Welcome to Talking Fresh 2026: Foundations! All in-person events will be held at The Artesian at 2627 13th Avenue in Regina on Saturday, March 14, with the panel discussion also livestreamed and recorded (noted below). Please RSVP for in-person events.
Online events are held via Zoom: registration required. They will be recorded and posted to our YouTube channel for 30 days.
All times are posted in Saskatchewan time. Find your time zone here: https://dateful.com/time-zone-converter
All are welcome at these free events.
Check out our accessibility measures for our festival here.
Thursday, March 5 - Online via Zoom
Outside the Box: Choosing to Follow the Writerly Path with Kim Fahner
with host Bruce Rice
7:00 - 8:00 pm
Between Two Lines explores the meaning of "Open Secrets". It is an attempt to pull truths from the written word, to show examples of how truth can be artfully indirect, evasive, and oblique. Between Two Lines is about what we can and can't say to each other, and what may or may not result from unspoken truths and secrets.
Wednesday, March 12 - Online via Zoom
Tell Your Story and Tell It Crooked with Michelle Porter
with host Tara Gereaux
7:00 - 8:00 pm
My writerly foundations are built strongly upon having been raised in a reading family. The notion of a holistic literacy—the acts of reading, thinking, questioning, writing, and storytelling—were key to my childhood. As well, the roots of my work are planted in the landscape of Northern Ontario, considering the metaphorical tensions that exist between what is clearly seen, in a literal way (“surfaces”), and what is hidden in a metaphorical one (“underneaths”). My life’s path with my writing career has never been linear, and—while I’ve studied the traditions of literature—I’m always willing to trust my intuition and heart, as well as my brain.
Tuesday, March 10- Online via Zoom
Uncovering the Myth of Canadian History with Michelle Good
with host Lori Deets
12:00 - 1:00 pm
Necessary Foundations in Writing Indigenous Fiction.
Fiction often offers a depth that we don’t find in non-fiction accounts of history. This is primarily because generally accepted Canadian history is not told through the lens of Indigenous experience. We don’t see ourselves in the way we know our history unfolded because the Canadian story is told to uphold colonialism, not to get at the truth about the intent of colonialism to annihilate Indigenous people. Fiction can have the same power as our traditional storytelling if it is founded in the truth of our history. Truth is more than fact, it is the heart and meaning of an experience, not just the details.
Wednesday, March 11 – Online via Zoom
The (Strange) Books that Built Me with Judy I. Lin
with host Tanisha Khan
12:00 - 1:00 pm
Growing up as an avid reader of speculative fiction, Judy’s love of fantastical stories was often criticized as “escaping from the real world”. Now as an author looking back, these weird and wonderful stories inspired her to examine “real world” topics through a different lens, and continue to shape and influence her writing today. This session will involve a discussion about the books that laid the foundation for her development first as a reader, then as a fantasy and horror author. We will reflect on your literary inspirations, explore ways to read critically as a writer and how this can support the development of your craft.
Thursday, March 12 - Online via Zoom
“Writing Our Stories: Finding Footing and Staying the Path” with Kate Gies
with host Rachel Laverdiere
12:00 - 1:00 pm
Writing a life is no easy endeavor. It requires of us a courage to muck about in the messiness of ourselves and our experiences. It can be uncomfortable, joyful, scary, enlightening, and everything in between. In this interactive talk, we’ll explore ways to find our grounding in writing our stories. We’ll look at some golden rules for memoir writing that can help us on our journey, and muse on when and how to break the rules when they make us feel stuck. Kate will share her personal experience with memoir principles and practices, and offer prompts to get you thinking about what feels most useful to you on your own writing journey.
Saturday, March 14 – In-person at the Artesian
“foundation and experiment” with Anne Fleming
10:00 - 11:30 am
Life is life, and books are book,s and books can only ever feign resemblance to life, characters only feign resemblance to people. We accept certain conventions in books — that we can know the thoughts of other people, for instance, which in real life we can only ever guess at, even if they tell us directly — but in truth, we are attempting an impossible feat: representing life/story/ideas/the world/imagined worlds through words delivered sequentially. I think this is one of the main reasons that writers keep experimenting. Like, maybe this will work.
Also, because it's fun, in this interactive talk, Anne will give a guided tour of what interests and delights her in reading and writing.
In-person only – RSVP here
Saturday, March 14 – In-person at the Artesian
“The web of interconnectedness” with Lydia Kwa
1:00 – 2:30 pm
I explore hybridity and outsider experiences through creating characters and narratives that foreground the queer and those who have been othered, including the non-human or more-than-human. This presentation will touch on how I experience foundation as an ever-shifting web of interconnectedness, as embodied in my 傳奇 (chuanji) trilogy—Oracle Bone, The Walking Boy and A Dream Wants Waking. These novels are my attempts to interrogate and to subvert ancient texts and tropes from Chinese cultural sources, both ancient and contemporary.
In-person only – RSVP here
Saturday, March 14 – In-person at the Artesian & live-streamed
“Sand and Stone: Let’s Talk about Foundations” panel discussion with Jes Battis, Anne Fleming and Lydia Kwa
3:00 – 4:00 pm
Foundations exist everywhere in real life. They are the physical base of structures, rules for living our everyday lives, and agreed-upon procedures for our institutions. How does this show up in writing? Foundations give writers strength and connection to the craft of writing, literary traditions and communities of other writers. How do we understand our foundations, and when do we know to break away from traditions? How can we lay foundations for others to join us in our multiplicity of stories and experiences? Join our panel discussion with Canadian authors Jes Battis, Anne Fleming and Lydia Kwa.
Hosted in-person as well as live-streamed via Zoom and recorded to watch on the SWG’s YouTube channel for 30 days.
In-person & online
RSVP for in-person
