Website: http://www.inkwellworkshops.com
Email: info@inkwellworkshops.com
Social media:
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Goals/mission:
- Sets out to support and empower the voices of mentally ill and disabled writers. It is a “peer-led organisation by and for writers with lived experience of mental health and addiction issues” that validates participants’ experiences of mental-health and addiction struggles.
- Brings people together to create literature, engaging its participants in “community-based arts creation.”
- Supports writers from underprivileged backgrounds by providing free writing resources, scholarships, and publication opportunities.
- Contributes to decolonising literary citizenship in Toronto by acknowledging ongoing oppression and actively incorporating and highlighting Indigenous voices.
Notable activities:
- Free creative writing workshops: InkWell has offered free workshops since their establishment in 2016. Before the COVID pandemic, InkWell workshops were in-person in Toronto, and they used to support participants’ travel expenses. Since the COVID pandemic, the workshops have been online. Currently, InkWell is running a zine-making workshop and a drop-in writing workshop in partnership with Collaborative Learning College (CLC) at The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH).
- Publishing involvement: InkWell publishes annual printed anthologies of their writers’ works with Dundurn Press, such as Brilliance Is the Clothing I Wear in 2021. In 2020, InkWell published a digital anthology of Indigenous writing, Connected in Creation, through their own publishing branch, InkWell Books.
- Reinhilde Cammaert Memorial Writing Scholarship: The scholarship is awarded to two writers annually. It allows the writers to work on a book-length manuscript with the mentorship of one of InkWell’s instructors over a three-month period.
Ways to get involved:
- Drop-in Writing Group: A weekly group for writers of all experience levels. It includes writing sprints, writing prompts and opportunities for writers to share their works. Register through CLC at CAMH.
- Zine-Making Group: A course of eight weeks for writers of all experience levels. It allows writers to learn about the history of independent zine-making and different art forms, as well as giving them the opportunity to create their own zine. Register through CLC at CAMH.
- Reinhilde Cammaert Memorial Writing Scholarship. Check out http://www.inkwellworkshops.com/mentorship.
Information compiled by Victoria Li