New "Intensive Creative Writing" classes starting in the new year

“Intensive Creative Writing”

~ Offered online at 3 different times:

Tuesday evenings online 6:30 – 9:00
First readings emailed Jan 6.
Classes: Jan 13 – March 24. Or to March 31 or April 7 if the course fills up.

Wednesday afternoons online 12:30 – 3:00
First readings emailed Jan 7
Classes: Jan 14 – March 25. Or to April 8 if it fills up. No class April 1.

Friday mornings online 10:00 – 12:30
First readings emailed Jan 9
Classes: Jan 16 – March 27. Or to April 3 if the course fills up.

Intensive Creative Writing isn't for beginners; it's for people who are working on their own writing projects. You’ll be asked to bring in several 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, such as short stories or essays or a picture book manuscript. 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: $292.04 + hst = $330

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, taught creative writing at Ryerson University (now called Toronto Metropolitan University) and has led workshops everywhere from Boston to Buffalo and from Saskatoon to Toronto to Saint John. But his proudest boast is that he’s has helped many of his students get published.  

Read pieces about ~ or inspired by ~ Brian's retreats, courses and workshops here (and scroll down).

See all of Brian’s upcoming weekly writing classes, one-day workshops, and four-day retreats here.

Note: To get new posting delivered to your Inbox as they go up, go to the Quick Brown Fox Substack and subscribe: https://brian999.substack.com/

"Writing your query letter," a free workshop in St. Catharines

The St. Catharines Public Library presents:

Writing your query letter – a free workshop

In person: Saturday, March 28
10 a.m. – 12:00 noon
Merritt Branch Library
221 Glendale Avenue, St. Catharines, Ontario
On the north side of the Niagara Pen Centre, next to the Dollarama (Map here)

If you've ever dreamed of becoming a published author, this workshop is for you. We’ll focus on the process of submitting to an agent or publisher, and show you exactly how to write a query letter that will get a “yes.” Bring all your questions. Come and get ready to be published!

Special Option: Participants are invited (but don't have to) to prepare a draft of a query letter you might use to interest an agent or publisher in your book. Brian will publicly critique a few queries, so everyone can see what works, what doesn’t and how to make it better.

Workshop leader 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 Windsor to Charlottetown. But his proudest boast is that he has helped many of his students get their first book published and launch their careers as authors.  

See reviews of and works inspired by Brian's classes, workshops, and retreats here.

Registration will open Feb 16. Register through the library event calendar here.
Save the date and register early – space is limited!

“Neighbourhood Watch: Unhinged Edition” by Catherine Brazeau

Notes from the Paranoid Suburbs 

She watched us. Every day, she’d peer through her drapes on self-assigned surveillance duty, eyes fixed on us—a bubble-gum battalion of pre-teen girls on banana-seat bikes with the audacity to exist within her line of sight. We were harmless, mostly. But in her mind, we were plotting something against her.

She wrote letters to my mother, which she mailed, despite living next door. Passive-aggression always lands better with postage. Each one “a warning” to “control your daughter and her friends”.

To be fair, we did once lob clumps of mud over the fence and into her swimming pool. We were eleven, maybe twelve: the age of wonder and small cruelties fuelled by straws of powdered candy, our beloved Pixy Stix.

But those letters.

More than 50 years later, I’m reading them again. The pages are yellowed and smell faintly of hairspray. Yes, AquaNet, still holding the past firmly in place. Some of her letters stretched five and six pages long—an Olympic feat of grievance-writing that revealed a disturbing paranoia.

She wasn’t okay. She probably never was. Her backward cursive slants hard, like it’s fighting against the wind of its undoing. Each letter grew more unhinged, more hyperbolic. 

Our laughter was transformed into us running up to her car and screaming accusations. Her husband, she wrote, “was afraid to come home from work,”  presumably because of our menacing hopscotch.

“I’m listening and watching. I hear everything they say,” she wrote. “I’m not going to sit quietly by while your bitch of a daughter and her friends have fun at my expense.”

Today, she’d probably have motion detectors, a Ring cam, and maybe even a GoFundMe called Help Me Rid the Neighbourhood of These Children.

She thought we were a threat, but really, we were just girls on bikes practicing being alive, and that’s always going to sound too loud for somebody. I suppose we could’ve been nicer. But then again, she could’ve just closed her curtains.

I sometimes wonder what it cost her to feel that hunted, that sure the neighbourhood children were plotting her downfall. Imagine believing that our laughter was a weapon aimed squarely at her. It’s one thing to be paranoid—it’s another to think the enemy is fun itself.

So, what do you do with a neighbour like that?

Well, my mother didn’t reply with a ransom-style letter made from cut-out magazine clippings. Nor did she bake cookies as a peace offering. Our neighbour wouldn't have eaten them anyway—she’d have suspected poison, of course.

Instead, my mom insisted: You stay visible. You ride faster. You laugh louder. You keep showing up with bikes and bubble gum. You let her know—we’re not going anywhere. You let her know—we’re watching, too.

So, we kept riding, kept laughing, and we learned something. Joy is defiant. And slightly scandalous.

***

Catherine Brazeau is a retired designer and brand consultant who enjoys cooking, running, and exploring creativity through writing. Most of all, she delights in spending time with her four grandchildren, whom she calls the greatest antidote to ageism. “My grandkids don’t ignore me yet,” she jokes.

She lives in Pelham with her husband of 40+ years, who is also an artist. An occasional columnist for PelhamToday.ca, her essays also appear on The Next Iteration on Substack.

For more essays, short stories, and poetry by you fellow writers see here (and scroll down).

See Brian Henry's upcoming weekly writing classes, one-day workshops, and four-day retreats here.

Kudos to Tres, Kristy, Denisha, and Janine!

Hi, Brian.

Hope you had a wonderful sunny weekend!

I am thrilled to announce that Plumleaf Press will be publishing my picture book manuscript, Nahliya and the Lady. I appreciate your ongoing support and guidance, which has been invaluable. Thank you for being part of this journey.

See you on Wednesday at our Kid Lit class :-)

Tres Vassel

Note: New classes will be starting in January – watch this space!

See submission guidelines for Plumleaf Press here.

 

Hi, Brian.

Thought you might be interested to know that my new book, Touching Grass, was chosen as a top 10 Best Kids' books of 2025 by Indigo. 

This book idea came from our writing retreat and we worked on it at several of the Friday Intensive classes. Can't thank you and the Friday group enough for your help with everything.

Check it out here.

Cheers,

Kristy Jackson

Our next writing retreat runs October 21 – 24, but our next retreat that still has space is coming up in April. Check it out here.

Hi, Brian.

A tweaked version of my story, “Polaris,” has ben published in the fall issue of The Writing Disorder.

Thanks for your help with it,

Also, you may recall that I went to the Pennwriters Conference in Pittsburgh to pitch Until the Lamb Becomes the Lion. I also did a rough first page of Strip Mall Magicians for a critique panel. One of the panelists thought it would make a good streaming series for something like Netflix. I took her course, four evening classes titled An Intro to Screenwriting.

The long and short of it is that I ended up applying to The Toronto Film School to their writing for TV and screen. And, well, I got in!

So that’s what I’ll be doing for the next year and a half.

Thought I’d let you know as you have helped me a lot on my writing journey.

All the best,

Denisha Naidoo

Read Denisha’s story “Polaris” here.

For information about submitting to The Writing Disorder (and a few other cool places, see here.

 

Hi, Brian.

So excited to share that my story, “Sugaring”, which was workshopped last year during your Intensive Creative Writing program was published by Agnes and True.

 Here’s the link: https://www.agnesandtrue.com/sugaring/

 Thanks so much!

Janine Elias Joukema

For information about submitting to Agnes and True (and a few other cool places, see here.

 

Note: See all my upcoming weekly writing classes, one-day workshops, and four-day  retreats here. ~Brian

See where else your fellow writers are getting short pieces published here (and scroll down).

See new books by your fellow writers here (and scroll down).

If you’ve had a story (or a book!) published, if you’ve won or placed in a writing contest, if you’ve gotten yourself an agent, or if you have any other news, send me an email so I can share your success. As writers, we’re all in this together, and your good news gives us all a boost. Email me at: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

Contests and Markets for your short prose and poetry.

CommuterLit.com aims to publish a story, memoir, novel excerpt, or poem every working day of the year (minus a summer holiday, any genre, 500 to 4,000 words. This is the best place there is to get your first piece published (and maybe your second and third).

Submissions guidelines here. 

Commuter Lit also has a series of contests coming up:

Halloween Week 2025 — Scary Stories (max. word count of 2,500). Submission window: Sept. 22 – Oct. 13, 2025. Winning entries will appear on CommuterLit the week of Oct. 27-Oct. 31, 2025.

Valentines Week 2026 — Love Stories (max. word count of 2,500). Submission window: Jan. 12–26, 2026. Winning entries will appear on CommuterLit the week of Feb. 9-13, 2026. 

Poetry Week 2026 — Poem or series of poems (max. word count 1000). Submission window: April 13–27, 2026. Winning entries will be posted the week of May 11-15, 2026. 

Flash Fiction Week 2026 — Flash Fiction stories (max. word count 500). Submission window: May 19 – June 1, 2026. Winners will be posted on CommuterLit the week of June 15-19, 2026.

All contests offer $100, $50, and $25 cash prizes. $4 entry fee.

More information here.

Crime Writers of Canada is looking for the Best Unpublished Crime Novel Manuscript written by an unpublished author, sponsored by ECW Press, with a $500 prize

 The competition is a two-step process. Contestants first submit the opening 5,000 words of their manuscript plus a full synopsis of the book. The synopsis is a crucial part of the submission because it is the only way the judges can assess the book’s plot development.

The deadline for Step One is October 31, 2025.

From the initial submissions, a panel of three judges decides on a longlist of up to ten (10) authors.

In Step Two of the competition, the longlisted authors send in their completed manuscripts. The panel of three judges, plus a judge from ECW Press, then decide on a shortlist of up to five (5) finalists. This way ECW, the publisher/sponsor, will read all of the finalists’ entries.

Full rules, eligibility criteria, and submission forms can be found on the Crime Writers of Canada website here.

Canadian book publisher ECW Press is one of the most diversified independent publishers in North America. ECW Press has published close to 1,000 books that are distributed throughout the English-speaking world and translated into dozens of languages.

For information about submitting to ECW, see here.

 About Crime Writers of Canada

Founded in 1982, Crime Writers of Canada is a professional organization dedicated to raising the profile of Canadian crime writers. Our members include authors, publishers, editors, booksellers, librarians, reviewers, and literary agents, as well as many developing authors.

Past winners of the Awards have included such major names in Canadian crime writing as Mario Bolduc, Gail Bowen, Stevie Cameron, Howard Engel, Barbara Fradkin, Louise Penny, Peter Robinson, and Eric Wright.

CBC Short Story Prize is open for entries

The winner receives $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, a two-week writing residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and their work will be published on CBC Books.

Four finalists each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and their work is also published on CBC Books. 

You can submit original, unpublished fiction that is up to 2,500 words. There is no minimum word requirement.

Work that has been published online or in print or recorded for broadcast is considered "previously published" and is not eligible. 

While the competition is active, submit online by creating an account through Submittable. A fee of $25 is required for each entry.

Full details here.

The Writing Disorder is a literary journal devoted to literature, art and culture. They publish quarterly and are based in Los Angeles, CA. Each issue is published online and sometimes as an ebook. Their mission is to showcase new and emerging writers – particularly those in writing programs — as well as established ones. 

They feature new works of fiction, poetry, nonfiction and art, plus interviews with writers and artists, and some reviews. Although they strive to publish original and experimental work, The Writing Disorder remains rooted in the classic art of storytelling.

No limit on word count. Submissions accepted all year round.

All work featured in The Writing Disorder may include a bio and link to the writer’s or artist’s website, and/or a link to the website where their work can be found.

They’re currently accepting fiction, poetry, nonfiction, art, reviews, interviews, comic art and experimental work. They’d especially like to see more poetry, long fiction, nonfiction, artwork, reviews and interviews.

Full submission guidelines here.

All Your Stories Magazine

Bi-monthly publications in separate magazines.  Quick reads, Memories, Short Stories, and Travel Tales and Stories

“We do not reject any submissions, if not selected they are held over for consideration to be published in a forthcoming issue.”

This magazine is to give new and experienced writers an opportunity to be published and can be found worldwide. 

All your stories accepts:

Flash Fiction 500 to 1,000 words

Sudden Fiction 750 words

Twitterature up to 280 words

Drabble 100 words

Dribble 50 words

Short story 2,500 words

Essays and Nonfiction up to 2,500 words

Subjects: Fiction and Nonfiction stories 

Travel Tales and Stories (nonfiction), Memories (nonfiction), Quick reads (flash and sudden fiction), short stories (fiction).

Full submission guidelines here. 

See information about our upcoming  weekly writing classes, one-day workshops, and four-day retreats here.

For information about other places to send your short works, see here (and scroll down).

Also, always check out Labels below posts to find collections of postings. For example, if you’re looking for places to send personal essays, click on “essay markets” below (and scroll down).