A Workshop Opportunity

I’m teaching a short class –
Saskatoon Writers’ Coop Winter Class: Write a Children’s Picture Book

You’ve got a great idea for a picture book and you can imagine it as a gloriously illustrated and engaging piece of work– but how do you go about getting your story on the page? Join bestselling author Alice Kuipers for a course structured to help you write a draft of your picture book over the space of eight weeks.

Even if you’re not currently focusing on writing for children, this course will greatly help with structure for any longer piece of writing you may be working on.

The course structure is unique (for the Coop, anyway)—a face-to-face class at the beginning and another at the end, with the intervening weeks being conducted online. Week by week, you’ll focus on the key elements of a good picture book – characterization, story and language. The course will start with a two hour in-person seminar at the Refinery, then you will work on seven weekly online assignments as you complete your manuscript with online feedback from Alice. After seven weeks, there is a final in-person class to talk about what to do to try getting your finished picture book published.

Alice Kuipers is the award winning author of Life on the Refrigerator Door, and the young adult novels The Worst Thing She Ever Did and Forty Things I Want To Tell You (March, 2012). Her first two picture books are being published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. Alice was the 2010-2011 Writer in Residence at Saskatoon Public Library.

First session Saturday January 28, 2012; final session Saturday March 17, 2012

2 p.m. – 4 p.m.

Jessie Miller Room, St. James Church basement (next door to The Refinery, 607 Dufferin Avenue)

Registration deadline is Saturday January 21, 2012. Coop members $120, non-members $130. Please confirm your interest, or ask for more information, by emailing winterclass@writerscoop.org as soon as possible. Then follow up with a mailed registration, following the instructions at http://www.writerscoop.org/coop-registration-policy.html