By Harriet Zaidman

The Sheldon Oberman Mentorship Program reception took place in the MWG Boardroom on Sunday, February 22. We celebrated last year’s mentorships and introduced this year’s pairings before an audience of about 20 friends, relatives and Guild members.

Sheldon Oberman, after whom this program was renamed in 2004 (formerly named the Emerging Writers’ Program), never forgot how the mentorship program helped shape him. Sheldon was a founding member of the Manitoba Writers’ Guild and benefited himself as an apprentice writer with mentor David Arnason. Sheldon became an accomplished, award-winning writer for children. He also became one of the longest-serving mentors, until his death in 2004.

Kelly Benardin-Dvorak talked about her apprenticeship with Angeline Schellenberg, who was unable to attend the reception. She recalled Angeline’s huge laugh and read a poem dedicated to her. She also read moving poems she worked on during her apprenticeship, and informed the audience that a poem had been accepted by a poetry journal, which had been her goal.

Mentor Jonathan Ball listed the elements of writing that he had reviewed with Jenna Brignoly. Jenna expressed her sincere thanks to Jonathan for the attention he had paid to her work. She read an excerpt she developed during her mentorship with Jonanthan. This year’s pairings were introduced to the audience, and talked about their objectives for the next few months. They are:

Prose: Susan Wingert, with Keith Cadieux

Poetry: Jennifer Tesoro, writing as T.J. Evangelista, with Di Brandt

Youth: Lilah Bateman with Maureen Fergus

The program ended with coffee and desserts, which provided an opportunity to stay around and converse about writing and life. We wish everyone good luck with their writing and look forward to hearing about future successes.