Spreading the word of empowered women
Sister Writes creative-writing project grows beyond Toronto
When Lauren Kirshner launched Sister Writes nine years ago, she had no grand plan.
But she thought she had a good idea. She would offer a free, creative writing workshop to women who often face barriers to the arts, give them the space and the support to write and share their stories, and then see what happened.
“I felt like it was just an idea that maybe would work and maybe wouldn’t work,” she says today.
Six women showed up to the first workshop, which was made possible by a grant from the Toronto Arts Council and a partnership with Sistering, a dropin shelter and support agency for women downtown.
More than 300 workshops later, Sister Writes has not only continued its original mission of empowering women and building community through creative writing, but it has expanded to all parts of the city and now has its sights set beyond Toronto’s borders.
This fall marked the program’s most ambitious expansion to date, as Sister Writes partnered with Jessie’s, the June Callwood Centre for Young Women, to provide creative-writing workshops to pregnant teens and young mothers as part of their high school English credit.
Meanwhile, Sister Writes on the Road, a series of travelling workshops across Ontario, is tentatively planned for the summer.
Kirshner, who is now an assistant professor of English at Ryerson University, didn’t envision any of this when she conceived of Sister Writes in the spring of 2009.
She was still a graduate student back then and had just published her debut novel.
“It just felt like every year it grew a little bit and I thought, ‘Wow, I’m going to keep doing this because I’m having a lot of fun and I’m learning a lot and people keep coming out to the launches,’” she said.
Kirshner said she still remembers the women from the first workshop vividly. “They wrote some of the most honest writing I’ve ever read.”
There were stories about struggles
with addiction and traumatic childhoods, but also about favourite shoes and building a snowman. There were tears, but also laughter.
“They wrote about their hopes, about what delighted them.”
Kirshner remembers her excitement at watching the “unpredictable creative process unfold” without ever being sure of where it was going. But she knew she wanted to keep doing it and there always seemed to be more women who wanted to join.
The weekly writing workshop is still held every Tuesday at the Bloor/Gladstone Library, and, since 2012, Sister Writes has hosted dozens of one-off workshops at various agencies across the city. Many of the workshops are now led by women who started as participants.
Donna Reid is one of those women. She participated in her first workshop in 2013 and, after being trained as a facilitator, started leading them in 2015. She says Kirshner challenges everyone who shows an interest to take on bigger roles. “She just pushes you and says, ‘Yeah, you can do it.’ ”
Like Reid, Cindy Maguire joined Sister Writes as a participant in 2013 and became a community co-ordinator in 2015. “It was life-changing,” she said of her first workshop. “That’s a cliché, but it’s exactly what happened.”
Kirshner said while there are lots of programs that aim to teach women “quote-unquote practical job skills,” there is a different kind of power that comes from writing, which can often “help to assert some order over chaotic life events.”
“It can be therapeutic,” said Pamela Chynn, a longtime participant, “especially if you’re coming from a place of oppression.”
In addition to improving their writing, Maguire said the workshops also helped to build confidence and foster a sense of community. “And for lots of us it’s been our first published works.”
Every year Sister Writes publishes an anthology, printed by Coach House Books, and hosts a launch event where the writers read their works in front of an audience. “There’s a glow emanating from them after they share their stories,” Kirshner says. “They feel a part of each other’s lives, a part of the community, and they own their own stories even more, I think, after sharing them.”
There’s also a permanent record, adds Kirshner. “A beautifully printed literary magazine they can hold in their hands and put on their shelves.”
The launch of the first anthology of work by the students at Jessie’s is scheduled for Monday, Jan. 21, from 5 to 7 p.m., at the WE Global Learning Centre, 339 Queen St. E.