Our Stories, Our Voices: A 6-week Generative Writing Program

Imagine having time each week to step deeper into your voice, your creativity and your stories with support and in community. "Our Stories, Our Voices" is a 6-week workshop designed to help you develop different techniques to find your flow and express your ideas. If you already have a writing practice, great! If you're just beginning, that's also great! Whether you're hoping to develop a writing practice, generate new work and enhance your existing practice, or try something new, this is the right place for you! This online generative writing workshop is for writers of all levels and there are only 10 spots!

This workshop is designed for participants to:

• generate new work
• develop and/or maintain a writing practice
• build community with other writers
• strengthen your relationship to your creativity
• step deeper into your voice
• honour your lived experiences
• enhance sensory and critical lenses
• find your flow and develop a toolkit of techniques that support your practice
• express your inner wold, beauty and complexity
• uncover new ideas and exercise your imagination
• reduce stress and develop body awareness

This workshop includes:

• 6 facilitated sessions, Sundays at 10am PST/1pm EST (90-105 minutes) from April 21 - May 26, 2024 (the last workshop is an in-session reading).

• A 20 minute one-on-one with Preeti where you can review and edit a piece of writing or talk about craft (scheduled outside of class time in the last two weeks)

What to expect:

Each week, you will enter a facilitated space with community agreements, invitations to write and opportunities to share your work. Sessions will focus on creative writing but may also include experiential and mindfulness activities. Participants will sometimes be invited to respond directly to a prompt, other times, we will read a a piece of writing together and draw inspiration from that source, alongside optional prompts. Care will be taken to include poems and excerpts from diverse writers who cover a range of topics, such as grief, pleasure, love, loss, story, etc. (topics are open to change depending on participants' needs and requests). There will also be time for discussions on craft, editing and writing practice.

At the end of each session, you will have a piece of writing that you can keep working on or choose to tuck away. While there is no "homework," you will be given optional prompts between each session as part of developing your writing practice. As a facilitator, Preeti strives to centre your agency (i.e. you are never required to follow the prompt, perform the exercise or share your work, but will always be invited to listen to your body and make a decision that’s best for you).

The final workshop will be an in-session reading. Prior to this reading, you will have the opportunity to meet with Preeti for a 20-minute one-on-one Zoom session to discuss a specific piece of writing, your craft, your next steps, or your selected reading.

Please note, this is not a weekly writing “class” where you edit and workshop pieces, but rather a place where you explore and express your experiences and feelings, or fictional stories, through writing. This is a generative writing series. The goal is not production and publication, but rather process, introspection and creation. Having said that, the one-on-one session can be used to discuss edits and publication! And many past participants have gone on to publish or keep working on their memoirs, poetry collections, children's books, etc.

Cost:

There are two rates for this workshop: $275 CAD (supported ticket) and $325 CAD (fair cost). There are 5 tickets available at $275 until April 7 for the first 5 participants. After that, the price will increase to $325. If you want to save on Eventbrite fees, you can use the "By Donation" Option and enter an amount between $285 - $325 (the amount will be refunded minus fees if you enter a lesser amount). Eventbrite charges 2.9% service fees on all tickets but it charges an additional 3.5% + $1.29 processing fee for non-donation tickets. If you're able to pay the fair/full price, I would encourage you to do so as that allows me to offer discounts to those who need them! But if the earlybird rate/ supported ticket is what's good for your budget (i.e. doesn't cause undue stress), then do that! If saving $15 in Eventbrite fees would help you out financially, contact the organizer and see if you can arrange for an alternate payment method.

If you need financial support, I am able to offer one partial scholarship for this class (half off). As a settler who primarily resides on the unceded and occupied territories of the Musqueam, Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish, Semiahmoo, Katzie, Kwikwetlem, Kwantlen, Qayqayt and Tsawwassen Nations, I will be prioritizing participants from those communities. After that, I will pick names at random. Please email me by September 15 if interested in this scholarship opportunity. Note: scholarships are only available to individuals once in order to allow others the opportunity for this support. Thank you for your understanding.

Accessibility:

Live transcription is available on Zoom, however this is only 60-80% accurate. Unfortunately, ASL interpretation is not available for this series. Please make note of your accessibility needs in the space provided during registration.

*This workshop needs at least 8 participants to run so if you're joining, please share it on your social media networks and invite a friend! After 10 people sign up, the waitlist will open. The class will be capped at 12 max, but most likely 10 as noted above.

** If the facilitator falls sick during the six weeks and is unable to teach a Sunday session, the program will be extended by one week. Hopefully this won't happen! Alternately, if people prefer, she will try to find a substitute facilitator for that day.

About the Facilitator

Preeti Kaur Dhaliwal (she/her) is a critical race feminist, writer, (former) lawyer, college prof and facilitator who grew up on the traditional territories of the Semiahmoo, Katzie, Kwikwetlem, Kwantlen, Qayqayt, Tsawwassen and Musqueam First Nations (also known as Surrey and North Delta, British Columbia). With over 15 years of facilitation and teaching experience, Preeti is committed to arts-based methodologies as a source of personal and collective empowerment, transformation and community-building. She has taught creative writing at Guelph-Humber College, led arts-based workshops across Canada and the US in various institutions (including universities, law faculties, women's spaces and youth centres), and firmly believes that stories change the world by altering our ways of seeing, feeling and being with one another and the planet.

Preeti’s creative writing has appeared in PRISM international, Looseleaf, We Were Not Alone: A Community Building Art Works Anthology, The New Quarterly, The Fiddlehead and alt. theatre, amongst numerous other publications. She is a two-time writer in residence at Voices of Our Nation (VONA) and a three-time recipient of Canada Council for the Arts grants. In her academic career (BA, LLB, BCL, LLM, MFA), Preeti has combined law, theatre, performance art and creative writing to investigate race, history and pedagogy. She has received over two dozen awards for academic excellence and community work, most recently the DF Forster Medal. She is currently working on a novel and a poetry collection.

[Photo taken by Ella Cooper]

TESTIMONIALS FROM PREVIOUS PARTICIPANTS

• “Working with Preeti is opening yourself up to compassion, kindness, a sense of belonging and deepening a relationship with yourself and your voice. What a gift to be in community with her and to be guided by her warm and generous spirit. She helped me see myself and others with kinder eyes, with a wider smile and to approach the page with courage. I especially loved having a one-on-one session during this course and have such gratitude for how deeply encouraged I felt by our meeting. Also, she plays great music and I'm opening myself up to healing my relationship with dance and my body because of her joy in dancing.” - Our Stories, Our Voices writer-participant

• “Preeti concisely provided the set-up, jumped into the heart of the workshop, and created many opportunities for all voices to be heard. The exercises were meaningful and accessible.” - Workshop Participant

• “I appreciate the calmness it brought me, and the legitimacy of a scheduled activity helps justify spending time on myself.”- Workshop Participant

• "I looked forward to the workshop (Our Stories, Our Voices) each week. Preeti did such an amazing job of creating a sense of community that naturally deepened its connection each week. I found myself looking for familiar faces each week and wanting to hear everyone's writing. The activities and writing practices/excerpts Preeti prepared each session really resonated with me. I found my voice evolving with each passing week. This was the first time I shared work and I know that it was made possible through this workshop." -Our Stories, Our Voices writer-participant

• “Preeti's prompts were intriguing and created the opportunity to explore new thoughts through writing.” - Workshop Participant

• "My writing has been limited to academic and expository formats for decades. I don't offer myself the time or permission to express emotions, be vulnerable, share lived and felt experiences or be creative in my writing. Preeti skillfully and thoughtfully creates a safe, respectful and inclusive space that honours my hesitant, cautious and self-edited voice and provides opportunities for deep reflection, exploration, curiosity and forgiveness. Preeti holds space gently and generously through meaningful community agreements, nourishing breathing exercises, melodious music and reflective and impactful writing prompts. I leave the sessions feeling uplifted, valued, seen and heard and with a strong desire to share my unedited voice. These sessions have been a profound part of my self-care and soul care." - Angela, Anti-Racist Educator, Workshop Participant

• “These workshops are such a gift to me. They lessen the loneliness and isolation I experience. I feel part of a community for which I’m so grateful. I honestly couldn’t recommend them more.” - Workshop Participant

• “​​It taught me that non-judgmental, free writing is possible for me, and it feels good.”

• “I couldn't think of a better way to kick-start my day than writing with Preeti. She brings care and love to everything she touches. I left the workshop feeling energized and grateful for the opportunity to connect with my writing practice (and other writers!) in such a supportive space.” - Kai Taddei, Our Stories, Our Voices writer-participant