By Steve Oetting
I promised myself I would control my exuberance, but the Ephemera workshop was the most exciting Guild event I have ever attended. We had 15 participants that composed amazing stories in just two 12-minute writing sessions. But the most notable thing was the camaraderie. As we heard each piece read aloud to the group, the applause and laughter that rang out in that small room must have shaken the timbers of the aging ArtSpace building. This workshop was so well received, we will be hosting a second Ephemera workshop on April 11 between 2PM and 4PM (more information below).
The event began with Amanda Le Rougetel, our facilitator, welcoming everyone and reading the MWG Land Acknowledgement statement. She quickly explained the purpose of the workshop, which was to write a short piece based on a randomly selected piece of ephemera.
What is ephemera, you ask? Don’t feel badly, I too had no idea what Heather Emberley was talking about when she first invited me to see her ephemera collection. Ephemera is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as “items, such as pictures, letters, and tickets, originally meant to be discarded after use but that later become collectibles”.
Heather described the process by which she and her fellow volunteers for the Children’s Hospital Book Market would clean out and organize the hundreds of books that are donated. Monday through Friday Book Market volunteers put items they find between pages into Heather’s mail tray and every week she sorts previously hidden and forgotten treasures into categories to be displayed. Out of those books would fall some of the most remarkable objects, most likely intended as bookmarks and later forgotten by their owners. Letters, pictures, ticket stubs from concerts or sports events from decades past, pressed and perfectly preserved flowers, if you can imagine it, it likely is in Heather’s extensive collection.
Heather presented several picture frames covered with pieces from her collection. Over the years she has collected thousands of items, which she sorts, identifies and documents. Eventually she hopes to donate her collection to a museum, but not before she completes her book about her ephemera collecting experiences.
After discussing her collection, Heather placed a small assortment of ephemera pieces on each table for the attendees to peruse. Amanda, an experienced writer and community educator, took the floor to provide an overview of what the Ephemera Writing Challenge was all about. She started by explaining how every writer has those idle moments when the urge to write is there but the imagination is not, and that very often all that is required is a “spark” to start that engine. Each participant was instructed to select an item that would serve as that “spark”, and then we would be given twelve minutes to write whatever came into our crafty writers’ minds.
I know there are some of us who might think, “I could never come up with a story in twelve minutes.” But you would be amazed at how well everyone did. Every participant created a delightful story, which ranged from humour to romance to science fiction. Once our writing session was completed, each attendee was offered the opportunity to talk a bit about their writing experiences and aspirations, and to then read their piece.
In our second writing exercise, each table was provided with a single piece of ephemera and provided twelve minutes to write about it. The purpose here was to see how each writer would imagine a different story from the same “spark”. It was very interesting to hear what a wide range of ideas could come from a single item.
I believe this workshop had a huge impact on everyone in attendance. Meeting a whole group of writers just like ourselves and learning about their writing experiences and ambitions was endearing in itself. Being able to hear a wide range of instantly crafted stories was equally enchanting. But of greatest import of all, in this writer’s opinion and just as Amanda told us would happen, we learned that the creativity required to write new and original stories is right there within each of us, just waiting for a “spark” to make it happen.
If you would like to hear more about this workshop, please check out the CBC Radio One interview from February 21 in which Nadia Kidwai spoke with Heather and Amanda about the Ephemera Writing Challenge, which you can find here:
https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-367-the-weekend-morning-show-manitoba/clip/16199120-why-local-writers-looking-creative-inspiration-items-left
Due to popular demand, we will be offering a second Ephemera Writing Challenge workshop on Saturday, April 11, from 2PM to 4PM at ArtSpace. Please go to the MWG website at mbwriters.ca for more information and registering. For the workshop to work well, we must limit it to fifteen participants, so if you would like to join us, please don’t hesitate to sign up.
