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2025 Nonfiction Course
Facilitator Jenna Butler
Location: Online via Zoom
Dates: June 30- July 9, 2025
Application Deadline: April 22, 2025
This is a facilitated, online course for about eight writers of creative nonfiction and memoir who have begun to publish in journals and want to go beyond the basics of the genre. The Nonfiction Course focuses on works-in-progress and offers group discussions / critiques, writing time, and individual one-on-one meetings with the instructor. Application is open to writers 19 years of age and older from Canada and abroad.
Please click on the headings below to reveal more information.
Application
Applicants will need to provide:
- Applicant contact information
- Emergency contact information
- $30 Application Fee (payable by e-Transfer, Visa / MasterCard, or cheque)
- Optional: A letter of application for a a bursary or scholarship
- A brief letter outlining your writing project, including:
- Goals for your project
- Where you / your manuscript are in your writing process
- How you would work on and advance your project while at Sage Hill
- Any other information that you consider pertinent to your application
- 12-page sample of your writing including:
- Five pages of published work
- Seven pages of the work in progress that you would 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: $30
Online Program Tuition: $845
What is covered?
- Writing retreat in a small group format, led by an accomplished writer and program facilitator
- 1-on-1 conferences and course time with your instructor
- Critical feedback on your writing
- Group sessions and discussions on the craft of writing
- Access to programmed online readings and other community events
- Invitation to online social activities with other writers
When and how to make a payment:
Please pay your application fee when you submit your application. Instructions will be provided.
After the jury has reviewed applications, you will be notified via email to let you know whether or not you have been accepted. Tuition payment deadlines / payment plan options will be expressed at that time.
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 accepting a spot in a course.
- If you cancel 14 days or more prior to start date: 50% of tuition is due to Sage Hill. If your tuition has been paid, we will issue a refund of the amount paid less 50% of the total tuition amount.
- If you cancel 7 days prior to retreat start date: 75% of tuition is due to Sage Hill. If your tuition has been paid, we will issue a refund of the amount paid less 75% of the total tuition amount.
- Cancellations within one week of program start dates are non-refundable. However, if it is possible to fill your spot in the program, some refund will 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, though they may meet every second day depending on the number of one-on-ones offered by the instructor.
- 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!
Jenna Butler

Dr. Jenna Butler (she/her) is an award-winning poet, essayist, teacher, and editor. She is the author of three books of poetry, an Arctic travelogue, and two collections of ecological essays. Her book Revery: A Year of Bees, essays about beekeeping, climate grief, and trauma recovery, was a finalist for the 2021 Governor General’s Literary Award in Non-Fiction and a longlisted title for CBC Canada Reads 2023. A retired professor of creative and environmental writing, Butler holds fellowships in environmental writing from the Yaddo Foundation (USA) and Studio Faire (France), and currently serves as MacEwan University’s 2025 Writer in Residence. She works on the land between the off-grid organic farm she collaboratively runs in northern Treaty 6, Alberta, and the unceded traditional territories of the lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ peoples of southern Vancouver Island.
(Photo credit: Prairie Living Magazine)