Local writer Michelle Greysen  didn’t know if Lethbridge had any other writers, so she decided to set up a writer’s group.

“I’m shocked. I didn’t think I’d find so many people. I didn’t do any advertising, I just put up the Facebook group and wrote it on the blackboard at the Penny Coffee House and I had eight people at the first meeting (in February),” said Greysen, who is a freelance writer for numerous magazines and self published a book of poetry in addition to publishing and editing community newspapers including the Calgary Straight. She is currently finishing  her first novel.

“ But every meeting there’s more people and it’s not usually  people bringing people. It’s people who  are complete strangers. It’s unusual because writing is so personal. But it  shows how brassy writers can be. When you go to a group where you don‘t know anybody,” she said adding the  August meeting, which was held at Henderson Lake Park, attracted 30 writers. It also featured the first people to volunteer to read their works to the group, which is something she’d like to see continue.

 The group includes all ages from teens to seniors from all backgrounds plus encompasses all genres  and styles including poetry, fiction, non-fiction, playwrights, scriptwriters and even songwriters.
The original intention of the group was to meet on the second Tuesday of every month to discuss writing strategies, techniques and trends  and to share works with each other.
 However, the different members have branched off into their own little groups according to their interests and styles to workshop each other’s works.

“So we’re going to have each group host one of our meetings so it isn’t just me speaking, so we’ll have themes like fiction,” she said.

Writing is a somewhat of a monastic pursuit, so it makes sense for writers to go to a monastery to complete their magnum opus, meet other writers and basically just write for 10 days straight without any distractions.

So local writer Michelle Greysen was overjoyed to be chosen out of numerous applicants to participate in the Sage Hill Writing Experience at a former Franciscan monastery in the Qu’Appelle Valley this summer.
“ It was nice to be able to write for 10 days straight, day and night. I basically wrote around the clock,”  Greysen said adding she applied back in April to get into the program by submitting her work, which was judged by a jury of writers, after which they notified her in a couple months of her acceptance into the program.

“Sage Hill is an annual writing school run through the Saskatchewan’s writer’s guild, but it’s nationally attended and it’s juried,” she summarized, estimating there are hundreds of applicants who apply for the 30 spots in this prestigious program which takes place every Julyover 10 days in July (July 19-29 this year) at the St. Michael’s retreat, northeast of Regina.

Greysen has been a freelance writer and magazine and newspaper publisher for years as well as self-published a book of original poetry.
They must have a work in progress that is almost completed.

Upon being chosen they go through a series of in tense workshopping with other writers and  professional authors including novelist Terry Jordan, who was in charge of Greysen’s group of five, novelist Catherine Bush, poets Susan Stenson, Elizabeth  Bachinsky, John Barton, John Lent  and Daphne Marlatt and Barbara Klar and non-fiction writer Ted Barris.
“It was very cool. It’s  an old monastery. It’s very isolated on the top of a hill overlooking the town of Lumsden,” she enthused.

“The rooms were very similar to those the monks used. But we ate together three times a day —  quick simple meals, which is part of the experience,” she continued adding the workshop portion of the program was very informative. Plus the  writers all got to have one-on-one time with their instructor.
“It’s a pretty open forum and workshop with five students and one instructor. Mine was Terry Jordan, he’s a critically acclaimed  Canadian novelist. Every day we workshopped our novel with the group and the instructor, all of the stuff was critiqued and the rest of the time we were working on our novels,” she continued adding  the experience was a great  opportunity to be critiqued by some of Canada’s top notch writers.

She brought her historical fiction saga “Shunned” which follows five generations of a prairie Mennonite family.
“I was more than half to three quarters of the way finished,” she said adding she ended up completely revising her entire work.

People make interesting subjects of pictures, even if they aren’t portraits.
that is the concept behind a new exhibition of  photos from local artist Wayne Dwornik, who introduces “People Scapes— a Song For Brian 2” which opens tomorrow  (Aug. 14) at the Waterfield  Gallery upstairs in the Yates Centre.

“There are 18 photos, from smaller snapshots to quite large,” observed Bowman Arts Centre curator Darcy Logan, setting up the exhibit.
there are a variety of pics dating back to the 1970s including shots of buildings in Cuba, an interesting shot through Dwornik’s kitchen window with someone walking up to the house, landscapes, gardens and the water display at the Galt Gardens. But all of them prominently feature people as part of the background.
“It’s an expression of when he was in photography school and  they said you weren’t supposed to have people in the frame unless it was a portrait,” Logan continued adding all of the photos feature people — at least in the background.

It will be Dwornik’s second solo exhibition through the Bowman Arts Centre, though he has participated in numerous group exhibitions.

The opening reception for the show is 7-9 p.m., Aug. 14 at the Waterfield Gallery in the Yates Centre.
 The exhibition runs until Sept. 18 through ArtWalk and Arts Days