SOLD OUT! To be placed on a waiting-list in case of last-minute cancellations, please complete the form below.

This workshop will introduce you to field journaling as a technique to experience and learn about the local environment and how to translate that into attendance to and care for place. Field journalling is an excellent tool to enrich your writing practice, and a powerful art technique on its own. We’ll use pen and ink, watercolour, and writing exercises to attend to the local landscape. Bring supplies (a waterproof drawing pen, good sketching or water colour paper, paints) if you have them; if you don’t, some will be available to borrow. For all levels, especially those who don’t think they’re visual artists!

Maleea Acker holds a PhD in Geography, an MA in Literature, and a BFA and MFA in Writing. She has been a funded arts fellow in Canada, the USA, Latin America and Europe. Maleea serves on the editorial board of the Malahat Review (non-fiction) and as a Director for Suddenly Dance Victoria. She has taught English and Creative Writing at Camosun College. She currently lectures at the University of Victoria and serves as faculty at Thompson Rivers University. She lives in the unceded territories of the W̱SÁNEĆ and Lək̓ʷəŋən Peoples.

Registration Fee: Members $40 + GST, Non-members, $50.00 + GST
To confirm your registration please send $42.00 (members) or $52.50 (non-members) as an e-transfer to mcloughlingardens16@gmail.com. Or you may send a cheque to McLoughlin Gardens, PO Box 1223, Comox, BC V9M 3W7

Join us from 1:30 - 3 p.m. on Sunday, May 26th for a walk in the woods, led by environmental educator Glenn Gustafson. Glenn will be guiding participants to engage all their senses as we stroll through the forest.

There is no registration fee for this event, but space is limited, so please sign up early!

In all her work, poet Yvonne Blomer demonstrates the conversational nature of reality. We may not frame our experience in this way, but poets show us how we are always in dialogue with the world around us, where that is the changing environment, the particular historical context of our lives, or the stories of where we came from and how that has shaped our way of seeing.

Yvonne will read from her recent work on August 30th at 7 p.m. at the Comox Valley Art Gallery.

No registration is needed, but come early to get your seat!

An ekphrastic poem is a poem that is inspired by visual art and in conversation with that art. In the past, such poems would have been more descriptive, but nowadays poets are interested in their poem standing alone and bringing the poet’s interpretation or way of seeing to the piece of art. In this class we will write poems in response to visual art. We will read and discuss example poems, Yvonne will bring images for you to respond to and also a few form poems to explore ekphrasis with. 

Join Yvonne for a few hours where you will inhabit pieces of art and speak to or from them through poetry. Bring pen and paper and one or two important art pieces or photos from home as well and be ready to create several new drafts of poems. 

Fee: $30 + GST members , $35 + GST non-members

To register, complete the form below. Let us know if you will need to drive down to the workshop site.

Payment by e-transfer can be made to mcloughlingardens16@gmail.com

Ecopoetics: Responding to The Natural World

“There are no/ other rivers,/ no prairies, no air, no clear/ wordless root of the breath.” Jan Zwicky, Seeing

In the pre-Romantic era, mountains were not considered beautiful, rather they were seen as wasted space. The Romantic poets changed how we view the natural world. What are we, in the 21st Century seeing and not seeing? How can poetry lead us to look and see and report in language and metaphor our changing world? In this three-hour class we will read poets whose focus is on the natural world, we will write poems in response to our own observations and engagement with the changing world around us. The class will include reading and discussing poems and in-class writing and perhaps a few form poems.

Fee: $30 + GST members , $35 + GST non-members

To register, complete the form below. Let us know if you will need to drive down to the workshop site.

Payment by e-transfer can be made to mcloughlingardens16@gmail.com.

Draw your reader into your story by getting them to use their senses! Let them hear, touch, see and even smell your story. Tickling the senses can actually help you write your story. Find out more at this interactive workshop. We will read, write, and use our senses!

Fee: $25 + GST

Writing for children calls on many of the poet's tools: diction, concision, and metaphor and other imagery. In this short workshop, participants will write a board book and start a picture book based on their own childhood experiences unearthed through exercises and informed by readings.

Fee: $30 + GST members , $35 + GST non-members

This sensory walk through the forest at McLoughlin Gardens will help you develop a deeper appreciation and understanding of our forest ecosystems and all they have to offer.

Please note, the walk begins at the gate of the Brian and Sarah McLoughlin Park, which is pedestrian access only. The grassy road and the trails are moderately easy, however there is a steep hill. Walking poles are recommended!

To register, please complete the form below.

Beauty abounds on this walk and talk as we wander through the McLoughlin Gardens. Join us to learn about this unique garden along with how to make our own yards and gardens more bee friendly. 

To register, please complete the form below and submit. We will send you a reminder a few days before the event. Space is limited, so please register early.

Please note, the walk begins at the gate of the Brian and Sarah McLoughlin Park, which is pedestrian access only. The grassy road and the trails are moderately easy, however there is a steep hill. Walking poles are recommended!