Jon Peirce is a labour and social historian, essayist, playwright, fiction-writer and memoirist who lives and writes in Gatineau, Quebec. In 2011, he retired from an eleven-year career as a labour relations officer and researcher with the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC), a Canadian federal public service union. Prior to that he was, among other things, a newspaper reporter and editor, English professor, industrial relations researcher and writer, and industrial relations professor. He's long been active in the Ottawa literary community, serving for many years on the board of Ottawa Independent Writers (including two years as President). When not writing, Jon is actively involved in community theatre in Ottawa and Kanata as both actor and director. He enjoys cooking, swimming, long walks, train travel, good conversation, and progressive politics. He's the author or co-author of six books, among the most recent being Work Less (Dundurn Press, 2024), a call for shorter work hours, and Plague Take It (Loose Cannon Press, 2021), a COVID almanac by and about elders which he co-edited with Ann McMillan.
(Sample description). This presentation will show, using examples from my career, how aspiring writers can use parts of their memoirs as raw material for fiction or newspaper and magazine articles.
(Sample description for an essay-writing workshop). In this workshop, participants will start by learning to identify suitable subjects for personal essays and periodical articles. They will then practice narrowing their subjects to topics that can be handled within about 1000 words. During the final part of the workshop, participants will produce a first draft of a personal essay or periodical article and will share that draft with their fellow participants.
