Wordfest presents Bionic Women
Online Writing Workshop with Casey Plett
Opening The Door Versus Keeping It Shut
A 90-minute online workshop, led by award-winning author Casey Plett
“Write with the door closed, re-write with the door open” is a famous quote from Stephen King’s On Writing who in turn got the lesson from an editor. King said you should begin your story with the intent of it being just for you, and then open it up for others to criticize. Was he right? When do you open the door? When do you keep it shut? For how long? How do you balance the humility of seeking criticism if it conflicts with what’s exciting you? We will discuss the freedom of privacy and the nourishment of community, and how these twin phenomena can balance, oppose, and synchronize.
The 90-minute online workshop, led by award-winning author Casey Plett, begins at 10 AM MT on ZOOM and you will be emailed everything you need to access after you sign up.
This rare opportunity to work with Plett is part of Wordfest’s Bionic Women Writers Experience, which encourages authors who identify anywhere on the gender spectrum to embrace feminist attributes to become better at their craft.
Thanks to the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, we are able to offer this experience to anyone in any geographic location who would like to participate. Closed-captioning is included and a recording of the session will also be made available to registrants. Please contact boxoffice@wordfest.com if you are experiencing obstacles to participation.
About Casey Plett
Casey Plett is the author of A Dream of a Woman, Little Fish, and A Safe Girl to Love; the co-editor of Meanwhile, Elsewhere: Science Fiction and Fantasy From Transgender Writers; and the Publisher at LittlePuss Press. She has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, the Winnipeg Free Press, and other publications. A winner of the Amazon First Novel Award, the Firecracker Award for Fiction, and two-time winner of the Lambda Literary Award, her work has also been longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. Plett is a former bookseller and book publicist and currently teaches creative writing. While she has lived many places throughout the United States and Canada, she will forever call the prairies home, specifically Winnipeg and Southern Manitoba, Treaty 1 Territory and the homeland of the Métis Nation. Find her on Instagram @plettsky.
About A Safe Girl to Love
A new edition of two-time Lambda Literary Award–winner Casey Plett’s acclaimed debut short story collection.
By the author of Little Fish and A Dream of a Woman, eleven unique short stories feature young trans women stumbling through loss, sex, harassment, and love, in settings ranging from a rural Mennonite town to a hipster gay bar in Brooklyn. These stories, shiny with whisky and prairie sunsets, rattling subways and neglected cats, show that growing up as a trans girl can be charming, funny, frustrating, or sad, but never predictable.
A Safe Girl to Love, winner of the Lambda Literary Award for transgender fiction, was first published in 2014. Now back in print after a long absence, this new edition includes an afterword by the author that reflects on trans writing and representation in our current political climate.
About Wordfest:
Wordfest is an entrepreneurial non-profit founded in 1996, located in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies in Mohkinstsis, Calgary, Alberta, Treaty 7 territory. Celebrating its 28th year, Wordfest connects audiences with life-changing experiences and ideas at the Imaginairium Festival each fall, at in-person events throughout the year, and virtually via Imagine On Air. The Wordfest Youth program supports teen literacy, by giving students in Grades 7-12 unique interactive experiences with the world’s leading authors.
