Personalizing the Impersonal

Location – Rockwood Lodge Art Space (5511 Shorncliffe Ave., Sechelt, BC)

 Please note: Coffee, tea and snacks provided. Participants will provide their own lunch.

 

About the workshop:

 

At its core, nonfiction writing is about telling a true story that entertains and informs. It is about personal experience, real people and events told in a compelling and creative way. 

 

This workshop will explore how to bring deeper reflections into your writing, engaging your audiences through story and personal anecdote linked to broad issues of public interest. We'll work on brevity, clarity and focus. You'll gain confidence in using your unique voice and style with greater proficiency through clear thinking, succinctness, simplicity and bringing key messages front and center.  You’ll work on whatever writing is on your plate at the moment, with possible outlets including newspapers, magazines, books, blogs, press releases, web sites, pitches or whatever is currently occupying your writing space.

 

The workshop will be interactive and participatory, using writing exercises, intensive group feedback, editing and revisions. Be prepared to write; bring whatever you like to write in or on.

 

About Mark L. Winston:

Mark L. Winston (www.winstonhive.com) is the recipient of the 2015 Governor General’s Literary Award for Nonfiction for his book Bee Time: Lessons From the Hive. One of the world’s leading experts on bees and pollination, Dr. Winston is also an internationally recognized researcher, teacher and writer. He directed Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Dialogue for 12 years, where he founded the Centre’s Semester in Dialogue, a program that creates leadership development opportunities that equip and empower students to contribute to social change in communities. He’s appeared three times at the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts since 1996, with his books Nature Wars, Bee Time, and Listening to the Bees, the last book co-written with poet Renée Sarojini Saklikar.

He currently is Professor Emeritus and Senior Fellow in Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Dialogue.