Parkdale Street Writers

The first Parkdale Street Writers group took place in April and May, 2008, at the Parkdale Library branch. Our goal was to bring together 16-25 year olds who lived in the area and were interested in trying different kinds of writing, through a series of hands-on workshops led by local authors and artists.

An outstanding 38 people expressed an interest in participating. We were able to accept approximately 20 registrations and finished with a core group of about 12 dedicated writers. We were thrilled to be able to publish some of their work here, in The Scrawl. The following year, we got funding to run the program for seven months, and ended us a huge public event, where we launched our print zine A Collection Of Weeks in Parkdale.

Workshop leaders are all professional authors. They've included storyteller Dale Jarvis, novelists Ibi Kaslik, Mariko Tamaki, and Kristyn Dunnion, street artist and videographer Stro1, hip hop lyricist Mindbender, and comics artist Willow Dawson. They ran workshops on everything from finding your character's voice, to turning your life into a song, to writing reviews, to the basics of writing film scripts, to creating comics even if you can't draw.

The program is coordinated by award-winning Toronto author Emily Pohl-Weary (who grew up in the area). Each year, we also have two paid youth coordinators who help organize and shape the program.

If you're interested in finding out more about the Parkdale Street Writers, drop us a line or call 416-779-1448.