Writer-in-Residence, Melville Public Library

I'll be spending a month this fall as the Writer-in-Residence at Melville Public Library in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, and I'm really excited to read what you've been working on. I will be offering one-on-one writing consultations with writers across Labrador, holding a weekly co-writing session and hosting an open mic reading event. Stay tuned for all the details!


From WritersNL:
WritersNL is pleased to announce our WritersNL Year of the Arts 2024 Writers!

Two Writers-in-Schools have been selected to present activities in school classrooms aimed at enhancing student enrichment and fostering an appreciation of the literary arts.

Sheilah Roberts Lukins
· O'Donel High School, Mount Pearl
· Beachy Cove Elementary, Portugal Cove-St. Philips
· Bishop Abraham Elementary, St. John’s

Sabrina Pinksen
· Indian River Academy, Springdale
· St. Peter’s Academy, Westport
· Cape John Collegiate, Hillside Elementary, La Scie
· MSB Regional Academy, Middle Arm
· Copper Ridge Academy, Baie Verte

Four Writers-in-Residence have been selected to provide encouragement and advice to local writers and serve as literary ambassadors to the community through activities such as readings, workshops, and one-on-one consultations. The program is being offered in partnership with NL Public Libraries, which will host the guest writers.

• Sharon Bala: AC Hunter Public Library, St. John’s

• Trudy Morgan-Cole: CBS Public Library, CBS

• Sara Tilley: Melville Public Library, Happy Valley-Goose Bay

• Douglas Walbourne-Gough: Corner Brook Public Library, Corner Brook

The program will roll out mid-October and run for four weeks. Anyone seeking further information about an individual residency can contact the specific library or Writer-in-Residence at the emails below.

For general information about the WritersNL Year of the Arts initiative, email yota@writersnl.ca.

For full information on all of our writers-in-schools and writers-in-residence, including biographies and dates, please visit us online:
https://writersnl.ca/programs-services/yota-writers/

Shortlisted for Atlantic Playwriting Award

I’m honoured to have been shortlisted for the first-ever Jenny Munday Atlantic Canadian Playwriting Award, presented by Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre. I’m in fine company!

A NEW WORLD FOR WOMEN

Event image from Persistence Theatre.

I was commissioned to write a short one-person play about Women and Work in 1921 St. John’s. The result is A NEW WORLD FOR WOMEN. Thanks to Persistence Theatre for the inviting challenge of writing this piece, and thanks especially to Sharon King-Campbell and Margot Duley for their expertise in realms dramaturgical and historical. My character, Annie, has just finished her first day of work as a shopgirl on Water Street, and she has a LOT to say about it. I'm looking forward to seeing what the production team come up with to bring her to life.

From Persistence Theatre:

On Tuesday, September 7th, join us at Royal Canadian Legion Pleasantville Branch 56 for our next Ladies' Reading Room: Women and Work, featuring the new play A NEW WORLD FOR WOMEN by Sara Tilley, directed by Alix Reynolds, performed by Michaela Sheldon, and costume designed by Melanie Mooney.

Following there will be a panel discussion on the topic of Women and Work, moderated by Dr. Margot Duley with panelists including Dr. Allyson Stokes and Mary Shortall!

This event has free in-person admission by pre-registration. Register today and learn more: https://www.votesforwomen100.ca/september-women--work.html

Theatre for Good Podcast

Well, this is a first! I was interviewed by Megan Nimigon about Pochinko Clown through Mask for the Theatre for Good podcast.

It was a pleasure to try and explain the fundamentally unexplainable nature of this work. Check it out if you dare!

Seafoam - Audio Theatre for the Bonavista Biennale

I was delighted to be asked by Robert Chafe of Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland to write a piece of audio theatre for the Bonavista Biennale this year. Part of Artistic Fraud’s project Ephemera, my piece Seafoam responds to an earlier artwork from the 2017 Biennale - Will Gill’s The Green Chair. Visitors can download the Ephemera app for their phones and then listen to the audio on-site in Maberly, where The Green Chair was originally installed.

Ephemera site map, 2021.

From Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland: “A conversation with the past, and an invitation to listen. Five of Atlantic Canada’s finest writers engage with legendary Bonavista Biennale artworks that transformed our relationship to the landscape forever. These short audio pieces, available through free located-audio phone app, provide a beautiful and wholly original way of thinking about the physical impermanence, but lasting legacy, of art.”

The other four pieces in the series are written by Lisa Moore, George Murray, Sharon Bala and shalan joudry. Ephemera is free to hear until the end of the Biennale on September 12, 2021.

Please note that cell reception is patchy throughout the Bonavista Peninsula, so you are advised to download the app and site map to your phone before you visit. The app will work even if you can’t get cell reception on-site. Headphones are recommended.

Download the Ephemera app.

Download the Biennale site map.