I worked at the University of Manitoba’s Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture as Writer in Residence from September to December 2023.
Before I arrived in Winnipeg, the Centre's director Jocelyn Thorpe contacted me by Zoom to co-ordinate the series of workshops that I would lead while at UM. In this initial contact, the director clearly outlined my duties and answered several questions I had about the position. She also made it clear that she was open to further inquiry by me, through email or Zoom, before I arrived and my contract begun.
Once I arrived at the university, the Centre director facilitated my accommodation on campus and introduced me to several faculty members and local writers.
There
was a welcome reading and presentation for me, so that staff and students could
hear about my approach to writing and teaching firsthand. This event was
accompanied by an interview for the Centre’s website, followed by a second
interview aimed at students for the University student newspaper. The publicity
gained by these media outlets generated more student interest in my workshops.
I led six workshops in my twelve-week residency at UM. Two workshops were stand alone, and two were paired. I decided to organize my workshops around specific topics, rather than just leading open-ended group critique sessions. The first workshop was on meditation and creative writing. It generated enough interest so that we opened it up to extra participants. Twelve people is usually the optimum number for a writing workshop but given the subject matter it was possible to increase attendance. The second two workshops were on the subject of “writing pictures” (ekphrasis), with the first of the two serving as a pre-requisite for a field trip to the Winnipeg Art Gallery, where participants wrote in situ. Some of the work produced at this workshop was excellent and would be suitable for professional publication. The next two workshops focused on using found text as source material—these workshops were also well-attended and some of the resulting writing was of an equally high standard. The final workshop bridged creative and academic writing to explore and produce hybrid creative-critical work. This relatively novel approach led to a stimulating discussion in the workshop. Overall, I found the participants to be engaged and eager, and as I mentioned, some of the work produced was of a very high standard.
I also had several consultations with students and staff. I looked at poems, fiction, and creative non-fiction. The work was relatively strong (with variations of course). Over time, I enjoyed seeing several drafts of the same piece of writing evolve in relation to my comments. The consultations took an average of a few hours per week, with a few more hours for reading the work in advance.
With only six workshops to lead and only a few hours of weekly consultations in a twelve-week term, I had a lot of time to write. Originally, I had proposed to write a collage-piece about climate change based on people’s accounts of their personal experience. However, I did not get much of a response from students for this project (very few volunteered source material), so that project had to be temporarily put on hold. I spent my writing time working on a connected series of short poems and on a composite novel. I ended up completing a first draft of the novel along with the poems.
Overall, I think that the Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture at UM hosts a tremendous Writer in Residence program. There was lots of time to write and the students and community participants in the workshops were engaged enough to produce some very strong work. Administrative staff and the Centre Director were well-organized, enormously helpful, and super friendly. They helped to make my stay at UM a genuine pleasure as well as a productive writing and teaching experience.
Peter Jaeger is a
Canadian writer based in Bristol, England. He is the author of fourteen books
consisting of poetry, fiction, criticism, and artist books. Jaeger has written
on such diverse topics as John Cage, ecology, Marcel Proust, Zen Buddhism, and
contemporary pilgrimage. He has performed his work offsite at the Venice
Biennale of Art, the Whitechapel Gallery in London, the Museum of Contemporary
Art in Barcelona, the Istanbul Biennale of Art and numerous other venues.
Recent publications include Postamble for an Invisible Sangha (2021) and
the artist book 10,000 Hand-Drawn Questions (2022). A video of this book
was exhibited at First Person, Fourth Wall: A Project with People Like Us,
Hallwalls Contemporary Art Centre in Buffalo, New York, USA (2020). Jaeger is an Emeritus Professor of Poetics at the University of Roehampton in London, England.