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2024 Nonfiction Course

Facilitated by Michelle Good

Location: Online delivery

Dates: July 3 – 12, 2024

This facilitated course is designed for eight writers of creative nonfiction and memoir who have begun to publish in journals and want to go beyond the basics of the genre. Part workshop and part style-incubator, in these sessions we will discuss ways to approach form, voice, and challenging material via the art of the particular. This course includes one-on-one meetings with the instructor and short lessons in freshening your approach and testing the limits of the genre. Application is open to writers 19 years of age and older from Canada and abroad.

Application

Applicants will need to provide:
  • Applicant information
  • Emergency contact information
  • $25 Application Fee (payable by e-Transfer, Visa / MasterCard, or cheque)
  • Optional: A letter of intent towards a bursary or scholarship
  • A brief letter outlining your writing project, including:
    • Goals
    • Where you are in your process
    • How you would work on your project while at Sage Hill
    • Any other pertinent information
  • 12-page sample of your writing including:
    • Five pages published
    • Seven pages of work-in-progress that you’d like to develop at Sage Hill
  • Your literary CV

Note:

  • Writing samples up to the page requirement will be reviewed by the jury. Pages in excess will not be reviewed.
  • Please combine all documents into one file to upload with the online application form.
  • PDF and Microsoft Word documents are accepted.
  • If you have trouble when attaching your application materials to the online form, please contact us.
Adjudication process:

All applications go through a competitive, independent peer jury process to maintain a high level of artistic merit in programs. Jury members weigh applications against a rubric of set criteria to assess the quality of writing and readiness for the experience.

Acceptance is determined by:

  • Quality of work submitted
  • Project description
  • Experience and ability to carry out the proposed project
  • Literary CV and publication history
  • Which applicants would most benefit from attending Sage Hill at this point in their development

This adjudication process is usually completed about four weeks after the application deadline. You will be contacted with results after the jury has come forward with its decision.

Tuition

Application Fee: $25
Online Program Tuition: $745

What is covered?

  • 10-day writing retreat as part of a small group, led by program faculty
  • 1-on-1 conferences and course time with your instructor
  • Critical feedback on writing submissions
  • Courses and discussions on the craft of writing
  • Private online meeting spaces for 1-on-1 instruction and workshops
  • Access to programmed online readings and events
  • Invitation to online social activities with other writers

When and how to make a payment:

After the jury has reviewed applications, you will be notified via email to let you know whether or not you have been accepted. You can make a payment once you have received your acceptance email.

Tuition payments can be made by:

  • E-transfer to sage.hill@sasktel.net (preferred)
  • Cheque mailed to: Sage Hill Writing, 324 – 1831 College Ave., Regina, SK, S4P 4V5
  • Visa or Mastercard (no Amex) by calling 306-537-7243. Please note that credit card payments are subject to a 2.4% processing fee.

Cancellation Policy:

  • There will be a $100 cancellation fee if you withdraw after payment is made.
  • If you cancel 14 days or more prior to start date: 50% of funds returned.
  • If you cancel 7 days prior to retreat start date: 25% of funds returned.
  • Cancellations within one week of program start dates are non-refundable. However, if it is possible to fill the spot in time, some refund may be available. 
  • Please note that credit card processing fees are non-refundable.

Refunds for COVID-related cancellations will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Sage Hill reserves the right to cancel upcoming or in-process programs due to COVID-related health and safety issues or mandates. If a program must be cancelled, payment will be refunded accordingly.

Online schedule elements

  • Classes usually meet for 1 to 2 hours each day.
  • Sessions will likely take place in the late morning / early afternoon, to accommodate the various time zones of the writers taking each course. 
  • Each writer will have 1-on-1 sessions scheduled with their instructor throughout the program.
  • With online retreats, we understand that writers may continue to have responsibilities at home. We’ve found that the more time writers put into the program, including time set aside for personal writing and working with feedback received on their writing, the more they get out of the experience!

Instructor

Michelle Good is a Cree writer and a member of the Red Pheasant Cree Nation in Saskatchewan. After working for Indigenous organizations for twenty-five years, she obtained a law degree and advocated for residential school survivors for over fourteen years. Good earned a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia while still practicing law and managing her own law firm. Her poems, short stories, and essays have been published in magazines and anthologies across Canada, and her poetry was included on two lists of the best Canadian poetry in 2016 and 2017. Five Little Indians, her first novel, won the HarperCollins/UBC Best New Fiction Prize, the Amazon First Novel Award, the Governor General’s Literary Award the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Award, the Evergreen Award, the City of Vancouver Book of the Year Award, and Canada Reads 2022. It was also longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and a finalist for the Writer’s Trust Award, the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize and the Jim Deva Prize for Writing that Provokes.  On October 7, 2022 Simon Fraser University granted her an Honorary Doctor of Letters. Her new work, Truth Telling: Seven Conversations about Indigenous Life in Canada was released May 30, 2023 and on October 4, 2023 was shortlisted for the Writers Trust Balsillie Prize for Public Policy.

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