A woman with short gray hair and black-rimmed glasses looks forward, with a window showing greenery in the background.

Historic Joy Kogawa House Society

Enjoy the full program with access to all main activities.

General Admission

&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Experimenting with the auto-: genre-fluid creative non-fiction- &nbsp;with Susan RudyPoetry is often true but often not factually true. &lsquo;Tell it slant,&rsquo; Emily Dickinson advised.&nbsp; How much fiction must be in this book to put it into the category of fiction? Could I try calling it poetry and see what happens? Why do I have to decide? Why can&rsquo;t the reader decide? I want to write a genre-fluid book.&nbsp;-Hannah Silva, My Child, the Algorithm (London: Footnote Press, 2023) In the workshop, we will explore writing strategies that contest, highlight, blur and/or work with the distinctions between poetry, auto/biography, and creative nonfiction, and in so doing depart from traditional genre conventions and conceptions of both poetry and life writing.&nbsp;Food and refreshments will be available at the workshop. Participants will write and share work with room for discussions, questions, and feedback.&nbsp; == Susan Rudy is a writer and academic based in London. Her recent work includes Consequences (above/ground press, 2026), part of the longer Hand Over project, and the chapbook YOU, currently under review at the Royal Academy of Art&rsquo;s draught&nbsp;journal. She is also Professor Emerita at the University of Calgary and an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at Queen Mary University of London. From 2021-2024, she taught creative non-fiction and poetry at Birkbeck University of London.Susan thanks the Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity (2024) and Historic Joy Kogawa House in Vancouver (2026) for supporting her creative practice through their writing residency programs. Recent&nbsp;Publications(April 2026) <a fr-original-style="" href="https://robmclennansindex.blogspot.com/2021/06/aboveground-press-prosenaut-imprint.html" style="text-decoration-color: currentcolor; user-select: auto; box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Consequences</a>. (Ottawa: above/ground press.) 33rd title in their innovative prose imprint prose/naut.&nbsp;(2026) With Hannah Silva. &lsquo;Who cares if there are no women? An intergenerational conversation about queer parenting.&rsquo; In <a fr-original-style="" href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.37308300" style="text-decoration-color: currentcolor; user-select: auto; box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Revolutionizing Motherlines</a>, eds. Andrea O&rsquo;Reilly and Fiona Joy Green, Victoria Bailey and Andrea O&rsquo;Reilly (Toronto: Demeter Press, 145-170).(2020) &lsquo;Gender&rsquo;s Ontoformativity, or Refusing to be Spat out of Reality: Reclaiming Queer Women&rsquo;s Solidarity Through Experimental Writing.&rsquo;<a fr-original-style="" href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336466346_Gender's_ontoformativity_or_refusing_to_be_spat_out_of_reality_reclaiming_queer_women's_solidarity_through_experimental_writing" style="text-decoration-color: currentcolor; user-select: auto; box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">&nbsp;Feminist Theory</a> 21(3): 351-365.&nbsp;(2020) &lsquo;A Queer Response to Caroline Bergvall&rsquo;s Hyphenated Practice: Toward an Interdependent Model of Reading.&rsquo; In Reading Experimental Writing. Ed. Georgina Colby. Edinburgh University Press. 163-184.(2019) &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t know what gender is, but I do, and I can, and we all do&rsquo;: An Interview with Clare Hemmings. European Journal of Women&rsquo;s Studies. 26 (2): 211-222.&nbsp;

Experimenting with the auto-: genre-fluid creative non-fiction-  with Susan RudyPoetry is often true but often not factually true. ‘Tell it slant,’ Emily Dickinson advised.  How much fiction must be in this book to put it into the category of fiction? Could I try calling it poetry and see what happens? Why do I have to decide? Why can’t the reader decide? I want to write a genre-fluid book. -Hannah Silva, My Child, the Algorithm (London: Footnote Press, 2023) In the workshop, we will explore writing strategies that contest, highlight, blur and/or work with the distinctions between poetry, auto/biography, and creative nonfiction, and in so doing depart from traditional genre conventions and conceptions of both poetry and life writing. Food and refreshments will be available at the workshop. Participants will write and share work with room for discussions, questions, and feedback.  == Susan Rudy is a writer and academic based in London. Her recent work includes Consequences (above/ground press, 2026), part of the longer Hand Over project, and the chapbook YOU, currently under review at the Royal Academy of Art’s draught journal. She is also Professor Emerita at the University of Calgary and an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at Queen Mary University of London. From 2021-2024, she taught creative non-fiction and poetry at Birkbeck University of London.Susan thanks the Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity (2024) and Historic Joy Kogawa House in Vancouver (2026) for supporting her creative practice through their writing residency programs. Recent Publications(April 2026) <a href="https://robmclennansindex.blogspot.com/2021/06/aboveground-press-prosenaut-imprint.html" target="_blank">Consequences</a>. (Ottawa: above/ground press.) 33rd title in their innovative prose imprint prose/naut. (2026) With Hannah Silva. ‘Who cares if there are no women? An intergenerational conversation about queer parenting.’ In <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.37308300" target="_blank">Revolutionizing Motherlines</a>, eds. Andrea O’Reilly and Fiona Joy Green, Victoria Bailey and Andrea O’Reilly (Toronto: Demeter Press, 145-170).(2020) ‘Gender’s Ontoformativity, or Refusing to be Spat out of Reality: Reclaiming Queer Women’s Solidarity Through Experimental Writing.’<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336466346_Gender's_ontoformativity_or_refusing_to_be_spat_out_of_reality_reclaiming_queer_women's_solidarity_through_experimental_writing" target="_blank"> Feminist Theory</a> 21(3): 351-365. (2020) ‘A Queer Response to Caroline Bergvall’s Hyphenated Practice: Toward an Interdependent Model of Reading.’ In Reading Experimental Writing. Ed. Georgina Colby. Edinburgh University Press. 163-184.(2019) ‘I don’t know what gender is, but I do, and I can, and we all do’: An Interview with Clare Hemmings. European Journal of Women’s Studies. 26 (2): 211-222.

Historic Joy Kogawa House Society

Experimenting with the auto-: genre-fluid creative non-fiction - with Susan Rudy

343 Railway St Unit 104

General Admission

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