Writing is a somewhat of a monastic pursuit, so it makes sense for writers to go to a monastery to complete their magnum opus, meet other writers and basically just write for 10 days straight without any distractions.
So local writer Michelle Greysen was overjoyed to be chosen out of numerous applicants to participate in the Sage Hill Writing Experience at a former Franciscan monastery in the Qu’Appelle Valley this summer.
“ It was nice to be able to write for 10 days straight, day and night. I basically wrote around the clock,” Greysen said adding she applied back in April to get into the program by submitting her work, which was judged by a jury of writers, after which they notified her in a couple months of her acceptance into the program.
“Sage Hill is an annual writing school run through the Saskatchewan’s writer’s guild, but it’s nationally attended and it’s juried,” she summarized, estimating there are hundreds of applicants who apply for the 30 spots in this prestigious program which takes place every Julyover 10 days in July (July 19-29 this year) at the St. Michael’s retreat, northeast of Regina.
Greysen has been a freelance writer and magazine and newspaper publisher for years as well as self-published a book of original poetry.
They must have a work in progress that is almost completed.
Upon being chosen they go through a series of in tense workshopping with other writers and professional authors including novelist Terry Jordan, who was in charge of Greysen’s group of five, novelist Catherine Bush, poets Susan Stenson, Elizabeth Bachinsky, John Barton, John Lent and Daphne Marlatt and Barbara Klar and non-fiction writer Ted Barris.
“It was very cool. It’s an old monastery. It’s very isolated on the top of a hill overlooking the town of Lumsden,” she enthused.
“The rooms were very similar to those the monks used. But we ate together three times a day — quick simple meals, which is part of the experience,” she continued adding the workshop portion of the program was very informative. Plus the writers all got to have one-on-one time with their instructor.
“It’s a pretty open forum and workshop with five students and one instructor. Mine was Terry Jordan, he’s a critically acclaimed Canadian novelist. Every day we workshopped our novel with the group and the instructor, all of the stuff was critiqued and the rest of the time we were working on our novels,” she continued adding the experience was a great opportunity to be critiqued by some of Canada’s top notch writers.
She brought her historical fiction saga “Shunned” which follows five generations of a prairie Mennonite family.
“I was more than half to three quarters of the way finished,” she said adding she ended up completely revising her entire work.
Each work was brought in front of the small group they were working in plus each group had a night in which to read their works to all of the participants. Numerous community members came out to listen to the readings as well.
“There were five totally unique novels and writing styles in my group. I’d never seen such a high level of work,” she said adding there were separate groups for poetry, fiction and non-fiction this year, though there were no playwrights this year.
“I was so intimidated just to be there. I’d never seen such a high level of work. But everyone else there was just so supportive,” she said.
“But it takes you a while to realize that you actually are at that level, so it is really a nice eye-opener,” she said.
“I learned so much from the other writers. Imagine just going somewhere to write for 10 straight days,” she enthused adding now she is almost ready to submit her novel to agents and publishers, with the help of some of the contacts she made during her experience.
“The creative energy there is just phenomenal,” she said.
“I’d totally go again. I’d like to take every manuscript I write and go through this process before I take it to market because the process is so rewarding.”
A version of this story appears in the Aug. 25 edition of the Lethbridge Sun Times
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