WGA Conference 2024: No Place Like Home

​I was quite excited to attend the Writers' Guild of Alberta's annual conference this year, which took place over this past weekend. They had a great lineup of speakers, workshops, and events.

I'm a WGA member, and I've met a few of the organizers at different events around the city. So, I was happy to volunteer and help out - I signed up to do book sales on Saturday morning. It was a fun way to talk to members who were attending the conference (and get a good look at the books that were finalists for the Alberta Literary Awards.

---

Thomas Wharton

First event of the day was the keynote address by Deborah Willis. She covered a wide range of subjects, everything from motherhood to the creative process, and why she's not writing a book right now... but might be soon. She was a very enthusiastic and compelling speaker.

After my stint volunteering at the book table, I headed off to the workshops. Next up was "Storycraft Essentials" with Thomas Wharton. Participants did a few cooperative writing exercises that explored the construction of short stories and how to look at them, which was fun. The last advice for the day he gave writers was a list of recommended books on the writing craft, which you can see in this slide. I've read a couple of the ones on the list or had several of them recommended to me by other writers - for example, Steering the Craft by Ursula K. Le Guin and A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders.

---

From left to right: Juleus Ghunta, Jenna Butler, Deborah Willis, and Bertrand Bickersteth.

Afterward, I headed to "Writing to Effect Change" with Bertrand Bickersteth, Deborah Willis, Jenna Butler, and Juleus Ghunta. It was a well-moderated panel that explored the social impact of writing, both on the authors themselves and how they viewed their writing going out into the world.

I enjoyed hearing about their different perspectives and how they all came to writing. Some arrived at it late, some early, and some have put it on pause as they pursue other things in life, but they all had a message to tell that has impacted readers.

---

Jessica Johns

Juleus Ghunta was also the keynote speaker at the awards gala that night, and he took us on a journey of his life and how he learned to read at age twelve, and was on his own at the tender age of fourteen. As part of his speech, he read several very moving poems about his experiences, as well as discussing the impact of literature on both him and others.

Sunday started out with a keynote speech by Jessica Johns, which covered a wide range of topics that centered around the idea of treaty and what it means to her, considering her Cree heritage. Some notable quotes from her speech: "Treaty is an ongoing relationship. ... Treaty is always living. It grows as we grow. ... I have a relationship to story. A treaty with story." (Her novel Bad Cree won the Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction at the gala on Saturday.)

---

From left to right: Kendall Bistretzan, Matt Bowes, Wayne Arthurson, and Natasha Deen.

Following the keynote was the AGM for the Writers' Guild, where the guild elected new members for the 2024-2025 year. After that was the last event for the day: "Ask an: Author, Publisher, and Agent Interactive Q&A" with Kendall Bistretzan, Natasha Deen (author), Wayne Arthurson (agent), and Matt Bowes (publisher). They answered a number of questions about query letters, book manuscripts, and the state of publishing today.

It was a great conference, and I met a number of lovely writers from all walks of life - some just starting out and some with multiple books or stories under their belts.

But I have to say one of the most exciting events of this weekend was on Friday night, when my daughter graduated from middle school. I will echo parents everywhere when I say, "She's growing up so fast!" It was wonderful to see her walk down the aisle and get ready for the next step in her journey: high school.

So, all in all, it was a really packed weekend! Hope everyone else had a fabulous weekend too.

---