We are planning on offering these workshops in November 2012. Please contact us if you would like to be added to our notification list.

If you’re ready to create your own free website/blog with WordPress, this workshop will get you launched.

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We are planning on offering these workshops in November 2012.

If the idea of being in charge of what goes on your WordPress website (and when it gets posted there!) attracts you, this is the workshop for you.

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You could be holding your book of poetry in your hands by Christmas!

 
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD A COPY OF THIS INFORMATION

One of the most satisfying moments for new poets is the first time they see their poems published, but in today’s highly commercialized market there are so few traditional opportunities for publication. If poets want their poems published in book form, self-publishing poetry is not just considered acceptable–it is the norm.

The most commonly recognized format for an emerging poet is the chapbook. It is economical and easy to create, but certain fundamental skills are needed to prepare and print this important first publication.

The Whitchurch-Stouffville Public Library has partnered with micropress publisher and poet James Dewar to present a two-part series that will guide emerging poets through the process of publishing their poetry for the first time.

DATES: September 22 & November 3, 2012
TIME each day: 10:00 am to 5:00 pm (1-hour lunch)
This workshop is presented in two Saturday installments, 6 weeks apart

LOCATION: Royal Canadian Legion
150 Mostar Street, Stouffville

Click here to read kudos from former students of this workshop.

WORKSHOP ONE:

Essential Self-Publishing Skills for Poets

On the first day, the instructor will lead the group through the poem selection and book design process:

Part One:

• What is poetry?
• What are the different types of poems?
• How do you know if a poem is working?
• How do you decide which poems to put in your chapbook?

Part Two:

• What is a chapbook?
• What is the difference between perfect bound, stapled and other formats?
• What are the basic elements of a professional-looking book?
• How are the first, last, middle and other poems selected?
• How is the ideal title chosen?

The instructor will finish with a discussion about front and back cover designs (a template will be provided).

A copy of the “Microsoft Word Poetry Chapbook Template” will also be handed out, but participants will not receive detailed instructions until the second workshop.

During the 6 weeks after the first workshop, participants will be required to perform three important functions:

1. Choose the poems they will be including in the book, and revisit/review them using the editing techniques covered in the first workshop.
2. Decide on the order of the poems.
3. Choose an image for the cover and create the chapbook cover using the template provided by the instructor.

WORKSHOP TWO: (November 3^rd)

Preparing Your Chapbook for Printing

Part One:

Using examples, the instructor will explain how poems are placed into the Microsoft Word Poetry Chapbook template and guide poets through these stages:

• essential elements of aesthetic page design
• layout fundamentals
• inserting page numbers and excluding them from blank pages
• headers and footer options
• solving the problem of section breaks
• obtaining ISBN numbers and pricing barcodes for the cover

Part Two:

Participants will spend the day designing and laying out their chapbooks with the assistance of the instructor. At the conclusion of this second workshop, each poet will have:

• A professional looking poetry chapbook interior file (READY TO PRINT)
• A professional looking, beautiful chapbook cover file (READY TO PRINT)
• A chapbook template they can use for future poetry chapbook publications.
• The skills needed to create additional print-ready manuscripts and book covers.
• The option to have their chapbooks printed. The presenter has access to low-cost, low print run options.
• Poets could have copies of their books printed in time for the holidays.
• Tips on how to sell chapbooks.

Click here to read kudos from former students of this workshop.

PLEASE NOTE:

In order to produce a Poetry chapbook, each participant must bring a laptop computer with Microsoft Word installed on it. The instructor is available to discuss this in advance of the workshops if you have questions.

Each participant should bring a minimum of 20 poems in Microsoft Word or other text formats to both workshops. Participants may also bring printed copies of their poems to the first workshop to simplify the process of choosing and ordering the poems.

Note: programs may be cancelled due to insufficient registration so please register early.

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The Canadian national poetry organization,
The League of Canadian Poets
sponsored James Dewar to offer
The Poetry Chapbook Workshop
in Toronto in April, 2012.

Here are kudos from the LOCP organizer
and some of the participants:

I am pleased to announce that our first poetry chapbook workshop (held in Toronto on Saturday, April 21st) was a great success!

Thank you James for an excellent presentation and well-planned workshop! The workshop was full with 15 participants that were both members and non-members of the League. I hope this type of workshop continues with more being planned throughout Ontario and spread to the rest of the Canadian provinces.  There definitely is a need for chapbook workshops which not only helps the associate members to put a collection of their work together, but can help them to advance to a full member status if they wish. 

The hard part of creating a chapbook for me now, is pulling out the poems that I want to go into the chapbook, as now I have been forced to take a hard look of what I have written in the past and prepare to make them better! I also have seen that I have become a better writer later in life. Preparing for this chapbook workshop did that for me, and now I am motivated to put 2 chapbooks together because I have a common theme through my poems for both.

I also have met the other poets in the workshop and they are great poets!

Sherrene Kevan,

National Council Representative,

The League of Canadian Poets

 

I was delighted to finally meet you and thanks so much for delivering the Chapbook Workshop and sharing your knowledge and expertise!  I found the Workshop very helpful, especially in the way of helping me to begin tackling my organizational dilemma.  Where once I was buried in stacks, now I am finding my way to the surface!

With many thanks. 

Edith Baguinho

 

Hi James,

Thank you for yesterday’s workshop. It was informative and inspirational. I really enjoyed it. Could you please email me the link to the website that offers free barcodes for books?

Many thanks,

Dr. Dina Ripsman Eylon,

Publisher and Editor-in-Chief

Women in Judaism: A Multidisciplinary Journal

 

I had a great time. I believe you to be an excellent leader. You give your attention to each person without distraction and put your heart into your work. You facilitate an atmosphere of camaraderie. The book format was well put together and we got to interact with it with you coaching us during class.

I enjoyed all the talk about why and how to create a chapbook. I put one together as practice and will now put some real effort into making something really nice, which I will send to you for printing.

I don’t think anyone could have made us more comfortable with a more adaptable template than you did on Saturday.

Thanks

Ron Potter

 

The workshop was great and that was a sentiment shared with others during the lunch break and since.

Apart from the new knowledge gained regarding the mechanics of chapbook publishing, the background information on other aspects of publishing gleaned at the same time is immeasurably useful.  The tips and tricks of the trade that can only be gained by experience, that most of us don’t have, answered many questions, some of which we didn’t know needed asking, and I’m sure headed some of us off from taking a few wrong turns along this path.

One thing I liked is that you didn’t assume we were already computer geeks capable of manipulating the screen with no guidance.  You assumed that some of us would need help and, unlike some presenters nowadays, were prepared to offer it willingly.

When I have my chapbook polished and ready to go, I’ll be in touch. 

Thanks again for a great workshop James.

Be seeing you again no doubt.

Cheers.

Jim Scott

The Fundamental Novelist

with James Dewar

Small Wonders (Writing Short Stories)

with Susan Lynn Reynolds
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The Fundamental Novelist

The Essential Elements of Publishable Book-Length Storytelling

 
This 10 week workshop provides writers with the essential elements of publishable book-length story telling.

The arc of the classes begins with an analysis of the key stepping stones. Participants will:

• – define the overarching dramatic question that their novel will answer
• – learn how to keep characters intriguing so that readers will care what happens to them
• – interweave themes to keep the story consistent and interesting
• – apply scene building techniques that will keep the novel riveting and ensure every scene is a keeper
• – select the ideal voice for the story teller
• – analyse the value of point(s) of view in the story
• – develop ways to maintain consistency throughout the novel timelines

While participants investigate and refine these storytelling fundamentals, the workshop will simultaneously encourage the parallel process of getting the novel in front of an interested agent or publisher. Participants will:

• – prepare a convincing pitch
• – draft an engaging query letter
• – finalize the first 20 pages of the story
• – practice pitching their story to each other and in front of a knowledgeable panel.

The author who has written the best story and displayed ingenuity in the related aspects of novel promotion, as identified by the Blue Heron panel, will be forwarded to Adrienne Kerr, Chief Acquisitions Editor at Penguin Books, for consideration.

Wednesday Nights, starting February 29, 2012, 7:00 to 9:30 p.m.

Click here to register

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James Dewar has been the publisher and chief editor of Piquant Press (www.piquantpress.ca) since he started the company in 2009. It specializes in publishing poetry, non-fiction and short story collections. He has previously edited and published ten chapbooks for emerging talents through CreativeJames Publishing and co-edited three poetry anthologies. As a freelance magazine editor for Metroland Newspaper Group, he has extensive experience in editing, magazine layout and design. He teaches writing and performance workshops, including the year-long workshop with Sue Reynolds, A Novel Approach, that guides writers to complete a novel or memoir in one year. His poetry has been published in The Garden in the Machine (2007) and several anthologies and literary journals. He is President of the Writers’ Community of Durham Region (www.wcdr.ca). For more information about James and his workshops, including the writing retreats that he and Sue Reynolds offer, please visit www.inkslingers.ca.

Click here to register

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Small Worlds (Writing Short Stories)

with Susan Lynn Reynolds

Writing Short Stories

Short stories are still one of the best ways to break into the literary publishing market. This course will focus on the particularities of this literary genre. Character development, narrative structure, story arc and plot construction will be explored by weekly readings of published short stories, as well as by participating in writing assignments.

Week by week, participants will be working on short stories of various lengths. By the end of the course, writers will have created three short stories with a view towards submitting them for publication or to short story contests. Participants will also have one of the stories produced during the course published in the course anthology.

The best writing in the short story class as chosen by the Blue Heron Selection Panel, will be forwarded to editor Adrienne Kerr at Penguin Canada for personal feedback and consideration.

Course fee includes a copy of the text.

Starts March 6, 2012. Tuesday nights from 7:00 to 9:30

Click here to register

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Susan Lynn Reynolds is a writer and an accredited writing instructor in the Amherst Writers and Artists method. She is past president of the WCDR and current vice-president of the national organization Canadian Creative Writers and Writing Programs (CCWWP).

Her novel Strandia won the Canadian Library Association’s national Young Adult Novel of the Year award, and she won the Timothy Findley Creative Writing Prize three years in a row for her short stories and poetry. Her area of specialty is the therapeutic use of journaling and memoir, and her thesis on that topic received the Canadian Psychological Association’s Award of Academic Excellence in 2006.

She has been leading writing workshops for female inmates at Central East Correctional Centre for seven years, a program for which she received the 2007 June Callwood Award for Outstanding Volunteerism for that program.

She and her partner James Dewar run a freelance writing and web design business, and teach creative writing in a number of freelance workshops, at Durham College, and in their year long course A NOVEL APPROACH where participants take one year to write their book length novels or memoirs.

Click here to register