The Caetani Cultural Centre is celebrating National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) with a month-long weekend series on how to write a novel conducted by local author Laisha Rosnau.
Starting this Saturday and continuing Nov. 15, 22 and 29, a few spaces remain for the workshop. Those who sign up will learn how to plan for, plot, and structure a novel, said Susan Brandoli, residency and workshop coordinator with the Caetani centre.
“(They will) understand how to identify and coax the most compelling material, and how to build a world around it,” she said. “(They will also) begin to develop and deepen characters, strengthen narrative voice and point of view (and) create convincing settings and dialogue and write vivid descriptions.”
Attendees will also foster idea generation, writing, and editing skills through instruction, writing workshops, and discussion. Craft issues will also be discussed and the exploration of fiction markets.
Rosnau is the author of the best-selling 2002 novel, The Sudden Weight of Snow, and three poetry collections, Pluck, Lousy Explorers, and Notes on Leaving.
Her fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry has appeared in anthologies and magazines in Canada, the U.S., the U.K. and Australia. Her work has been nominated for several awards, including the Amazon/Books in Canada First Novel Award, three times for the CBC Literary Award, the Pat Lowther Memorial Award, and she has won the Acorn-Plantos People’s Poetry Award.
Rosnau is currently working on a novel based on the storied history of the Caetani family in Vernon.
She holds a master’s of fine arts from the University of British Columbia and a bachelor’s from the University of Victoria and has taught creative writing, poetry and fiction at UBC Okanagan, Okanagan College, and the Vancouver Film School.
She coordinates the Vertigo Voices reading series at Gallery Vertigo, and has been a judge for Kalamalka Press’ John Lent Poetry-Prose Award, the Okanagan Short Fiction Contest and the Room Literary Magazine Fiction Contest.
The cost of the four-day workshop is $25 for existing Caetani members, and $50 for non-members, which will include a membership. Participants can register online at www.caetani.ca.
The program is sponsored in part by a grant from the B.C. Arts Council.
For more information, contact the Caetani Centre at 250-275-1525 between 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Monday to Friday, or visit www.caetani.ca.
