Events Calendar

The Writers’ Room

Write, share and discuss in a supportive, creative writing community. Writers of all skill levels, genres and styles are welcome. Meeting format will vary, offering both open and themed writing circles and additionally offering structured workshops. Day and/or evening sessions will be offered in our Alliston and Beeton Branches. Registration required, drop-ins welcome space permitting.

Join us:

This workshop looks closely at the tradition of confessional poetry and how it continues to shape the way we write about the self. Beginning with poets such as Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Robert Lowell, Randall Jarrell, we’ll consider how their work blurred the line between lived experience and crafted voice, and how contemporary poets are reimagining that approach today.

We’ll explore how desire—whether for connection, change, belonging, justice, or self-love—drives the creative act. Through guided readings and generative exercises, participants will learn how nature, metaphor, and emotional precision can give shape to longing in its many forms.

The session will blend close reading with generative writing time. You’ll leave with new drafts, expanded perspectives, and deeper confidence in harnessing vulnerability as craft.

Allison Bothley will guide us.

Allison Bothley is a writer and recovering MFA (The New School) who lives in Orangeville, Ontario. Her work has appeared in The Globe and Mail, White Wall Review, Sad Girl Diaries, Literary Review of Canada, and elsewhere. She is the creator and publisher of Bangs Zine, an independent space hot for big feelings, emerging writers, and lazy Sunday readers.

Ideal for ages 18+