Our offices are closed for the holidays until Monday, January 5th. Wishing you all a happy 2009.

The Writers’ Union of Canada is holding its 10th annual Postcard Story Competition with a $500 prize awarded to the winning entry. The deadline for entry is February 14, 2009. The main contest link is http://www.writersunion.ca/cn_main.asp.

What could be a rarer gem at this time of year than the Winter CANSCAIP News? Actually, you’re right, a new set of winter tires west of the Ottawa river, now that they are legally mandatory in Quebec. Good answer. But almost as rare is the current issue of the News with a profile of author Vivien Bowers.

You’ll find it in the Member/Friends section, in PDF format.

The Public Lending Right program’s registration period will be open from 15 February to 1 May 2009. Are you registered?

Yes.

If you have moved recently, you must update your address with the PLR Commission. Send us your change of address by mail, fax, telephone or e-mail, indicated below.

No.

If you are an author, co-author, editor, translator, illustrator, photographer or anthology contributor, you may be eligible for a PLR payment for the service of your books held in Canadian public libraries. For further information, visit our website at www.plr-dpp.ca or contact us by using one of the methods indicated below.

Public Lending Right Commission / Commission du droit du prêt public
350 Albert, P.O. Box 1047 / C.P. 1047
Ottawa ON K1P 5V8
Tel: 1 800 521-5721
Fax: (613) 566-4418
E-mail: plr@canadacouncil.ca
www.plr-dpp.ca

CANSCAIP’s November conference is now sold out and we will not be taking registrations at the door.

Call for Submissions to the 32nd annual Atlantic Writing Competition

WFNS invites aspiring Atlantic writers to send unpublished manuscripts by December 5, 2008.

For over three decades, the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia has been challenging writers in Atlantic Canada to explore their talents by sending work to the annual Atlantic Writing Competition for unpublished manuscripts. Since 1976, more than 500 prizes have been won by novelists, poets, non-fiction and children’s writers. Many of today’s best known writers first tested the waters and placed in the Atlantic Writing Competition, including Ami McKay, Lesley Choyce, Budge Wilson, Lynn Coady, Lulu Keating, and George Elliott Clarke.

The competition encourages writers to write for existing markets and is judged in five different categories: poetry, novel, short story, children’s picture book and YA novel. Submissions are accepted from anyone (at least 16 years old) who has been resident in the Atlantic Provinces since June 1, 2008. Published writers may not enter in a category in which they have been published or produced.

Each entry is judged by professionals working in the field, with short individual critiques returned to participating writers. Cash prizes ranging from $50 to $200 are awarded to the top three submissions in each category at a not-to-be-missed Gala Celebration of Writers and Writing in September, 2009.

No manuscript will be accepted without a completed entry form and fee ($15/entry or $10 WFNS member/student/senior for all categories except novel, where the fee is $25/$20). For complete details and to obtain a copy of the required entry form, please visit www.writers.ns.ca /awc.html .

We are now sold out of lunches for our fabulous fall conference, Packaging Your Imagination. However there is still room left in all the workshops.

This year’s lineup is particularly impressive. Come see Aubrey Davis, Kit Pearson, Karen Patkau, Gillian O’Reilly, Kathy Stinson, Julie Lawson, Kady MacDonald Denton, Lynne Missen (HarperCollins Canada Executive Editor), Jo Ellen Bogart, Ted Staunton, Celia Godkin and Karen Boersma (Publisher, Kids Can Press). To top it all off, world renowned author/illustrator Marie-Louise Gay will be giving the keynote address.

Saturday, November 1, 2008
Registration: 8:30 am
Workshop location: Victoria College
University of Toronto
73 Queen’s Park Cres. East
Toronto, Ontario

Download a brochure at: www.canscaip.org/pyi.html

This year, CANSCAIP will again be having a booth at The Word on the Street Book and Magazine Festival in Toronto. It’s always a great day full of books, readings, discussions, performances, and roasted corn on a stick.

CANSCAIPers Anne Love, Jane Drake, Jeremy Tankard, Helaine Becker, Elizabeth MacLeod, Kathy Stinson, Andrea Beck, Bill Slavin, Alan Cumyn, Karen Patkau, Loris Lesynski, Edo van Belcom, Shane Peacock, Kristyn Dunnion, Theo Heras, Harriet Trianthe Xanthakos, Debbie Carroll, Marthe Jocelyn, Mireille Messier and Richard Scrimger will all be on stage at various times throughout the day. (Plus some non-CANSCAIPers too, but you won’t have time to see them.) Check out the full schedule at www.thewordonthestreet.ca/toronto/whats_on_schedule.asp

And drop our booth, number WB12 in the Writers’ Block, if you get a chance!

Lunches are going fast for our fabulous fall conference in Toronto, Packaging Your Imagination. Our intrepid registrar, Kathlene Willing, estimates that they will be gone by October 1st which means if you’d like a lunch, you should send in your application in the mail this week. Unfortunately, we cannot take phone reservations. There is still room left in all the workshops.

This year’s lineup is particularly impressive. Come see Aubrey Davis, Kit Pearson, Karen Patkau, Gillian O’Reilly, Kathy Stinson, Julie Lawson, Kady MacDonald Denton, Lynne Missen (HarperCollins Canada Executive Editor), Jo Ellen Bogart, Ted Staunton, Celia Godkin and Karen Boersma (Publisher, Kids Can Press). To top it all off, world renowned author/illustrator Marie-Louise Gay will be giving the keynote address.

Saturday, November 1, 2008
Registration: 8:30 am
Workshop location: Victoria College
University of Toronto
73 Queen’s Park Cres. East
Toronto, Ontario

Download a brochure at: www.canscaip.org/pyi.html

Writing With Style (Spring) 2009
April 20 to 25, 2009
Application deadline: February 2, 2009
Director: Edna Alford
Faculty: Michael Crummey (Chapter One Novel), Alan Cumyn (Writing for Children), Marilyn Dumont (Poetry), Myrna Kostash (Creative Non-Fiction.)

Gain confidence in a specific writing genre, while shaping a work-in-progress under the guidance of an experienced editor.

FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO APPLY:
The Banff Centre, Office of the Registrar
107 Tunnel Mountain Drive, Box 1020
Banff, Alberta T1L 1H5, CANADA
1-800-565-9989 or 1-403-762-6180
arts_info@banffcentre.ca
www.banffcentre.ca

The days have begun their inexorable dwindling, and what could be better to warm us up than the Autumn CANSCAIP News? Uh, put your hands down, it was a rhetorical question. This issue profiles author Susan Juby.

You’ll find it in the Member/Friends section, in PDF format.

This summer, 59 friends of CANSCAIP received a professional author or illustrator as a mentor for their work. Each had 10 pages of a manuscript or 10 illustrations critiqued by a full member of CANSCAIP for the nominal fee of $20. After the critique they were allowed an email exchange of follow-up questions with their mentor. Here’s what some of our protégés had to say about the experience:

I thought it was a VALUABLE experience. The process, about one month during the summer, was well timed. The feedback from my mentor was supportive and informative. I appreciated my mentor sharing her knowledge of the publishing industry. The added-value of sending a follow-up question page after the critique was very valuable to me.

I think this experience will help me be a better writer.

My mentor for the Blue Pencil project did a great job. She identified the weaknesses in a very positive and supportive way and also gave very encouraging positive feedback. Thank you so much for the opportunity and a huge thank you to all the mentors.

Thank you for such a perfect match…it has been the best critique I have had … I told (my mentor) that I feel like a bird who has been let out of a cage and can fly freely.

We’re happy to announce that we will be doing it again next summer and that we hope to make this an annual project.

Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators
October 4, 2008
National Library of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario

Do you write or illustrate for children or teens? Are you wondering if you need an agent, unsure about what they do or how to acquire one? This is the event for you to get all the answers.

FEATURING:
Kendra Marcus, Agent, BookStop Literary Agency, California, www.bookstopliterary.com
Rebecca Sherman, Senior Agent, Writers House, New York, www.writershouse.com

The brochure /registration form for the SCBWI Canada East Agents’ Day is
now available on the Events
page of our website at www.scbwicanada.org/east/events.htm

An Inside Look at Writing, Illustrating and Publishing Children’s Books presented by the Canadian Children’s Book Centre

What does it take to become a best-selling children’s author or illustrator? What are children’s publishers looking for? How do booksellers pick the books they sell?

On September 20, 2008 in Toronto, three panels of experts will discuss how children’s books are written and illustrated, edited and selected for publication and sale in Canada and answer participants’ questions.

CREATORS SHARE THEIR EXPERIENCE
Best-selling authors Barbara Greenwood and Jo Ellen Bogart, and award-winning illustrator Ruth Ohi talk about the creative process and how their careers took off.

PUBLISHERS TELL ALL
Sheila Barry (Editor-in-Chief, Kids Can Press), Lynne Missen (Executive Editor, Children’s Books, HarperCollins Canada) and Alison Morgan (Director of Sales and Marketing, Tundra Books) discuss the qualities that make for an outstanding manuscript.

BOOKSELLERS REVEAL THE INs AND OUTs OF BOOKSELLING
Highly successful wholesaler and retailer Maria Martella, Tinlids owner, and retired bookseller Lynne Kenny Scott, explain how they decide which books to showcase in their stores.

WHEN: Saturday, September 20, 2008, 9:00am to 12:00pm

WHERE: Tinlids Inc. (www.tinlids.ca), 130 Martin Ross Avenue, Toronto, Ontario

COST: $125 per participant. Registration is limited. (Each participant will receive a copy of the CCBC’s best-seller, Get Published: The Writing for Children Kit.)

Register by phone at 416.665.5663, by fax at 416.665.0775 or through email at info@tinlids.ca.

All proceeds go to the Canadian Children’s Book Centre (www.bookcentre.ca), a national, not-for-profit organization founded in 1976 to encourage, promote and support the reading, writing andillustrating of Canadian books for young readers. The CCBC helps teachers, librarians, booksellers and parents select the very best for young readers.

The theme of Toronto’s June meeting was “Is a Writers’ Group for You?”, so if you’re still in a quandary about that—and have survived that big heat wave—then post-haste click over to the minutes, which can be found in suave PDF format, or a less froo-froo text version.

As always, members and friends can find these in the archives in the Members/Friends section.

Immobilized by summer swelter? Good news! No, we can’t help you move, but we can give you something to read while you lie there, unable to summon the energy to even get to the kitchen. This season’s featured creator is Marsha Skrypuch.

Find it in the Member/Friends section in PDF format.

A two-day workshop for authors who want to know how to get published and who want to understand the publishing process.

July 21-July 22, 2008
9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Learn:
how to prepare covering letters and book proposals that get results
how to target the editor or agent who will be receptive to your writing
publishers’ internal decision-making processes
how to market your book
about the outside influences that affect publishers’ choices
the pros & cons of literary agents and self-publishing
how to build your author profile and increase your sales

“For many authors, the financial lives of their books are often a complete mystery…[and] they have unrealistic sales and marketing expectations.”

A recent Writers’ Union of Canada/Quill & Quire survey revealed that writers have little understanding of, and high expectations from their publishers

Our workshop introduces you to the basics of the financial arrangements and the sales and marketing decisions of publishers, and provides you with the strategies for improving the odds of your book getting published.

Workshop Leader, Cynthia Good, is the former President and Publisher of Penguin Canada and current Director of the Creative Book Publishing Program at Humber College. Joining Cynthia will be Jennifer Murray, former Vice-President of Marketing, Penguin Books and Kids Can Press

The workshop runs from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Lakeshore Campus located on Lake Shore Blvd. West, at the foot of Kipling Avenue, in Etobicoke.

Fee: $329.
For information, contact: Cynthia Good, 416-675-6622 ext. 3462,

To register online: A Humber student number & Visa or Mastercard is required. New students phone 416-675-5005 to receive your permanent Humber student number and then go to: http://parttimestudents.humber.ca/

Select “View All Courses” and then scroll to bottom of course listing and choose the Creative Writing link

To register by phone: Registration Centre: 416-675-5005

First Times/New Voices was our theme this month, and you’ll find the entire transcript here, in fancy-schmancy PDF format, or basic text version.

As always, members and friends can find these in the archives in the Members/Friends section.

Join award winning authors, one of Canada’s top literary agents and fellow creative writers at the first annual SeaWords creative writing workshop this summer in beautiful Prince Edward Island. SeaWords will take place the week of August 18-22 in Brackley Beach on the Island’s scenic north shore. This year’s faculty includes award winning authors Anne Simpson, Karen Connelly and Ann-Marie MacDonald as well as distinguished editor and agent Jackie Kaiser. The week will unfold with participant content based workshops and a variety of lectures exploring aspects of the publishing industry. The quiet and gentle pace of Prince Edward Island will refresh your senses and give you the creative atmosphere you desire. Visit the SeaWords Institute’s website to register, and view further details. Apply soon, space is limited and a special reduced “early bird’ price ($850) is available for those who apply before June 13. See you on the Island this summer!

Information is now up on this November’s wondrous event, packed with great speakers and a wisdom-filled Keynote Address by Marie-Louise Gay. You can also download the PDF brochure.

It was Illustrators’ Night in Toronto, and it was finally Spring!!! So Marilyn Mets has again done a lovely job putting together an artistic version in PDF format, or if your internet tubes are particularly slow today, grab the all text version.

Members and friends can find these, and all of the Minutes and News issues in the archives in the Members/Friends section.

Compiled by Gillian Chan, the list of the latest works by our members can be found at the link to your left, in the New Creations section.

CANSCAIP is delighted to announce a new initiative for Friends of CANSCAIP ($35, see joining)—the Online Blue Pencil Project. Interested applicants may submit one piece of work up to 10 pages in length, or a group of 10 or fewer illustrations.

• The project can accommodate up to 40 “Mentees” who will be teamed up with suitable “Mentors” to have their work critiqued in one of five categories: picture book, early reader/middle grade, non-fiction, YA and illustration.

• Mentors will be published authors or illustrators who are full members of CANSCAIP with at least two children’s or YA books .

• Mentees will be selected by lottery if applicants exceed expectation. There is a $20 fee for applicants who are selected. (CANSCAIP will supplement Mentor fees.)

• You may submit one piece of writing or one group of illustrations. The writing must be one work, up to a maximum of ten pages, double spaced, 12-point type size with one inch margins. The illustrations must be a group of ten or fewer. They can be photocopies or digital pieces.

• Please submit your name and category to the CANSCAIP office by June 1st 2008. Do not submit any work or payment with your application.

• After their selection and upon CANSCAIP’s receiving the $20 fee, Mentees will be given contact information and a deadline for submitting work to their assigned Mentors, on-line or snail mail, whichever works best for both Mentee and Mentor.

• Mentors will respond with one critique of a maximum of two pages. If you wish, you may submit one brief letter or email of follow-up questions after receiving the critique.

• The program will take place during July and August.

• NOTE: This project was created to help Friends develop and polish their writing or illustration technique, and does not guarantee publication!

The snowbanks have just melted in Southern Ontario, and looked what I found! It’s the March minutes of the Toronto meeting, and the topic was…uh…snow? No, um, newly additions to the dictionary…no, that wasn’t it, what was it? Oh ya, oh ya, Coping with Creative Panic!!!!

Please find them in the Members/Friends section:
Jittery PDF version (295 K)
Jumpy Text version (21 K)

Call for Applications

The Writers’ Trust of Canada is now accepting applications for the position of writer-in-residence at the Berton House Writers’ Retreat in Dawson City, Yukon.

There are four positions available between July 1, 2009 and June 30, 2010. Each position is for a three-month period.

The residency provides a unique opportunity for Canadian writers to devote a significant time to their writing and to advancing their writing careers. A monthly honorarium is provided and housing and transportation costs are covered. Writers are required to perform a public reading in Dawson City and Whitehorse and are encouraged to interact with the local community.

Applicants must:

• be Canadian citizens or permanent residents;

• have published at least one book and be established in any creative discipline (fiction, non-fiction, poetry, play/screenwriting, children’s literature, journalism, etc.).

Applications must include:

• a resume listing professional writing experience;

• a completed application form.

Remuneration: $6,000 honorarium for a three-month term.

Deadline for applications is September 30, 2008

To download an application form or for further information visit bertonhouse.ca.

The CANSCAIP News for Spring 2008 is out in PDF format, with featured Member Adwoa Badoe.

The CANSCAIP Office is closed for staff vacation until Monday March 31st. We appologize for any inconvenience.

The February minutes of the Toronto meeting are up, just as it turns to March. If only we’d had an extra day of some kind! In any event, they’re in the Members/Friends section.

February 2008 minutes in PDF format (273 K)

February 2008 minutes in text format (30 K)

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
12th Annual Writing for Children Competition
$1,500 PRIZE

The Writers’ Union of Canada is pleased to announce that submissions are being accepted until April 24, 2008, for the 2008 WRITING FOR CHILDREN COMPETITION. The winning entry will be the best Canadian children’s story of 1,500 words in the English language, written by an unpublished author.

PRIZE

$1,500 for the winning entry and the entries of the winner and finalists will be submitted to three Canadian children’s publishers.

JURY

We are proud to announce that Damien Fière, Jacqueline Guest, and Tim Wynne-Jones will serve as the jury.

ELIGIBILITY

This competition is open to all Canadian citizens and landed immigrants who have not been published in book format in any genre and who do not have a contract with a book publisher. Original and unpublished (English language) fiction or nonfiction.

HOW TO SUBMIT ENTRIES:

Entries should be typed or computer-printed, double-spaced, and numbered on 8.5 x 11 paper, not stapled.
Computer disks, CDs, e-mails, or faxes will not be accepted.
Include a separate cover letter with title of story, full name, address, phone number, e-mail address, and number of pages of entry.
Please type the name of entrant and the title of entry on each numbered page. This is not a blind competition.
Make cheque or money order payable to The Writers’ Union of Canada. Multiple entries can be submitted together and fees can be added and paid with one cheque or money order, $15 per submission.
Entries must be postmarked by APRIL 24, 2008 to be eligible.
Mail entries to: WFC Competition, The Writers’ Union of Canada, 90 Richmond Street East, Suite 200, Toronto, ON M5C 1P1.

Results will be posted at www.writersunion.ca. Manuscripts will not be returned.

January minutes of the Toronto meeting  in  January. News when you need it. If the details were any fresher, you’d have to boil them and pluck them yourselves. Just grab them from the Members/Friends section. And watch out for all of the feathers, I haven’t finished cleaning up in there.

January 2008 minutes in PDF format (310 K)

January 2008 minutes in text format (15 K)

The Writers’ Union of Canada (TWUC) is offering the Professional Development Workshop “From Desk to Bookstore: Making the Leap to Writing as a Career” in Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Victoria and Vancouver, in February and March 2008.

Workshop leaders are Wayne Grady, who has written eleven books of nonfiction, published short stories, criticism and feature articles in most of Canada’s major magazines, and is an award-winning translator; Genni Gunn, author of the critically acclaimed Hungers, a novelist, poet, translator, librettist and musician who has published with various Canadian publishers and conducted writing workshops across Canada; and Deborah Windsor, Executive Director of The Writers’ Union of Canada.

“From Desk to Bookstore: Making the Leap to Writing as a Career” is designed to enhance the careers of book writers, whether unpublished, emerging or established. The workshop answers important questions like who publishes books in Canada and how they do it? Where did all the bookstores go? Can an editor do that? What does the World Wide Web mean to the writer? How does anybody make a living at this?

Most workshops of this calibre charge hundreds of dollars. TWUC is asking a modest $45.00 to cover costs, including lunch. For more information please check out www.writersunion.ca/pdfs/registration.pdf. Please circulate this information to writers you think might be interested in coming to this event. Space is limited so register today.

The CANSCAIP News for Winter 2007 is out in PDF format, with featured Member Marthe Jocelyn.

It’s always the holiday season as long as you keep the holidays in your heart, and the mailman keeps bringing the credit card bills to your door. To commemorate this special time of year, the December minutes of the Toronto meeting can be found in the Members/Friends section.

December 2007 Minutes PDF version (274 K)
December 2007 Minutes Text version (18 K)