National Writing Groups

National Writing Groups

Well, if you're like me, you haven't heard of many writing groups because you don't know where to look.  With the help of Amanda's blog topics list, I've come across three that might help any amateur writer:  The League of Canadian Poets, The Writers' Union of Canada, and Canadian Women in the Literary Arts.

The League of Canadian Poets was founded in 1966 to promote and advance poetry in Canada.  It is an organization that comprises of 700 members, that is geared towards new writers as well as established ones.  ''As the recognized voice of Canadian poets, it represents their concerns to governments, publishers, and society at large, and maintains connections with similar organizations at home and abroad. The League strives to promote equal opportunities for poets from every literary tradition and cultural and demographic background.''  Their website provides lots of resources and programs, as well as numerous contests and awards for current Canadian poets.

The Writers' Union of Canada is different from the organization above because it is solely for published writers of books.  ''Members of the Union benefit from a range of services that are not otherwise easily available to writers working in isolation''.  The Writers' Union of Canada was founded in 1973 when Graeme Gibson decided that Canada needed a union distinctly for writers in Canada.  Currently, this organization has more than 1,900 members.  For more info, visit their website:

Canadian Women in the Literary Arts is an inclusive organization targeted towards people with feminist views or who believe in equality within gender, race, etc.  The organization was founded by Gillian Jerome, poet and essayist, who responded to a Canadian literary review about gender.  You can check out a variety of essays on their website.

''CWILA strives to promote and foster equity and equality of representation in the Canadian literary community by:
1) tracking statistics on gender representation in reviewing;
2) bringing relevant issues of gender, race and sexuality into our national literary conversation;
3) and creating a network supportive of the active careers of female writers, critics and their literary communities.''

I find that these National Writing Groups are helpful to get amateur writers started.  I encourage you to submit a piece of literature to one of their contest, you never know until you try!