In-person Writing Personal Stories class starting this September in Burlington

Writing Personal Stories

9 weeks of sharing and writing

Wednesday evenings, 6:45 – 8:45 p.m.
Sept 29 – Nov 24, 2021
St. Elizabeth’s Church, 5324 Bromley Rd, Burlington, Ontario. Map here.

As we'll be meeting in-person, participants should be fully vaccinated. Note, this will be a very small class, which will make it more intimate, and we’ll also be observing any public health rules still effect. Also, given the unpredictable nature of the Pandemic, it’s possible this course will have to revert to being online.

If you've ever considered writing your personal stories, this course is for you. We’ll look at memoirs, travel writing, personal essays, family history ~ personal stories of all kinds. Plus, of course, we’ll work on creativity and writing technique and have fun doing it. 

Whether you want to write a book or just get your thoughts down on paper, this weekly course will get you going. We'll reveal the tricks and conventions of telling true stories, and we’ll show you how to use the techniques of the novel to recount actual events. Weekly writing exercises and friendly feedback from the instructor will help you move forward on this writing adventure. Whether you want to write for your family and friends or for a wider public, don't miss this course.

Our guest speaker will be  Jennifer M. Smith, author of Green Ghost, Blue Ocean. This story of Jennifer’s 40,000-mile nautical adventure won the 2019 Pottersfield Prize for nonfiction and was published by Pottersfield Press in 2020.  

Jennifer has also been published numerous times on Quick Brown Fox. For more on Green Ghost, Blue Ocean visit the distributor, Nimbus Publishing, here, and visit Jennifer’s website   here.

Fee:  $176.11 plus 13% hst = $199

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. But his proudest boast is that he’s has helped many of his students get published.   

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

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

Vanity, vanity ~ Canadian politics is clothed in vanity

 

Justin Trudeau as Prince Charming, Cosmo, April 2018

Canada is such a wonderfully successful country that our politics are increasingly about vanity; that is, the important business of admiring oneself in the mirror and making easy gestures. The practical business of running the country can be left to the civil service.

Yes, with the pandemic, the government had to turn its attention to shovelling billions upon billions out the door. But for most politicians the pandemic seems to have been an annoying commercial break. To the public, maybe not so much.

This is not entirely new. Canada has long had a vanity party. A vote for the NDP has always been a vote for one’s mirror reflection, unsullied by fear that one’s beautiful policies might be put into practice. Mostly. Because there was always the dream of a breakthrough and often a realistic prospect of holding the balance of power. The same can’t be said for our newest national parties.

Perhaps the less said about the PPC, the better. The party came to be so that Maxime Bernier could look in the mirror and ask who is the most beautiful fiscal conservative of them all.

The Greens have even less support. Yes, they serve the function of tolling our environmental doom, but we already pay the CBC $1.2 billion a year to do that, so even as doomsayers, the Greens are redundant.

Not to mention that the environment is a vanity issue to start with. Yes, the science tells us the earth is getting warmer. The same science tells us Canada can do nothing about it. In 2005, Canada’s share of worldwide output of greenhouse gasses totalled 1.8% a year – a wholly insignificant number. Year by year, our share has fallen. Not because of our efforts, but because the rest of the world’s output of CO2 continues to rise.

“Well, at least we should do our part!” people say. But we cannot. To do our “part,” we have to be part of a larger effort that might succeed, and such a worldwide effort doesn’t exist. Global warming is a luxury issue, championed in the rich, post-industrial world. Ignored elsewhere. Is China reducing its CO2 emissions? Quite the opposite. Moreover, the Chinese government is financing new coal-fired generating stations throughout the third world.

In 2019, China's carbon emissions surpassed all OECD countries combined, including the EU and the US. "Canada's share of global emissions decreased from 1.8% in 2005 to 1.5% in 2018. Its share is anticipated to continue to decline with the expected rapid increase in emissions from developing and emerging countries, particularly China (+71.7%), India (+71.3%), Brazil (+16.2%) and Indonesia (+37.9%)," says Statistics Canada.

I feel the attraction of the environmental movement. People need a noble quest. And what could be nobler than saving the planet? But Canada’s ambition to slow down climate change is like a beaver getting out in front of a 20-ton earth mover.

The result has not been pretty. Yes, safely at home in Ottawa or Montreal, Toronto or Vancouver, we may not have noticed the destruction of Alberta’s oil industry, (though sadly, I have heard more than one person gloating over the loss of jobs and hope).

More generally, those of us who make a comfortable living don’t feel the pinch of higher gas cost, higher electricity costs – higher everything costs it seems. Nor have many of us noticed that other people are feeling the pinch. How could we? You will not hear the CBC or The Toronto Star or the Globe and Mail reporting that a good income ensures that the pain of our noble quest is felt by someone else.

It’s also no coincidence that supporters of two of our vanity parties have an unhealthy obsession with Israel. Does the Israeli-Palestinian conflict matter in any material way to Canada? Maybe, if we consider that Hamas’s and Hezbollah’s attacks against Israel are part of Iran’s efforts to dominate the middle east. That is a large conflict brewing, engaging every state in the region. Foreign policy mavens throughout the world are watching that. But the media is not. 

Our media and our politicians are focussed entirely on the little conflict, the on-going effort of the Palestinians to replace Israel with a Palestinian state. On the scale of serious conflicts in the world, that has to come in somewhere around 127½th. It matters if you’re Israeli, or Jewish, or Palestinian. But to Canada?

Not at all. Yet activists in both the NDP and the Green Party preen their anti-Israel obsession before a mirror daily. It’s the hatred du jour.

The professionals running their election campaigns know how icky this obsession appears to many Canadians, so they keep it out of sight, but anyone paying attention will recall how popular anti-Israel resolutions were at the NDP convention. (See here and here.)

As for the Greens, earlier this year, they publicly melted down over Israel. The party leader Annamie Paul is a moderate. Like any sane person, she supports peace and Israel’s continuing existence; also, she’s Black and Jewish – all of which makes her an outlier in the Green Party.

During Hamas’s most recent war against Israel, Green Party MP Jenica Atwin went ballistic when Annamie Paul made a mild statement about wishing for an end to the violence. Atwin tweeted: “I stand with Palestine! There are no two sides to this conflict, only human rights abuses! #EndApartheid.” 

Then Atwin crossed over to the Liberals.

Atwin and other denizens of the left can afford the luxury of siding with terrorists because Canada is so wonderfully secure. If Hamas were firing thousands of missiles at Fredericton (which Atkin represents as an MP) her constituents would burn her at the stake.

Of course, vanity politics aren’t confined to our minor parties. For the past six years, we’ve been ruled by a government specializing in gestures and posturing – whose very signature is vanity.

In 2019, a national inquiry concluded that Canada was perpetrating a current, ongoing genocide against Indigenous peoples. Justin Trudeau accepted this conclusion.

To be sure, Canada faces no harder issue than the plight of our Indigenous peoples. But if Trudeau thinks Canada is currently committing genocide, why is he running for re-election? He should be turning himself in at the Hague for crimes against humanity.

It drives me crazy. If any issue in Canada requires seriousness, surely it is the Indigenous issue. But no. From Trudeau, we get empty words, empty gestures, and eternal preening.

I believe (and hope) Canadians are growing weary of vanity politics.

The Pandemic has shaken us.

Many Canadians are holding on by their fingernails, and many, many more are nervous. We’ve been reminded that we’re vulnerable. Some 60% of Canadians are worried about inflation (and that figure comes from before Stats Can's announcement on Wednesday that inflation has hit an 18-year high).

Obviously, inflation makes everything more expensive, erodes our savings, and raises the threat of higher interest rates. But also, we fear the re-emergence of inflation is an omen – a strong recovery isn’t guaranteed. Indeed, unlike other advanced economies, Canada’s recovery has been shaky. And with the country a trillion dollars in debt, how much of a backstop do we have left?

Covid wedge politics feeds anger

Even more than that, Covid – and the political response to Covid – has created societal discord unlike anything in recent memory. Some Canadians are anxious about the vaccine, worried about side effects and about vaccinating their children and they’re all the more anxious because they feel backed into a corner. But the rest of us are anxious, too – so the backlash against the vaccine doubters is too often anger and ridicule. 

And anger has sparked more anger. Unbelievably, we even have a few hundred jerks protesting outside hospitals, harassing health care workers and patients. Thankfully, that’s a fringe phenomenon. The doubters, though, number in the millions, and sneering hasn’t convinced anyone.

From the start of the election, Trudeau has tried to build the anger. Everyone’s noticed his irresponsibility in calling an election during the pandemic – purely because he wanted a majority that he didn’t even need, as the NDP had pledged their support for the duration of the pandemic.

But beyond that, Trudeau has used the pandemic as a wedge issue. Politically, this has succeeded in giving Bernier’s People’s Party momentum as the one anti–vaccine passport party. The PPC has at least double the Green Party vote.

But it’s Trudeau’s intent that disturbs me: to use the pandemic to divide Canadian against Canadian so that he might possibly win a majority. It’s all about him.

Vanity politics is a luxury item, and right now, as a country, maybe we can’t afford it. Right now, it would be comforting to have a serious leader, concerned with actually getting things done and calming things down.

*** 

Brian Henry is a writer, editor, creative writing instructor, and publisher of the Quick Brown Fox blog. He’s written opinion pieces for the National Post and The Toronto Star. He was also a regular contributor to the (now defunct) Jewish Tribune and the Engage and Harry’s Place websites in the UK. This piece was previously published on TheJ.ca, the Canadian Jewish community's online journal of news and opinion.

“The Hat of Ages” by Dana Webster

 

Once upon a time an old woman named Wedi lived alone high atop a mountain. She was a small, hunched creature clad in a thick black robe and a plain black peaked hat. Bare patches showed that this hat had been brushed too many times. Most of its magic had faded away, too, drained of its power from so many years of use.

Wedi and her hat had been constant companions, keeping each other company from childhood through elderhood. They’d shared adventures and told stories, brewed tea together and enjoyed afternoon naps. Just the two of them, always.

From her front porch, Wedi could see, if the sunlight was just so in the sky, the little village that lay far below. At nighttime, the lights of the village were a mirror image of the star-filled sky, which made Wedi being feel cocooned between two light-filled realms.

One day, curiosity about the inhabitants below caused a yearning to venture down the mountain to see what she could see. Wedi packed some bread and water for the journey. Night had fallen by the time she arrived. She saw that the stars of the village illuminated cozy little homes with hearths around which people gathered to eat, laugh, and bustle.

Peeking through the window, Wedi perceived a familiar feeling. These people felt the same way about each other as she did for her hat. They were rich with companionship. She felt a longing for more, too.

Afraid to make the trek home at night, she found a comfortable nook under a cedar hedge, and fell into a fitful slumber, her hat softly snoring on the ground next to her, blissfully unaware of the new desire in her companion.

Wedi awoke to the sounds of villagers. As they greeted one another with a hearty hello, the hats on their heads also tipped themselves in a good morning gesture. Ignoring the growling in her stomach, Wedi followed the crowd into the centre of town. No one paid her much mind.

The villagers were making their daily pilgrimage to the most magical hat shop of all the hat shops. This shop was brimming with hats of all shapes, sizes, and colours. Hats with feathers. Hats with buttons, bits, and bobs. Hats that sang and hats that danced. Hats that tucked themselves away at the end of the day and hats that calmed even the fussiest of babies.

The most mysterious hat of all was one that sat alone on the highest shelf at the back of the shop. It was here where its home had been made many years ago. So long ago that no one alive at the time could recall its age. This hat alone was not for sale. It was far too precious for just anyone to wear on their head. No one knew why. It had always been thus.

Young children and grown-ups jostled for the best viewing position. Late-comers were disappointed to find no place for them close to the front. Some of them allowed their more modern hats to hover over the crowd and report back. No one noticed the old woman whose nose was pressed curiously against the window.

At precisely one minute before opening time the proprietor of the hat shop ceremoniously flipped the switch on a powerful spotlight, illuminating the extraordinary hat in its solitary position high up on a shelf. The light hit it at just the right angle to showcase its marvellousness. From outside the otherwise darkened shop, a collective gasp escaped the mouths of the spectators, even those who had seen this many times before.

There it was! The Hat of Ages.

The colours of deep purple and golden yellow were adorned with glittering gems and multi-coloured ribbons. Its peak stood as straight and proud as an arrow. Its wide brim tipped sideways at a just-so angle for optimum flattery. Everyone in the crowd imagined themselves with this magnificent hat atop their own head.  

Including the old woman. Wedi stood mesmerized by the hat’s magnificence. She’d never seen anything like it. In that moment, she felt shame for her own plain hat. She saw how the Hat of Ages delighted the villagers. If she wore that hat, would they be delighted with her? Perhaps invite her to stay in this cozy village populated with lively people and unusual hats?

That night, when the shops were closed and the villagers had retired to their homes, Wedi snuck around the back of the hat shop. When she encountered a heavy lock she murmured, “Kindly open the lock,” and her hat happily did, spending the little magic it had left. Remembering the fun of their past adventures, the hat began to feel giddy with expectation.

Stealthily, Wedi entered the darkened store and made her way to where the Hat of Ages sat high above her. She used a nearby footstool to help her reach the hat that she hoped would change everything for her. In the darkness, the hat no longer glittered. It no longer seemed extraordinary. No matter, she thought, in the light of day I shall look splendid with it atop my head.

She took the Hat of Ages in one hand and placed her own plain black hat in its stead. Stepping off the stool, she placed the hat on her head and felt … bereft. At the same time, the spotlight magically turned on and illuminated Wedi’s black hat. It seemed to twinkle with the light of countless stars, even more stars than either above or below her mountain home.

This Hat of Ages was a mere imposter. She removed it and reached for her friend, her constant companion, her plain black hat that she now saw had not only its own beauty, but the love and belonging she mistakenly thought she’d been lacking. Blanketed by stars above, comforted by stars below, Wedi and her hat returned to their cabin on the mountain.

***

Dana Webster has been writing off and on for most of her life but has only begun to find her stride in the last year and a half. You can subscribe to her observational blog at www.danawebster.com

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

 

Eleven agents at Greenburger Associates seek new authors

Sanford J. Greenburger Associates

55 Fifth Avenue 
New York, NY 10003 

http://www.greenburger.com/

Don't ever miss what’s happening with Quick Brown Fox. If you’re not yet on my newsletter, send me an email, including your locale to: brianhenry@sympatico.ca
  ~Brian 

Greenburger Associates has been around for more than 80 years. It brought Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Franz Kafka, and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry to American audiences. It continues to represent heavyweight authors, particularly financial heavyweights, such as Dan Brown. 

Altogether the agency has thirteen agents, eleven of whom are open to queries. There are also four associate agents. For new authors, these are you best bets:

Alex Reubert is pursuing books that, either by style or story, demand he keep reading.

For fiction that includes debuts, stories of love, family epics, and coming-of-age, at any age. He loves world literature and wants to see more books published in the U.S. that are not set in the U.S. He is eager to read and represent voices that have been historically de-centered. Thrillers and speculative stories that skew literary are welcome, as is any narrator looking back and trying to make sense of their life. 

For nonfiction, he’s interested in memoir, psychology, narrative, philosophy, literary studies, art history, pop science, and cultural studies. The memoirs might be playful in the way they arrange time, the essays written in an undeniable voice. He's also seeking poets and musicians that have ventured into prose. Writers that instill a sense of curiosity and wonder in others, no matter the subject, should get in touch and tell him about their work.

Alex joined the scouting department of Sanford J. Greenburger Associates at the start of 2019. Prior to the agency, he worked as a bookseller at WORD Bookstores and interned with New Directions and W.W. Norton & Company. Originally from Georgia, he lives in Brooklyn where he enjoys walking through parks and going to delis. 

Query Alex at areubert@sjga.com 

Put “QUERY: Project Title” as the subject line. Paste the first 10 pages of your project into the body of your email.

Bailey Tamayo is seeking middle grade, YA, and adult speculative fiction, fantasy, sci fi, horror, and anything in between—especially when the genre is a unique setting for the deeply human stories underneath.

She is drawn to poignant coming of age narratives like The Graveyard Book, I Am Not Okay With This, and any given Ghibli film. Her favorite stories are those that are gently heartbreaking, hopeful, or (ideally) both. She enjoys sharp humor, lyrical prose, lovable and complex characters, and rich worldbuilding. 

She is eager to advocate for underrepresented authors, and especially to explore these viewpoints through horror, such as Welcome to Night Vale, The Magnus Archives, and Mexican Gothic. Some of her favorite authors/creators are Neil Gaiman, Emily St. John Mandel, Taika Waititi, Noelle Stevenson, Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples, and ONE.

Bailey joined Greenburger Associates after internships with Writers House and the Carol Mann Agency. She is now an associate agent and the assistant to Matt Bialer, aiding him with his talented list of fantasy, sci-fi, thriller, literary, and nonfiction authors. She graduated from Emerson College with a degree in Writing, Literature & Publishing and Communication Sciences & Disorders.

You can find Bailey on Twitter @baileymeitamayo

Query Bailey at btamayo@sjga.com

Put “QUERY: Project Title” as the subject line. Attach your full manuscript.

Iwalani Kim is seeking adult upmarket and literary fiction and select narrative nonfiction.

In fiction, she loves coming-of-age narratives, family dramas, and stories that challenge systems of power. She gravitates toward lush prose, wry humor, irreverent characters, and a sense of yearning. 

In nonfiction, she is looking for literary memoir and cultural criticism. She is particularly drawn to food writing, deep dives into subcultures, and writing that complicates the idea of ‘paradise’ or explores progressive movements such as prison industrial complex (PIC) abolition. Some of her favorite authors include Jesmyn Ward, T Kira Madden, Raven Leilani, Alex Marzano-Lesnevich, and Ling Ma, and she would love to consider any manuscripts in a similar vein. 

She is passionate about championing the work of underrepresented authors and would especially love to work with Pacific Islander writers.

Iwalani joined Sanford J. Greenburger Associates in 2018 after interning at Ayesha Pande Literary, Don Congdon Associates, and Kweli Journal. She was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawai’i and graduated from Vassar College with degrees in Political Science and German Studies. As the senior assistant and foreign rights liaison to agency president Heide Lange, Iwalani has the pleasure of working with Heide’s extraordinary clients such as Dan Brown and Brad Thor. She continues in that role as she builds her own list, further honing her negotiation and editorial skills under Heide’s mentorship.

Follow Iwalani on Twitter @IwalaniKim

Query Iwalani at ikim@sjga.com

Put “Query: [your book’s title] by [your name]” in the subject line. Paste the first few chapters into the body of your email.

Abigail Frank is passionate about stories for young people, especially those that are hilarious, poetic, quietly heartbreaking, and/or swoon-worthy, and she cares about voice, above all. She gravitates towards picture books that feel entirely original, chapter books with big personalities, and novels about unforgettable teens falling in love. 

She is committed to advocating for the work of authors and artists with marginalized identities, and she’s actively looking for stories that allow young readers to recognize themselves in the books they love. She is also looking for select adult projects, including narrative nonfiction (especially if it explores pop culture, healthcare, or higher education) and rom-com-y commercial fiction. You can view her wishlist here.

Abigail joined the Greenburger team in 2017 after interning at Writers House. Formerly an assistant to Brenda Bowen, she now assists Faith Hamlin with her extraordinary and eclectic list of clients. Abigail graduated with a degree in English Literature from Swarthmore College and worked in healthcare before pursuing her passion for books. Find her mostly retweeting @abigailcrfrank

Query Abigail at afrank@sjga.com

Put: “QUERY – project title” in the subject line. Attach your full manuscript or proposal. If you are a visual artist, also include a link to your portfolio.

Sarah Phair, Agent: Sarah represents a range of fiction and nonfiction authors writing for the adult market. 

In fiction she focuses on books by women, for women, ranging from commercial, to upmarket and literary. If you would read it in your book club or take it on vacation, it might be a good fit for Sarah’s list. She particularly loves: family sagas, female friendship, complex psychological suspense, campus novels, anti-heroines, and a good love story.

In nonfiction her areas of interest include feminist issues, millennial topics, pop culture, and anything about food. She is especially interested in projects analyzing the future of media consumption, how and what we eat, agriculture, and housing. 

Sarah joined Greenburger Associates in 2019. Originally from Mississippi, she moved to New York in 2010 to pursue a career in publishing. She worked at Trident Media Group for six years, acting as audio agent and foreign rights agent before building her own list. Sarah also has a M.A. in British and American Literature.

Query Sarah at sphair@sjga.com

Put “QUERY – project title” in the subject line. Paste the first 10 pages into the body of your email.

Literary agent Olga Filina

If you’re interested in meeting an agent and in getting published, don’t miss our online How to Get Published  workshop with literary agent Olga Filina of 5 Otter Literary, Saturday, Sept 25. Details here.

If you’re especially interested in writing for children or for young adults, don’t miss out Kid Lit workshop, Saturday, Oct 2, with guest Anne Shone, executive editor, Scholastic Books (see here). 

Beyond that, Brian Henry’s schedule continues to take shape...

September ~ Weekly classes ~ Still room in one class:

In-Person: Writing Personal Stories, 9 weeks of creativity and companionship. Wednesday evenings, Sept 29 – Nov 24, in Burlington. Details here.

Online: Writing for Children and for Young Adults, Saturday, Oct 2, with guest Anne Shone, executive editor, Scholastic Books (see here). 

Online: How to Write Great Characters, Saturday, Oct 16. Details here.

Writing Retreat:

Lake Joseph in Muskoka: Writing Retreat at Sherwood Inn Resort.  Join us for a writers’ getaway at one of Ontario’s most elegant inns. Friday, Oct 23 – Monday, Oct 25.   Details here. Note: This retreat is now full. Next fall, we’ll offer two retreats at Sherwood to accommodate everyone. In the meanwhile ... 

The dock at Arowhon Pines on a misty Algonquin morning

We arranged an end of summer retreat Sept 10 – Sept 13 at The Briars on Lake Simcoe and we'll also offer an end of  winter retreat at the Briars if people are interested – let me know! Also, we'll have our usual spring retreat at Arowhon Pines in Algonquin Park, May 27 – May 30, 2022. See details or our 2020 retreat at Arowhon retreat here. If you’re interested in any upcoming retreats, email brianhenry@sympatico.ca

Navigation tips: Always check out the Labels underneath a post; they’ll lead you to various distinct collections of postings. If you're searching for more interviews with literary agents or a literary agent who represents a particular type of book, check out this post.