As part of Say Anything/Something, a community-based performance and workshop series, Inspired Word Café is thrilled to present a writing workshop led by university professor and local author Joanna Cockerline!
This workshop invites writers at all stages and experience levels to engage in a learning and sharing environment.
No registration necessary—spots are first come, first served. This event is free to attend.
About the workshop: This workshop will feature accessible and welcoming writing exercises for all levels, with opportunities to share your work and receive feedback from Joanna and the group on your in-session writing. If you wish to bring a sample of up to one page of existing writing, you are also welcome to workshop that as time allows. We look forward to a supportive and inspiring event!
About Joanna: Joanna has published in national and international journals and magazines such as Room, The Fiddlehead, En Route, and International Human Rights Arts. She co-authored the short story collection Seeing Our Sisters in 2024. Beyond being a prizewinner in the CBC Literary Awards, Joanna's writing has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Still was longlisted for the 2025 Giller Prize and was named a 2025 Fall Read by CBC and Chatelaine magazine.
Joanna earned her BA and MA in Literature at the University of Guelph and completed the Graduate Program at the Humber School for Writers with Booker Prize winner Peter Carey.
Joanna lives with her family in the ancestral, unceded Syilx Okanagan Territory of Kelowna, BC, where she has co-founded a street outreach. She teaches literature and creative writing at the University of British Columbia (UBC) Okanagan.
The Alternator Centre is located in the Rotary Centre for the Arts and is wheelchair accessible. Bathrooms are gendered stalled washrooms, with a single, gender neutral and wheelchair accessible washroom available.
Our programming is made possible by the City of Kelowna, the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies at UBC Okanagan, and the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art.
We respectfully acknowledge that we live and work in the unceded, ancestral territory of the Syilx people. It is a privilege to be able to put on events as uninvited guests on their land.