Faculty of Arts

Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture

The Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture (CCWOC) at the University of Manitoba is a hub for creativity and a place to learn about and celebrate the transformative potential of creative writing and storytelling. CCWOC provides support for established and emerging storytellers and writers within and beyond the university community, aiming to empower people from diverse backgrounds to develop skills and create stories.

Three men posing for a picture, the man in the middle is seated. Text: Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture.

Writer/Storyteller-in-Residence Program

The Writer/Storyteller-in-Residence program brings together established and emerging writers and storytellers, offering workshops, one-on-one consultations and public events. The program, which has been running for over 15 years, is open to UM students, staff and alumni as well as to the wider community.

  • Sonja Boon – Winter 2025 Writer-in-Residence

    Sonja Boon is a writer, researcher, teacher, and flutist. The author of the memoir, What the Oceans Remember: Searching for Belonging and Home (2019), she has published creative nonfiction and poetry in numerous literary magazines, and is author/co-author of four scholarly books, including The Routledge Introduction to Auto/Biography in Canada (with Laurie McNeill, Julie Rak, and Candida Rifkind, 2022). For six years, Sonja was principal flutist with the Portland Baroque Orchestra and has performed with various orchestras around the world.

    Consultation with Writer-in-Residence Sonja Boon

    Interested writers can book a 30-minute creative consultation with Sonja (in-person or virtual). Sonja will be in touch to confirm your time and ask if you'd like to share some of your writing before the consultation. You are welcome to meet with Sonja at any point in the creative process. 

    Book a consultation
     

Welcome event

The CCWOC introduces and welcomes Sonja Boon, who will share a selection of her work and describe her creative vision to the UM community. Student writer Aevan Caples will preface Sonja’s appearance with a reading. Outgoing Director Jocelyn Thorpe (on leave in 2025) and incoming Acting Director Nancy Kang co-host. 

All are welcome. The event is FREE.
No registration required.

Wednesday, January 22, 2025
Title: “Playing with Mud: Oceans, Archives, and Speculation”
4:00–5:00 pm + reception following
St. John’s College ROOM 108
Introductory reader/speaker – Aevan Caples
 

Aevan Caples is a second-year student in the Faculty of Arts. She enjoys creative writing and is planning to major in English. Also, she’s a huge Harry Potter fan and really wants to know who your favorite character is. Please come and tell her if you have one.

Attend a Free Writing Workshop

Imagining a Sack: Journeying with Ashley’s Sack
February 3, 2025 
Tier 409 
2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

In this workshop, co-organized by the UMIH and CCWOC, members of the UMIH reading group (and others) will engage in a creative and collaborative response activity based on Tiya Miles’ award-winning book All That She Carried: A Black Family Keepsake (2021).

Small Things: Cross Stitch Provocations
February 10 and 24, 2025 
Tier 409 
2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

In this workshop, co-organized by the UMIH and CCWOC, participants will learn about cross stitch histories and activisms, create their own cross stitch pieces, and then place them in public locations across campus.

Sweaty Palms and Breathlessness: Preparing for Stressful Presentations
February 18, 2025 
(Online, ZOOM)
2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Co-organized by the UMIH and CCWOC and led by Sonja Boon, this immersive session is designed to prepare especially graduate students for public events: conferences, thesis defenses, interviews, and more. It is based on five principles and offers tools that can support participants in their preparations, and in developing further skills of their own. Open to other members of the UM Community. Would be of interest to those receiving help from the Academic Learning Centre.

Register in advance for this meeting. A confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting will be sent after registration.

Register here

Dear Alice: Writing and Stitching with Archival materials
March 3 and 17, 2025 
Tier 409
2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

This 2-part workshop co-organized by UMIH and CCWOC brings archival materials, found poetry, and textile art into conversation with one another. The first session, in the UM archives, will introduce participants to power, politics, and possibilities in the archives, while the second will introduce found poetry as a mode of inquiry and creative exploration. Together, participants will create individual blocks of a quilt that will be stitched together by Sonja Boon.

Stitching Memories Workshop 
Thursday, April 10
6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

Hosted by Council for Craft
REGISTRATION REQUIRED BY APRIL 3 Limited spots available.

Join facilitator Sonja Boon for an engaging session that blends quilting with family history and research. This workshop, lasting between 2.5 to 3 hours, will introduce quilters and other participants to the art of creating family history and diary-inspired quilts. The session will begin with a virtual trunk show featuring quilts based on personal histories and diaries. 

Following the trunk show, Sonja will guide participants through a series of writing prompts and group discussions aimed at: 

  1. Inspiring memories, along with the emotions and meanings attached to them.
  2. Exploring the connections between texts and textiles.
  3. Considering ways to bring these memories to life through quilting projects.

 

Closing event

Playing with Wor(l)ds: A Reflection and Reception with Writer-in-Residence Sonja Boon

Monday, April 7, 2025 
2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
108 St. John's College
Host: Acting Director Nancy Kang

In "Playing with Wor(l)ds: A Reflection and Reception with Sonja Boon,” the Winter 2025 Writer-in-Residence will share reflections on the term's workshops and her creative contributions to the University of Manitoba. She will also share a quilt made from found poetry written by participants of the Dear Alice archival workshops held in March 2025.

All are welcome. The event is FREE. Light refreshments will be available. No registration required.
 

Past Writers/Storytellers-in-Residence

See more past Writers/Storytellers-in-Residence

Apply to our Writer/Storyteller-in-Residence Program (currently seeking Fall 2025 & Winter 2026 applicants)

Writer-in-Residence

Applications are currently being accepted for the Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 residencies until October 30, 2024.

A professional writer and/or storyteller is sought for the position of Writer/Storyteller-in-Residence at UM’s Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture. The three-month residencies, taking place in the fall or winter, require the successful candidate to spend approximately 16 hours per week providing mentorship and practical artistic advice to developing writers and storytellers at UM, give a limited number of readings and/or performances on campus and lead an informal non-credit workshop. The remaining time is devoted to the writer or storyteller’s own artistic projects. The successful candidate will receive a salary of $15,000.00 CAD (subject to all mandatory deductions) plus rent-free accommodation and transportation to and from Winnipeg. 

CCWOC is an interdisciplinary Centre with a mandate to promote the creation and the study of the verbal arts, both oral and written. Located at the University of Manitoba in the city of Winnipeg, the Centre sponsors readings, lectures, master classes and creative community projects that explore the connections between oral and written culture.

Winnipeg is renowned for its vibrant arts community and its multicultural citizenry, including the largest urban population of Indigenous people in North America. The centre builds upon these local cultural strengths as a basis for its creative and critical work.

Apply

Applications should include a cover letter summarizing the applicant’s qualifications for the position and describing the artistic and mentoring work they would undertake during the residency. Applications must also include:

  • A CV or resume of career achievements (publications, performances, awards, residencies)
  • A writing sample of no more than 20 pages (double-spaced and typed in a standard 12-point font)
  • Two letters of reference discussing the applicant’s skills as an artist and a mentor
  • Storytellers are encouraged to submit links to their performance videos

Candidates of all nationalities are encouraged to apply, however preference will be given to Canadian applicants. Full proficiency in English is required and publications or performance credits in English would be an asset. The Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture is committed to principles of employment equity.

Please submit your application to ccwoc@umanitoba.ca. Attachments must be in Microsoft Word or PDF format. Hard copies of materials will not be accepted.

Diversity and immigration statement
The University of Manitoba is committed to the principles of equity, diversity & inclusion and to promoting opportunities in hiring, promotion and tenure (where applicable) for systemically marginalized groups who have been excluded from full participation at the University and the larger community including Indigenous Peoples, women, racialized persons, persons with disabilities and those who identify as 2SLGBTQIA+ (Two Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, questioning, intersex, asexual and other diverse sexual identities). All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadian citizens and permanent residents will be given priority.
If you require accommodation supports during the recruitment process, please contact UM.Accommodation@umanitoba.ca or 204-474-7195. Please note this contact information is for accommodation reasons only.


FIPPA Statement
Application materials, including letters of reference, will be handled in accordance with the protection of privacy provision of The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (Manitoba). Please note that curriculum vitae may be provided to participating members of the search process.

Who we are

A headshot of Nancy Kang
Headshot of smiling woman wearing a purple plaid shirt with a background of trees.

Director

Dr. Jocelyn Thorpe (on leave)

Dr. Jocelyn Thorpe is a settler scholar in the Women's and Gender Studies Program and the Department of History, in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Manitoba. She studies histories and legacies of colonialism and environmental injustice, as well as the creative ways that people work toward a more just world. She has been the Director of the Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture since 2021. 

Acting Director

Nancy Kang

Dr. Nancy Kang is a literary scholar teaching in the Faculty of Arts’ Women’s and Gender Studies Program. She serves as Acting Director of the Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture in 2025-26. She was long-listed for the CBC Poetry Prize (2023), the inaugural winner of the Elizabeth Alexander Creative Writing Award in Poetry (USA, 2020), and First Runner-Up for the Enoch Pratt Free Library Poetry Contest (USA, 2018). Her creative writing has appeared most recently in Amerasia Journal; Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism; The Fiddlehead; and WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly. She is a member of the Creative Writing Advisory Board at Meridians journal, housed at Smith College and published by Duke University Press. She also co-authored The Once and Future Muse: The Poetry and Poetics of Rhina P. Espaillat (2018), a study of the respected Dominican American writer, translator, and literary community builder. 

Steering Committee

Dr. Warren Cariou
English, Theatre, Film & Media

Dr. Lindsay Diehl
English, Theatre, Film & Media

Dr. Adele Perry
History

Dr. Nancy Kang
Women's and Gender Studies

Dr. Matthew Tetreault
Indigenous Studies

Fellowships

C. D. Howe Memorial Fellowships in Creative Writing and Oral Culture

With contributions from the Manitoba Scholarship and Bursary Initiative, the C.D. Howe Foundation has established a fund at UM in support of the Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture. Two fellowships, valued at approximately $10,000.00 each, will be offered to successful candidates (the amount is based on the average of the last five years and is subject to change).

Please send your application or any questions to the Coordinator at CCWOC@umanitoba.ca. Deadline for applications is June 1, 2025. No late applications will be accepted.

Eligibility

We offer fellowships to graduate students who:

  • Are enrolled full-time in the Faculty of Graduate Studies, in a master's or doctoral degree program
  • Have achieved a minimum degree grade point average of 3.5 (or equivalent) based on the last 60 credit hours of study
  • Are conducting thesis research in creative writing (producing an original work of literature) or on the critical study of oral cultures
  • Students with lived experience of Indigenous and other oral cultures are particularly encouraged to apply.

Application requirements

Candidates are asked to submit an application consisting of:

  • A description of their proposed or ongoing research (maximum 500 words). No Bibliography is required
  • A current academic transcript
  • Two letters of reference from professors at a post-secondary institution. If more than two letters are submitted on behalf of the student, only the first two received will be counted. Letter writers may submit directly to the coordinator at the email below.

Candidates will be assessed as follows: record of academic achievement (30 per cent), plan of research (40 per cent), letters of reference (30 per cent).

The award is not automatically renewable but previous recipients may apply. Recipients may hold the C.D. Howe Memorial Foundation Fellowships in Creative Writing and Oral Culture concurrently with other awards, consistent with the policies of the Faculty of Graduate Studies.

Decisions will be made and applicants notified by mid-July. No feedback on applications will be provided. All decisions are final and non-negotiable.

Current recipients

2024-2025

Sehar Mushtaq, Ph.D. student in Peace and Conflict Studies

Jonathan Hildebrand, Ph.D. student in History

Past recipients

2022-2023
Natalie LoVetri, Masters' student in English, Theatre, Film & Media
Sehar Mushtaq, Ph.D. student in Peace and Conflict Studies

2021-2022
Natalie LoVetri, Masters' student in English, Theatre, Film & Media
Sehar Mushtaq, Ph.D. student in Peace and Conflict Studies

2020-2021
Antony Zang, Masters' student in English, Theatre, Film & Media
Sehar Mushtaq, Ph.D. student in Peace and Conflict Studies

2019-2020
Micheline Hughes, Ph.D. student in Native Studies
Virginia Page Jahne, Masters' students in English, Theatre, Film & Media

2018-2019
Michelle Lietz, Ph.D. student in English literature
Dominique Reynolds, Masters' student in French

2017-2018
Melanie Braith, Ph.D. student in English
Nick Kosmenko, Ph.D. student in Applied Health Sciences

2016-2017
Micheline Hughes, Ph.D. student in Native Studies
Allison Penner, Masters' student in History

2015-2016
Damien Lee, Masters' student in Native Studies
Susie Fisher, Masters' student in History

2014-2015
Kirsty Cameron, Masters' student in English
Micheal Minor, Ph.D. student in English, Film & Theatre

2013-2014
Lydia Schoeppner, Ph.D. student in Peace and Conflict Studies
Daniel Guezen, Masters' student in French, Spanish and Italian

2012-2013
Ryan Duplassie, Ph.D. student in Native Studies
Agnieszka (Agnes) Pawlowska, Ph.D. student in Native Studies

2011-2012
Alon D. Weinberg, Masters' student in Native Studies

2010-2011
Sean Braun, Masters' student in English, Film & Theatre
Daria Patrie, Masters' student in English, Film & Theatre

2009-2010
Gordon Blackburde, Masters' student in Native Studies
Susan Rich, Masters' student in English

Text: Funding Opportunity. CD Howe memorial foundation fellowships in Creative Writing and Oral Culture.

Community and outreach

Manitoba Book Awards 

The Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture is proud to support Manitoba writers as the sponsor of the Manitowapow Award through the Manitoba Book Awards. 

The award is presented every two years to two Indigenous writers or oral performers who demonstrate excellence in writing, storytelling or spoken word and who also actively support Indigenous verbal arts in Manitoba. 

Donations

CCWOC gratefully accepts donations from individuals, corporations and other organizations which help support its vision, goals and objectives. Donors will receive a receipt for income tax purposes.

Complete the form at the link below. In the "Direct my gift to" field, choose "Enter a fund name". In the "Enter a fund name" field, type "Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture".

Donate to CCWOC

For more information on making a donation to CCWOC, please contact donor.relations@umanitoba.ca

Contact us

The Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, MB Canada

ccwoc@umanitoba.ca
204-474-6984