Spring 2026

Summer 2026

The Headway Project will not have any regularly scheduled workshops over the summer. Let me know if you’d like to be notified when they resume in the fall. Please add your name to the Notification list. No deposit is required:
 

When I started Pyjama writing 4 years ago (we’ll be having our 4 year anniversary on January 4th! An excuse to eat cake in our pyjamas!) it was based on several things. Something I’d once read in Natalie Goldberg’s WILD MIND. Some experiences (not all great) in various focus rooms for productivity. But in large part on the work of academic Robert Boice, who spent years researching the effective writing practices of productive academics, and distilling them down to some basic guidelines.

In October, some of you know that I attended a writing retreat at the Kirkridge Centre in Pennsylvania that was led by Eileen Campbell Reed. It was a fantastic 3 days. (Actually only about 48 hours of actual retreat time) during which I FILLED UP AN ENTIRE NOTEBOOK!! Eileen reminded me of Robert’s work and practices and I came home completely re-energized about using the Pomodoro method.

I’m going to be leading an introductory session on Friday morning December 6th if you’re interested in learning more and trying the method out!

Reserve your spot below.

via GIPHY

A six-week memoir workshop to explore what arises through and underneath those objects and places that spark nostalgia in us.

This series of 2-hour workshops are designed to spark creativity and unlock memories through the power of objects and places. Whether you’re a seasoned writer or just beginning your memoir journey, this workshop will offer deeply supportive space to guide you in weaving connections between the tangible and the deeply personal.

Through engaging and experimental writing exercises, you’ll:

• Use inherited or retained objects as inspiration.
• Explore the memories, people, and events tied to them.
• Begin to uncover the persistent threads that shape your story.

All workshops will be held in the AWA method and will include generative writing time and generous, strengths-based feedback.

Dates: Please put the following sessions in your calendar:
April 14, 21, 28, May 12, 26, June 2.

Please note: we skip 2 sessions in the sequence: May 5 is skipped because we are away leading a retreat in Niagara. May 19 is skipped because it’s a holiday.

Time: Mondays from 1:00 to 3:00 pm EST / 10:00 to noon PST

Registration fee: $195 CDN plus 13% HST (total: $220.35)

Using Place and Time to Explore Memoir Material

Every place we’ve lived leaves its mark. In this workshop, we’ll explore the landscapes of your early years—from the backyard you played in as a child to the environments that shaped your young adulthood. Together, we’ll uncover the memories tied to those places and explore them for the connections that will transform them into stories that matter.

This workshop is for anyone curious about memoir writing—whether you’re experienced, just starting out, or somewhere in between. With prompts inspired by location, we’ll gently guide you to discover and write about the moments that shaped your journey.

Reflect, write, and share in a supportive AWA based space.

Suitable for memoirist, poets, playwrights and fiction writers.

Dates: March 3, 10, 17, 24, 31, April 7

Time: Mondays from 1:00 to 3:00 pm EST / 10:00 to noon PST

Registration fee: $195 CDN plus 13% HST (total: $220.35)

Register using the form below.

Photographs are rich resources when it comes to investigating memoir material. There is the moment captured — the visual details stored forever — or at least for the lifespan of that particular piece of chemically treated paper.

But the details in that image are just the beginning and can be used to light up our synapses and lead to other memories, both conscious and unconscious.

In this workshop, we will use existing photos as well as photos we no longer possess (and perhaps even photographs that never existed!) to explore our autobiographical material. Each week participants will try new memoir-based exercises organized around photographs to resurface and investigate the meaningful material from our lives and the lives of our families.

Each week there will also be an opportunity to share and receive immediate strengths-based feedback on what has just been written.

This course (unlike Sue’s year-long A Novel Approach to Memoir) is not designed to produce a full length work of creative non-fiction. However, if you are looking at doing a full length story, exercises from this workshop will be very useful in discovering material towards a longer work.

By the very nature of “Snapshots” we will also look at how photographs can be used to produce flash prose as well.

All workshops will be held in the AWA method and will include generative writing time and generous, strengths-based feedback.

Dates: January 6, 13, 20, 27, February 3 & 10.

Time: Mondays from 1:00 to 3:00 pm EST / 10:00 to noon PST

Registration fee: $195 CDN plus 13% HST (total: $220.35)

Register using the form below.

 
You likely know that the writing workshops James and I do are held in the Amherst Writers Method (AWA). This is what we use to keep our workshops safe, creative and productive.

May is the month when Amherst Writers reaches out to writers everywhere by holding Write Around the World (WAW). Workshop leaders volunteer their time to lead AWA Method workshops on a donation basis because, as well as being a fundraiser, we want to make it accessible so people who have never experienced the method get a chance to try it out.

I will be donating my time to lead 3 WAW workshops and James will be leading one about poetry with Kate Marshall Flaherty on these dates:

• May 3 – A WAW workshop on Resiliency and Connection with Sue and Dr. Meadow Jones, an expert on the redress of trauma through art’s based practices – afternoon, EDT.
• May 10 – A Writers’ Sanctuary with Sue – donated to WAW. – Late afternoon EDT.
• May 25 – Your Poetry Toolkit Part Two – with Kate and James – morning EDT.
• May 31 – A WAW workshop called Time Travel – using powerful memoir prompts. I’m leading this with Stephanie Curry. – evening, EDT.

And if that schedule doesn’t work to write with us, or ours are full by the time you try to register, there are lots of other marvelous opportunities.

For us at AWA this is a chance to raise awareness of AWA’s method and its uses, to bring people together in our writing communities of care and comfort, to offer them a therapeutic experience of creativity, and help people claim their voice as writers. And the monetary stakes can be very low. Suggested donations are $20, $10 or even just $5 for those who are experiencing financial distress.

I would love you to come and write with me during one of my sessions. If that’s not possible because of timing, or if you want more time and space for your writing than just my session, I invite you to give yourself the gift of a writing workshop with another AWA leader. You can see them all, and sign up HERE.

Please also share the link with others you know who write. Think about the relief and joy you felt when you found the safe space that an AWA Method workshop provides. This is an opportunity to offer that gift to others.

I hope to see you in one of my Write Around the World sessions.

Looking forward to writing with you!

Warmest,

Payment Methods:
 
TOTAL COST: $1,995 + HST
 
1. Via E-transfer to: piquantp@gmail.com (please include HST)
 
2. Cheque made payable to Piquant Productions. (please include HST)
 

3. Visa or Paypal: (HST is added at checkout)
 
Deposit for A Novel Approach 10 Months – 10 Submissions: $500 + HST

Second Payment for A Novel Approach 10 Months – 10 Submissions: $1,495 + HST

Entire amount for A Novel Approach 10 Months – 10 Submissions: $1,995 + HST.