As part of our Say Anything/Something program stream, a community-based performance and workshop series, Inspired Word Café is thrilled to present a writing workshop led by local author Glenna Turnbull!
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: Whether it's domestic violence, sexual, or physical abuse, writing about traumatic events is something that needs to be handled with care—not just for your own mental well-being but for that of potential readers. For those with lived experience, dredging up horrors from our past to put on the page may be cathartic but the effects of reliving those moments can take a serious toll. And all writers need to be cognizant of the possible effects your words can have on a reader.
Participants will work through writing exercises as a group but are welcome to bring a short piece of previously written work with them for this workshop.
In this workshop, we’ll look at the following:
The importance of trigger warnings.
Avoiding cliches when it comes to both abusers and victim.
The difference between private journaling and writing for an audience. How much do you tell your reader?
Techniques to write about episodes without using gratuitous violence.
A writing sprint will follow, along with the opportunity for students to share writing created in class or previously written work brought along with them from home.
About Glenna Turnbull: Glenna’s short fiction has appeared in Best Canadian Stories 2025, Prism International, Toronto Journal, Riddle Fence, The New Quarterly, Cliterature, Luna Station Quarterly and Room. Her debut novel, The Art of Getting Lost and Found, which deals with domestic violence and its effects on mental health, was published by Breakwater Books in March 2026. Winner of the Jacob Zilber Fiction prize, she’s also been shortlisted with honourable mentions for both the Peter Hinchcliffe award and Event magazine’s speculative fiction contest. Her non-fiction has been featured in numerous publications and read on CBC radio. She graduated from UBC Okanagan at the age of 50, doing one course per semester as a self-employed single parent. Glenna’s weekly column Arts Seen that ran for more than a decade. She lives with her dogs on the unceded territory of the Sylix in Kelowna, BC.
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 Alternator, the City of Kelowna, and the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies at UBC Okanagan.
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