, Neighbours’ Seniors will create your very own postcards to keep or send to friends and family.

Participants will create original decorated postcards blending your chosen texts, whether a message to a loved one or something poetic, with your own decorations, making unique postcards that are both read and seen!

No art or writing experience necessary.

Information: awe@atwaterlibrary.ca.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

A Picture and a Thousand Words: Pairing Art and Writing at Neighbours Rouyn-Noranda

Thursday, July 28, 2022 – 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm by Zoom

The Atwater Writers Exhibition presents A Picture and a Thousand Words. Registration for Neighbours only.

In this two-hour activity, Neighbours’ teens will create your very own postcards to keep or send to friends and family.

No art or writing experience necessary.

Information: awe@atwaterlibrary.ca.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

A Picture and a Thousand Words: Pairing Art and Writing

Tuesday, March 8, 2022 – 10:15 am to 11:15 am — break — 11:30 am to 12:30 pm

Tuesday, April 12, 2022 – 10:15 am to 11:15 am — break — 11:30 am to 12:30 pm

Tuesday, May 10, 2022 – 10:15 am to 11:15 am — break — 11:30 am to 12:30 pm

Tuesday, June 7 (POSTPONED to June 14), 2022 – 10:15 am to 11:15 am — break — 11:30 am to 12:30 pm

The Atwater Writers Exhibition presents A Picture and a Thousand Words, a series of paired workshops featuring an hour of visual art and craft activities followed by an hour of writing. These cross-pollinating sessions will take place by Zoom until in-person sessions are possible. They will be held from 10:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., with a 15-minute break between the two parts.

Art activities will be led by Anna Jane McIntyre. They may include collage-making, zine-making, drawing, mini-sculptures, and other creative work requiring no previous training. The four spring writing activities will be led by Greg Santos. He will use prompts and short activities as jumping-off points for writing poems.

Greg Santos is a poet, editor, and educator. He is the author of several poetry collections. His newest book Ghost Face (DC Books, 2020) touches on adoption, identity, and family mythologies. He regularly teaches creative writing workshops and is the editor-in-chief of QWF’s carte blanche magazine. He lives in Montreal with his family.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

A Picture and a Thousand Words: Pairing Art and Writing at Saint Columba House

Fridays, April 1, 8, 22 and 29, 2022 – 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm

This series of four sessions will be held in collaboration with Saint Columba House, a venerable community centre serving the Point Saint Charles neighbourhood. Registration will be through Saint Columba House and reserved for members of the seniors group.

Art activities will be led by Billy Mavreas. The writing-activity leader is Carolyn Marie Souaid.

Information: awe@atwaterlibrary.ca.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

A Single Voice Raised: The Art of the Monologue

Thursday, March 24, 2022 – 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm

In this workshop, participants will begin writing a monologue or work on developing something they already have on hand.

Writer and actor John Arthur Sweet will outline his experience creating and performing monologues, describe some different kinds of monologues (theatrical, storytelling, poetic) and offer a short example. There will be an opportunity to ask questions, and to share with the group. There will also be a chance to chat one-on-one with John in a breakout room during the workshop.

Preceding the workshop, John will present a talk for the Atwater Library Lunchtime Series, from 12:30 to 1:30 pm. In EXPLORING THE MONOLOGUE he will discuss how he came to specialize in monologue as a literary/theatrical form, and perform an array of his monologues. Workshop participants are encouraged to join us for this if possible. You must register separately here.

John Arthur Sweet is a Montreal-based writer, performer and editor. Originally from Belleville, Ontario, he trained as an actor, and then moved into writing and performing one-man shows. His first, The Recurring Dream, played at festivals in Toronto and Ottawa. He has since written and performed five more theatrical monologues, seen at Fringe festivals across Canada, as well as in Prague, Dublin and Brighton (England). His most recent show, Running to Saint Sebastian, was presented at the 2019 Montreal Fringe. John is a regular at spoken word events in Montreal, including the Words and Music show, at which he has been invited to perform 17 times, the last three in virtual (i.e., pandemic) mode. John primarily earns his living as an editor in the publishing industry. He moved to Montreal in 2008. Website: www.johnarthursweet.online

This workshop is FREE but space is limited. To register: awe@atwaterlibrary.ca.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

This event is generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Ourselves and the Natural World at Literacy in Action

Wednesdays, March 9 and 16, 2022 – 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm

Poet Larissa Andrusyshyn will lead a two-session workshop focused on our relationships with the living world around us. This workshop will be held on Zoom through our partner Literacy in Action – Estrie (LIA), a volunteer-based not-for-profit organization serving the Estrie region of Quebec’s Eastern Townships. Their mission is to offer English-speaking learning opportunities for adults and their families.

For information please contact LIA at: 1 (819) 346-7009.

Larissa Andrusyshyn completed an MA in English and creative writing at Concordia University. She has published two books of powetry: Mammoth (DC Books 2010) and Proof (DC Books 2014). She facilitates creative writing workshops in Montreal and is currently working on a new poetry manuscript and her first novel.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Locating Poetry: a Workshop, at the South Asian Women’s Community Centre

SATURDAY, March 5, 2022 – 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm

What is poetry? And where can we find it? What transforms language into art? In this workshop, Poonam Dhir will lead participants in looking at various forms of writing, song, performance and video that express the expansive nature of poetic work. The group will spend time, share space and exchange ideas while locating poetry, and contemplate the function of perspective, environment and the body. Through discussion, writing prompts and engagement, participants will consider what poetry means to us.

This workshop will be held by our partner the South Asian Women’s Community Centre for their Unraveling in Rhymes group.

Poonam Dhir is a queer poet, playwright, editor, Punjabi descendent, and settler currently based in Tiohtiá:ke (Montréal). Poonam’s work explores identity, trauma, memory and the relationship between belief and belonging. They contemplate themes of migration, displacement and loss. They were a finalist for the 2021 PEN Canada New Voices Award and the recipient of the 2021 Concordia Award in Drama. Poonam is on the editorial teams of The Puritan & carte blanche literary magazines. You can read her latest pieces in Vallum, Contemporary Verse 2 and forthcoming in PRISM International. Find them on twitter @pnmdhir.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Poetry to See: Creating Visual Poetry Broadsides

Thursday, February 10, 2022 – 10:30 am to 12:30 pm

and

Thursday, February 17, 2022 – 10:30 am to 12:30 pm

and

Thursday, February 24, 2022 – 10:30 am to 12:30 pm

In this three-session workshop, you will use text and image to create your very own visual poetry broadsides.

A poetry broadside (or broadsheet) is one sheet of paper printed on one side with a poem. Visual poetry is a growing field wherein poets use linguistic fragments to create poems that are also works of visual art.

Participants will create original mixed-media works of art fusing your own poetic texts with your own original visuals, making unique poem-objects that are both read and seen!

Through playful experimentation you will explore various text-making and image-making approaches, resulting not in an illustrated poem, but a poem that also derives its meaning and impact through its visual delivery.

Both the poetry and the visuals will be created from scratch during the workshop. No art experience necessary, just a willingness to try things out.

We will use collage, rubber stamps, stencils, dry-transfer lettering and any and all non-digital ways of making text. Materials can be found around the house and can be augmented by inexpensive store-bought items. We will provide a list of possible materials so you are prepared.

This workshop is FREE but space is limited. To register: awe@atwaterlibrary.ca.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Co-presented with the Quebec Writers’ Federation, and generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Making Meaning from the Everyday: A Poetry Workshop at Literacy in Action

MONDAYS, Feb. 21 and 28, 2022 – 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm

Montreal poet Tara McGowan-Ross leads participants in turning documents from meaningful moments in their lives into poetry. This workshop will be held on Zoom through our partner Literacy in Action – Estrie (LIA), a volunteer-based not-for-profit organization serving the Estrie region of Quebec’s Eastern Townships. Their mission is to offer English-speaking learning opportunities for adults and their families.

For information please contact LIA at: 1 (819) 346-7009.

Tara McGowan-Ross is an urban Mi’kmaw multidisciplinary artist and writer. She is the author of the poetry collections Girth and Scorpion Season, and the nonfiction collection Nothing Will Be Different, forthcoming in the fall of 2021. She hosts the Drawn and Quarterly’s Indigenous Literatures Book Club and reviews experimental and independent Montreal theatre for Broadwayworld.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

A Picture and a Thousand Words: Pairing Art and Writing

Tuesday, February 8, 2022 – 10:15 am to 11:15 am — break — 11:30 am to 12:30 pm

The Atwater Writers Exhibition presents A Picture and a Thousand Words, a series of paired workshops featuring an hour of visual art and craft activities followed by an hour of writing. These cross-pollinating sessions will take place by Zoom until in-person sessions are possible. They will be held from 10:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., with a 15-minute break between the two parts.

Art activities will be led by Anna Jane McIntyre. They may include collage-making, zine-making, drawing, mini-sculptures, and other creative work requiring no previous training. The first four writing activities will be led by Elaine Kalman Naves. She will use prompts and short activities as jumping-off points for personal writing, memoir or nonfiction.

Beloved Montreal writer, journalist, and teacher Elaine Kalman Naves is the author of eight books, among them two award-winning memoirs about her family: Journey to Vaja, and Shoshanna’s Story. A long-time columnist for the Montreal Gazette and frequent contributor to CBC Ideas, Elaine’s articles have also been published in a variety of Canadian and international publications. She has taught and led workshops at the Quebec Writers’ Federation for more than twenty years.

These workshops are FREE but you must register to receive the Zoom link and information about the art materials you will be using. To register: awe@atwaterlibrary.ca.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Creatively Exploring Our Relationships with Bodies: A Poetry Workshop

Saturday, January 22, 2022 – 10:00 am to 1:00 pm

Have you recently Googled, “seasonal allergies or COVID,” “COVID toes,” or “COVID arm”? Has someone other than a nurse or doctor taken your temperature in the past 18 months? And how did you spend those fifteen minutes post-vaccine?

Join Rebecca Păpucaru to read and write poems about hypochondria and hypervigilance, our bodies – but those of others, too. Authors to respond to may include Billy Collins, George Bowering, James L. Dickey, Sylvia Plath, Robert Pinsky, and Elaine Equi, among others.

Beginners to advanced students, writers and readers alike are welcome to a full-bodied conversation as we creatively explore our relationships with our bodies – our ultimate frenemy – through writing prompts and exercises.

**This workshop will follow the January 21, 2022 Atwater Poetry Project public reading by Rebecca Păpucaru and Gillian Sze, 7:00-8:00 pm on Zoom.

Rebecca Păpucaru‘s first book, The Panic Room (Nightwood Editions) was awarded the 2018 Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Poetry. Her poetry has appeared in journals in Canada, the US, and Ireland, and has been anthologized in The Best Canadian Poetry in English. Recently, “Yentas” won The Malahat Review‘s 2020 Novella Prize and was the editors’ selection for the 2021 National Magazine Awards. Her short fiction has appeared in Grain, and has been shortlisted for the Penguin Random House Canada Student Award for Fiction. Rebecca lives in Sherbrooke, QC and despite fears of Lyme disease, hikes regularly. She is this close to completing her first collection of short fiction.

This workshop is FREE but space is limited. To register: awe@atwaterlibrary.ca.

Co-presented with the Atwater Poetry Project.

Where: Atwater Library and Computer Centre, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Westmount, Quebec, H3Z 1X4

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

A Picture and a Thousand Words: Pairing Art and Writing

Tuesday, January 11, 2022 – 10:15 am to 11:15 am — break — 11:30 am to 12:30 pm

The Atwater Writers Exhibition presents A Picture and a Thousand Words, a series of paired workshops featuring an hour of visual art and craft activities followed by an hour of writing. These cross-pollinating sessions will take place by Zoom until in-person sessions are possible. They will be held from 10:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., with a 15-minute break between the two parts.

Art activities will be led by Anna Jane McIntyre. They may include collage-making, zine-making, drawing, mini-sculptures, and other creative work requiring no previous training. The first four writing activities will be led by Elaine Kalman Naves. She will use prompts and short activities as jumping-off points for personal writing, memoir or nonfiction.

These workshops are FREE but you must register to receive the Zoom link and information about the art materials you will be using. To register: awe@atwaterlibrary.ca.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

A Picture and a Thousand Words: Pairing Art and Writing

Tuesday, November 9, 2021 – 10:15 am to 11:15 am — break — 11:30 am to 12:30 pm

The Atwater Writers Exhibition presents A Picture and a Thousand Words, a series of paired workshops featuring an hour of visual art and craft activities followed by an hour of writing. These cross-pollinating sessions will take place by Zoom until in-person sessions are possible. They will be held from 10:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., with a 15-minute break between the two parts.

Art activities will be led by Anna Jane McIntyre. They may include collage-making, zine-making, drawing, mini-sculptures, and other creative work requiring no previous training. The first four writing activities will be led by Elaine Kalman Naves. She will use prompts and short activities as jumping-off points for personal writing, memoir or nonfiction.

These workshops are FREE but you must register to receive the Zoom link and information about the art materials you will be using. To register: awe@atwaterlibrary.ca.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Poetry and the Document: A Workshop

Saturday, November 6, 2021 – 11:00 am to 2:00 pm

Our lives are ruled by little slips of paper: birth certificates. Leases of dwellings. Contracts. Death certificates. Has it ever struck you as strange that these documents are so dry? The archives of our lives can make us feel as much as a poem—but they don’t have the spark of life in them.

In this workshop for all ages, Montreal-area poet Tara McGowan-Ross takes emerging writers on a trip through the process that she developed to write her document-poem STRIKE MOTION —a resistance poem layered directly on top of the actual document her university department used to go on strike in 2015. By injecting humour, imagery, beauty, and metaphor into the documents that shape our lives, we have an endless supply of writing material—and the building blocks for a truer archive for our brief and precious life on Earth.

**This workshop will follow the November 5, 2021 Atwater Poetry Project public reading by Tara McGowan-Ross and Ashley Obscura, 7:00-8:00 pm in the Atwater Library Reading Room.

This workshop is FREE but you must register to receive the Zoom link.

To register: awe@atwaterlibrary.ca.

Co-presented with the Atwater Poetry Project.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

An Introduction to Making Poetry Journals

Tuesday, October 19, 2021 – 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm

and

Wednesday, October 20, 2021 – 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm

Poet Carol-Ann Hoyte will lead you in writing poetry AND making a journal to keep it in! Junk journals are made from an assortment of new and recycled papers. Participants will learn how to make a cover for a junk journal, create pages for it, and embellish these pages. These useful and attractive books are a great papercraft, as they use multiple materials found around school or home. To the poetry you write during the workshop you can add journaling, writing, drawing, keepsakes, and more! Be creative while also being a friend to the environment. Participants will need a pair of scissors. Register by October 8 to receive a materials kit mailed to you at home.

Carol-Ann Hoyte is a poet, avid papercrafter, and mother to an eight-year-old son. Carol-Ann is a librarian at Selwyn House, an all-boys private school. She serves on the board of Geordie Theatre, which produces theatre for young audiences. When Carol-Ann is not busy wrangling the boys at work or her own boy, she dreams of musicals, New York City, and travelling.

Workshop is FREE — register to receive the Zoom link: awe@atwaterlibrary.ca.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

A Picture and a Thousand Words: Pairing Art and Writing

Tuesday, October 12, 2021 – 10:15 am to 11:15 am — break — 11:30 am to 12:30 pm

The Atwater Writers Exhibition presents A Picture and a Thousand Words, a series of paired workshops featuring an hour of visual art and craft activities followed by an hour of writing. These cross-pollinating sessions will take place by Zoom until in-person sessions are possible. They will be held from 10:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., with a 15-minute break between the two parts.

Art activities will be led by Anna Jane McIntyre. They may include collage-making, zine-making, drawing, mini-sculptures, and other creative work requiring no previous training. The first four writing activities will be led by Elaine Kalman Naves. She will use prompts and short activities as jumping-off points for personal writing, memoir or nonfiction.

These workshops are FREE but you must register to receive the Zoom link. To receive the art materials you will be using by mail, register before September 25. To register: awe@atwaterlibrary.ca.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

The Lost, Forgotten, Once-Popular: Writing Inspired by Books of Our Past

THURSDAY, September 30, 2021 – 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm (with breaks)

Brian Busby will lead participants through a series of writing exercises inspired by the lost, forgotten, once-popular Quebec English-language authors discussed in his Lunchtime Series talk. (It is not necessary to attend the talk to enjoy the workshop.) Some of the exercises will offer the chance to explore memories of favourite books of the past, the notions of fame and popularity, and personal favourites that deserve more attention. There will be time to write, time to share, and time to discuss as a group. There will be several breaks during the workshop to ward off Zoom fatigue and allow participants to move around and get the blood flowing.

**This workshop will follow Brian Busby’s Lunchtime Series presentation, “The Forgotten and the Neglected: Six Anglo Quebec Novelists,” offered on the same day, 12:30 pm- 1:30 pm.

Brian Busby is a writer, anthologist, literary historian, and bibliophile, best known for A Gentleman of Pleasure (McGill-Queen’s UP, 2011), his biography of Montreal poet, translator, and memoirist John Glassco. His most recent book is The Dusty Bookcase (Biblioasis, 2017), an exploration of Canada’s forgotten, neglected and suppressed writing. He is a contributing editor for Canadian Notes & Queries, and the series editor of Ricochet Books, a Véhicule Press imprint reviving Canada’s post-war noir novels. A Montrealer – born, raised, and educated – Busby now lives outside Ottawa.

This workshop is FREE. Please register to receive the Zoom link: awe@atwaterlibrary.ca.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Mired 2 Moving: Getting Unstuck in Your Writing

MONDAYs: June 14, June 21, and June 28, 2021 – 10:00 am to 12:00 noon

Mired 2 Moving is a deep listening and storytelling space where everyone comes in with what they are holding and where they want to get to.

Our intention is to explore and strengthen your relationship with your writing. We work with elements of Journaling (awareness of, attention to, and honouring thought), loving kindness meditation (grounding and cultivating space within), social presencing theatre (getting unstuck), playback theatre (listening to self and other, spontaneity, creativity , improvisation) and guided visualization (symbols and the unconscious).

Come as you are, bring what you hold.

Lisa and Joliane of Montreal Living Histories will help us reflect about and play with creativity, the senses, self-care, pleasure, and creating writing together.

Joliane Allaire uses theatre techniques as pedagogical tools in education settings. For the last decade she has evolved with the Living Histories Ensemble where she explores intersections of Playback Theater, Theater for the Oppressed, Theatre for the Living, and Developmental Transformation.

Lisa Ndejuru is a psychotherapist, psychodramatist, and theatre practitioner. Her research – creation explores survival and life, stories and silence, persecution, genocide, war and dislocation through deep listening, storytelling, and play.

This workshop is FREE. It will be held on ZOOM. Space is limited. To register: awe@atwaterlibrary.ca.

This online workshop is being produced in partnership with the Quebec Writers’ Federation.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Elixir of Life: A Free Verse Poetry Workshop

TUESDAY, May 11, 2021 – 10:30 am to 12:00 noon

and

TUESDAY, May 18, 2021 – 10:30 am to 12:00 noon

Emotions are like water, they can be a stream or a tsunami. This free verse poetry workshop will examine what it means to flow around obstacles. How do we truly examine and express our emotions and their root causes in a way that brings balance to our mental health? How do we do this through a poetry-writing and editing process that is healing? Participants should be prepared to contemplate, experiment, question, write fresh autobiographical work, give and receive feedback, co-create safe space and predict the future of humankind.

Workshop leader Tawhida Tanya Evanson is an Antiguan-Québécoise poet, author and artist. Her two poetry collections are Bothism (Ekstasis 2017) and Nouveau Griot (Frontenac 2018); her first novel, Book of Wings, is fresh from Véhicule Press. With a 25-year practice in spoken word, she has performed in over a dozen countries, released four studio albums and six videopoems including the award-winning Almost Forgot my Bones. In 2013, she was Poet of Honour at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word and received the Golden Beret Award. She is program director of The Banff Centre Spoken Word Residency, sits on the board of directors for the Quebec Writers’ Federation (QWF) and produces interarts events. She moonlights as a whirling dervish.

This workshop is FREE. It will be held on ZOOM. Space is limited. To register: awe@atwaterlibrary.ca.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Music and Mood: A Writing Workshop with Musical Inspiration

TUESDAY, April 20, 2021 – 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm

and

FRIDAY, April 23, 2021 – 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm

In this workshop, participants will produce and share writing that responds to music and the (virtual) presence of a live musician, saxophonist Janet Lumb. By listening and tuning in to their own creative reactions, writers will explore the interplay between music and mood as well as sound, story, and memory, using language to examine the soundtracks in our lives.

(On Thursday, April 15, 2021, from 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm, Janet will play her saxophone and chat about music and life as part of the Library’s Lunchtime Series on Zoom. Workshop participants are encouraged to attend as a precursor to the workshop. REGISTER for the April 15th event and get the Zoom link: ralph@atwaterlibrary.ca.)

Janet Lumb, a Toronto-born, third-generation Chinese Canadian, lived in Vancouver for ten years as a
hippie punk, and has since 1984 been in Montreal as a musician, composer, ecologist and community activist.

K.B. Thors is the author of Vulgar Mechanics (Coach House Books), the Icelandic-English translator of Kristín Svava Tómasdóttir’s Stormwarning (Phoneme Media) and the Spanish-English translator of Soledad Marambio’s Chintungo: The Story of Someone Else (Ugly Duckling Presse). She has taught Poetry and Creative Writing at Columbia University, the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in Manhattan, and the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies.

This workshop is FREE. It will be held on ZOOM. Space is limited. To register: awe@atwaterlibrary.ca.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Reflective Writing: A Workshop on Cross-Cultural Writing

WEDNESDAY, March 10, 2021 – 1:30 pm to 3:00 pm

and

TUESDAY, March 16, 2021 – 1:30 pm to 3:00 pm

How do you create characters and situations that have a ring of truth to them when the stories you want to tell are not from your own background or culture?

This workshop will give participants a deeper knowledge about the pros and cons of cross-cultural writing and a chance to hear established writers talk about their own experiences with and advice about writing about peoples of other cultures and realities. Participants will be able to access a blog with workshop materials including videotaped interviews and writing examples. The blog will also provide a platform for participants to discuss issues both during and between the workshop sessions and to post writings of their own for feedback.

All you need to bring is curiosity and a sense of exploration. All are welcome.

This online workshop is being produced in partnership with the Quebec Writers’ Federation.

Dan David says he’s won several awards for feature writing and essays but the one he cherishes the most is for “best storyteller.” He’s a former construction worker, broadcast journalist, magazine writer, and world traveller based (for now) at Kanehsatake Mohawk Territory, near Oka.

This workshop is FREE. It will be held on ZOOM. Space is limited. To register: awe@atwaterlibrary.ca.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Body Tales: Poetic Moments Past, Present, and Future

TUESDAY, February 16, 2021 – 3:30 pm to 5:00 pm

and

THURSDAY, February 18, 2021 – 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm

Our bodies and minds know about resilience – we will use sensory perception and imagination to connect with moments of the exquisite and everyday, to appreciate things we’ve encountered so far, and to write glimpses of futures with fortitude. Bring a journal or loose paper.

seeley quest is a trans disabled writer, performer, facilitator, and environmentalist, in Montreal since 2017. Working primarily in literary and body-based composition, and curation, sie presented in the San Francisco Bay Area 2001-14, and has toured to Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, and many US cities. Hir playscript “Crooked” is in the new McFarland anthology, At the Intersection of Disability and Drama. Not on social media, find hir via email at https://questletters.substack.com.

This workshop is FREE. It will be held on ZOOM. Space is limited. To register: contact Elise at awe@atwaterlibrary.ca.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Making Meaning from the Everyday: A Poetry Workshop

FRIDAY, Jan. 29, 2021 – 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm

Montreal poet Tara McGowan-Ross leads participants in the South Asian Women’s Community Centre’s writing group in turning documents from meaningful moments in their lives into a poem.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Storytelling for Our Lives

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 20, 2021 – 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm

Storytelling for Our Lives is a powerful oral storytelling experience that invites us to share, talk about and weave our personal stories together. In the process, we evolve our narrative skills, learn from listening, and are inspired by each other.

Writer, filmmaker and multi-platform storyteller Brenda Keesal is inspired by the human condition. In 2015, she founded Storytime, a creative lab and new template for oral storytelling. She is currently working on the Village, a virtual gathering space for global storytelling, that fuses all of her talents, experience and drive.

This workshop is FREE. It will be held on ZOOM. Space is limited. To register: awe@atwaterlibrary.ca.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Breathing Into Creativity

THURSDAY, Nov. 26, 2020 – 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm

and

THURSDAY, Dec. 3, 2020 – 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm

During these unprecedented times, we may find ourselves “creatively stuck” as we try to adapt to the circumstances around us. And yet, creative writing can be a channel through which we can reflect, find our voice, and sit with our consciousness. In this workshop, participants will be offered writing prompts and will be invited to breathe into their creativity in a way that is gentle and takes into consideration that the personal is always political. This workshop focuses on the practice of storytelling and reclaiming our narrative in order to find new and creative ways to share our experiences and our truths with each other. Please have paper and pen or pencil handy.

Born in Montreal, har leen is a South Asian writer, artist and educator, whose practice is entrenched in feminist and anti-racist principles and community-building approaches. As an educator, she uses arts-based approaches, ranging from visual arts to spoken word, to facilitate grassroots youth programming. har leen understands that artistic self-expression in safe and loving settings can become a catalyst for collective healing and inducing transformative change, and is dedicated to creating these spaces in her community. Today, as she writes her book of poetry, she remains thankful to be part of the beautiful connection that often accompanies the sharing of our vulnerabilities.

This workshop is FREE. It will be held on ZOOM. Space is limited.

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE (COVID)

The Power of Place: Making a Communal Memory Map

SATURDAY, April 4, 2020 – 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm

and

SUNDAY, April 5, 2020 – 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm

In this two-afternoon workshop, participants will paint, draw, stitch and/or appliqué details of a place that evokes personal memories: an old cinema, your grandmother’s garden, or another remembered place that is important to you. We will provide a recycled paint tarp for background, as well as art supplies. Come prepared to share your stories of your chosen place: we will talk with each other while we make a communal tapestry for display at the Atwater Library. Bring any meaningful fabric scraps or other material you might wish to include in your part of the memory map (and don’t mind leaving as part of the communal artwork). No artistic or sewing experience necessary.

Kathleen Winter has written novels, short stories, and an Arctic travel memoir. She has lived in the UK, Newfoundland, and Verdun. She has worked with young people and elders, making folk textile pieces that celebrate memory, place and personal story.

This workshop is FREE but space is limited. To register: awe@atwaterlibrary.ca.

Where: Atwater Library and Computer Centre, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Westmount, Quebec, H3Z 1X4

This event is taking place on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Copy Yourself: An Intro to Zine Making

TUESDAY, February 25, 2020 – 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm

A zine is a small photocopied personal publication, each as unique as the person who made it!

Using collage, writing, and drawing, participants will make their own ready-to-copy 8-page zine. Bring along your fave art supplies (pens, pencils, markers, rubber stamps) and a magazine to cut up and share; if you don’t happen to have some of your own, don’t worry — supplies will also be available at the workshop.

Billy Mavreas lives in Montreal, Quebec where he creates comics, collage, drawings and visual poetry. He operates an art studio and archive of found paper ephemera out of his gallery space Monastiraki in the Mile-End neighbourhood. He has published, exhibited, and collaborated widely.

This workshop is FREE but space is limited.

Where: Atwater Library and Computer Centre, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Westmount, Quebec, H3Z 1X4

This event is taking place on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Bodies in Lyric – Tanya Evanson on Spoken Word

FRIDAY, January 31, 2020 – 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm

THIS FREE EVENT WILL TAKE PLACE AT CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY

A co-presentation of the Atwater Writers Exhibition, SpokenWeb, and the Atwater Poetry Project.

Oral poetry, storytelling, monologue, slam and experimental sound performance remain at the fringes of the literary world–largely because they lack a critical framework. This talk will examine some current states in spoken word and look at the work of three Tiohtià:ke/Montreal-based artists: Kaie Kellough, Moe Clark and Cat Kidd. We round it all out with a live performance featuring Tanya Evanson on vocals, Jahsun on percussion and Jean-Michel Frédéric on keys.

https://spokenweb.ca/events/bodies-in-lyric-by-tanya-evanson-on-spoken-word/

Where: 4TH SPACE at Concordia University, LB 103, 1400 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W. Montreal, Quebec This venue is directly accessible through the tunnel from the Guy-Concordia metro station.

The Page with Ears Open – A Spoken Word Workshop

SATURDAY, February 1, 2020 – 10:30 am to 4:30 pm

Dive into the creation of literature and orature using mystical, poetic and neo-futurist tools. Be prepared to write fresh autobiographical work and perform it using the voice and body as instruments of stardom in space. Ideal for extroverted introverts and writers who can’t sit still, all experience levels are welcome. The skills sharpened here can be applied to any professional setting—whether in the arts or beyond. Requirements: pen and paper or laptop, relaxed clothing, bottle of water.

Participants in this workshop are encouraged to attend the FREE critical talk and performance, “Bodies in Lyric” on Friday, January 31 (the day before) as part of the workshop experience. It will provide a foundation of ideas and examples for Saturday’s work. See details above.

Workshop leader Tanya Evanson is an Antiguan-Canadian writer and performer from Tiotià:ke/Montreal. She has presented spoken word in over a dozen countries, released four studio albums and two videopoems, and is program director of The Banff Centre Spoken Word residency. In addition to work in journals and anthologies, her two published poetry collections are Bothism (Ekstasis 2017) and Nouveau Griot (Frontenac 2018). She moonlights as a whirling dervish. mothertonguemedia.com

This workshop is FREE but space is limited.

Where: Atwater Library and Computer Centre, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Westmount, Quebec, H3Z 1X4

This two-part event is taking place on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

A Soundtrack for Your Words: Creating and Performing Literature with Music

SATURDAY, November 23, 2019 – 10:30 am to 4:30 pm

SATURDAY, November 30, 2019 – 10:30 am to 4:30 pm

SUNDAY, December 1, 2019 – 1:30 to 5:30 pm (The public performance is from 3:00 to 4:30 pm)

Ian Ferrier and Moe Clark bring years of experience as spoken word performers and soundscape innovators. They will offer writing prompts and exercises to help generate ideas, and support participants through editing and crafting their written works for performance, including a collaborative exploration of sound as a base for words. Ian and Moe will bring the looping pedal, teweikan, guitar, synthesizer and other instruments, to be used in creation of the soundscapes. Participants will explore breathwork, vocal work, and improvisation to engage with audiences and to move beyond the anxiety of performance. Workshop will culminate in a Sunday afternoon performance open to the public.

Open to all poets, writers, and anyone interested in exploring sound with their work, including short prose, monologues. Also open to musicians interested in developing more language for their sound.

This workshop is FREE but space is limited.

Métis multidisciplinary artist Moe Clark is a nomadic songbird with wings woven from circle singing and spoken word. Originally from Treaty 7, she’s called tio’tia:ke (Montreal) home for over a decade. Moe fuses together vocal improvisation with multilingual lyricism to create meaning that is rooted in personal legacy and ancestral memory. Apart from performance, she facilitates creative workshops, she produces festivals and performances, and she mentors emerging artists. www.moeclark.ca / www.nistamîkwan.com

Ian Ferrier is a poet, musician and performer. He has performed in over 500 shows in Canada, the United States and Europe. Ian is the founder of the audio literature label Wired on Words, the monthly Words & Music Show (now in its 20^th year), the online magazine LitLive.ca, and of Montreal’s annual Mile End Poets’ Festival. In 2008 Ian was awarded the Golden Beret, the League of Canadian Poets award for outstanding contributions to spoken word poetry. The Spoken Web project’s online archive of 20 years of the Words and Music Show will go live this year.

Where: Atwater Library and Computer Centre, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Westmount, Quebec, H3Z 1X4

This event is taking place on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Seasons Change: An Afternoon Writing Activity

THURSDAY, October 24, 2019 – 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm

This workshop is FREE and OPEN TO ALL. Registration is NOT required.

Join the Atwater Writers Exhibition for a two-hour writing activity led by poet Deanna Smith, who will offer exercises and writing prompts related to managing changes in life, metamorphoses, loss, and the arrival of new opportunities.

Deanna Smith is a Montreal-based poet, performer and educator. She believes deeply in the healing and transformative power of words.

Where: Atwater Library and Computer Centre, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Westmount, Quebec, H3Z 1X4

This event is taking place on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Suspended Meaning: Making Filmpoems

Three SATURDAYs: September 14, 21, and 28, 2019 – 10:00 am to 4:00 pm

Screening of completed filmpoems, TUESDAY, October 8, 2019 – 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm

Learn how to create and produce your own filmpoems. What happens when poetry and film collide? Come spend three Saturdays with poet Rachel McCrum as she takes you through the complete process from writing to filming to editing. Suitable for beginners in both poetry and film – just bring your enthusiasm and commitment to the process!

There will a premiere screening of the completed filmpoems on Tuesday, October 8, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm. Everyone is welcome to enjoy this FREE event, co-sponsored by the Mile End Poets’ Festival (https://www.mile-end-poets.ca/).

This workshop is FREE. Participants will need to have access to a laptop and basic digital camera (a camera phone will suffice) for the three Saturdays, and for some work at home (2-3 hours) in between the sessions. Laptops can be borrowed for use at the Library but not brought home.

Space is limited and advance registration is required. Participants are strongly urged to attend all three sessions to learn everything they need to know to complete their fabulous filmpoem!

Rachel McCrum is a poet, performer and workshop facilitator. From Northern Ireland, she lived in Edinburgh, Scotland where she was the first BBC Scotland Poet-in-Residence, co-founder of Stewed Rhubarb Press, and Broad of cult spoken word cabaret Rally & Broad. She has taught and performed internationally. Her first book is The First Blast to Awaken Women Degenerate (2017). She has worked on numerous filmpoetry projects, including the international collaboration project “Moving Borders & Pictures” between Quebec, UK, South Africa, Croatia, Bangladesh, and Trinidad & Tobago (Mile End Poets’ Festival, 2017/18).

Where: Atwater Library and Computer Centre, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Westmount, Quebec, H3Z 1X4

This event is taking place on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

How to Write an Autobiographical Monologue

THURSDAY, September 19, 2019 – 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm

This workshop is FREE and OPEN TO ALL. Registration is NOT required.

We all have stories only we can tell. These stories are precious, and should be shared. They help us to understand our history and our lives. Most people just need to get started and then an avalanche of memories comes flowing out. Keir Cutler, who has written ten original monologues, many of them autobiographical, will share his insights and vast knowledge.

**This writing activity takes place following Keir’s performance of his most recent monologue, Magnificence, named Best English Text at the 2019 Montreal Fringe Festival, for the Library’s Lunchtime Series, 12:30 to 1:30 pm — make an afternoon of it!

Keir Cutler has performed his solo shows across Canada, the US, and UK since 1999. He is best known for his award-winning Teaching Shakespeare and his adaptation of Mark Twain’s Is Shakespeare Dead? He has been called “formidably delightful,” (Off-Off Broadway Review), and “an assured and mesmerizing monologist” (Maisonneuve Magazine). Keir was born in Montreal and graduated from McGill University, the National Theatre School of Canada (playwriting), and Wayne State University (MA, PhD).

Where: Atwater Library and Computer Centre, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Westmount, Quebec, H3Z 1X4

This event is taking place on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

One Poem, Many Voices: A Workshop on Writing Collaboratively

SATURDAY, June 1, 2019 – 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm

This workshop is FREE and OPEN TO ALL. Registration is NOT required.

Collaborating in the creation of a poem connects us deeply with each other. The process is always full of surprises — dynamic, inventive, and fun.In collaboration, we get to see how people really understand our words. They take them up and go places with them, unexpected places! Through listening and responding, we open doors we didn’t know were there: doors in our selves, in our perceptions, in each other. This workshop engages participants in a variety of approaches to writing poems collaboratively.

Your workshop guides, Mary di Michele and Susan Gillis, have more than a decade of experience in writing poetry collaboratively. In addition to their active individual practices, they have written and published together as members of Yoko’s Dogs since 2006. Susan’s fourth book of poetry, Yellow Crane, appeared in 2018. Mary’s twelfth book and latest collection of poetry, Bicycle Thieves, was published with ECW in 2017.

Where: Atwater Library and Computer Centre, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Westmount, Quebec, H3Z 1X4
This event is taking place on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

The Little Green Library and the Atwater Writers Exhibition join forces with Grove Hall to present:

You, Me and Memoir: the Art and Craft of Memoir Writing in Huntingdon!

TUESDAY, May 21, 2019 – 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm

By means of simple prompts and exercises, Elaine, a beloved teacher and workshop leader, will guide you in taking the first steps in writing your own personal story.

For information contact:

The Little Green Library
4, rue Lorne, suite 103
Huntingdon, QC
J0S 1H0

450-264-4872 Email: pbv.lgl@gmail.com

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Literacy in Action and the Atwater Writers Exhibition join forces to present:

You, Me and Memoir: the Art and Craft of Memoir Writing in Lennoxville!
THURSDAY, May 2, 2019 – 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm

Writer and journalist Elaine Kalman Naves takes you into her confidence, sharing the intimate story of how she became the author of two award-winning family memoirs, Journey to Vaja: Reconstructing the World of a Hungarian-Jewish Family and Shoshanna’s Story: A Mother, a Daughter, and the Shadows of History.By means of simple prompts and exercises, Elaine, a beloved teacher and workshop leader, will guide you in taking the first steps in writing your own personal story. For information call Literacy in Action at (819) 346-7009. Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

You, Me and Memoir: the Art and Craft of Memoir Writing

THURSDAY, April 11, 2019 – 2:00 pm to 4:00 p.m.

By means of simple prompts and exercises, journalist, novelist, and memoirist Elaine Kalman Naves will guide you in taking the first steps in writing your own personal story. No registration necessary. FREE and open to all.
Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.**This writing activity takes place after the following talk by Elaine, part of the Library’s Lunchtime Series, 12:30 to 1:30 pm — make an afternoon of it!Life Stories: How I Wrote My Family Memoirs
Writer and journalist Elaine Kalman Naves takes you into her confidence, sharing the intimate story of how she became the author of two award-winning family memoirs, Journey to Vaja: Reconstructing the World of a Hungarian-Jewish Family and Shoshanna’s Story: A Mother, a Daughter, and the Shadows of History. Copies of the books will be on sale.

Creative Lab: Interdisciplinary Writing Workshop

SATURDAY, March 30, 2019 – 10:00 am to 4:00 pm

Join us for a day-long Creative Lab with interdisciplinary artist Naima Kristel Phillips, who will share her approach to writing for theatre, opera, and multimedia. She will guide participants through writing prompts to nurture creativity and generate materials for personal projects. No previous theatre or writing experience is necessary; you only have to bring your energy and enthusiasm.

Naïma Kristel Phillips is an award-winning writer and interdisciplinary artist. Her works have been presented in Canada, the United States, and France. Suites d’une ville morte, the opera she is creating with composer Margareta Jerić, has an upcoming preview with Musique 3 Femmes at the Canadian Opera Company Four Seasons Centre in Toronto. She recently collaborated with scenographer Julie Vallée-Léger and GSM Project on the creation of the permanent “Life of Sally Hemings” exhibit at Monticello. Naima is Vice-President on the Board of Directors at Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal. She holds an MFA in Playwriting from Columbia University in New York.

The workshop is FREE. Space is limited.

Where: Atwater Library and Computer Centre, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Westmount, Quebec, H3Z 1X4

There are two flights of stairs to access the auditorium; we regret that the Atwater Library does not yet have an elevator. There is a gender-neutral single-stall washroom on the second floor, and a multi-stall women’s washroom.

This event is taking place on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Publishing Translations: An Art and a Business

Presented by the Atwater Writers Exhibition (AWE) and the Association for English-language Publishers of Quebec (AELAQ). Sponsored by the Literary Press Group (LPG).

Thursday, February 21, 2019 – 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm
Atwater Library Auditorium
Free and open to the public; please RSVP to admin@aelaq.org
Light refreshments will be served
Doors 4:00 pm, Panel 4:30-5:30 pm

The popular imaginary sees Quebec as a place divided by language, but a boom in literary translation has been building bridges in both directions. Recent articles in the Walrus and the Globe & Mail have suggested that the next “Great Canadian Novel” will be from Quebec, and the appearance of several translated books on national awards lists indicates growing traction for books rendered from the other official language. Join us for a lively panel discussion with three publishers/editors who are part of this new wave—Antoine Tanguay (Éditions Alto), Linda Leith (Linda Leith Publishing | Linda Leith Éditions) and Peter McCambridge (QC Fiction).

Topics will include what makes for a good translation, how to choose a translator, what publishers are looking for in titles to translate, and best practices around selling and buying translation rights. The discussion will be moderated by writer and translator Anita Anand, and will be followed by an audience Q&A.

The event will take place in both English and French, and is recommended for publishers, translators, writers, and anyone interested in linguistic duality.

This event is taking place on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

Publier une traduction : un art et une entreprise

Présenté par l’exposition Atwater Writers Exhibition (AWE) et l’Association des éditeurs de langue anglaise du Québec (AELAQ). Commandité par le Literary Press Group (LPG).

Jeudi 21 février, 2019 de 16 h à 18 h
L’auditorium de la bibliothèque Atwater, 1200, av. Atwater, 2^e étage
Gratuit et ouvert au public; RSVP à admin@aelaq.org
De légers rafraîchissements seront servis.
Portes 16 h, discussion 16 h 20 à 17 h 30

Dans l’imaginaire populaire, le Québec est divisé par la langue, mais un boom récent de traduction littéraire a permis de bâtir des ponts bidirectionnels. Des articles récents, parus dans le Walrus et le Globe & Mail, laissent supposer que le prochain « Grand roman canadien » viendra du Québec et que la présence de plusieurs livres traduits dans les listes de prix nationaux démontre un intérêt croissant pour les livres venant de l’autre langue officielle. Joignez-vous à nous pour une discussion animée entre trois éditeurs/réviseurs faisant partie de cette nouvelle vague — Antoine Tanguay (Éditions Alto), Linda Leith (Linda Leith Publishing | Linda Leith Éditions) et Peter McCambridge (QC Fiction). Les sujets couverts comprendront : les caractéristiques d’une bonne traduction; comment choisir un(e) traducteur(-trice); ce que recherchent les éditeurs lorsqu’ils considèrent la traduction d’un livre; et les meilleures pratiques en matière d’achat et de vente des droits de traduction. La discussion sera animée par l’écrivaine et traductrice Anita Anand. Une séance de questions de l’auditoire suivra. L’événement se tiendra en français et en anglais et saura intéresser tant les éditeurs que les traducteurs, écrivains et toute personne curieuse d’en savoir plus sur la dualité linguistique.

Veuillez noter qu’il faut gravir deux escaliers pour se rendre à l’auditorium, car la bibliothèque Atwater n’a malheureusement pas encore d’ascenseur. Deux salles de toilette se trouvent au second étage — une universelle et l’autre pour femmes avec deux cabines. Veuillez communiquer avec admin@aelaq.org pour de plus amples renseignements en matière d’accessibilité.

Cet événement se tiendra sur le territoire traditionnel et non cédé des Kanien’keha:ka.

http://aelaq.org/events/publishing-translations-an-art-and-a-business/

Create Your Own Comic: Graphic Storytelling for Grownups and Kids
A Two-day Workshop

SATURDAY, February 2, 2019 – 10:00 am to 4:00 pm and SATURDAY, February 9, 2019 – 10:00 am to 4:00 pm

The Atwater Writers Exhibition is happy to present a two-day hands-on workshop for grownups and kids (ages 12 and up), led by Drawn & Quarterly’s Tom Devlin. Tom will provide a short history of and practical rules for comics story construction from his own deeply knowledgeable, personal point of view. He’ll help participants pay special attention to specific elements of graphic storytelling such as panel flow and transitions, visual cues and humour. Participants will gain the tools they need to work through the rewarding hours needed to create a graphic novel, and will leave with their own four-page comic. No previous experience is required.

Tom Devlin is the Executive Editor for Drawn & Quarterly where he’s worked for the past thirteen years. As editor at D+Q, Tom signed Lynda Barry and Tove Jansson’s Moomins. He’s worked in comics for thirty years at all levels—as a cartoonist, publisher, retailer, and distributor. He is single-mindedly focused on comics to the exclusion of all else.

Where: Upstairs in the Creative Media Lab, Atwater Library and Computer Centre, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Westmount, Quebec, H3Z 1X4 (across from Cabot Square and Plaza Alexis-Nihon).

This workshop is FREE. All materials will be provided. Registration is encouraged, as space is limited.

Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Moments in the Story of Your Life — Memoir Writing Activity
THURSDAY, January 24, 2019 – 2:00 to 4:00 pm

Poet and musician Ian Ferrier leads an Atwater Writers Exhibition memoir writing activity, Moments in the Story of Your Life. FREE.To the Maori people of New Zealand, tattoos are given to mark their ancestry, their achievements and defining moments in their lives. What are those moments in your life and what made them special? What could you say about them so that others would understand why they were so important to you?Participants will be encouraged to write and craft the story of their moments, and if interested, to pick up a microphone and read them to the group.All welcome. No registration necessary. For more information, please email elise.m@videotron.ca. Generously supported by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage.The writing activity takes place after the following wonderful lunchtime activity, 12:30 to 1:30 pm — make an afternoon of it!In honour of ROBBIE BURNS DAY, poet and musician Ilay Ian Charles Ferrier (aka Ian Ferrier) performs his poetry with accompaniment by clarinetist and composer Louise Campbell. Ian Ferrier is one of the best known spoken word performers in Canada. He, his son and his fathers before him are all named after that fabulous whiskey isle in the Hebrides, Islay. Presented jointly by the Atwater Poetry Project, curated by Deanna Radford, with funding from the League of Canadian Poets. Special treats provided by Shortbread by Gryphon served with coffee.

Writer’s Toolkit — A Writing Workshop at the Little Green Library in Huntingdon
SATURDAY, December 15, 2018 –2:00 to 5:00 pm

FREE – Open to all – Please reserve your seat by phoning: 450 264-4872.

The Little Green Library, 4, rue Lorne, suite 103, Huntingdon, QC, J0S 1H0Led by poet and beloved teacher Larissa Andrusyshyn, the Writers’ Toolbox will explore several elements that will improve the impact and depth of your writing. Larissa will help writers see how several writing techniques influence their work: tone, language and point of view. Through writing exercises and discussion, in a playful atmosphere, the participants will create together and share their creative spark. This activity is designed to offer specific tools for writing with more curiosity and less struggle.Co-sponsored by Grove Hall and the Atwater Writers Exhibition (AWE), with thanks to the Department of Canadian Heritage’s Community Cultural Action Fund.

What’s in a Description? Poems About Art — A Fun Writing Activity for All

FRIDAY, November 30, 2018 – 2:00 to 4:00 pm Come have some fun at a short writing activity with poet Domenica Martinello. From Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn” to Morgan Parker’s poems about Beyoncé songs, explore poems about art and write a few of your own. Even if the art is familiar, the results of ekphrastic (“descriptive”) poetry are often surprising. FREE and open to all.Advance registration not required.Domenica Martinello is the author of the forthcoming book of poetry All Day I Dream About Sirens (Coach House Books, Spring 2019). Born and raised in Montreal, Martinello holds an MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Funded by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of Canadian Heritage.

Poetic Science: Taking Liberties in Poetry and Science by Exploring How They Intertwine — Talk and Writing Activity

THURSDAY, November 15, 2018 – 12:30 to 1:30 pm

Poet Larissa Andrusyshyn cites curiosity and an urgency for truth as common ground between poetry and science.

*Attendees have the option of taking part in a FREE writing activity led by Larissa Andrusyshyn, 2:00 to 4:00 pm. Through writing exercises, participants will delve into the connections between the worlds of poetry and science and the language that inspires. Open to all. Advance registration not required.

Funded by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of Canadian Heritage.

The Writing of Mavis Gallant: Film and Writing Activity

THURSDAY, February 15, 2018 – 12:30 to 1:30 pm
Writer and publisher Linda Leith marks the fourth anniversary of Mavis Gallant’s death by screening the film Paris Stories: The Writing of Mavis Gallant with Q&A.
*Attendees have the option of taking part in a FREE writing activity led by Linda Leith starting at 2:00 pm. No need to register for the film screening but please register for the writing activity so we have enough supplies on hand.
Funded by the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of Canadian Heritage.

Word After Word Writing Workshop: Bishop’s University

SATURDAY, Oct. 21, 2017 – 10:00 am to 4:00 pm

Thirteen lucky students at Bishop’s University in Lennnoxville, QC had an extracurricular writing workshop with Giller-Prize winner Sean Michaels and Journey-Prize winner Saleema Nawaz Webster.

LET’S MAKE A BOOK

SATURDAY mornings, 10:30 am to 12:30 pm

September 30, October 7, October 14, 2017

Writing and crafting are two of Bonnie’s favorite pastimes, and she was joined by six participants, from small kids to grandparents, who learned how to write and craft their own little books. With a bonus folio-making workshop by Anne Stratford, the participants shared their stories and turned them into books.

Bonnie Farmer is a children’s author and playwright. Her most recent book is the award-winning Oscar Lives Next Door.

YOU Can Make A Story Game

SATURDAY, Oct. 21, 2017 – 10:00 am to 4:00 pm

Twelve participants of all ages made a tiny game world in a day! Starting with no programming or art skills in some cases, the aspiring game writers harnessed their sense of adventure and willingness to make doodles, messes, and mistakes. Using Bitsy Editor, a fun, free, and easy-to-learn tool that runs in many web browsers, participants created and “took home” (uploaded to the internet) their small games made of text and pixel-art, and perhaps a new addiction to making interactive stories.

Jill Murray is a published YA author, and game writer for over 15 games, including “Assassin’s Creed: Liberation,” for which she won a Writer’s Guild of America Award. She has led interactive fiction workshops for arts organizations and taught game design for colleges and universities.

These workshops are part of the Atwater Writers Exhibition (AWE) with support from the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of Canadian Heritage.

THURSDAY, Oct. 19, 2017 – 5:00 to 7:00 pm

The RECEPTION on our main floor to celebrate the latest displays in our Exhibition was really fun! Joined by the participants in the “Books Written by Children” by children’s author and playwright Bonnie Farmer, we heard readings and recitations of three of the brand-new books, and had the pleasure of reading and enjoying the drawings in all of them. Some of the grown-up writers whose childhood books are included in the display came as well. We also celebrated the rehanging of the mobile of Terence Byrnes’ photographic portraits of Quebec English-language writers in the atrium.

TUESDAY, May 30, 2017 – 5:00 to 7:00 pm

We had a wonderful time, hearing the contest-winning stories, and watching selected videos from the Canada in 150 Seconds: 150-second Videos by 150 Montrealers for Canada’s 150th project, made by students from Trafalgar School for Girls, James Lyng High School, Saint Columbia House, and Skateboards for Hope, as well as seniors participating through the Atwater Library. We enjoyed the display of paintings by Grade 11 students of Trafalgar School for Girls. Almost 100 people made it up the two flights of stairs to the auditorium to enjoy the event.

SATURDAY, February 27, 2016 – 5:00 to 1:00 am

On Saturday, February 27, 2016 from 5:00 pm to 1:00 am, for Nuit blanche, we welcomed over 200 people to the Library for exciting new-media showcase events, the products of two of our community-based projects – one led by seniors and the other by youth. Eric Craven, our Digital Literacy Project Coordinator, was thrilled with the results and commented, “The night was a great success – wonderful collaborative project that was much more than the sum of its parts!”

Moving Pictures:Moving Histories Out of the Attic and Into the Public

Attendees immersed themselves in a sound and video installation that began with images projected through the front windows of our heritage building. Inside, our reading room was transformed by a multi-media exhibition created by seniors who digitized and re-edited home movies from the 40s to the 70s, and made their own music and sound using digital tools. An extension of our Digital Literacy Project with support from New Horizons for Seniors and Ageing + Communication + Technologies (ACT).

Seeing Red:
Young People’s Stories for the Eyes, From the Heart
Children and adults were dazzled by the work of 21 young Montrealers, aged 7 to 12, who created stories and transformed them into digital art that comes from their hearts. Part of the Atwater Writers Exhibition (AWE) with support from the Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of Canadian Heritage.

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nuitblanche

MONDAY, January 25, 2016 at 7:00 pm

Making Scenes of Our Own: Plays of English Quebec
There’s no shortage of productions of British, French, American or even Ontarian plays. But English-Quebec plays, contemporary and past, may be harder to find. And while plays written in English in Quebec are being given more space in theatre seasons these days, how did we get here? Is there a canon of English-Quebec plays? Is one even possible?

Join four artistic directors and one playwright representing five English-language Montreal theatre companies for an interactive discussion of the past and present of English-language plays in Quebec. Emceed by actor and artistic director Quincy Armorer, the panelists will each speak about a play their company has produced and talk about its place in our theatrical history. The audience will be invited to participate in the larger discussion to follow. As well, Jesse Stong, leader of Playwrights’ Workshop Montreal’s Young Creators’ Unit (YCU), will lead a short writing activity with members of the YCU and interested members of the audience.

The panel:

Quincy Armorer, Artistic Director of Black Theatre Workshop

Vittorio Rossi, playwright, representing Centaur Theatre

Annabel Soutar, Artistic Director of Porte Parole

Guy Sprung, Artistic Director of Infinitheatre

Rahul Varma, Artistic Director of Teesri Duniya Theatre

A co-production of our Atwater Writers Exhibition and Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal.

Where: Atwater Library Auditorium — Admission is free

TUESDAY, December 1, 2015 at 7:00 pm

Screening of the film Ladies and Gentlemen…Mr. Leonard Cohen with discussion led by poet, non-fiction writer, journalist, and lifelong Leonard Cohen fan Mark Abley. Audience members are encouraged to bring a copy of their favourite Leonard Cohen poem for a fun and accessible poetry activity that will follow the film.

FRIDAY, November 27, 2015, 5:00 – 8:00 pm

HOLIDAY POP-UP BOOK FAIR!

Celebrating English-Quebec Writing and Publishing

AWEsome Holiday Book Fair

The Atwater Library’s 2015 Holiday Pop-Up Book Fair, featuring Quebec-published and Quebec-written books in English, was a smash success. Held in our auditorium on the last weekend of November, it attracted throngs of book lovers who made purchases, got autographs and chatted with the 50 or so authors participating. There was much talk of making the Holiday Book Fair an annual event. Co-coordinator Elise Moser expressed thanks to all who contributed to the success, including partner Association of English-language Publishers of Quebec (AELAQ), the 25 participating publishers including 10 from English Quebec, event host Terry Mosher (Aislin), overall event sponsor Montreal Gazette, and launch reception sponsor Penguin Random House.

The Community Cultural Action Fund (CCAF) of Canadian Heritage has provided funding for us to conduct the Book Fair along with a series of other activities to celebrate Quebec’s amazing English-language writers, past and present.

The Atwater Writers Exhibition (AWE) launched on our main floor in May 2015 continues to attract visitors, including school groups. The exhibition continues through 2016 and is open to the public during our regular hours.

The focus in early 2016 will be on playwrighting, literary translation, spoken word and young-adult (YA) writers.

THURSDAY, November 12, 2015 at 12:30 pm
Screening of the film Leonard Cohen – Portrait Intime with discussion led by Concordia University English Professor Judith Herz about Cohen’s poetry and songs. Atwater Library Auditorium. Film is in English. Free event — coffee will be served.

THURSDAY, May 28, 2015 from 5:00 to 7:00 pm

Gala Reception

Click here to see Global TV coverage, including an interview with Terry Mosher and AWE project coordinator Elise Moser.

The exhibition continues through 2015 and is open to the public. Click here for more information.

THURSDAY, April 30, 2015 at 7:00 for 7:30 pm
“Rapid-Fire Readings, Ricochet Writing: Montreal Authors Write Before Your Very Eyes!”
Twenty-five contemporary Montreal authors from across the impressive range of our literary scene offer rapid-fire readings from their work. They’ll also create a brand-new literary jewel by adding a line each to a collective text. Hear what Montreal authors are writing – see what Montreal authors can create on the spot – meet some of your favorite poets, novelists, memoirists, and more. The Quebec Writers’ Federation and the Atwater Library are co-hosting this exciting event.

THURSDAY, March 5, 2015 at 12:30 pm
To mark INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY (three days early), poet Susan Elmslie screens the film Still Waters: The Poetry of P.K. Page, directed by Donald Winkler for the NFB, and leads a discussion about P.K. Page’s work and her life in Montreal.

THURSDAY, January 22, 2015 at 12:30 pm
Filmmaker Donald Winkler screened A Red Carpet for the Sun: The Life of Irving Layton followed by Q&A.

THURSDAY, November 13, 2014 at 12:30 pm
Writers Bryan Demchinsky and Elaine Kalman Naves engaged in a conversation about Quebec’s great English-language writers of the past.

WEDNESDAY, October 1, 2014 at 6:00 pm
Guy Rodgers, Executive Director of the English-Language Arts Network (ELAN), moderated a well-attended public consultation and discussion about the AWE project.