Workshops

Writer's Block Be Gone!
Using Illustration and Comics to Get Your Story Moving Again.
4 weeks - April 12-May 3 (once a week on Wednesdays)
2-4 pm (PST)

$250 CA

Do you have a story you’re trying to write but are feeling stuck? In this workshop, we'll be exploring how the use of illustration and comics can get your words flowing again. Each week, through fun sketching, doodling, and storyboarding exercises, we’ll look at different ways to activate your writing brain and breathe new life into a story. Bring a piece of writing you’re stuck on or start a new piece. No artistic experience necessary!


Translate Memory into Memoir Through Illustration 
4 weeks - April 3-May 8 (once a week on Mondays)
2-4 pm (PST)

$250 CA

Get your pen and paper ready. We’ll not only be talking about how to take a memory and translate it into sequential images (like a graphic novel), but we’ll actually be doing it too. See how drawing your scene tightens your story, takes away extraneous text, and boils the scene down to its essence. See also how visual metaphor enters your story, adding layers of emotion, physicality, and meaning to your story. If you don’t know how to draw, No problem! Stick figures are your friends (they sure are mine!). 

On the first day, we’ll go through some basic techniques, styles, and points of view, then we’ll launch into creating a mini comic of one or two of your own poignant memories. You’re welcome to pull scenes from a memoir in progress, or start something fresh. By the end of the workshop, you’ll not only have some useful tools to continue creating, but you’ll also have a short sequential art piece of your own.

Past events (If you live in any of these places, Catalogue Baby is available in all these bookstores, so go out and support your local indie bookstore!)

Audreys Bookstore, Edmonton, AB
This is a Bookstore | Bookbug, Kalamazoo MI
Old Firehouse Books, Fort Collins CO
Gallery Bookshop, Mendocino, CA
King's English Bookshop, Salt Lake City, UT
Owl’s Nest Bookstore, Calgary, AB
Furby House Bookstore and Library, Port Hope, ON
LitFest, Edmonton, AB
Massy Books, Vancouver, BC

In conversation with Dr. Taylor (fertility doctor at Olive Fertility Clinic, Vancouver, BC)

Dr. Taylor was my fertility doctor! It was so nice to be able to catch up with her and talk about our individual experiences of our time together trying to get me to have a live birth. It’s a heartwarming conversation which is also filled with the realities of today’s quests for parenthood.

Webinar with Rabbi Idit Solomon of Hasidah (Berkeley, CA)

I had a wonderful conversation with Rabbi Idit Solomon from Hasidah. We both could have chatted for hours and there might be a follow-up convo in the works! In the meantime, take a listen at our first hour of conversation about infertility, loss, Catalogue Baby, my grandmother, and more.

Author event at Tattered Cover (Denver, CO)

Author event at Books on Main (Bath, ON).

I had the pleasure of being in conversation with my editor, Amanda Lewis, of Page Two Books. We covered everything from the how tos and whys of writing the graphic memoir to my (in)fertility journey.