COMPOSED Free Workshops Registration
Workshops take place SATURDAY, JUNE 13
from 10am to 4pm
@ The North Delta Centre for the Arts
See individual workshop descriptions for start times.
Each workshop is 80 minutes in length.
Note that multiple workshops are being offered during each time slot.
Please check in at the Welcome Table when you arrive at the centre for the location of your workshop(s).
Flash Memoir: short forms that say it all
10am
Facilitator
Taslim Jaffer
Short forms are a big deal these days – and they’re fun to whip up! Join creative non-fiction writer, Taslim Jaffer, in a generative writing workshop where she will provide prompts and examples to help you get stories down on the page. Inspired by the works and teachings of Beth-Ann Fennelly, Abigail Thomas, Rachel Thompson and more, the exercises will serve to bring out the stories you may have passed over as trivial but that shine under literary light. Sometimes life (and writing) isn’t about the grandiose but the small everyday moments that fill our existence
Plot Twist: It was therapy all along
10am
Facilitator
Kimberly Lawton
This workshop explores how to transform personal pain into powerful fiction using humour, imagination, and even horror. Rather than writing a memoir, participants will learn to create distance from real experiences, reshaping them into stories they control. Through guided exercises, we’ll turn emotional moments into characters, scenes, and narratives that feel safe, creative, and compelling. Emphasis is placed on emotional readiness – if a story feels too raw, it’s okay to step back. The goal is not to relive trauma, but to rework it into something meaningful, engaging, and entirely your own because your story belongs to you, and you decide how it’s told.
AI and Authors: Navigating our way through a new world
10am
Facilitator
Debra Purdy Kong
The growing impact of AI has created confusion and controversy in the writing world. Many authors are understandably wary about the changes being inserted into their writing lives without their knowledge or permission. Whether we’re ready or not, however, AI is here to stay. So, how do we deal with it? Does this technology make an author’s life better or worse? This workshop will explore both useful AI tools and some of the many scams to avoid.
Creative Writing with AI
11:30am
Facilitator
Fauzia Rafique
Information sharing, exercises and discussion on how AI can be used ethically to enhance our creative expressions, and what are some of its inherent limitations in contributing to our art and craft. We’ll also consider some of the changes that it may bring to our creative processes, culture and society.
Poetry at the Corporate Level
11:30am
Facilitator
Marlo Browne
In this workshop, students will learn how poetry can be used as an effective communication tool in the workplace and how it can boost employee morale through team building. The workshop will be for 80 minutes and will be divided into 5 sections: Introduction; Short and Sweet; Humour is the Best Medicine; Emotional Intelligence; and Conclusion.
From the Inside Out: an expressive arts creative writing workshop
11:30am
Facilitator
Bonnie Nish
Sometimes we need a quiet space to listen for the words waiting inside us.
In this gentle workshop we’ll explore creative writing through expressive arts — simple prompts, image, and reflection that open the door to memory, imagination, and personal voice.
Lunchtime
Entertainment and Q&A
Using the Enneagram to Create Three-Dimensional Characters
Upper Lobby
1-2 pm
Facilitator
TJ Dawe
The Enneagram (pronounced “any-a-gram”) charts nine personality types, and is invaluable as a tool for creating and fleshing out characters in any genre, and any medium. TJ Dawe will present an overview of each type, with numerous examples of characters from movies and TV shows, outlining each type’s basic motivation, their behaviour, their physical affect, what they look like at their best, at their worst, how they grow, how they devolve, and how they look as a protagonist, antagonist, or supporting character.
Page to Stage
*choose 1, 2 or all 3 sessions
2pm
Facilitator
Leslie Stark
Have you ever wanted to write for the stage or screen?
Are you looking to sharpen your scriptwriting or playwriting skills?
Do you have a scene or monologue inside you that’s ready to come to life?
PAGE TO STAGE invites beginning, emerging, or experienced writers alike to develop a short scene or monologue (5 minutes or less) and see it fully realized onstage Saturday, July 25, 7pm @ the North Delta Centre for the Arts.
This free program offers three in‑depth, two‑hour workshops.
Following workshop dates:
Sat, June 20 – 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM
Sat, June 27 – 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM
Sympoiesis: A poetic
co-Making with lichen
2pm
Facilitator
Kim Trainor
*NOTE* This is an outdoor workshop, taking place rain or shine. Come prepared and bring something to sit on if you wish
An outdoor, guided consideration of the complex, symbiotic world of lichen. After listening and attending with care, we will write our poems, including calligrammes / concrete poems, and offer them to the world.
The workshop provides:
• a hand-stitched notebook that includes prompts and materials for writing in addition to blank pages for your notes and poem drafts
• a very basic introduction to iNaturalist (the citizen-scientist app – please download it for free to your phone before the workshop)
Putting Poetry into Your Prose
2pm
Facilitator
Kyle Hawke
Words convey information, often dry and essential details. But while exposition is a necessary evil in fiction, it doesn’t have to read that way. Learn how to make your prose sing by bringing out the nuances, emotion, and subtext that really drives the ideas that will connect with your readers.
Through exercises, discussion, and play, you’ll learn to say much more than their words do. Participants are encouraged to bring an excerpt of a paragraph they believe might bore readers.