Writing women’s lives in memoir, biography, fiction and essays
Join us for
6 weeks
7 inspiring and information-packed sessions
April 9-May 14, 2025
April 9
April 16
April 23
April 30
May 7
May 8
May 14
6 Wednesdays
and
1 Thursday
1-hour classes
6:30-7:30 pm ET
Cost: $349 CDN
Lorri Neilsen Glenn
Lezlie Lowe
Gloria Blizzard
Wanda Taylor
Kim Pittaway
Gillian Turnbull
+ agent Marilyn Biderman
Women on the Page
6 Wednesdays + 1 Thursday:
April 9, 16, 23, 30, May 7 & 14
+ bonus May 8
6:30-7:30 pm ET
Cost: $349 CDN
Details
This 6-week, 7-session course features a stellar line-up of author-teachers — Gloria Blizzard, Lorri Neilsen Glenn, Lezlie Lowe, Kim Pittaway, Wanda Taylor and Gillian Turnbull — and agent Marilyn Biderman. Together, we’ll explore myriad ways of getting women’s lives onto the page through memoir, biography, fiction and essays. Insightful, thoughtful, welcoming and supportive: whether you’re a beginner unsure of whether “writer” applies to you, a published author seeking inspiration for new work, or an enthusiastic reader interested in what it takes to get stories onto the page, these sessions are for you. Come into our circle!
In each writer-led class, an author will take you through her process: what did it take to get her book from idea to manuscript to published page? Sessions will explore navigating our multiple “selves,” engaging with the lives of other women, recognizing and integrating social contexts and cultural realities, finding truth in fiction, crafting and placing essays that capture meaning in moments, and more. Our bonus agent session will give you the low-down on the challenges and rewards of traditional publishing. Join us for six weeks of conversations that are open, honest, humorous and wise.
Week 1 – April 9
Class 1: All the Women I Am: Memoir, with Lorri Neilsen Glenn
Aren't we all various? As Anais Nin wrote, "few know how many women there are in me." Lorri Neilsen Glenn's hybrid memoir, The Old Moon in Her Arms: Women I Have Known and Been, uses a kaleidoscopic approach to writing about transformative moments in her life. In this session, she describes her writing process and the insights she gained from using an unconventional structure in her work. As women's lives are various and unique, so, too, are innovative ways we can bring them to the page. You’re invited to consider opportunities to explore your story outside of traditional boundaries. What will you find as you play on the page?
Week 2 – April 16
Class 2: More Than Women's Issues: Weaving Social Context into Narrative, with Lezlie Lowe
Daylighting women’s stories is about more than sharing the details and the dialogue. Real meaning is found in understanding the time and place of narratives, and, so often, in what’s missing from contemporaneous accounts. How—and where—can you find what’s missing from your story, whether it’s memoir, essay, biography or fiction? In this session, Lezlie Lowe will consider ways of weaving in and ferreting out social context, and the value and risks of speculative writing, all with the goal of telling stories well.
Week 3 – April 23
Class 3: I Know This Much is True: A Life in Essays, with Gloria Blizzard
When our emotional, spiritual and historical experiences are missing from the databases and the history books, how do we find or confirm them? When finalizing her book, essayist Gloria Blizzard mis-wrote ‘writing the truth,’ as ‘writhing the truth’. It was a moment of recognition: as Gloria shares, the latter more accurately describes the process of pulling forth, discerning and sharing her worlds. Join Gloria as she discusses gathering and braiding together overlapping realities and the elements of truth revealed by music, memory and motion.
Week 4 – April 30
Class 4: Imagining the Lives of Women and Girls: Women’s Truth in Fiction, with Wanda Taylor
While fictional characters are birthed and created by the writer, their origins more often than not are based on personalities the writer already knows, and sometimes based on the writer themselves. The freedom to designate the journey of those characters is a powerful way to imagine and reimagine the lives of women and girls. This session will take a look at that power, how it lands on the page, and how we can use elements of fiction to shed light on true, lived experiences, while reframing societal perceptions about women and girls.
Week 5 – May 7
Class 5: Ghosts and Gaps: Ghostwriting and Biography with Kim Pittaway
What does it mean to take on the task of telling someone else’s story, either as a ghostwriter or biographer? Kim Pittaway has helped two subjects bring their lives to the page as a co-author and is now at work on an historical biography. She’ll share strategies for stepping into another’s story, researching to fill in gaps, recognizing the limits of your own understanding and the pleasure of enriching your point of view by looking at the world through the eyes of another.
Bonus Week 5 – THURSDAY May 8
Class 6: Q&A with Literary Agent Marilyn Biderman
Get an agent’s-eye-view of the North American publishing scene with Transatlantic Agency’s Marilyn Biderman. Marilyn represents authors of fiction, nonfiction and memoir and is a frequent guest lecturer in publishing programs across the country. In this Q&A conversation with Kim Pittaway, Marilyn will share her insights on finding and working with an agent, current book publishing trends and realities and what authors can do to boost their chances of success. A significant portion of the session will be devoted to answering your questions, so come prepared to ask!
Week 6 – May 14
Class 7: One Publication at a Time: Submitting Essays and Short Pieces, with Gillian Turnbull
Writing a full manuscript is daunting – and exciting. Each finished chapter brings the completed book closer to reality, but it still takes so long. What if you published bits and pieces along the way? When you approach an agent or publisher, they’ll want to know if you’ve been generating an audience – and what better way to do so than by submitting your shorter pieces? Not only will this help establish your audience, you’ll also build interest in your upcoming book with a few well-placed excerpts and related pieces. In this session, Gillian will explore the process of submitting to anthologies and publications and provide the tools and insights to set you on the path to publication, including examples to illustrate how to read calls for submissions, write proposals, and follow an essay through to completion.
All classes will be held on Zoom and recorded
Your Teachers
Marilyn Biderman joined Transatlantic Literary Agency in 2017, where her clients include Katherena Vermette, Amanda Peters, Paola Ferrante, Deepa Rajagopalan, Tracey Lindeman, and Merilyn Simonds, among others. Prior to joining Transatlantic, Marilyn worked at her own literary agency and consultancy practice and previously worked at McClelland & Stewart, most recently as Vice President, Director, Rights and Contracts. Marilyn is a member of the Law Society of Ontario, a graduate of Osgoode Hall Law School, and also holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto in English Literature. She has guest-lectured at the publishing programs at Humber College, Ryerson University, Simon Fraser University, the University of British Columbia, and taught a course in the publishing program at Centennial College. Marilyn lives in Toronto, and is especially proud of her work with the St. John Ambulance Dog Therapy program.
Gloria Blizzard is an award-winning writer and a Black Canadian woman whose essays, reviews and poetry have been published widely (CBC, Wasafiri International Contemporary Writing, World Literature Today, and elsewhere). Her work has won the Malahat Review’s Open Season Creative Nonfiction Prize and been nominated the Pushcart Prize. Gloria holds an MFA from the University of King’s College.
www.gloriablizzard.com
Instagram @gloriawrites
Substack: Carnivalesque with Gloria Blizzard
Praise for Black Cake, Turtle Soup, and Other Dilemmas:
“Captivating and lovingly written.” Ms. Magazine
“A literary delight.” Lillian Allen, dub poet
“A vital new voice in Canadian literature — smart, insightful and necessary.” Ayelet Tsabari, Songs for the Brokenhearted
Lezlie Lowe teaches in the School of Journalism, Writing & Publishing at the University of King's College, the Dalhousie University Creative Writing program, and in the King’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction program. Her first book, No Place To Go: How Public Toilets Fail Our Private Needs, was listed as a top-25 pick by CBC Books and The Toronto Star, and one of the top 100 books of the year by the Globe and Mail. The Volunteers: How Halifax Women Won the Second World War was released in 2022. Find her at lezlielowe.com
Praise for The Volunteers: How Halifax Women Won the Second World War
“The Volunteers feels more like a pulsing oral history than a stale record of the past....Lowe’s penchant for details borders on the fanatical....[C]ombines interviews, historical facts and her own family’s ties to both the city and the era into a tight, hessian weave.” The Globe & Mail
“...a true eye-opener...an exceptional book paying tribute to those those ladies of Halifax and its surroundings, who have gone unnoticed and unrewarded, until now.” The Miramichi Reader
Lorri Neilsen Glenn’s recent books include The Old Moon in Her Arms: Women I Have Known and Been (Nimbus), the essay collection, Threading Light: Explorations in Loss and Poetry (Nimbus) and Following the River: Traces of Red River Women (Wolsak and Wynn). Lorri is Professor Emerita at Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax’s first Metis Poet Laureate, and an award-winning writer, instructor, researcher, and community worker. She lives in Nova Scotia.
Instagram: @river2seashore @awordisashore
Bluesky: lorri.bsky.social
Praise for The Old Moon in Her Arms: Women I Have Known and Been
“An inventive, lyrical compendium of memory and imagination.” Sylvia Hamilton
“A gift of storytelling magic.” Shelagh Rogers
“A gorgeous book.” Freefall Magazine
“A graceful gathering of moments that shape a life.” The Miramichi Reader
Kim Pittaway is co-author of Toufah: The Woman Who Inspired an African #MeToo Movement with Toufah Jallow, and Unconditional: Break Through Past Limits to Transform Your Future with Dr. Samra Zafar. She is a Cohort Director in the MFA in Creative Nonfiction program at the University of King’s College in Halifax. A former editor-in-chief of Chatelaine magazine and long-time magazine editor and journalist, she is a recipient of the National Magazine Award Foundation’s Outstanding Achievement Award, among other honours.
Website: kimpittaway.com
Substack: https://substack.com/@kim
Instagram: @kimpittaway
Praise for Toufah: The Woman Who Inspired an African #MeToo Movement:
“riveting...harrowing and propulsive...” — New York Times Book Review
“...captivating debut...This powerful story shouldn’t be missed.” — Publishers Weekly
“A fiercely readable, potent memoir of a survivor who refuses to be silenced.”— Kirkus Reviews
Wanda Taylor is an award-winning author, journalist, screenwriter, and college professor. She writes both fiction and nonfiction books across children’s and adult markets. Her writing can also be found in magazines and publications across North America and the UK, including the Globe and Mail, Quill & Quire, and Atlantic Books Today. Wanda teaches courses in journalism, screenwriting, and documentary filmmaking. She is also a Mentor for the University of King’s College MFA Writing and Publishing Program in Fiction.
Website: https://www.firstdayfilmsinc.com
Website: https://www.wandataylor.squarespace.com
Socials: @wandawriting
Praise for The Grover School Pledge:
“...Taylor leaves readers with a sense that we have the power to make our voices heard, to stand up, and take a step toward change.” Quill & Quire
Praise for It’s Our Time:
“...a reminder of the importance of collective work, community-led initiatives where our voice is centered, and that we have so many untold stories and experiences that need to be shared with the next generation, to continue building legacy.” Atlantic Books Today
Gillian Turnbull is the author of Sonic Booms: Making Music in an Oil Town. She is the Director of Writing and Publishing at the University of King’s College in Halifax and has written for Chatelaine, Maisonneuve, The Walrus and The National Post. She co-edited the 2024 collection Bad Artist: Creating in a Productivity-Obsessed World with Nellwyn Lampert, Pamela Oakley and Christian Smith.
Website: www.gillianturnbull.com
Instagram: @gillianturnbullauthor
Substack: Martie Talk
Praise for Bad Artist: Creating in a Productivity-Obsessed World:
“A brilliant collection on the hard truths of the daily nitty gritty for creatives.” David Sax, author of The Future is Analog
“...a wildly wonderful collection...Check out this wild ride read and get inspired.” The British Columbia Review
Refund policy:
We will issue refunds up to two weeks before the start of the series.
What To Expect
What to expect from Women on the Page classes
Our classes are delivered via Zoom by accomplished writers, editors, agents and teachers. Our sessions are practical, inspiring and encouraging. We’re honest about our processes and challenges as artists and publishing professionals, sharing hard-won insights, shortcuts and resources that work for us, and lessons learned and sometimes learned again. We offer these classes to share our passion for writing—the joy it brings, the hard work it takes, and the rewards it bestows as artists, community members and women.
Respect for each other and for each other’s work is a cornerstone of our community. We are imperfect and we sometimes stumble. When we do, our goal is to learn, improve, heal and grow, in community, care and connection with each other.
Unless otherwise indicated, classes are 60-90 minutes long and include a Q&A. In the days following the live Zoom sessions, participants will receive the recording link and other supporting materials such as handouts or slides, which you may download and keep.
When you register, you will be sent a welcome email with instructions on what’s to come. If you don’t see it in your in-box, please check your junk folder. If it isn’t there, please email womenonthepage@gmail.com and we’ll get you sorted out. You don’t need any special computer programs to participate. Simply click on the Zoom link which will be sent to you via email the day before the session. These links come direct from Zoom and can also sometimes end up in your junk folder, so check there too.