Fall is in The Air
With the new season comes new notebooks, projects, and plans. We’re happy to share an update with you.
Workshops
We’ve heard you ask for extra instruction and support on several topics around the production of a manuscript. In keeping with VMI’s dedication to direct, personal mentoring, these workshops are intentionally small for a unique and useful experience. We’re opening seats to VMI alumni before the general public, so if you are interested, register quickly!
Here’s a sneak peek at the slate, but full details, including bios, dates, and descriptions are on our site here.
October 12, 2024, 12pm – 1:30pm PDT, online
Creating a Social Media Foundation for a Career as a Writer: an online workshop on building and navigating platforms
Fee: $100
Led by VMI alumnus Patrick Lucas
November 23, 2024, 9:30am – 4:00pm PST, online
Finding Your Footing: First Steps into Memoir
Fee: $150
Led by VMI mentor Mark Winston
February 9 – April 6, 2025, online
Prepping Your Pitch: Practical Info for Sending Your Manuscript to Agents and Publishers
Fee: $1500
Led by VMI mentor Mark Winston with a panel of award-winning mentors Aren X. Tulchinsky, Gurjinder Basran, Gary Barwin, Rachel Letofsky of Cooke McDermid Literary Agency, and Jay Millar, publisher at Book*Hug Press.
Changes
This season of change brings an announcement for our VMI community. Our director Rachel Rose is stepping down as co-coordinator of VMI, leaving the program in Elee’s hands. Rachel has been a popular mentor in several genres, working with VMI since 2016 before becoming a director in 2020. During this time she helped create the Yosef Wosk VMI Fellowship and the VMI Betsy Warland Between Genres Award and through her guidance and development, VMI moved from a pre-Covid model of local interaction to become a truly international writing program. Lucky for us, Rachel will stay on as a mentor, bringing her wide range of experience to writers via our different mentoring options and helping with the Yosef Wosk VMI Fellowship. We’re grateful to count on her continued involvement and we wish her well on her new adventures!
Rachel wanted to share these words with the VMI community:
I have so enjoyed directing VMI with my dear friend, Elee. We worked together, swam together, and hosted events together. And now she will be at the helm as the sole director, while I step away to concentrate on other projects. I have no doubt the program will continue to grow and flourish under Elee’s capable leadership. In the meantime, I look forward to seeing some of you at our VMI event this Saturday (details below). With Elee, I celebrate this new path forward for our VMI community.
Best wishes to all,
Rachel
Reminder
Rise Up, Socially
Vancouver Manuscript Intensive’s 3rd Annual Social
Come chat with VMI writers, say hi, reconnect, and purchase tasty Jamaican food and drinks at the wonderful Rise Up café market in East Vancouver.
Saturday, September 14, 2024, 2pm-4pm.
Rise Up Market, 704 Vernon St, Vancouver
We’ll be outside on the side patio, so dress for the weather. In the event of intense rain we will cancel.
No need to RSVP. Friends, partners, all welcome!
Hope to see you!
Your hosts,
VMI alumna Angela J. Gray and VMI director Elee Kraljii Gardiner
Reminder that November 9 is the deadline to apply for both the Six-Month Intensive beginning in January 2025 and the Yosef Wosk VMI Fellowship!
Wishing you well with the writing!