KUDOS for The Poetry Chapbook Workshop

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