MAGAZINE WRITERS' CRAFT FAIR

Saturday, August 15, 2009
10:00 a.m. – 3:15 p.m.
Room 7000, SFU Harbour Centre, 515 Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC

The essential professional development event for established, emerging or aspiring writers who are interested in crafting their careers in magazine writing. Industry professionals share their knowledge in an intimate and interactive forum.

The Art of the Interview (10:00 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.)
Learn the ins and outs of how to get the goods, as a panel of seasoned magazine writers share their approaches for acing the interview from the other side.

Moderator John Burns is executive editor of Vancouver magazine. Previously, he was managing  editor and senior content producer of The Georgia Straight. He has worked as an editor, reporter, freelance reviewer and broadcaster, and is the author of two books. He teaches classes in writing for magazines at Capilano and Kwantlen universities.

Tyee Bridge is an award-winning Vancouver writer published in The Globe and Mail, Vancouver Magazine, Swerve and Vancouver Review. He has interviewed barbecue chefs, architects, Catholic activists and Indian swamis. He is currently working on a book and would like to interview Meister Eckhart and J.R.R. Tolkien.

Bruce Grierson, a multiple National-Magazine-Award-winning freelancer, has written about human-powered travel and private racketeers for Popular Science, genomics and recovered memories for The New York Times Magazine, anthrax and the insurance industry for Scientific American, religious deconversions and human failure for Psychology Today, particle physics and conservation biology for Vancouver magazine. In none of these areas is he is an expert.

Greg Potter has written about pop culture and related issues for assorted magazines and newspapers since 1988. His 2004 book, Backstage Vancouver: A Century of Entertainment Legends (Harbour) topped regional bestseller lists, while 1999’s Hand Me Down World: The Canadian Pop-Rock Paradox (Macmillan) garnered national media attention for its humourous and acerbic look at the Canadian music industry. That same year, Potter won the Western Magazine Award in profile writing.



Jessica Werb is a staff writer with The Georgia Straight, with a focus on the arts. A former senior writer with BCBusiness, her work has appeared in numerous publications, including Maclean's, the Globe and Mail and Report on Small Business, among others. She has also lived and worked in Scotland, where she was a feature writer for The Scotsman newspaper.

Networking Lunch (11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.)
A buffet lunch of sandwiches, salad and beverages is included in the registration fee. Don't forget your business cards!

Write Online (12:30 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.)
Many Web markets are providing new opportunities for writers, but writing for the Web is a different game than writing for print. In this session, a group of local bloggers and web writers teach you the essential skills of Web writing, including search engine optimization, writing clearly and concisely, formatting for Web readers, and engaging an online audience.

Moderator Lisa Manfield is the managing editor of Orato.com, a Vancouver-based online magazine. She has worked with publications ranging from TheTyee.ca to Backbone magazine, Suite101.com, CGA Magazine, Room literary journal and REALM.





Colleen Coplick is a professional loudmouth (read: social media strategist) and, writer and editor of the MissManifesto blog network. She manages several writers and writes about a wide range of lifestyle topics, including food, travel, drinks and sex. Before launching MissManifesto, Colleen was a featured writer on the b5media Network. She has published hundreds of articles both online and off.




After a 41-year career in college teaching, Crawford Killian retired in 2008. While teaching, Crawford pursued writing in many genres, from children's books and textbooks to science fiction novels and journalism. For the past 20 years he's studied online communication, and his book Writing for the Web is now in its fourth edition. His next book, to be published in September by Self-Counsel Press, is Write Your Nonfiction Book Online. He is a contributing editor with TheTyee.ca.

Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen is a full-time freelance writer and blogger; her work has appeared in magazines such as Reader’s Digest, Woman’s Day, Health, Writer’s Digest, MSN Health and More. She created and maintains a series of Quips and Tips websites, including Quips and Tips for Successful Writers. She is also the psychology feature writer for Suite101.com.

Tricks of the Trades (2:00 – 3:15 p.m.)
A panel of trade magazine insiders teach you how to access the hidden world of trade magazines and what today’s top trade editors look for.

Moderator Roberta Staley was editor for 10 years at Enterprise, Canada’s only credit union magazine. Under her direction, the national publication won Best Trade Magazine six years in a row from the Western Magazine Awards Foundation. Staley travels the world finding stories, and is as comfortable reporting from a Soweto AIDS clinic, a remote Cambodian village or a gang-controlled Haitian slum as she is producing publications for billion-dollar corporations.


Ellsworth Dickson is co-founder and co-publisher of Resource World, a monthly magazine for resource stock investors. After graduating from the Haileybury School of Mines in northern Ontario, Dickson worked for several years in the mining sector, primarily in geology. A former owner of The North Shore News, Dickson combined his interests in mining and publishing and has been a mining journalist for over 20 years.



Wendy Thompson edits Grocer Today and assists with GardenWise. She has English and political science degrees from the University of Calgary, and a writing certificate from Mount Royal College. Before joining Canada Wide Media, she drove a vegetable truck, wrote web content for a military bank, edited brochures for a Scottish pensions company, reviewed Edinburgh restaurants and taught English in Asia. She finds that seemingly dead-end jobs often come in handy later, because having the ability to speak the lingo of a client’s industry is as important as writing style for trade publications.

Andrew Topf is editor of Canadian Environmental Protection and Contractors Magazine, part of Baum Publications Ltd.'s stable of business-to-business trade publications covering Canadian industries. Before joining Baum Publications, Andrew worked for five years as an editor and reporter for Black Press community newspaper group. He holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Calgary, a Masters from the London School of Economics and a certificate in journalism from Langara College.





Cost for Full Day
$35 for students and members of BCAMP, Federation of BC Writers, Canadian Authors Association, Writers' Union of Canada and Professional Writers Association of Canada. $45 for non-members. Networking lunch included.