Application fee must be paid before applications will be considered.

Please see A Novel Approach under What We Offer for complete program details.

Spend a week PLAYING with WORDS. Have ADVENTURES in the city. Make ART, get WET, and FILM commercials and movies. CREATE a camp the way YOU want it. Fun times guaranteed.

Ages: 9-15 years

Is there a book hidden somewhere inside you? Do stories dance in your head? Does your personal writing say what you want it to? Are you a poet at heart? Through friendly discussion, in-class writing exercises and sharing your writing, we will address the basics and specific interests of the participants involved.  For writers of all levels.

Note: Non member rate includes a one year AWCS membership.

Do you long to see your work in print? Would you like creative control? Have you considered self publishing? Join Danielle Zyp (Belly Button Books) and Karen Peterson (ky perraun) (Right Heart Press) for a comprehensive workshop on the ins and outs, the nuts and bolts of self-publishing. This session will walk you step-by-step through the process of word processing to marketing. A manual will be provided to participants, but please bring pen and paper.

Karen Peterson Bio

Karen Peterson (ky perraun) has experience as an editor, journalist, news analyst, copywriter and proof reader.  Her poetry has been published, broadcast , recorded and performed live, her credits including many literary  journals, anthologies and periodicals.  She is an editor with Right Heart Press, a micro press which has published the works of Sandra Mooney Ellerbeck, Ronald Kurt, Kerstin Mackintosh, Jamal Ali and others.

Danielle Zyp Bio

Danielle Zyp recently self-published two books. Writing is a career, a love and passion, and a life-long pursuit with stints at the Edmonton Journal, Vue Weekly, Alberta Views Magazine and many other publications. For ten years prior to that, Danielle had a successful career as a Writer/Producer for film/radio and TV. She has worked as a visual artist for the past twenty years as well as taken on more slog jobs than she cares to count.

In this eight week course, you will learn about the free fall method of writing and how it can be a useful tool for all writing. Then, using short story as a model, you will be introduced to the basics of character, plot, dialogue and setting through discussion, free fall writing, practical writing exercises and mutual feedback.

Note: Non member rate includes a one year AWCS membership.

If you love to travel, love to write and have wondered about combining both your loves into a money-making venture, the Travel Writing course will answer your questions and rev’ up your engines to get started!  Whether you travel to familiar or exotic places, Ohio, Omo or Otavalo, you can find a buyer for your stories.  This course combines all the ‘how-to’s of placing your stories as well as exercises and feedback on your creative writing style. Students have the option to write a 1000 word piece and receive personal attention on their work.

Maureen Magee Bio

Maureen Magee is a travel writer with articles published in the Calgary Herald Travel Section, The South American Explorer magazine and the literary journal, Room.  She writes regularly for the travel website YOUR LIFE IS A TRIP www.yourlifeisatrip.com   Maureen was the 2012 Grand Prize Winner of the Summit Studios’ Short Story contest and two of her stories are published in their anthology Moose on the Loose, which was released in October, 2012.  She is currently completing a book of short stories, all based on her extensive travels. More of her work can be viewed at www.maureenmagee.com

Note: Non member rate includes a one year AWCS membership.

Spend 8 weeks with Calgary poet Susan Plett, talking about what differentiates poetry and prose, and having fun with words.  Emphasis will be placed on putting your own words on the page, and learning how to critique and be critiqued.  Warning: Excellence in poetry may result.

*Note: Non member rate includes a one year AWCS membership.

In this eight week course, you will learn about the free fall method of writing and how it can be a useful tool for all writing. Then, using short story as a model, you will be introduced to the basics of character, plot, dialogue and setting through discussion, free fall writing, practical writing exercises and mutual feedback.

Robin van Eck Website

*Note: The non-member rate includes a one year membership to AWCS.

Does your writing say what you want it to say? Is there a deeper significance to your personal writing? Learn how to expand your written work into a clear and concise essay by examining style, focus, audience and purpose. Applicable techniques used in fiction will be discussed and some published essays will be studied. There will be a work shopping component to this course.

Ellen Kelly Blog

Note: Non member rate includes a one year AWCS membership.

Are you working on a novel-length manuscript or have an idea for one? Learn the steps involved in writing a novel, such as choosing point of view, setting up a structure, planning out the plot and characterization. Learn and discuss the foundations involved in writing quality novel-length fiction. Students will submit portions of their novel and receive critical feedback from the instructor and other students.

This course is a pre-requisite for A Novel Approach, the year-long novel course.

Please note:

*If you are registered in this course, you may still apply to A Novel Approach for the coming year. Please see A Novel Approach page for registration information.

**Non-member rate includes a one year membership.

Are your characters one-dimensional? Do they skip along the page but never really do or say anything meaningful and interesting? In this weekend workshop we will create characters who really jump off the page, characters your readers will remember for years to come. Through extensive writing exercises and discussion, you will find new meaning in your character’s actions and words, and learn who they are. Just like real people.

Robin van Eck Website

*Note: Non member rate includes a one year membership to AWCS.

The first “rule” of fiction writing all authors learn is to “show” story events scenically through action, as opposed to “telling” the story. But how is that accomplished? What are the craft techniques that lead to page-turning stories that immerse the reader so he forgets the book in his hands, and lives the story in imagination? And…when is “telling” the tool of choice? This two-day intensive workshop will explore techniques such as time dilation, for interweaving dialogue, internal monologue, description, action and emotion into well-structured, purposeful scenes.   

Note: Non member rate includes a one year AWCS membership.

How do you write a fascinating family memoir?  How do you draw and satisfy readers?  What particular issues arise when writing family stories? This workshop will assist you in finding shape and purpose for your project. Voice, dialogue, evocation of time and place and other literary techniques will be used to guide you in creating narratives both engrossing and historically accurate. You will be prompted to write short pieces in class, share and discuss any writing challenges in a supportive environment.

Caterina Edwards Website | Jean Crozier Website

Backstory is tricky to interweave into your story effectively. Often, our mistake is to introduce it too soon, or all at once in one large infodump. When and how can it be feathered in effectively? Think of your backstory as a series of secrets your protagonist does not want to reveal. How can you make your audience hungry for backstory and deliver it at just the right moment? Bring a pages or an idea you are working on (your plot line of story events and plot line of backstory events), and use the tips from this one-day workshop to analyze your piece for optimal revelation of scandalous secrets!

In this one day workshop, we will discuss magic realism, a style of writing that seamlessly weaves the fantastical with the real. As a class we will discuss the elements of magic realism and practice implementing them with short shared exercises.

A Saturday workshop in which writers start from nothing and compose a 500 word short-short story.  Participants don’t have to bring any work in—the work is done in the workshop.  Lori will outline elements of story and discuss how to compose a 500 word story.  The class will compose stories, read them aloud for feedback, and then, time permitting, re-draft their stories.

Please note: Non-member rate includes a one year AWCS membership.

Got a great story idea inspired by real life events but not sure how or where or why to begin writing it? In this workshop we’ll explore characters, plots and settings derived from real life. We’ll also consider how closely fiction should resemble real life, and whether some ideas are better suited to fiction or creative nonfiction.

Please note: Non-member rate includes a one year AWCS Membership.