Blog

By Steve Oetting – Sonya Ballantyne, an MWG member and one of our Reporters’ Group writers, is currently performing her Fringe presentation “How Bono Saved My Life (three times)” over the next week. It is a powerful and unforgettable performance of Sonya’s personal spoken-word story about how she came close to ending her life and how her teenage obsession with the band U2 (specifically lead singer and activist Bono) kept her going. Several MWG members …

Call For Book Launch Submissions! If you have a book coming out soon or if you have already published a book, the Manitoba Writers’ Guild can help you get the word out. The MWG is seeking Book Launch submissions for next year, accepting applications from now until August 15. Don’t miss this opportunity to meet potential readers and to celebrate your accomplishments.

Three Days Till Rapture by Fisher Lavell Wins International Book Award Fisher Lavell’s second novel in the Roaring River Woman series, Three Days Till Rapture, has won the prestigious Tillie Olsen Award for Creative Writing presented annually by the American Working Class Studies Association (WCSA). The WCSA book awards recognize and celebrate exemplary new work that provides insightful and engaging representations of working class life and culture, highlighting working class voices, experiences, and perspectives. In …

Members’ Brunch Too Much Fun By Steve Oetting Needless to say, I was not optimistic when I read that the day called for a 10C temperature, a gusty 35 Kmh wind, and a 70% chance of rain. But what the weather forecast did not factor in was the warmth, camaraderie and energy of the MWG members in attendance. On Saturday morning (June 13) at 930AM, twenty or so hardy Manitoba writers collected beneath the overhead …

Pride, Creativity, and Community at the MWG Pride month is a time to celebrate identity, creativity, and community – and at the Manitoba Writers’ Guild (MWG), that celebration means making space for 2SLGBTQIA+ writers to be seen, heard, and supported. The MWG is committed to supporting all members in exploring and expressing their creativity. Acknowledging the ongoing suppression and oppression of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, the MWG works diligently to make sure its spaces, programs, and …

Brunch in the Park

It’s Renewal Time! The Manitoba Writers’ Guild, your writers’ guild, is both delighted about the past year and enthused about our upcoming year. It has truly been a year of astonishing achievements and expanded programming, all strategized with one thing in mind, to provide the best opportunities for our members to engage, expand and enjoy your writing experience. This past year we were able to increase the number of Critique Circles to four a month, …

The Dave Williamson National Short Story Competition Award Ceremony Please join us as we celebrate the Dave Williamson National Short Story Competition Award Ceremony, to be held at the Moss House, 218 Roslyn Road, on Thursday, June 4 at 7PM! Everyone is invited. Please email your RSVP to .

By Shayla Elizabeth Chris Macalino is a Filipino-Canadian poet/writer, and visual artist, born in Mexico, Pampanya. With his parents, through the Canadian WE program, at age eight, he immigrated. “The first time I saw a library—in school.” At St. John’s high school, he met “really cool” adults—Art, English–leading to submitting an art portfolio to the University of Manitoba’s School of Fine Art. Again, he had great professors, like author Dennis Cooley, where a creative writing …

D.G. Valdron is a Winnipeg writer and novelist known for speculative fiction, horror, fantasy as well as several nonfiction volumes about cult TV series. He has self-published 26 books in the last 8 years and has been a guest speaker at many literary conventions and conferences across North America. On May 15-17, 2026 in addition to participating as a panelist at Winnipeg’s Keycon 42 Fandom Convention, he is also premiering his latest books, created as …

Nigel Webber was born and raised in Winnipeg and is proud of it. Having written for television and documentary film, Nigel moved to combine his two loves of writing and hip-hop music in 2018 when he began writing for Stylus Magazine. It was while writing for Stylus that Nigel first began looking into Winnipeg hip-hop history and the idea for Gritty City: An Oral History of Winnipeg Hip-Hop Music 1980-2005 was hatched, back in December …

By Susan Rocan and Steve Oetting Tony presented his work like an art gallery, with his photo inspirations beside the poems he wrote. Attendees mingled and noshed while they reviewed a wide assortment of poems and photos. Music played in the background while wine was enjoyed. Poems and Photographs pairs a collection of poems to relevant photographs that move from the street to the working class, from the real to the surreal. Set against images …