Engaging Canadian Seniors
Programme
This page is updated as information becomes available.
Please scroll down to register for the lastest workshops.
Workshop 1 – Thursday, May 30, 2024, 3:00 – 4:30 p.m. ET on Zoom
COMPLETED
Emotional Intelligence: How to Get “Smarter” With Age with SILVANA PERNA
Learn to recognize and understand your emotions and their effects on others. Discover practical strategies for enhancing awareness and communication crucial for managing relationships effectively in later life.
Silvana Perna is a clinical nurse specialist and a certified coach who leverages emotional intelligence principles to help individuals achieve their personal and professional goals.
Workshop 2 – Friday, June 14, 2024, 2:00 – 3:30 p.m. ET on Zoom
COMPLETED
Your Personal Strategic Action Plan with RUSSELL FRALICH
We will use a tried-and-tested executive process to help you define your own personal strategy. Whether you want to tweak your life by learning a new skill or make a bold move to transform your life, this workshop will show you how to envision the future you seek, to find the right questions to ask, and how to get the answers you need to realize the new you.
Russell Fralich is Associate Professor of Strategy at HEC Montreal and a thriller author. He teaches strategy at the undergraduate, graduate, and executive levels. He also researches how social judgments affect strategic decisions. His most recent novel is the pan-Canadian action thriller True Patriots.
Workshop 3 – Friday, July 12, 2024, 2:00 – 3:30 p.m. ET on Zoom
COMPLETED
Memories and Heritage: How to Create and Perform a Spoken Word Poem with LIANA CUSMANO and LUCIA De LUCA
In this beginner-friendly workshop, poets Liana Cusmano and Lucia De Luca will guide you in excavating the poetic and narrative details of your memories. How do memories become a poem? How does our heritage shape who we are as storytellers? Participants will learn how to transform memories into spoken word poems.
Lucia De Luca (left) is an English teacher, poet, and the recipient of the 2022 QWF Spoken Word Prize. Liana Cusmano (right) is a non-binary spoken-word poet, an arts educator, and the 2023 Montreal Slam Champion.
Workshop 4 – Thursday, July 25, 2024, 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. ET on Zoom
COMPLETED
Writing From the Body: When Language Fails Us with JULIAN A M.P.
The focus for this workshop will be to write from the body. We will explore writing prompts that engage sensation, impulse, and action. We will ask the question, “what does my body already know?”
Julian A M.P. (him/them) is a transgender white settler, a writer and a visual artist. He teaches at the University of Toronto Scarborough and is also a parent to two young children.
Workshop 5 – Friday, August 23, 2024, 12:30 – 2:00 p.m. ET on Zoom
COMPLETED
Making a Cookbook for and from Community: Reflecting and Writing Activities with CASSANDRA MARSILLO
Food is community and culture. Recipes hold memories. Like all traditions, by existing in the present, they tell us as much about who we are today, as who we were before, evoking the places, people, and emotions behind them. Pulling from historical, autobiographical, and non-fiction writing, we will explore how to write recipes through storytelling. In this workshop, we will write about and around recipes directly tied to our own communities. Please come prepared with a recipe (or two) that connects to your culture or community.
Cassandra Marsillo is an oral historian, artist, and history teacher who focuses on collective memory, food, and folklore.
Workshop 6 – Friday, September 6, 2024, 12:00 – 1:30 p.m. ET on Zoom
COMPLETED
Writing About Wine and Other Brews with GIULIA DE GASPERI
Using prompts from the volume A Literary Harvest: Canadian Writing About Wine and Other Brews (2024), we will consider wine and other brews in relation to different themes. Sipping while attending is mandatory!
Giulia De Gasperi is an editor and non-fiction writer who focuses on issues of inclusivity and well-being. She is co-editor of A Literary Harvest: Canadian Writing About Wine and Other Brews (2024).
Workshop 7 – Thursday, October 10th, 2024, 2:00 – 3:30 p.m. ET on Zoom
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
Watching the Sunflowers Grow: Reflections on How to Take It Slow with LICIA CANTON
What’s your favourite vegetable or herb? What’s your favourite flower? Have you ever watched it grow? In this workshop, we will look at what grows around us as inspiration for “slow-motion writing” and the benefits of taking it slow.
Licia Canton is the author of Almond Wine and Fertility (2008) and The Pink House and Other Stories (2018). Her writing at canadianliteraryfare.org has resulted in a foodoir-in-progress titled Fresh Eggs and Polenta Chips.
Workshop 8 – Saturday, November 30, 2024, 12:00 – 1:30 p.m. ET on Zoom
ClICK HERE TO REGISTER
This Is It: Writing Multi-Generational Family Stories with MATTHEW FOX
Generational dynamics are informed by what individuals choose to hide, how they adapt to change, and how they want their family to be perceived. This workshop explores how fiction can liberate writers to approach these topics and find truth (if not factual accuracy) in what characters inherit and pass on through the generations.
Matthew Fox is literary critic and fiction writer. His works include the short story collection Cities of Weather and the multi-generational family novel This Is It.
Workshop 9 – Friday, December 13, 2024, 12:00 – 1:30 p.m. ET on Zoom
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
Workshop 10 – DATE TO BE ANNOUNCED
REGISTRATION LINK TO BE ANNOUNCED
The Art of Writing the Novella with JOHN CALABRO
John Calabro is the author of the novellas Bellecour, The Cousin (the French translation of which was shortlisted for a Governor General's Award) and An Imperfect Man. www.johncalabro.ca