January-May 2026

For our winter/spring term, we reprise a couple of favourites and introduce two new courses to stretch your writer's muscle and deepen your writing practice. In every course, we write for pleasure informed by new ideas, guided conversation, and generous sharing of the writing we produce. It's fun, instructive and rewarding. Join us!

new course

Writing for Pleasure: beginnings & endings

Writing is full of beginnings and endings—in both our process of writing and in the pieces we create with our words. How do we start? How do we tease a whole story out of just an idea? How do we craft a satisfying ending? How do we craft a beginning that sets up the ending? (And must the ending always tie up the beginning?) For many of us, the blank page is daunting, so getting started is difficult. For others, it’s the ending that proves challenging: How do we know when our story is finished?

Of course, there are no easy or standard answers, but there is a lot of fun and creative joy to be had in the discovery and exploration process. In this new course, we will play with beginnings and endings of all kinds in our writing process and our writing pieces. Bring existing work to play with, or write new work based on the prompts we provide. Either way, you’ll have fun learning and talking with other writers—and experimenting with writing activities designed to inspire you and to spark your writing practice. You are welcome no matter where you are on your writing path.

Site: McNally community classroom. Days: Four Friday mornings in February. Register with McNally here.

January 18, 25 & February 1, 8 and

March 29 & April 5, 12, 19

Spark your Writing 1

No term of ours is complete without this perennial favourite -- and, this term, we're offering two sessions.

Fuel your writing practice with a weekly prompt sent to your email inbox on a specific day, followed later in the week by a collaborative, supportive conversation with a small cohort of enthusiastic and committed writers just like you. You will be inspired by reading your work aloud and by receiving constructive and encouraging feedback.

All new sparks for both sessions.

Jan/Feb: Amanda and Deborah co-facilitate

Mar/April: Amanda facilitates

new course

February 22 & March 1, 8, 15

Spark your Revision

This new course focuses on revising existing work (rather than on creating new work). Many of us find going back to an earlier draft of our writing challenging or boring, but much can be gained by re/viewing a piece of writing that we've set aside or maybe lost interest in. When we take the time to revise, we can excavate the gem of a story hidden in amongst all the words, or we can refine and sharpen the writing to enhance both the form and the language of the piece.

You will learn revision strategies. You will share your story and receive constructive feedback. You will bring your story to a fuller more complete version ready for whatever the next step is.

NOTE: Space is limited to ensure a good experience. Ideally, you will have taken a course with us recently.

May 29, 30 & 31

Weekend Writing Retreat

Give yourself a mini writing retreat with our in-city non-residential writing weekend. We gather on Friday evening to meet and connect, then meet Saturday and Sunday for writing guidance, for conversation about your current writing focus, and for activities designed to inspire you and to produce concrete results on the page. The location is a private residence in Winnipeg, designed for both group conversation and private writing time.

This will be the third year we offer this retreat weekend and we expect it to sell out, as it has the past two years -- an indication, we feel, of the desire writers have to step out of their life for just a short while and spend time in a community of like-minded creatives focused on writing stories that matter.

Space is limited to just 8 spots. Register with us via the Course Calendar tab.