Tag Archives: MWG

The “MWG” to the CMW – Future Plans and Current Transitions

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It’s been about a month since I’ve begun the “Markham Writing Group”, now titled the Community of Markham Writers, and it has already been a learning experience. The idea was first met with much enthusiasm by myself and fellow founder, Karen Yuen. Without her support and positive feedback, I probably would have never gathered the guts to take on such a task. Even now, with her continued encouragement, I find it in myself to continue the hard work it takes to maintain the group.

Despite much online support for the group, it’s been difficult to obtain any faithful in-person members and, to be frankly honest, the number remains at 3 (with myself, Karen, and Johnathan Lui). Our meetings, as per our group’s objectives, are dedicated towards form exploration and mentoring and has been productive in expanding our creative scope and encouraging production. I am starting to feel in “the groove” even more with our current excursion into Short Fiction – a form I’m very familiar with and passionate about. Unfortunately, our group hasn’t seem to grown despite our well wishes and future objectives.

This week, after meeting, I laid my disappointment out on the table with Karen, lamenting the smallness of the group and, despite the online support, the lack of physical members. Perhaps there was a lack of creative outlet in Markham because there was no creative interest to tap into? Fortunately, Karen is a strong personality and helped pull me out of my rut by brainstorming solutions rather than fuelling regret. Within our hour of discussion, we’ve come to new goals and obtainable objectives to become the group that we want to be.

Although much of our plans are still in progress, I realize now that a group with a loyal base doesn’t happen overnight. We’re going to look into viral marketing at the moment (kind of like those Obay adds that cropped up everywhere in downtown T.O. but without all that advertising cost) and we’re also planning to place out a call for submissions (with a fee) to generate interest in the group and, if the call is successful, the financial support needed to take our group to the next level. The call for submissions will involve the creation of an anthology of work. But of course, baby steps must be taken.

Another bright-side tidbit to consider is that my great friend, Cindy Yang, has offered to create a new and exciting logo for our group – one that I hope to spread around on social networks and community centres. I’m sure that whatever it will be, it will be an upgrade from my Word Doc creation. Even more, it’ll have the added exoticism of coming all the way from Shanghai! Haha.

On the side, I’m looking for employment. Despite the fact that I’ve worked hard to be where I am right now (comfortably unemployed without any school to worry about), my lack of income makes me uncomfortable. I’ll also be going on a vacation for about three weeks at the end of June, but am sure to come back with renewed vigour and concentration.

MWG 2nd Meeting: Poetry and Multiculturalism

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The most recent MWG meeting was held in one of Angus Glen Library’s meeting rooms last Sunday and focused on poetry and multiculturalism.

I became acquainted with a new member – Johnathan Lui – and we had an interesting session in which he shared some of his poetry with us – the form being one of his strong points. Karen also shared a poem by Dionne Brand and I shared one of my own poor creations (Just for the record, I pretty much fail at poetry!). Although Karen had to leave a bit early, Johnathan and I were able to get better acquainted with each other and discuss our most recent projects and plots.

Later on, Johnathan forwarded a very productive e-mail regarding the structure of our meetings. After discussing the aims of our group with him, I was able to dispell some of my worries about the committee (mainly about the size of our group). As Johnathan noted, the group is bound to start off small in the beginning – something that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. By starting small, we can find dedicated members who may more easily work with each other to mentor and improve each others’ styles and forms.

The next MWG meeting will be held in the same location this upcoming Sunday, May 24th at12pm. Yet again, more information may be found on the MWG website.

MWG: First Meeting

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MWG’s first meeting was today, and it consisted of Karen, Jordan Chiang, and myself – not the biggest turn out, but I guess we can’t expect too much from the very first session. I must admit that, upon arriving, the event seemed unorganized due to a lack of reserved meeting space. We set ourselves up in the designated spot between Angus Glen’s basketball court and hockey rink on the second floor, but we didn’t anticipate how inconducive or unprofessional the place could be to a group that wants to take itself seriously. At least we know better this time around, and will be better prepared when more members join.

Other than that, the meeting was fairly productive. Earlier this week Karen and I were messaged by Donna Marrin from the Markham Village Writers’ Group, which has apparently been around for about ten years. Unfortunately it has existed in relative anonymity or obscurity, as neither Karen or myself knew of its existence and had difficulty finding out about it even after much rigorous research into the matter. Still, they requested for us either to join their group (not an option!) or change our name. Although we weren’t able to resolve this issue today, we’re still working on it and will hopefully come up with more workable titles.
On another note, we each briefly discussed our interests and expectations and settled on a topic for next week’s discussion: poetry and multiculturalism. None of us are very familiar with poetry as a writing form and picked it so that we could venture beyond our comfort zone. Karen and I also managed to briefly discuss our greater community-wide objectives, but I anticipate this to be something we will have to mainly figure out on our own time. We’ll allow members to get involved if they’d like, but other than that, we can’t take up our biweekly meeting time with organizational issues all the time.
Again, for more information about upcoming meetings check out the MWG’s official website. We will soon revamp the page with submission listings and reading lists.

Creating the Markham Writing Group

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MWG Logo

Today Karen Yuen and I met to discuss the complete lack of writing opportunities available in Markham. Perhaps this is due to Markham’s relatively small population in comparison to our more populous neighbours like Toronto or North York, but a thorough search of all Markham services revealed that nowhere in Markham exists regular readings, writing workshops, courses, seminars, or feedback groups. When confronted with the depravity of our small town, we decided to found a new group, The Markham Writing Group, to alleviate this need.

The MWG is dedicated to fostering writing talent and is open to writers of all genres and from all levels (from beginners to seasoned authors). As aspiring writers, we will mentor and support each other in a judgment-free environment. Though we are starting small (with a brief introductory meeting this Sunday, May 10 between 3-4pm at Angus Glen Community Centre), we hope to expand and include writer-based events, author readings, and member features or publishings.

Please support the group by spreading the word or, even better, joining us! For more information, check out the group’s website or Facebook group or e-mail us at [email protected].