Langevin Block, Ottawa, Ontario, (Wikipedia)
NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION BRANCH (OTTAWA)
BIWEEKLY NOTICES FOR TWO WEEKS: FEB. 1 TO FEB. 14, 2016
Need more information on CAA-NCR? Visit us at http://canadianauthors.org/nationalcapitalregion/
TO ALL READERS: Please send all submissions & event notices in the body of an email; (the text needs to permit copy and paste. Exceptions: Accompanying images such as photos and book cover) to Carol Stephen at cstephen0@gmail.com
MEETINGS & EVENTS
CAA-NCR MONTHLY MEETING, FEBRUARY
TOPIC: Scribing Sex – Romancing the Page
PRESENTER: Jasmine Aziz
DATE: Tuesday, February 9, 2016
TIME: 7:00 – 9:00 pm
LOCATION: McNabb Recreation Centre, 180 Percy St. east of Bronson Ave.
Jasmine Aziz will be outlining the differences between erotica and romance – from definitions to delivery. She will give examples of how to craft stories according to the audience you are targeting, giving examples on the difference between mainstream sensual writing versus more explicit content. There will be discussion about the art of writing erotic content to elicit arousal and when this is beneficial to a story and when it is not.
This talk is based on the majority of questions Jasmine receives from authors asking how to write in various styles, e.g. erotica vs. mainstream romance, and how they can tell the difference.
NOTE: This presentation contains explicit content and language due to the nature of the topic.
BIO: Jasmine Aziz is a retired vibrator seller. She worked as a consultant for four years doing in-home party presentations selling adult novelty toys. In that time she met many amazing and diverse women who inspired her to write a novel that would help both men and women navigate the subtle complexities of the modern woman’s life. Her first novel, the comedic Sex & Samosas, straddles the genres of women’s fiction, self-help and erotica while taking a humorous look at cultural and social issues. It has recently been optioned for a movie. Jasmine is currently putting the finishing touches to her next novel, a memoir, based on the wild and unconventional four years she sold adult toys entitled Bring Your Own Batteries.
29TH ANNUAL NATIONAL CAPITAL WRITING CONTEST DEADLINE THIS WEEK!
Short Story • Poetry $300 • $200 • $100 NEW! Open to all residents of Ontario and Quebec. NEW!
- Short Story, max. 2500 words. Poetry (not Haiku), max. 60 lines including title & blank lines.
- Must be the original, unpublished work of the entrant.
- In English, typed, double-spaced (but not for poems), on 8 1/2 × 11″ paper, one side only, page-numbered consecutively on bottom right of pages. No extra-large type, please! Indicate category and title on top left corner of every page.
- Contest is blind judged which means the Contest Coordinator will assign a number to your entry that will correspond to what she sends off to the judge. (Don’t put your name on it anywhere!)
- Don’t forget to include your entry fee.*
- Please understand that we can’t acknowledge receipt or return your entries.
- CAA–NCR reserves the right to withhold any prize should entries fail to meet expected standards.
- We will need a separate page with your information on it: category, story/poem title, name, address, phone number, e-mail address. Cheques payable to Canadian Authors Association–NCR.
I’m in! How do I do this? Entry fees* are $15 per story; $15 for up to three (3) poems. Poems will be judged individually.
MAIL ENTRIES TO: CAA National Capital Writing Contest, 163 Bell St., N., Box 57081, Ottawa ON K1R 7E1. Attention: Sherrill Wark
Awards Night: We hope that all finalists and their friends and families will attend the always-exciting Awards Night, Monday, May 9, 2016, 7 PM, AUDITORIUM, MAIN BRANCH, OTTAWA PUBLIC LIBRARY. Finalists may be invited to read their entries. Winning entries will be published in CAA–NCR’s e-mag Byline. (Copyright will remain with you.)
Deadline Midnight FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2016. (Get it postmarked if you’re close). QUESTIONS? Contact Sherrill Wark, Coordinator, NCWC at ncwc@crowecreations.ca
*“One Free Entry” for CAA–NCR members no longer available.
OTHER WORKSHOPS
STUDIO NOUVEAU ONLINE WORKSHOP WITH PEARL PIRIE STARTS FEB. 5, 2016
Credit: Pearl http://www.pearlpirie.com
An online workshop early this year as well as the face-to-face now running. (Why waste terrible weather and lousy roads and by not doing online learning? ;))
This next set of Studio Nouveau workshops would be starting Feb 5th. It would run to April 8th (skipping 2 weeks for VerseFest and Easter) This 8-week workshop is for those who want to make time to explore contemporary classic writers. Exchange of readings, assignments and critiques by email and/or at the FB page. (I have a page set up at: https://www.facebook.com/studionouveauworkshops/
Included: Four hourlong Skype chats with all participants. One-on-one in-depth critique of two poems (max. 300 lines) of each participant. Comes with a pdf of a chapbook on writing prompts (“Writing Sparks: 50 paths to poems for when you’re feeling damp”).
Each workshop includes a segment of discussing poems and techniques, and exercises and round tabling of participant’s own poems. Close reads of poets Nicole Brossard, David Groulx, Alden Nowlen, Sylvia Legris, Nelson Ball and more. Towards the end of the series, resources for making chapbooks and finding markets.
For $120 come away with new poets to love, new poems made and older poems strengthened and a new set of poets to have met with. Optionally that start of your own chapbook manuscript. Early birds who register before the end of January get a copy of Best Canadian Poetry 2015 free. Registering after they are $14 each. Minimum 6 participants. http://www.pearlpirie.com/studionouveau
THE BANFF CENTRE SPRING/SUMMER PROGRAMS: 
Our 2016 poetry faculty within The Banff Centre’s Writing Studio program. 2016 sees three amazing poets – Karen Solie , Lisa Robertson and Michael Dickman – work intimately with twelve participants on poetry manuscripts. Karen, associate director, poetry, is author of the Griffin Poetry Prize-winning Pigeon. Michael Dickman is the author of The End of the West, Flies and Copper Canyon. He teaches at Princeton and is a regular contributor to The New Yorker, and Lisa Robertson is the author of Magenta Soul Whip and the long poem Cinema of the Present. She is a poet, essayist and translator and her practice also straddles the visual arts.
Spring/Summer 2016 programs Deadlines https://www.banffcentre.ca/programs/all/literary-arts
- Digital Narratives May 09 – May 28, 2016 The application deadline has been extended until 3 Feb 2016.
- April 11 – April 23, 2016 Application deadline extended: February 10, 2016 Frontline: Environmental Reportage
- May 02 – June 04, 2016 Application deadline extended: February 3, 2016 Writing Studio
- July 04 – July 30, 2016 Application Deadline 16 March 2016 Literary Journalism
OTTAWA SUBMISSION CALLS AND OPPORTUNITIES
BYWORDS.CA SUBMISSION CALL
DEADLINE: The 15th of every month for the following month’s issue
Bywords.ca considers previously unpublished poetry from emerging and established poets for our online monthly magazine. We consider work by current and former residents, students and workers of Ottawa. We also publish poems by contributors to our predecessor, the Bywords Monthly Magazine. FOR SUBMISSION INFORMATION VISIT www.bywords.ca and click on Guidelines. Amanda Earl, Managing Editor. Bywords.ca’s literary events calendar here: http://www.bywords.ca/calendar/index.php with up-to-date info on NCR readings, book signings, writers’ circles, literary festivals, spoken word showcases & slams. Event submissions can be sent to events@bywords.ca
SUBMISSION OPPORTUNITIES Two Deadlines tomorrow!
For those who prefer the ebook version of the Canadian Writers’ Contest Calendar, the 2016 version can now be purchased via White Mountain Publications’ website. Here is the update from their newsletter: “CWCC Update: The ebook versions of the 2016 Canadian Writers’ Contest Calendar are now available from our website.”
- Additional links to contests and submission calls visit Canadian Authors National Capital Region website here: http://canadianauthors.org/nationalcapitalregion/contests/writing-contests-calls-for-submission/
Arc Magazine Contests: see links for details on each contest
- Archibald Lampman Award deadline March 31, 2016
- Diana Brebner Prize deadline March 15, 2016
- Poem of the Year Contest deadline Feb. 1, 2016 (early bird Dec. 31, 2015)
- Sawdust Reading Series: This month’s Sawdust Poem-Off is now open. Submit before February 3rd for the opportunity to feature alongside Sandra Ridley on February 17th at Pour Boy, 7 pm. This month’s judge is Deanna Young. Entry is free. Please send up to 150 lines of poetry in a single .doc attachment to sawdustseries@gmail.com, subject line SUBMISSION. More info: https://www.facebook.com/groups/35517751475/permalink/10153401218341476/
- Malahat Review Novella Prize Contest The award grants $1500 to the writer of the best novella between 10,000 to 20,000 words. This contest only runs once every other year. Genre: Fiction Deadline: February 1, 2016 Prize: $1500 Details: http://www.malahatreview.ca/contests/novella_contest/info.html
- The Goethe Glass: An Anthology of Canadian Fiction About Climate Change. Are you concerned about Climate Change? The Goethe Glass: An Anthology of Canadian Fiction About Climate Change. Last April, Margaret Atwood gave a very important speech in Barrie in which she said that the greatest crisis facing Canada and the world is climate change. As Margaret Atwood declared, “it is time for writers to respond with all the power of their creativity to the greatest threat of our age, climate change.” I am calling on all Canadian writers to put on their thinking caps, pick up their pens, and contribute to this anthology. The political climate has changed, but the physical climate is still in decline. Deadline: February 15, 2016 Details: https://exilepublishing.submittable.com/submit
- The Masters Review Anthology – Judge Amy Hempel $5000 awarded. $20.00 USD Ends on 3/31/2016. Submissions are open from January 15, 2016 to March 31, 2016. This year stories will be selected by author Amy Hempel who will select ten winners from a shortlist of forty. This category is open to ALL EMERGING WRITERS. Anyone who has not yet published a novel at the time of submission. We are looking for today’s top emerging writers. Send us your best! Details and to submit: http://mastersreview.com/anthology/
- Dr. William Henry Drummond Poetry Contest Deadline: Monday April 4 2016 Entry fee: $10 per poem Prizes: $1600: $300 first place, $200 second place, $100 third place, 8 honourable mentions of $75, 8 judge’s choice of $50 complimentary anthology, trophy, and award ceremony during the Spring Pulse Poetry Festival. Details: www.springpulsepoetryfestival.com Enquires: Send to David Brydges mybrydges@yahoo.ca
OUT AND ABOUT IN TOWN
OTTAWA INTERNATIONAL WRITERS FESTIVAL
- Tuesday Feb 2 4:00pm • St. Alban’s Church Megaphono Festival Official Launch: Keynote Address by Jessica Hopper Info & Tickets
- Friday Feb 5 7:00pm • Christ Church Cathedral The High Mountains of Portugal One on One with Yann Martel Info & Tickets
MEETINGS, BOOK LAUNCHES AND POETRY READINGS ABOUT TOWN
Saturday, February 6 6:30 PM – 10:00 PM Capital Slam featuring Sabrina Benaim Café Alternatif, 60 University Private, Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5. Another season of Capital Slam is coming rapidly to a close and that means that the poets really need to step up their game and hit the stage to grab those much coveted post-season slam spots! https://www.facebook.com/events/868341819929967/
Sunday, Feb. 7 3:00 PM RailRoad Reading Series at Pressed, 750 Gladstone, Ottawa. We begin with our open mic and your poems followed by our three excellent poets: Monty Reid, Sneha Madhaven-Reese, Vivian Vavassis More details at http://railroad-ottawa.ca/
Tuesday, Feb. 9, 8:00 pm. Tree Reading Series, Black Squirrel Books, 1073 Bank St. Ottawa, Antonino Mazza + Mary di Michele 6:45p Workshop – gut symmetries like the jeanette winterson novel with elizabeth burns 8:00p Readings – Open Mic and Featured Readers More info: www.treereadingseries.ca
Saturday, February 13 at 6:30 PM – 10:00 PM CapSlam CIPS Qualifier Café Alternatif 60 University Private, Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5 TWELVE poets will throw down to find out WHO will represent Capital Slam at the Canadian Individual Poetry Slam Championships in Vancouver! https://www.facebook.com/events/554496294708372/
OUT OF TOWN
VANCOUVER: Wednesday, February 10, 7 P.M. at the RAILWAY CLUB, 579 Dunsmuir Street, by Seymour Street (604) 681-1625, Colleen Anderson hosts the Vancouver launch of Playground of Lost Toys, Featuring readings by contributors Claude Lalumiere, Alex C. Renwick, dvsduncan, Karen Abrahamson, Linda Demeulemeester. If asked for membership: you’re attending the reading in back room. Free admission. Food and drinks available from the bar.
#30#
Everyone within range of Kingston is invited to attend. Copies of this and other of my works will be available, or may be ordered at any Amazon site and at fine bookstores everywhere.
One of Barbara Florio Graham’s most popular workshops has been Tapping Your Innate Creativity, which she has taught to national organizations and corporations across Canada, in the U.S. and abroad. It is now offered as an online tutorial. Barbara will give a small sample in her presentation to CAA, and explain how to use many of these principles to improve our creative writing.
CAA-NCR MEMBER A. COLIN WRIGHT WILL LAUNCH HIS NEW NOVEL, VERONICA’S PAPERS
Quillfyre 