2026 Writing Workshop
The writing workshop is back by popular demand. Lauded author and writing instructor Lisa Moore will lead you through the process of creating your own brief literary treasure in a single inspirational weekend. On Friday and Saturday morning, Lisa will help you explore how to create indelible characters capable of walking off the page into the hearts and minds of readers; how to craft language that shatters cliche; and how to draw on the senses to allow the reader to suspend disbelief and create the dream state known as literary hallucination. In other words, you’ll see how to write a story that alters the reader, and makes them see the world in new ways. On Sunday morning you’ll have a chance to share your freshly minted work of art on stage in a fan favourite Sunday morning session hosted by the effervescent Jennifer Guy
To register for the workshop please submit your name, address, email, phone number, plus a few lines describing why you want to participate in the workshop to [email protected] Once we hear from you we will be in touch with registration payment details.
Where: Sandy Cove Hall, 99 Sandy Cove Road (Friday and Saturday); Beaches Theatre & Gallery (Sunday)
When: Friday August 7 at 10am; Saturday, August 8 at 10am and Sunday, August 9 at 10am
Cost: $50 Registration Fee
About Lisa & Jennifer
LISA MOORE has written three collections of short stories, Degrees of Nakedness, Open, and Something for Everyone, and four novels, Alligator, February, Caught and This Is How We Love along with Flannery, a young adult novel. Lisa wrote a stage play based on her novel February and is a co-librettist with composer Laura Kaminsky for the opera based on February. With Jack Whalen, Lisa co-wrote the creative nonfiction book Invisible Prisons, which was short-listed for the Hilary Weston Prize in 2024 and won both the BMO Winterset Award for Nonfiction and the Newfoundland and Labrador Book Prize for Non-Fiction. Lisa is currently writing for stage and screen and finishing a young adult novel, The Spellbound. Lisa studied conceptual art at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and is a professor teaching Creative Writing at Memorial University of Newfoundland.
JENNIFER GUY has been involved with Winterset in Summer for over two decades. She was a founding board member from the festival’s inception in 2001 through to 2018. She was also part of the small team of women who worked with Richard Gwyn in Toronto in 2000 to raise funds for the Winterset Awards, now the BMO Winterset Awards. She is thrilled to see the growth and success of the award and the festival as a forum to celebrate and nurture literary arts in Newfoundland and Labrador, and she is delighted to host the workshop writers’ panel for the third time running.
Past Workshops
2025 Writing Workshop
For the first two days the group will meet with workshop leader Angela Antle, who stepped in when Lisa Moore was delayed in joining Winterset. On the third day, the group presents their writing on stage at the Beaches Centre to our Winterset audience hosted by Jennifer Guy.
Instructions for applying to the workshop: Submit your name, address, email, phone number, plus a few lines describing why you want to participate in the workshop. Once we hear from you we will be in touch with registration payment details.
Submit your information to [email protected] .
Where: Sandy Cove Hall, 99 Sandy Cove Road
When: Friday to Saturday, August 8-9 at 10am
and Sunday, August 10 at 10:00am.
Cost: $50 Registration Fee
About Lisa & Jennifer
LISA MOORE is the author of the novels, Alligator, February, Caught, This is How We Love and the young adult novel Flannery. She has also written the story collections Degrees of Nakedness, Open, and Something for Everyone. She has co-written a work of creative non-fiction, along with Jack Whalen,
called Invisible Prisons, which at the time of this announcement is shortlisted for the BMO-Winterset Award. Lisa has edited several story anthologies and co-edited two collections of scholarly essays. Her work has been translated in Spanish, French, German, Italian, Turkish and Greek. She teaches creative writing at Memorial University.
JENNIFER GUY was part of a small team of Toronto based women organized by Richard Gwyn to raise funds for the Winterset Award (now the BMO Winterset Award) a quarter of a century ago. She then joined the team which founded the Winterset in Summer Literary Festival. She served as Board member and remains an engaged supporter of the festival. She is thrilled to see the growth and continued success of all events associated with Winterset.