From Dull to Dazzling

From Dull to Dazzling: Transform Your Writing with Symbolism
Thursday, April 17, 2025
11:00 am PDT / 12:00 pm MDT, CST / 1:00 pm CDT / 2:00 pm EDT / 3:00 pm ADT / 3:30 pm NDT
60 minutes
Hosted on Zoom
Live captions available 
Member Exclusive / Free Registration
REGISTER NOW (Portal login required)

Join award-winning middle grade author Jessica Vitalis and learn how to captivate your readers with indelible images and deep emotional connections by mastering the use of symbolism. In this hands-on workshop, we’ll explore different types of symbolism and practice techniques for generating and incorporating symbolism into your writing to make your stories shine. Hosted by Jennilee Austria-Bonifacio, this member-exclusive webinar runs approximately 60 minutes, including a Q&A period. TWUC members will have access to a recording of the webinar for a limited time.

Jessica Vitalis is an award-winning, Columbia MBA-wielding middle grade author with Greenwillow/HarperCollins. Her books have been translated into three languages, received multiple starred reviews, Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selections, and a 2025 NCTE Notable Verse Novel designation. In addition to appearing on “Best Book” lists for Kirkus and CCBC, Jessica has also won the Reading the West Book Award, the WWW 2024 WILLA Literary Award, and the High Plains Book Award. An American-Canadian, Jessica currently lives and writes in Ontario but speaks at schools, conferences, and festivals all over North America.

Jennilee Austria-Bonifacio is an author, community worker, and founder of Filipino Talks — a program that builds bridges between Canadian educators and Filipino families. After working with over 1,200 Filipino youth, she wrote her debut novel, Reuniting with Strangers (Douglas & McIntyre). It was longlisted for Canada Reads 2024, named one of CBC's Best Books of 2023, won the silver medal for multicultural fiction at the Independent Publisher Book Awards, and was a finalist for the Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writers Award and the Toronto Book Award. Her stories have been published in Geist, Magdaragat: An Anthology of Filipino-Canadian Writing (Cormorant Books), Changing the Face of Canadian Literature (Guernica Editions), and more. Born and raised in Sarnia, Ontario, she is now based in Toronto.