New series bridges gap between professional and budding writers
The Inspired Word Café is a community-based arts organization that plans training, workshops and poetic and literary readings. Organizers are now teaming up with UBC Okanagan’s Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies and the City of Kelowna to host a series of public readings and open mic sessions.
Known for the past 10 years as Milkcraters of the Moon reading series, the newly-renamed Inspired Word Café public reading series, will bring visiting authors together with writers from the Okanagan to share their experiences and talent. It takes place in tandem with local non-profit Cool Art Society’s Community Art Night, which provides space and materials for members of the public to make visual art.
The goal is to bridge the gap between UBCO and the greater Okanagan community by bringing in professional writers and pairing them with a local author and an open mic. Writers like Amber Dawn, Ian Ferrier and UBC Okanagan’s own Margo Tamez will take the stage with some of the brightest local poets and prose writers Kelowna has to offer.
When: Thursday, November 21 from 7 to 9 p.m.
Who: Visiting authors and editors Amber Dawn and Justin Ducharme
Where: Cool Arts space in the Rotary Centre for the Arts, 421 Cawston Ave, Kelowna
Event attendees will see a unique mix of visiting authors and community authors, and gain access to professional writers in an intimate setting.
What: Memoir writing workshop
Who: Amber Dawn, Canadian writer, filmmaker and performance artist
When: Saturday, November 23 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Where: Okanagan Regional Library, Kelowna Downtown branch, 1380 Ellis St., Kelowna
Tough Language, Tender Wisdom is a writing workshop that invites participants to press on forward into some of the more challenging aspects of writing from personal experience. These challenges may be writers’ block or feeling out of practice, or these challenges may lie with writing specific memories or events. Come break the isolation of writing through challenges alone.
Amber Dawn will lead participants through a series of freewriting exercises, group discussion and optional peer-to-peer sharing and strategizing. Tough Language, Tender Wisdom is memoir-focused, although easily adapted for poets, playwrights, lyricists and fiction writers.
More information can be found at: www.inspiredwordcafe.com
About UBC’s Okanagan campus
UBC’s Okanagan campus is an innovative hub for research and learning in the heart of British Columbia’s stunning Okanagan Valley. Ranked among the top 20 public universities in the world, UBC is home to bold thinking and discoveries that make a difference. Established in 2005, the Okanagan campus combines a globally recognized UBC education with a tight-knit and entrepreneurial community that welcomes students and faculty from around the world.
To find out more, visit: ok.ubc.ca