Events & Workshops

Join the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild and City of Regina to celebrate the 2023 City of Regina Writing Award on Thursday, May 11 at 7:00 pm at Wascana Place (2900 Wascana Drive).  The Award Ceremony will feature readings by winner Kelley Jo Burke and runners-up Timothy Blackett and Chelsea Coupal.

 

This is a free event open to the public; all are welcome. Reception with entertainment and cash bar to follow the program. Please note that Wascana Place is a wheelchair-accessible venue near a public transit route. Parking in the north parking lot or on-street is available. If you have mobility issues or accessibility needs and Guild staff can help you have a more enjoyable evening, please speak to us. 

 

Please RSVP by emailing programs@skwriter.com or by filling out this RSVP form:

 

 

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2023 Award Winner Kelley Jo Burke

 

Kelley Jo Burke is a playwright, director, actor, editor, creative nonfiction writer and documentarian, radio producer and broadcaster. Her plays include the plague-delayed, but much anticipated musical “The Curst” (with Library Voices), premiering spring 2023 with Dancing Sky Theatre in Saskatoon, “Us” (co-creator Jeff Straker, winner of the 2017 Tom Hendry Award for Best New Musical in Canada (Playwrights Guild of Canada)), “The Lucky Ones,” “Somewhere, Sask. (co-creator Carrie Catherine)”  “Ducks on the Moon” (Hagios), "The Selkie Wife" (Scirocco), "Jane's Thumb" (Signature), and "Charming and Rose: True Love (Blizzard).

 

She dramaturges, directs, and produces for stage and radio, and was for many years the host/producer of CBC radio’ SoundXchange. She was the 2009 winner of the Saskatchewan Lieutenant-Governor’s Award for Leadership in the Arts, the 2009 City of Regina Writing Award (her third time receiving that award), and the 2008 Saskatoon and Area Theatre Award for Playwriting. She works in theatre, creative non-fiction poetry and now fiction. Artistic interests include disability, body image, generational approaches to feminism, and a variety of subcultures. She calls her work “tramedy” since most of what she writes teeters on the edge between howling with laughter and just howling. 

 

 

2023 Runners-Up

 

Timothy Blackett was born and raised in Regina, SK. He’s been writing since tenth grade when he was forced to enter a school-wide poetry contest. His debut collection of short fiction, Grandview Drive, is scheduled to be released by Nightwood Editions in October 2023. When he’s not reading or writing, he fluctuates wildly through various hobbies that include cooking, baking, making collage art, playing Pokémon Go, or singing karaoke. He lives with his fiancé and their three kids (a combined family). He holds a BA in English from the U of Regina. 

 

 

 

 

 

Chelsea Coupal's first poetry collection, Sedley (Coteau, 2018), was selected by Chapters Indigo for an Indigo Exclusive edition and shortlisted for three Saskatchewan Book Awards. Her poetry chapbook, The Slow Reveal (Anstruther, 2022), is out now. Her work has appeared in over a dozen Canadian publications, including Arc, EVENT, the Literary Review of Canada, The Malahat Review and Best Canadian Poetry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Musical entertainment is provided by Harpist Glenna Stewart. Glenna grew up on a cattle farm near Arcola, SK. She began studying music when she was seven but did not start playing the harp until after completing her engineering degree. Glenna has been featured at hundreds of weddings, receptions and teas, Robbie Burns night, Mandolin Orchestra concerts, Government House celebrations, a dinner for the Premiers of Canada and with "The Stellas" opening for Johnny Reid.

 

 

Submissions were adjudicated anonymously by Canadian judges Anne Fleming and Yusuf Saadi.

 

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The award is sponsored by the City of Regina and administered by the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild.