Shaping a Story

Shaping a Story: In Conversation with Past Danuta Gleed Award Winner and Finalist
Tuesday, June 9, 2026
11:00 am PDT / 2:00 pm EDT
60 minutes
Hosted on Zoom
Live captions available 
Registration: $25 +HST / Free for TWUC Members

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Getting from the beginning to the end. What makes a good story and what makes a strong narrative arc? Join 2024 Danuta Gleed Award winner Canisia Lubrin, and finalist Nicola Winstanley for a discussion about shaping a story. Moderated by award-winning author Patricia Westerhof, this webinar runs 60 minutes including a Q&A period. TWUC members will have access to a recording of the webinar for a limited time. Non-members will only have access to the live event.
 

Canisia Lubrin is the author of five books, Voodoo Hypothesis, The Dyzgraphxst, The World After Rain (2025), Code Noir, and Bright Machine (2026). Her honours include a 2021 Windham-Campbell Prize, OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, Griffin Poetry Prize, Derek Walcott Prize, and the Danuta Gleed Literary Award. She has been twice a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award. The World After Rain earned Lubrin her second OCM Bocas Prize for poetry. She is associate professor and coordinator of the University of Guelph’s Creative Writing MFA and the poetry editor at McClelland & Stewart. Code Noir, Lubrin’s fiction debut and winner of the 2025 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, has 59 drawings by celebrated visual artist Torkwase Dyson. Born in St. Lucia, Lubrin lives in Whitby. Photo: Clea Christakos-Gee.
 

Nicola Winstanley is an author of fiction, poetry, and comics for adults and children. Her first volume of short fiction, Smoke (2025), was a runner-up for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award. Her books for children include Cinnamon Baby shortlisted for the 2012 Marilyn Bailey Picture Book Award, and How to Give Your Cat a Bath, shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award. She has been published in various literary magazines and is the recipient of the Alvin A. Lee Award for Creative Non-Fiction. Nicola holds an MA (Honours) in English from Auckland University and an MFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia. She works at Humber Polytechnic in Toronto.

Patricia Westerhof is the author of The Canadian Guide to Creative Writing and Publishing, The Dove in Bathurst Station, and Catch Me When I Fall. Her stories and essays have appeared in Room, The Dalhousie Review, Write, West End Phoenix, The Feathertale Review, the Toronto Star, and Post Road. She is a past winner of the Word Award for Best Contemporary Novel, a K.M. Hunter Award finalist, and the recipient of multiple writing grants and residencies. Patricia teaches creative writing at University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies, where she's received an Excellence in Teaching Award.

This event is generously supported by Access Copyright Foundation.