There will eventually be a flyer with all the information, but here's what's involved: an invitation to my home in downtown Toronto, for a full 10 to 5 day of writing in fellowship with other writers. It will start with coffee and tea, introduction and discussion of writing in general and the rules of the day in particular, and proceed to assigned topics for ten, fifteen or twenty minute writing sessions at various spots in my very long garden. Then, gathering to read only if you are comfortable doing so, to give each other feedback, and to eat and drink.
The workshop is open to people who have a lot of writing experience and to those who have none. It's about learning to trust your own voice and your own stories, to pay attention to the creative self, and to gain confidence and direction from supportive feedback and the friendship of other writers all doing the same thing. It costs $125 for the day, lunch, snacks and morsels of insight included.
In other news: Luminato, Toronto's spring arts fest, is over, and I'm only sorry that I missed so much. I did see the "Midsummer Night's Dream" done by a troupe from India and performed partly in Indian dialects. It was charming, with a superb set of ladders and torn sheets looking like a tenement in Delhi, through which the actors tumbled and dove. It's clear that even when you don't understand the words, Shakespeare's characters are completely understandable.
Not part of Luminato but just as great, I saw two good friends, Daniel Kushner who runs and plays first violin in the Gala String Quartet, and Duncan Fremlin who runs and plays banjo in the blue-grass band Whiskey Jack, bring the bands together for an event called "Bach in the Saddle." It was a compilation of all my favourites: Dvorak and the Everley Brothers, Bach and Gordon Lightfoot. The highlight was the haunting Ashokan Farewell from "Oh Brother where art thou?" played with many, many strings. Heavenly.
So, on into summer. With thunderstorms.
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