ESTEVAN - Not too many member groups in town stay together for as long as the Estevan Writers Group (EWG).
The organization is to celebrate their 35th anniversary on Oct. 28, and they are inviting the community to join them for some author readings, an open microphone and just a nice evening at Michael's Coffee Shop and Bakery at 7 p.m.
"We're really excited to be doing a coffee house. It's been a while since we've been able to meet in person like that," said group chair Victoria Koops.
Two of the group members will be reading from their work. Maureen Ulrich, who recently published the fourth and last book in the Jessie Mac hockey series, will introduce pieces of her latest book. One of the group's founding members Betty McGillivray will also read some of her short stories.
"Both of those ladies are going to be our feature readers. And then we've extended an invitation to all of our current members if they want to read something that they're currently working on," Koops explained. "This would be a great venue just to show people in Estevan what the writers group is about, and what are the things we're writing."
The event is free of charge, and drinks and desserts will be available through the coffee shop before the event.
"It's going to be pretty casual. Obviously, because it is a public space people will be coming and going and that's totally okay. It'll be really relaxed and intimate," Koops said.
She added that because the event is to take place at an eatery, they'll be following the provincial guidelines for masking and also will need participants to provide proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test result.
The EWG was started in 1986. Before the pandemic, they used to host coffee houses in partnership with the Estevan Public Library, but those haven’t been happening for a while now, so they thought it would be nice to remind people in the community what they are and what they do.
Koops said the EWG is a really robust writing group with many active members, who are very supportive of each other's work.
"We're really proud of the quality of support and engagement and encouragement that is found in the Estevan Writing Group. We have really diverse members, people who write fiction and nonfiction, short and long, poetry all the way up to novels. So we've got lots of experience in our group, we have a lot of different genres and diversity. And with that, we're able to really support each other in unique ways," Koops said.
The EWG has members who've published their works, like Ulrich and Rhonda Stock. But there are also members who haven't been published or are not really aiming at publishing and just enjoy writing. And there is support and expertise the group can provide to any member.
"Many of our members are emerging writers and have been working on manuscripts generally speaking," Koops said.
She added that the writing group is what made her feel like a writer. She joined six years ago. With a love for writing, she thought it'd be something interesting to try, which proved to be true.
"It clicked for me and I really started chasing writing as something that I want to do professionally as well. The writing group was so encouraging at the beginning of that story, at the beginning of my journey as a writer. And now I've completed a manuscript and I'm currently working on getting it published," Koops said.
"The writing group helped me build my social media presence and my platform and has really supported a lot of those dreams. I don't think I would have pursued writing the way I have if I hadn't joined the writing group when I did. So it's a pretty special place to me as well."
The group runs events for members throughout the year. They have monthly meetings, which are held on the last Wednesday of every month. During COVID, they switched those from in-person to virtual meetings, and they are going to continue doing virtual meetings for the time being. Koops explained that it allows them to accommodate people from different areas.
"We have members from all around southeast Saskatchewan here. We have a member in Manitoba. And it's just nice for the wider group, that's not just in Estevan, to be able to access the support and resources that we have to provide monthly through virtual meetings," Koops said.
On top of monthly meetings, the members also get access to many other events that the group holds privately, including writing critique workshops, writing retreats, etc.
"We do stuff with our members quite frequently, at least three or four times a year. And then we try to bring in other writers to do workshops with our members so that we can bring in other voices as well," Koops said.
The next writing retreat is coming up at the beginning of November.
She added that moving forward, they want to be in the community a little bit more so that people know there is a writing group in Estevan and that it's here as a resource for people who are interested in learning more about writing or exploring their writing or publishing.
There is an annual membership fee of $40, which covers September-June. They take a break over the summer and start fresh in the fall. While the membership deadline is the end of October, they do accept new members throughout the year with a prorated $20 fee charged mid-year.
The group has about 10 active members on average and 12-15 people taking part in some bigger events.
For more on the Estevan Writers Group, visit their website at estevanwritersgroup.com.
