Writing Workshop

“Simpsons Did It!”: How to Be Original When Everything’s Already Been Done

Are you, too, afflicted with an incurable desire to write creatively even though it feels like everything’s already been done? Join fellow afflictee Blair Palmer Yoxall—debut international novelist, 2026 CBC Poetry Prize judge, and University of Calgary English PhD student and SSHRC scholar—in this raucous workshop that will teach you how to seek inspiration using Shklovsky’s basic concept of defamiliarization. Armed with a little theory, play ridiculous word games and write riotous fiction with Blair and other workshoppers that teach you how to approach your projects with originality and intent. Bring your coffee and a pencil and prepare for a little learning and a lot of fun writing with others who share the dreaded affliction.

Blair Palmer Yoxall (he/him/his) is a prize-winning writer and poet. His fiction and poetry have appeared in glass buffalo, The Fiddlehead, and Carving Space: The Indigenous Voices Awards Anthology. His fiction won the 2015 Striking Prose Competition Sponsored by Terry Whitehead and the 2019 James Patrick Folinsbee Prize in English, and has been shortlisted for a 2017 Norma Epstein Foundation Award and a 2019 Indigenous Voices Award. Blair is a citizen of the Métis Nation of Alberta, and is of Métis and settler parentage. He enjoys fly-fishing in the Alberta Rockies. Treat Them as Buffalo is his debut novel. Follow him on Instagram @atayookee.

Registration not mandatory but appreciated! Register using the following link: https://writersguild.ca/writing-workshop-with-blair-palmer-yoxall-didsbury/

Free program!