Jan 22: #DiverseCanLit Writing Communities + Writing ‘the Other’

Date: Wednesday, Jan 22, 2014

Time: 8pm ET

Topic: Writing Communities + Writing ‘the Other’

Use the #DiverseCanLit chat to follow along on Twitter (or TweetChat). Last week Gabrielle Prendergast mentioned the importance of getting feedback from other writers. This Wednesday we’ll talk about how we can use our writing communities to improve the diversity in our own writing, and what it means to write the other. Below are some questions we may discuss:

• Where do you go when you need feedback? Are you part of a writing community on or offline?
• Consider your writing to date. Are your characters more like or unlike yourself? Why?
• Consider the demographics of your writing community. Are your peers more like or unlike yourself? Why?
• How do you ask for feedback without turning your peers into research subjects?

Getting Ready

• Check out Daniel José Older’s article on writing “the Other.”
• Read the highlights from last week’s chat.
• Think about the topic and questions. Come prepared to share your insight and ask more questions!
• Follow the #DiverseCanLit list on Twitter. Feel free to tweet me (@leonicka) if you want to be added!
• Subscribe to Leonicka.com in the sidebar to get the schedules, recap posts, and digests of relevant resources.

Take Action!

Discussion is great and important but ultimately DiverseCanLit is an action based group. By the end of the year I hope we have a long list of practical steps we’ve taken to address the diversity problem in Canadian literature.

So far our community has come up with 3 great ideas:

1. Group of diverse writers that can give each other feedback/critique
2. Database of groups facilitating diversity in Canadian literature
3. A better compilation of grant resources for authors
   1. Phoebe Wang is working on this already but I’m sure she could use some help!

Do you have cool ideas on how to makes these projects work? Leave a comment below! Do you have the resources and skill to spearhead one these projects? Email me at connect@leonicka.com to discuss.

We can do big things, y’all! I can’t wait to chat on Wednesday. :)