Participate in the Canada Day Challenge

Are you creative? Get inspired and celebrate your future! 

Each year, the Canada Day Challenge invites young Canadians from 8 to 18 years old to submit their best, most dynamic drawings, photos or pieces of creative writing that celebrate Canada's culture and identity, illustrate their vision of the future, and reflects their exploration and participation in their community. 

By entering the Canada Day Challenge,  you could win a trip for two to Ottawa and be a VIP Guest on Parliament Hill on Canada Day to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Confederation!

The Challenge is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2017. Entries are being accepted until March 31, 2017.

Get all the details at www.canada.ca/canada-day-challenge

Calligraphy Workshops

Think of the last time you got a letter – an actual, hand-written letter – in the mail.  It was probably a quite some time ago, and you likely took great delight in opening the envelope to read the contents inside.

Every day, we are bombarded with e-newsletters and junk mail.  Our virtual (and actual!) mailboxes become so full of corporate messaging that all the content seems to run into each other.  Among the piles of glossy adverts and the unread messages in our inbox, the hand-written note is the rare and true gem.  Each letter represents and personal and unique part of the sender with a message crafted for a very specific audience: you.

Whether you’re sending out invitations for a special event, or if you’ve made it a goal to send more written correspondence, the Gothicized Italic Calligraphy Workshop might be for you!  Running January 18-February 15 (Wednesdays, 6:30 pm – 9:00 pm), this course will walk students through the art of beautiful penmanship.

The course will be held at the Suncor Energy Centre for Performing Arts and registration is open now.   

Free Poetry Workshops

Did you know that April is National Poetry Month?

Established in Canada in 1998, National Poetry Month strives to increase awareness and appreciation of poetry and the important role it plays in our culture.

Poetry is celebrated in Wood Buffalo through the annual Words in Motion program. Residents of all ages- whether they are a student, a professional writer, or a novice wordsmith- are encouraged to submit their poetry. You can learn more about Words in Motion at www.rmwb.ca/wordsinmotion 

The deadline to submit your poetry is February 3, 2017. Once the program closes, an external panel of judges will select the poems to be displayed in Wood Buffalo Transit buses and on the Municipal website. Authors of the selected poems will be invited to participate in a celebration event at the Wood Buffalo Regional Library in April.

To help get your creative juices flowing, Dr. Ryan Cox of Keyano College will be facilitating two poetry workshops on January 10th (for adults) and January 18th (for ages 13-18) at the Wood Buffalo Regional Library. Attendance is free of charge! Be sure to register your spot here.

Happy Writing!

Let your creativity shine - submit your poems to Words in Motion!

Are you a writer or a poet? Do you like to write clever rhymes or song lyrics?

If so, you should submit your work to this year’s Words in Motion!

Words in Motion is a literacy program that promotes an appreciation for the art of poetry. Poetry can take many forms- whether it be dramatic, lyrical or narrative- so don't limit your creativity! Poems written in any form or language (with an English translation) will be accepted.  

A panel of judges will review the poems and select which ones will be displayed on Wood Buffalo Transit buses and shelters as well as on the RWMB website. 

You have until February 3, 2017 to participate. 

To read last year's selected poetry and to learn more about the program, please visit www.rmwb.ca/wordsinmotion

National Novel Writing Month

Have you ever dreamed about writing a novel? Here’s your chance! Join the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) challenge and see if you can write a 50, 000 word story in 30 days. 

NaNoWriMo is an annual, Internet-based creative writing project that brings together professional and amateur writers from all over the world. 

Here’s how it works:
• Visit www.nanowrimo.org to create a profile
• On November 1, start writing!

Be sure to visit the NaNoWriMo website often to check in, track your progress, get pep talks and support, and to network with fellow writers. Don’t fret too much about the quality of your work- you can do that later. The main goal of NaNoWriMo is to encourage creativity worldwide and to have participants focus on completion, rather than perfection, of their work. 

To learn more about NaNoWriMo, visit www.nanowrimo.org

Happy Writing!

Keyano College Lecture Series: How to Write Poems About Fires

Keyano College is once again hosting a free lecture series for the community to enjoy.

The lecture series is hosted by various instructors from the College, and the lectures range in theme and topic. Attending a lecture is a wonderful opportunity to engage in meaningful conversation and to learn something new about a topic that has piqued your interest! 

The next lecture will be held on Friday, October 28, 2016 and will explore "How to Write Poems About Fires". The lecture will be hosted by Dr. Ryan Cox, an English instructor at Keyano.  

Dr. Cox seeks to demystify the process of creating a poem and will answer questions such as, "How do you write a poem?" and "What does a poem even look like?"

There will also be a special presentation of new poetry that was written with the support of an Alberta Foundation for the Arts grant.

Be sure to make Oct. 28th in your calendars and join Dr. Cox in the Keyano Recital Theatre at 7 pm.

For more information, please visit www.keyano.ca. 

The 88,000 Project- Share Your Stories!

We all evacuated. We all have a story. The 88,000 Project is asking you for your stories. 

Ashley Tobin, creator of The 88,000 Project, explains: “ The 88,000 Project is a compilation of our stories - stories of evacuation, re-entry, and everything in between.  I came up with this project as a solution to my own anxiety about the re-entry process.  A good friend encouraged me to write my feelings down anytime I felt overwhelmed.  Whenever I felt that I couldn’t breathe, I wrote down how I was feeling.  I transferred my thoughts from my mind to a piece of paper.  It worked!”

Tobin hopes to inspire other residents to share their stories.  “By writing down their stories, residents can have an opportunity to be heard and to put their feelings onto paper, which will hopefully help them in their own journey of recovery.  I also find that reading about other peoples’ experiences helps me to put my own experience into perspective.”  

A few stories have already come in, and Tobin hopes to get 400 entries by October 31.  “The goal is to have the book published by Christmas,” says Tobin.  “As the months march on, it’s important that the community has an opportunity like this – to express themselves honestly and to learn of their neighbours’ stories.”  If you’re stuck for something to write about, there’s a list of potential topics at www.the88000project.com.

A portion of the proceeds from The 88,000 Project will be directed to the United Way of Fort McMurray.  

The submission guidelines are simple: write out (or draw!) your story on one side of an 8.5 in x 11 in paper.  Your submission can be a single sentence or it could take up the entire page.  Stories may be submitted in any language.  Submissions are open to all ages and must be anonymous.  

Check out the www.the88000project.com for submission drop-off locations, deadline,  and other details.

2016 CBC Creative Nonfiction Prize is Now Open!

2016 CBC Creative Nonfiction Prize is Now Open!

This is it! Your first writing assignment of the New Year! Send your original, unpublished work of creative nonfiction (between 1,200 and 1,500 words) and you could win a $6,000 grand prize, one of four $1,000 runners-up prizes, a 10 day writing residency at The Banff Centre, and more. The competition runs from January 1 to February 29, 2016. Visit www.cbc.ca/canadawrites for more information.

                                                                          Write-On

If you have an imaginative child who loves to tell stories enroll them into Write-On. Write-On, a joint project between Fort McMurray Public Library and Keyano College writing instructor Ryan Cox, is a four session workshop in which children between the ages of eight and eleven can learn the art of creative writing. The workshop will feature genres such as poetry, prose, and drama.  The program will run October 10^th and 31^st, as well as November 7^th and 28^th. For more information on Write-On and other programs offered through the Fort McMurray Public Library please visit their website www.fmpl.ca

Write On! Creative Writing Workshops for Kids