Please note: all workshop times are EDT.
| Event | Location | Time/Date |
|---|---|---|
| Blue Pencil Writing Consultations | Eden Mills Community Hall, 104 York St., Eden Mills | September 18th, 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. |
| Breaking into YA | Virtual | September 18th, 3:00-4:00 p.m. |
| Eden Mills Writers’ Festival Opening Night: Art and Truth | Art Gallery of Guelph, 358 Gordon St, Guelph | September 18th, 6:00-9:00 p.m. |
| A Series of Mysterious Events: Crafting stories readers can’t put down | Virtual | September 19th, 10:00-11:00 a.m. |
| Mastering the Short Story: You wrote a story, now what? | Virtual | September 19th, 11:30 a.m-12:30 p.m. |
| Moving Through Writers’ Block | Virtual | September 19th, 1:00-2:30 p.m. |
| Conservation Through Storytelling | Guelph Public Library, 100 Norfolk St., Guelph | September 19th, 1:30-2:30 p.m. |
| Tell Me the Truth: Creative non-fiction that sings | Rockwood Library, 121 Rockmosa Dr., Rockwood | September 19th, 1:30-2:30 p.m. |
| Talking Short Stories | Halton Hills Public Library, 17 River St., Acton | September 19th, 2:30-4:00 p.m. |
| LitRPG with Tao Wong | Guelph Public Library, 100 Norfolk St., Guelph | September 19th, 3:00-4:00 p.m. |
| Create Poetry Through Collage | Rockwood Library, 121 Rockmosa Dr., Rockwood | September 19th, 3:00-4:30 p.m. |
Blue Pencil Writing Consultations
Note: This workshop requires an application in order to confirm participation. Please apply here. Participation is capped to 10 individuals.
Time: Friday, September 18th, 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.*
Location: Eden Mills Community Hall, 104 York St.
*Participants will receive a specific timeslot and further instruction on submitting work on acceptance
These free sessions are presented in partnership with Editors Hamilton-Halton, a chapter of Editors Canada.
Description: New for 2026, we’re partnering with Editors Hamilton-Halton, a chapter of Editors Canada, to bring professional editing advice for writers 18+.
Get professional advice on a writing project and get a taste of the editing process — supportive, honest and effective.
Submit your application for your writing project (fiction or non-fiction) of up to 2,500 words for a chance to be paired with a professional editor on Friday September 18th in Eden Mills. The editor will prepare a brief report on your project and provide feedback in person. Please note, registrants can only attend one consultation and we will not be doing virtual sessions.
Poetry, scripts and/or academic papers are not accepted.
Once registered, each participant will receive further instructions on how to submit their writing project.
Breaking into YA – with author Jean Mills
Time: Friday, September 18th, 3:00-4:00 p.m. EST
Location: Virtual
Cost: $40
Description: Dreaming of becoming a YA author? This workshop addresses the essentials of writing specifically for a young adult audience. We’ll talk about the many shades of YA and explore techniques for making your story stand out. What point of view should you use? Does your story have a clear voice? What about including those touchy subjects? Is this a place to teach or entertain? And are you doing too much “throat-clearing” before the story even starts? We’ll look at these questions, answer yours and more as we explore the young adult genre and writing techniques to help you create your best YA story.
About the facilitator: Jean Mills writes young adult and middle grade fiction, including novels Larkin on the Shore, The Legend and After the Wallpaper Music, which is nominated for the 2026 Saskatchewan Young Readers Diamond Willow Award. Her Red Maple Award-nominated novel Skating Over Thin Ice, was named to the USBBY Outstanding International Books List. She had fun using Guelph as the setting for her 2023 YA novel, Bliss Adair and the First Rule of Knitting. Her Hi-Lo hockey novels, Wingman and Busted were both named Junior Library Guild Gold Selections, and her upcoming young adult Hi-Lo romantasy, A Song of Heart and Healing, will be published by Orca Books in 2027. Fun Fact: She wrote her first poem at age 6, decided she had found her calling and has never looked back!
Eden Mills Writers’ Festival Opening Night: Art and Truth
Time: Friday, September 18th, 6:00-9:00 p.m.
Location: Art Gallery of Guelph, 358 Gordon St.
Cost: $40
This is an event is for adults 19+
Join us for a very special opening night at the Art Gallery of Guelph, featuring artist and activist Syrus Marcus Ware and writer and professor Niigaan Sinclair in conversation with author Zalika Reid-Benta.
The evening will begin with a light reception, followed by a presentation by Syrus Marcus Ware and a discussion on the role of art in bringing difficult truths to light and driving social change. We’re kicking off this year’s festival as we intend to go on — celebrating the critical importance of human creativity and the practice of sharing our stories! Not just for capital A artists and activists, but for all of us.
About the authors:
Niigaan Sinclair is Anishinaabe (St. Peter’s/Little Peguis) and a professor at the University of Manitoba where he holds the Faculty of Arts Professorship in Indigenous Knowledge and Aesthetics in the Department of Indigenous Studies. Niigaan is also an award-winning writer, editor, and activist who was named to the “Power List” in 2022 by Maclean’s magazine as one of the most influential individuals in Canada.
Syrus Marcus Ware is a Vanier Scholar, visual artist, activist, curator, educator and co-founder of Black Lives Matter Canada. An assistant professor at the School of the Arts, McMaster University, he is the co-editor of the bestselling Until We Are Free: Reflections on Black Lives Matter in Canada. He lives in Tkaronto.
About the facilitator: Zalika Reid-Benta is a Canadian writer. Her debut novel River Mumma was shortlisted for the 2024 Trillium Book Award and her debut story collection Frying Plantain won the 2020 Danuta Gleed Literary Award and the 2020 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for Literary Fiction. Her second novel The Seacliff Hotel will be published in Spring 2027 and her picture books, The Twelve Days of Jamaican Christmas and Esme’s Happy Place, will be published in 2026 and 2027 respectively.
A Series of Mysterious Events: Crafting stories readers can’t put down
Time: Saturday, September 19th, 10:00-11:00 a.m. EST
Location: Virtual
Cost: $40
Calling all sleuths! This workshop unravels the mystery of writing a mystery. We’ll explore the essential elements of crafting a mystery novel or series your readers can’t put down — diving into how character can impact what you write, structuring your work and how to develop a plot that will keep your readers guessing until the last page.
About the facilitator: Born in Belleville, Ontario, Ron Base was a teenager when he got his start writing for the daily Brockville Recorder and Times. He was a reporter and columnist at the Windsor Star; a writer for the Toronto Sunday Sun when it started; Maclean’s Magazine contributing editor and movie critic for the Toronto Star. As a magazine writer his pieces appeared in publications in the U.S. and Canada. He wrote screenplays in Los Angeles and Europe. The author of fifteen Sanibel Sunset Detective mystery novels, Base has also co-authored with Prudence Emery, Death at the Savoy, Scandal at the Savoy, Princess of the Savoy, Curse of the Savoy and, most recently, Midnight at the Savoy. A sixth novel in the series, The Secret of the Savoy, will be published in 2027. The novels have been published in Canada, the United States, and France. Ron lives in Milton, Ontario with his wife, Kathy.
Mastering the Short Story:
You wrote a story, now what?
Time: Saturday, September 19th, 11:30 a.m-12:30 p.m. EST
Location: Virtual
Cost: $40
Join us as we talk about how to approach revision for your short story — and what to do when you know it’s ready. We will talk about common pitfalls in writing, finding your voice, authenticity of character and where to submit the story once it’s ready.
For this workshop, participants are asked to submit their short story or short story in progress (no more than 2500 words) to [email protected] and research two literary magazines you would like to submit your work to, along with any questions they have about the publications. The first eight people to register will receive a half page of feedback from Alison and all participants are invited to follow up after the workshop.
About the facilitator: Alison Gadsby, a first-generation Canadian writer, lives in a multigenerational home on Treaty 13 land in Tkaronto. Author of story collection Breathing Is How Some People Stay Alive (Guernica Editions, 2026) and other short fiction that has appeared in Literary Heist, The Temz Review, The Ex-Puritan, failbetter, and more. Dreams of the Weary, her debut novel, is forthcoming with Palimpsest Press (2028). She holds an MFA from the UBC, and an HBA in English & Creative Writing from York University. She is the host of Junction Reads, a prose reading series, and co-host on HOWL, a literary radio show on CIUT, 89.5 FM.
Moving Through Writers’ Block
Time: Saturday, September 19th, 1:00-2:30 p.m. EST
Location: Virtual
Cost: $40
Writer’s block isn’t a discipline problem, it’s often a nervous system freeze. If you’ve tried pushing through resistance or waiting for motivation to return, this session offers a different approach. Janelle Hardy, somatic healer and creator of transformational memoir-writing program, The Art of Personal Mythmaking, will guide you through a body-based understanding of how writer’s block is related to fight, flight and freeze nervous system states, and how to work with resistance instead of fighting it. You’ll learn to recognise physical signals before they take over, understand blocks through body responses, and finish with three in-the-moment techniques to shift stuckness in under three minutes.
About the facilitator: Janelle Hardy is a writer, somatic healer and master craftswoman of embodied story. She’s the creator of The Art of Personal Mythmaking, a 12-month memoir-writing program that weaves together your body (nervous system healing), life stories and myth so that you can write your truest, most compelling memoir. She also hosts two annual online summits —The Healing Through Writing Festival and Dirty, Messy, Alive: Embodied Memoir-Writing Workshop Series.
With over 17 years and 6,000+ hours of hands-on bodywork experience, she is certified in Somatic Experiencing® and Structural Integration. She’s logged 1,500+ hours of trauma-trained group facilitation, where she unites bodywisdom and storycraft to help people heal and write their memoirs through the body, drawing on ancient stories such as fairy tales and myth.
Conservation Through Storytelling
Time: Saturday, September 19th, 1:30-2:30 p.m.
Location: Guelph Public Library, 100 Norfolk St.
This is a free event in partnership with the Guelph Public Library.
While charismatic superstars like pandas and elephants may take centre stage in most conservation marketing campaigns, there are countless endangered species who stay in the shadows. From lichen to slugs, these “non-charismatic” species are understudied and underfunded but still ecologically essential.
In this workshop, storytelling becomes a tool for the conservation of overlooked species. Participants will be guided through interactive writing prompts, engage in discussion and walk away with a new appreciation for the underdogs of conservation. No writing experience required!
About the facilitator: Illyria Volcansek is an undergraduate student research assistant with Dr. Madhur Anand’s Global Ecological Change & Sustainability Lab at the University of Guelph. Over the past year, she has been working on an extensive project that explores more-than-human charisma through short stories, research, and interactive fiction. Her essays and poetry have been published in the student journals Inventio and Kaleidoscope. Illyria is excited to start her graduate studies at the Global Campus of Human Rights this fall.
Tell Me the Truth:
Creative non-fiction that sings
Time: Saturday, September 19th, 1:30-2:30 p.m.
Location: Rockwood Library, 121 Rockmosa Dr., Rockwood
This is a free event in partnership with Wellington County Library.
Do you have a true tale to share with the world? This workshop takes participants on a journey to creative risk-taking, pointing the way to telling true stories that sing and dance – and that people want to read. Drawing on personal experience as a writer of memoir, historical fiction and biography – and sharing his own tales of adventure – the facilitator will dive into the elements of great non-fiction writing.
About the facilitator: Ken McGoogan is a globe-trotting historian who survived shipwreck off Dar es Salaam, chased the ghost of Jane Lady Franklin from Russell Square to Van Diemen’s Land and placed a John Rae memorial plaque in the High Arctic. Ken has published seventeen books – mostly historical or biographical narratives, but also novels and memoirs. His best-selling titles include Searching for Franklin, Flight of the Highlanders, Dead Reckoning, Celtic Lightning, Fatal Passage, 50 Canadians Who Changed the World, Lady Franklin’s Revenge, and Canada’s Undeclared War: Fighting Words from the Literary Trenches.
Talking Short Stories
Time: Saturday, September 19th, 2:30-4:00 p.m.
Location: Halton Hills Public Library, 17 River St., Acton
This is a free event in partnership with the Halton Hills Public Library.
Bring your pen, paper or laptop and join award-winning author Pamela Mordecai as she demystifies the role of dialogue in short stories. In this hands-on workshop, participants will move through writing exercises and learn about how great dialogue can hook readers, make characters more compelling and move your plot forward in surprising ways. You’ll learn what to avoid, devices for creating dialogue that rings true and keeps readers glued to the page.
About the facilitator: Pamela Mordecai is a Jamaican Canadian author whose first short story collection, Pink Icing, received rave reviews and whose debut novel, Red Jacket, was shortlisted for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. Her work has been described as “brilliant” by Kamau Brathwaite and as “immaculately crafted” by Kwame Dawes and has been shortlisted for the James Tiptree Jr. Memorial Award (now the Otherwise Award) for writing in the speculative fiction or fantasy genre. She has written nine collections of poetry, including a trilogy about the life of Jesus in Jamaican Patwa (de book of Joseph, de book of Mary, and de Man) and a collection of new and selected poems, A Fierce Green Place. With her late husband, Martin, she also wrote a reference work called Culture and Customs of Jamaica. A recipient of the Institute of Jamaica’s Centenary and Bronze Medals for her contributions to Jamaican literature, she blogs at pamelamordecai.ca and writes the occasional critical essay. Two Days in Mayaro is her second collection of stories.
LitRPG with Tao Wong
Time: Saturday, September 19th, 3:00-4:00 p.m.
Location: Guelph Public Library, 100 Norfolk St., Guelph
This is a free event in partnership with the Guelph Public Library.
LitRPG is having a moment – and we want to have that moment with you! Join Tao Wong, author of the A Thousand Li progression fantasy series and the System Apocalypse LitRPG series for an engaging session where he will demystify self-publishing and breaking into the LitRPG scene. He will read from his latest book and answer each and every one of your questions.
About the author: Tao Wong is the author of the A Thousand Li progression fantasy series and the System Apocalypse LitRPG series, among others. When he’s not writing and working, he’s practicing martial arts, reading and dreaming up new worlds. He lives in Toronto.
Create Poetry Through Collage
Time: Saturday September 19th, 3:00-4:30 p.m.
Location: Rockwood Library, 121 Rockmosa Dr., Rockwood
This is a free event in partnership with Wellington County Library.
Go home like the artist you are, with a finished poetry and collage piece. In this hands-on workshop, participants will be led through a series of prompts and experiments to inspire written poetry, creating collage imagery along the way. By the end of the workshop, you will have created a finished mixed-mediapiece of art that combines text and visual media. No matter your writing or collage experience, this workshop is for you.
About the facilitator: Jess Wilson is an interdisciplinary artist and writer whose most preferred medium is actually facilitation. She makes spaces for creativity and community through a variety of mediums – through workshops, privately curated lessons and collaborative events with other creatives. Jess is a self-published poet and graduate candidate at the Toronto Art Therapy Institute. She’s currently completing her thesis, but always appreciates an opportunity to take a break through through the outlets of creative writing and art.