Creative writing courses starting in January: Introductory to Intensive, plus Writing Kid Lit – Sign up now; get the 2018 fee

Note: See details of classes starting in April here.

Exploring Creative Writing

Ten weeks of discovering your creative side

Thursday afternoons, 12:45 – 2:45

January 24 – April 4, 2019 (No class March 14)

St. Elizabeth's Anglican Church
5324 Bromley Rd, Burlington, Ontario (Map here.)

 This is your chance to take up writing in a warm, supportive environment. This course will open the door to writing short stories and writing dialogue, writing in first person and writing in third person, writing just for fun and writing all kinds of things. 

You’ll get a shot of inspiration every week and an assignment to keep you going till the next class. Best of all, this class will provide a zero-pressure, totally safe setting, where your words will grow and flower.

Fee:  $176.11 plus 13% hst = $199

To reserve a spot now, email: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

The Calling, a YA novel by Kelley Armstrong,
a New York Times #1 bestselling author
and one of Brian's students

Writing Kid Lit

 ~ Picture Books to Young Adult

Thursday evenings, 6:30 – 8:30

January 24 – March 28 (No class March 14)

Oakville Central Library, Auditorium, 120 Navy Street, Oakville, Ontario (Map here)

From picture books to young adult novels, this weekly course is accessible for beginners and meaty enough for advanced writers. Through lectures, in-class assignments, homework, and feedback on your writing, we’ll give you ins and outs of writing for younger readers and set you on course toward writing your own books.
We’ll have two published children’s authors as guest speakers:

Sylvia McNicoll is the author of over thirty books, many of which have garnered awards and Her YA novel, Crush.candy.corpse was shortlisted for the Arthur Ellis YA Crime Novel of the Year Award, the Red Maple Award, the Manitoba Young Readers' Choice Award, and the Snow Willow Award, as well as being selected as one of the Ontario Library Association's Best Bets and Resource Links' Year's Best for 2012. 

Most acclaimed, though, are her three middle grade books about fostering guide dogs  Bringing Up Beauty, Beauty Returns, and A Different Kind of Beauty which won and were nominated for many children’s choice awards. Her 2015 YA novel Best Friends Through Eternity tells the story of an adopted Chinese teen for whom an ill-fated shortcut along a rail track leads to the discovery of some uncomfortable truths. 

In 2017, Sylvia launched her new middle grade series The Great Mistake Mysteries beginning with The Best Mistake Mystery in January and The Artsy Mistake Mystery in September and finishing with The Snake Mystery in January 2018.

Kira Vermond is an award-winning writer with over 1,500 articles to her name. She has been a frequent contributor to the Globe and Mail, Chatelaine, CBC and Today's Parent.
Kira is the author of four nonfiction books for young readers: Half-Truths and Brazen Lies, (read more about Half-Truths here); Why We Live Where We Live (more here);  Growing Up: Inside and Out, (nominated for on Ontario Library Association Forest of Reading Award) and The Secret Life of Money: A Kid's Guide to Cash (which was my son’s and daughter’s favourite book  the year it came out, although my kids are four years apart).

Course fee:  $176.11 plus 13% hst = 199

To reserve your spot, email: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

Intensive Creative Writing
Ten weeks towards becoming a better writer

Offered in three locations:

Tuesday afternoons, 12:30 – 2:45 p.m.
January 22 – April 2, 2019 (no class March 12)

first reading emailed Jan 16

St. Elizabeth's Anglican Church, 5324 Bromley Rd, Burlington, Ontario (Map here.)

And

Wednesday evenings, 6:45 – 9:00 p.m.
January 23 – April 3, 2019  (no class March 13)

first reading emailed Jan 16

St. Elizabeth's Anglican Church, 5324 Bromley Rd, Burlington, Ontario (Map here.)

And

Friday mornings, 10:15 – 12:30

January 25 – April 5 (no class March 13)

first reading emailed Jan 18

Glenview Church, Bethlehem Room, 1 Glenview Ave, Toronto, Ontario (Map here.)

Intensive Creative Writing isn't for beginners; it's for people who have been writing for a while or who have done a course or two before and are working on their own projects. Over the ten weeks of classes, you’ll be asked to bring in five pieces of your writing for detailed feedback. All your pieces may be from the same work, such as a novel in progress, or they may be stand alone pieces. You bring whatever you want to work on. 

Besides critiquing pieces, the instructor will give short lectures addressing the needs of the group, and in addition to learning how to critique your own work and receiving constructive suggestions about your writing, you’ll discover that the greatest benefits come from seeing how your classmates approach and critique a piece of writing and how they write and re-write. This is a challenging course, but extremely rewarding.

Fee: $184.96 + 13% hst = $209

To reserve your spot, email: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

Instructor Brian Henry has been a book editor and creative writing instructor for more than 25 years. He publishes Quick Brown Fox, Canada's most popular blog for writers, teaches creative writing at Ryerson University and has led workshops everywhere from Boston to Buffalo and from Sarnia to Saint John. Brian is the author of a children’s version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Tribute Publishing). But his proudest boast is that he’s has helped many of his students get published. 

Read a review of Brian's various courses and workshops here (and scroll down).

See Brian’s complete current schedule here,  including Saturday writing workshops, weekly writing classes, and weekend retreats in Algonquin Park, Alliston, Bolton, Barrie, Brampton, Burlington, Caledon, Collingwood, Georgetown, Georgina, Guelph, Hamilton, Jackson’s Point, Kitchener-Waterloo, London, Midland, Mississauga, New Tecumseth, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Sudbury, Toronto, Windsor, Woodstock, Halton, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York Region, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.