Saying Farewell to The Writers Studio SFU

It began on Friday, when this year's graduates shared a farewell dinner, and it continued today, as we officially bid our adieux to Betsy Warland, mentor and writing colleague to all of us. It was Betsy who was responsible for creating The Writer's Studio ten years ago.

This evening Betsy talked about her history with the Studio. Katherine McManus, the Program Director of Writing and Publishing at Harbour Centre Campus, praised this program as unique.

Betsy is moving on; this was her last year as Director. The good news is, she'll have more time for her writing. The bad news is that she will be sorely missed, and her shoes will be hard to fill.

Other good news is that the three mentors from this year will be staying on. As one of the Nonfictionistas, as we came to be called, I had the privilege of working with Brian Payton.

Brian is the author of the exciting true story The Ice Passage. It describes the adventures of a ship called the Investigator, which traveled into the fabled Northwest Passage in 1850 to try to determine the fate of the Franklin Expedition.

Brian's skillfully weaves in his original research from the Royal Naval records at Greenwich: the ship's log, as well as the journals of the ship's doctor and a Moravian missionary who was asked to accompany the group since was able to speak to the Inuit in their own language.

Shaena Lambert continues as the fiction mentor. I'll miss Shaena for her sage advice. "Why not open with it?" asked Shaena of a scene I loved but didn't know how to use. Besides, she shares my fondness for Ford Madox Ford. And who else would have seen a parallel between Ford's work and that of Alexander McCall Smith, a more contemporary favourite writer?

For Shaena's salon, co-hosted by Tony Levi, we wrote in the second person -- a constraint I would never have put on myself. Yet it produced some amazing results; we surprised ourselves and our fellows by the work we produced on the topic of the Stanley Cup Riot.

The award-winning poet and Rhodes Scholar Jen Currin continues too, as the mentor for poetry. Her Salon packed quite a wallop, as Jen unveiled for us new levels of meaning in Tim O'Brien's gut-wrenching story "The Things They Carried." Her writing exercise was memorable too -- both transgressive and pragmatic. The current version of my novel manuscript contains some material I generated that evening.

I'll miss the quiet support of Andrew Chesham too. Can still read his blog, though, The Shadow of Chez.

I'm pleased and proud to have been a part of the Writer's Studio at SFU. Fortunately, membership in this great community of kindred spirits -- well, people with the same compulsions, anyway -- does not end with completing our work at the Studio.

We Nonfictionistas will carry on regular meetings, even though we'll now have to do without Brian, our favourite mentor. The fiction writers will also continue to meet in another form.

And of course, the community readings and writing skills courses will carry on. Next year, TWS is starting a new summer program south of the Fraser: Southbank in Surrey.