Intro: Ashley Sy

This past summer, I became an "emerging writer."

I decided that it was time to start the process of getting published. I had a few stories that upon re-reading them several months later didn't mortify me, so I started sending them out (after a few more edits, of course). Those three semesters I had spent in creative writing courses at the U of M had prepped me for what to expect—rejection.

But I was used to being published! I started writing as a wannabe music critic, using student papers as the forum where my opinion mattered. I hadn't taken any formal writing classes, so my foray into journalism was one of trial-and-error. All my stylistic mistakes are on record, but likewise, as I continued to improve, my flashes of insight were printed, too.

So how unusual it is to receive rejection letters, when my writing has been getting the OK from editors hungry from content. This is a different scene, I had to remind myself, time to pay your dues all over again.

When I was writing about music, I knew how to pull strings to get onto guest lists. In the Winnipeg literary world, I have no pull. My involvement with this blog is entirely selfish—I want to schmooze. I need professional help—as a writer, I mean.

Keep reading: to see who I meet, what I learn, and how I attempt to use this blog for career advancement.

As of today, I'm still emerging.

* * *

Ashley Sy is a Winnipeg born and bred freelance writer specializing in arts, music, and culture. She has written for Stylus, The Manitoban, and MyWinnipeg.com, and has begun copywriting for the Regina-based firm Benchmark PR. Currently, Ashley is working on getting her short fiction published—she fully embraces the classification of emerging writer. You can hear Ashley every Saturday night on 101.5 UMFM, on her pop-punk nostalgia show, Parking Lot Rock.

Intro: Courtney Slobogian

There is this sense that Winnipeg is constantly keeping secrets. But not the kind of secrets that spread around high schools and make kids hide in bathroom stalls or drive in around in their Ford tempos instead of going to class.

No, it’s more like Winnipeg keeps the kinds of secrets that are aching to be told / secrets that keep you moving through the seasons / secrets that you carry around in your back pocket / secrets that give way to smiling shyly at strangers or leaving a nice note on the napkin at your favourite breakfast spot for the server.

Winnipeg keeps secrets that remind you it is alive.

That’s what this years festival feels like for me. It is my very first year partaking in this wondrous event. And while I am partly very ashamed of this fact, I am treating it like a secret. Now clearly it is not exactly a secret.

And I wasn’t even sure I was going to admit to you that I had never been to the festival before (“does this make me less legitimate?!” I asked myself in a panic). But I have decided it will be our little adventure together.

Are you in?

As I tip toe through the festival with fresh eyes and a relentless curiosity of what this Winnipeg secret holds, I will share with you what it feels like to uncover the festival for the very first time.

I have been writing academically for a long time, but have only begun to own up to myself and others that I am in fact, a writer. Whatever the heck that means.

As I hesitantly embrace this new identity it excites me to be able to dive into a community of established, as well as newer writers, and take part in a week of work and play dedicated to the love of words.

Oh and I sure do love words.

It’s time to fall into the week, and see where I come out at the end of it all. The best part is that I get to take you along for the ride.

Talk to you soon!

* * *

Courtney Slobogian likes to sit quietly memorizing all of the reasons she is in love with this city. She graduated from University of Winnipeg in 2007 with her BA in Women’s and Gender studies. Her honours thesis was entitled “mother[loss]: An exploration of our silences in grief and longing.”

She is putting that degree to use mostly by insisting that there is a need for theory in everything. Along with writing academic papers for fun, she finds herself constantly playing with poetry (where it is desire, and not theory, that she finds most useful).

By day she busies herself with women’s reproductive health issues, by night she rides her bike.

Intro: Brad Hartle

Ariel sent me an email before I knew who Ariel was.

I don't get many emails, for reasons I would rather not talk about, so I opened it with some interest. I'm glad I did. A mutual friend had given Ariel my contact info, suggesting me as someone who might be interested in blogging for the Writers Festival.

I nodded to myself, raised my eyebrows a bit and thought, yes, yes that would be something I'd be interested in. She then went on to promise me a free coffee mug. At this point I pushed the reply button.

As someone who is just starting out writing, I thought it might be interesting to focus on what writers at the festival have to say about the craft of writing fiction, be it novels, short stories or poems.

Where do their influences and ideas come from? How do they make their characters believable? How do they approach form and voice? What have they learned as their careers have progressed? It is questions like these that will be the focus of my postings.

I would like to thank Ariel and the good folks at the Writers Festival for this opportunity. I hope I don't blow it.

* * *

Brad Hartle likes books. One day he may try to write one, though nothing is certain. For now, he spends his days in the basement of a big stone building in Downtown Winnipeg and his evenings in a big brick apartment in Crescentwood, where he lives with his wife, two cats, and a scattering of toothpicks, needed because he refuses to see a dentist. He is almost always happy.

Intro: Jay Diaz

George Elliot Clarke got me into this mess. He’s not at this year’s writer’s festival, but if he was you can bet I would be doing some fist shaking in his general direction.

Until I heard George read at the festival, I wanted to be a teacher. Wouldn’t that have been the life? Good pay. Summers off. Good pension. Benefits.

And then he had to go and read that poem about his mother’s kitchen and all hell broke loose. Somewhere in that kitchen (probably near the stove, I think there might have been a bready smell), I got this ridiculous notion I wanted to be a writer.

And where has this got me?

8.75 an hour is not good pay.

4% per check is not a vacation.

Smoking more does not reduce the need for a pension.

And I need a root canal.

Damn you George Elliot Clarke.

But, wait a minute...if the organizers hadn’t brought him here in the first place, none of this would have ever happened. All these years my fist shaking has been misplaced.

It’s not George’s fault (how could poetry really make that big a difference in someone’s life), it’s the festival’s. How could I have been so blind? The cause of my misfortune has been staring me in the face every September and I have done nothing.

But that ends today. No longer will I allow my fist to tremble with flaccid impotence. No longer will the guilty escape my wrath. I will find the culprits responsible for George’s appearance and...

Well, I’m not really sure what will happen, but you can bet there will be some heavy duty fist shaking involved.

* * *

Jason Diaz is a Winnipeg-based writer and bookstore employee. His poems and prose have been previously published in dark leisure magazine. He was interviewed for the Uniter once and is probably the only blogger here licensed to drive forklift. He doesn’t have any books coming out, but would most likely write one if asked.

Intro: Emma Hill Kepron

Aah, autumn in Winnipeg. Gentle readers, we all know what this means: back-to-school, sticky bands on tree trunks and, best of all, the Writer’s Festival.

Once again, I am blown away, humbled, and awestruck by the sheer number of events planned and the enormous level of talent represented.

You may see me, my fellow fans of fiction, (and other genres, naturally) furiously taking notes, as I strive to bring you the freshest festival observations I can manage; straight from my brain to the internet, piping hot.

Sadly, the job that supplies the bacon to my home will keep me from some daytime events. However, this intrepid blogger will not shirk from evening proceedings, even if they do keep me up past my usual bed-time. I am that committed!

With a line up like this year’s, though, I would gladly stay up for days. Can you believe how lucky we are to have the likes of Joseph Boyden, Paul Quarrington, Austen Clarke, David Bergen and so many other talented creators in our midst? And for free or for cheap to boot!

I know I will be gorging myself on this literary feast, but there’s plenty to go around and I’m happy to share.

See you there!

* * *

Emma Hill Kepron is a librarian at the University of Manitoba.

She is also an aspiring poet.

Her writing takes place in a small blue house near the river, which she shares with her husband and her dog.

from pre-pre-view to pre-view

Hey all,

I know I just started posting content willy-nilly but I should back up and explain what's going on here...

My name is Ariel Gordon. I'm blogger-in-chief of HOT AIR.

The content I've posted so far is what I'm deeming a pre-pre-view of THIN AIR, which doesn't start until September 21. It was timed to coincide with the Sept. 3 press conference announcing the festival line-up.

I've got a few more odds and sods to post before I'm done with this pre-pre-view, but don't expect much more until we move into pre-view mode the week before the festival.

As with last year, you can expect lots of multimedia content, which includes video, audio, pictures, and text. You can also expect lots of interviews with authors, thoughts on readings, reading, and literature and more than a small soupcon of sillyness.

You also (reasonably, I think...) expect to see people other-than-me writing and commenting for HOT AIR.

Like the army, we're still (always!) recruiting, so if you're at all interested, here's the wherefore:

HOT AIR, the official blog of THIN AIR, Winnipeg International Writers Festival, is looking for a few good (volunteer) bloggers. On offer to the lucky handful are free tickets to Mainstage events, festival paraphernalia, and the opportunity to rub shoulders, elbows, and ankles with book-ish folk. For more information, contact Ariel Gordon at janeday@mts.net.

Thanks to the THIN AIR staff for bringing me back for a second year of airing my opinions and tech savvy. Thanks too to Pasha Malla for being the inaugural featured author...

A.