Monday, June 25, 2007

 

Of Mentees and Readings

The SWG Mentorship reading in Regina went SO well! It was a blast!

One of the reasons I've been quiet on here the last few months is that I've been working my ass off with my mentor, Sylvia. We've had our ups and downs, but definitely the last two months I've hit my stride a little more and have been producing some work I'm really pleased with.

The reading was held at the Hotel Saskatchewan in Regina. The Guild put us both up at the hotel for the night, and for some reason known only to the hotel gods, we were both upgraded to suites. Sweet! Seriously, Trent and I had a whole separate bedroom with a king-size bed, in addition to the room with the table, couch, loveseat and TV. It would've been nice to stay a few days and really enjoy it. I think Sylvia's room was even bigger than mine! (Not that size matters.)

The reading was well-attended. Probably 80-100 people. I have trouble estimating those things and I was too busy re-connecting with people I hadn't seen in a while. I was so pleased to see Sharon and Alison, Tracy and Annette, Shelley B., my good friend Sarah, and I'm sure I'm forgetting someone! Plus Gertrude Story was there, and seriously, I did my very first reading when I was around 13-14, and it was with Gertrude Story. I've been around the writing community a really long time ... I'm just a slow emerger. *g*

I felt surprisingly confident considering it was all brand-new poetry, and some of it still needs a lot of work. People seemed to respond favourably and in general I was flying pretty high by the time the evening was done. Definitely a positive experience all around. And Sylvia and I are meeting on Wednesday again ... no rest for the mentee!

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

 

Reading in Regina

I've been awfully quiet on here ... mostly because I've been really working hard for the SWG mentorship program these last few months. It's all culminating in the reading of the "mentees" tomorrow evening. Anyone who's in Regina is welcome to attend. The reading is open to the public and being held at the Hotel Saskatchewan at 8:00 pm, June 21. There will be three readers - myself, another poet, and a fiction writer. Also in attendance will be our esteemed mentors: Sylvia Legris, Steven Ross Smith, and Connie Gault.

I'm reading all new work - most of which feels still pretty fresh - so we'll see how things go. I like the work and I've been pretty excited about the progress I've made recently. I'm looking forward to a very writerly summer with Writer's colony and then a stint at Sage Hill.

Hope to see some of you there tomorrow night! Wish me luck!!

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?