The Writers' Collective

… with the incomparable Chandra Mayor

Saturday, December 11 - 10:00 am to 1:00 pm @ the University of Winnipeg

($15 for Writers’ Collective members, $30 for non-members)

To register contact Michael Van Rooy, Writers’ Collective Program Coordinator at  or by phone at (204) 786-9468.

Poem as Spark: Fanning the Flames with Winnipeg’s own Chandra Mayor:

“Inspiration” is a terrible word, not least because it’s so abstract and pseudo-mystical as to be virtually meaningless.  What is this thing that urges us to write poems?  And what is this thing that compels us to write poems about that particular tree (or person, or dead animal, or egg carton, or pile of glitter, or whatever) instead of any other?  What is that spark, that compulsion, that thing that whispers and scratches and wakes us up in the middle of the night, reaching for paper, demanding to be worked out into words and lines and images?  And when that spark seems extinguished, how do we light it again, breathe it back into life?
In this workshop, we’ll explore out our own processes of compulsion/inspiration in tangible ways, as well as exploring ways to fan those sparks when they feel dim or sullen.  We’ll  talk, play, risk, laugh, and write – without worrying about workshopping or editing.  The truth is, our tasks as poets is not to search for something to say in the world.  We already, all of us, are filled with the things we want and need to say and write.  Let’s find them, and fan those sparks into fire.

Chandra Mayor is a Winnipeg editor and poet who continues to accidentally write fiction.  A former poetry editor for Prairie Fire and CV2, she is the award-winning author of three books (most recently, the Lambda Literary Foundation Best Lesbian Fiction Award-winning short story collection All the Pretty Girls).  She is a former Writer-in-Residence for the Winnipeg Public Library, and has read and performed in venues and festivals across the country.