Community Calendar and Information Hub

The WhatcomTalk Events Calendar shares things to do around Whatcom County including Bellingham, Ferndale, Lynden, Blaine and beyond. Find fun activities and adventures throughout the region on our comprehensive events calendar. Have an event that isn’t listed? Click the green “Post your Event” button and our editors will review and approve within two business days.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Agenda
Agenda
November 2016 – March 2024 Nov 2016 – Mar 2024
Collapse All Expand All
Post Your Event
Nov
5
Sat
Writing the “Living Memoir” @ WCLS South Whatcom Library
Tickets
Nov 5 @ 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Writing the "Living Memoir" @ WCLS South Whatcom Library | Bellingham | Washington | United States

An exploration into non-fiction writing tailored to those wanting to tell their story. Abbe Rolnick uses her latest writings, “Cocoon of Cancer: An Invitation to Love Deeply,” and “Tattle Tales: Essays and Stories Along the Way,” to show how to shape memories, journal entries, research, and factual information into a compelling story for a larger audience. Memories, our version of personal truths, are layered and textured by time. Give voice to that texture.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Read more
Categories: Adult Focused Events Author Talk Tags: literature writing writing workshop
Mar
11
Sat
The Art and Craft of Writing @ WWU, Wilson Library Reading Room, 4 Central
Tickets
Mar 11 @ 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
The Art and Craft of Writing @ WWU, Wilson Library Reading Room, 4 Central | Bellingham | Washington | United States

Gain insight into the writing process as Jonathan Evison, author of “The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving,” discusses the art and craft of writing.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Read more
Categories: Adult Focused Events Author Talk Tags: Whatcom READS! writing writing workshop
Apr
22
Sun
Master Writing Craft Classes with Jessica Page Morrell @ Hotel Bellwether
Tickets
Apr 22 @ 9:30 am
Master Writing Craft Classes with Jessica Page Morrell @ Hotel Bellwether | Bellingham | Washington | United States

All day workshop with two sessions: “The Anchor Scenes of Fiction” and “Learning from the Greats.” Jessica Morrell is known for explaining the hows and whys of what makes for excellent writing and for sharing very clear examples that examine the technical aspects of writing that emphasizes layering and subtext. Her work appears in multiple anthologies and The Writer and Writer’s Digest magazines. Her books on writing craft are considered “a must have” for any serious writer’s toolkit. Lunch, coffee, tea and snacks are included with the registration fee.
The “Learn from the Greats” workshop teaches writers how to deconstruct and analyze elements of craft. It will demonstrate how to study the balance of narrative and dialogue; how POV shifts in an ensemble cast; how figurative and descriptive language are used in varying kinds of scenes; how pace and action are entwined; the benefits of first and third-person viewpoint, and the subtle variations of each. In this workshop, we’ll discuss the techniques used by a variety of authors including Alice Munro, Raymond Carver, Ernest Hemingway, Elmore Leonard, Marilyn Robinson, Ray Bradbury, Anne Patchett and others. We’ll also cover work habits, language and sentence potency, and we’ll synthesize the best commandments on writing from the best and brightest.
“Anchor Scenes of Fiction and Film” will present how to develop a compelling structure that underlies the whole—the essential scenes that every story needs to create drive, tension, conflict, climax and resolution. Students will come to understand the anchor scenes needed in fiction and film: Inciting Incident, First Plot Point and Mid-point Reversal, Point of No Return, Darknight of the Soul, Climax and Resolution. We’ll discuss how the protagonist stars in these scenes, how they’re emotionally-charged, build the plot and illustrate character growth.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Read more
Categories: Workshops, Classes and Lectures Tags: writing workshop
Aug
4
Sat
Tret Fure Songwriting Workshop and Lunch Blaine @ Christ Episcopal Church
Tickets
Aug 4 @ 10:00 am – 3:00 pm
Tret Fure Songwriting Workshop and Lunch Blaine @ Christ Episcopal Church | Blaine | Washington | United States

Writing Through a Small Window

We will explore creative songwriting by working with lyrical exercises. Drawing from the right side of the brain, we will do a series of ‘small window’ writing exercises that are fun, inventive and spirited. These exercises will help you find your song, be it just lyrics or music and lyrics. We will look at chord families and how they work and then you will have the opportunity to write or at least start your song! You don’t need to be a songwriter or a musician to take this class. Songwriting is a learnable skill. Bring a writing journal and your instrument, even if it is only your voice.

“Tret has a way of treating each student with kindness, respect and encouragement that propels us to safely dig into the inner reaches of our creativity in order to open and release the music and poetry which yearns to be heard.” – Diane Bloom, student

 

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Read more
Categories: Music Concerts Workshops, Classes and Lectures Tags: concert lunch Singing Workshop songwriting writing writing workshop
Sep
28
Fri
Valley Writers @ WCLS South Whatcom Library
Tickets
Sep 28 @ 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Valley Writers @ WCLS South Whatcom Library | Bellingham | Washington | United States

Valley Writers: an invitation to explore what you think you don’t know but already do. Bring a pen, paper or digital device and an open mind! No grammar, no spelling, no punctuation, no judgment. Led by CJ Prince. Meets monthly on the last Friday.

 

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Read more
Categories: Adult Focused Events Tags: writers writing workshop
Oct
1
Mon
Island Readers and Writers @ WCLS Island Library
Tickets
Oct 1 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Island Readers and Writers @ WCLS Island Library | Lummi Island | Washington | United States

Get together at the Beach Store Cafe to share books and writing on the first Monday of each month. Readers will share opinions about the books they are reading and/or discuss a book chosen for each month. Writers will have the opportunity to offer support for each other’s work. The Cafe will host this library program with a menu of drinks and desserts.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Read more
Categories: Arts and Entertainment Tags: book club writing workshop
Oct
26
Fri
Valley Writers @ WCLS South Whatcom Library
Tickets
Oct 26 @ 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Valley Writers @ WCLS South Whatcom Library | Bellingham | Washington | United States

Valley Writers: an invitation to explore what you think you don’t know but already do. Bring a pen, paper or digital device and an open mind! No grammar, no spelling, no punctuation, no judgment. Led by CJ Prince. Meets monthly on the last Friday.

 

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Read more
Categories: Adult Focused Events Tags: writers writing workshop
Nov
30
Fri
Valley Writers @ WCLS South Whatcom Library
Tickets
Nov 30 @ 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Valley Writers @ WCLS South Whatcom Library | Bellingham | Washington | United States

Valley Writers: an invitation to explore what you think you don’t know but already do. Bring a pen, paper or digital device and an open mind! No grammar, no spelling, no punctuation, no judgment. Led by CJ Prince. Meets monthly on the last Friday.

 

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Read more
Categories: Adult Focused Events Tags: writers writing workshop
Mar
16
Sat
Beauty, Beasts, and the Banal: Poetry Workshop @ Faith Lutheran Church
Tickets
Mar 16 @ 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Beauty, Beasts, and the Banal: Poetry Workshop @ Faith Lutheran Church

This workshop invites attendees to engage in dismantling perceptions of the unattractive, the uncelebrated, and the unremarkable to discover profound beauty. We will read poems that examine the cockroach, the vampire, the buttoning of a shirt, and the contents of a refrigerator, focusing on the ways in which their poets find reasons to celebrate each creature, action, and simple human behavior and through various writing prompts venture into creating our poems of exaltation.

Kami Westhoff is an award-winning writer, poet, and instructor of creative writing at Western Washington University. She received an MFA in Fiction from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and an MA in Creative Writing from WWU. She is the author of the short story collection, The Criteria (Unsolicited Press), and three poetry chapbooks including Cloudbound, Sleepwalker, winner of Minerva Rising’s Dare to Be Contest, and Your Body a Bullet, co-written with Elizabeth Vignali. In her writing, she amplifies silenced voices and challenges systems that protect abusers.

Note: The $30 fee is considered a donation toward the Sue C. Boynton Poetry program, under the Whatcom Poetry Series, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization and may be used as a tax deduction.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Read more
Categories: Workshops, Classes and Lectures Tags: #communityfundraiser fundraising poetry Poets writers writing writing workshop
Mar
25
Mon
Writing Spring: A Poetry Workshop @ Virtual over Zoom
Tickets
Mar 25 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Writing Spring: A Poetry Workshop @ Virtual over Zoom

In the “Writing Spring” workshop we will align our lyrical voices with the changing season, with the time in the Northern Hemisphere when the natural world revives, and when we likewise are revitalized after the dark winter months. Our teachers in this session will be seedlings sprouting from the ground, animals re-emerging from hibernation, and the new life quickening within us. Everyone welcome!

D.J. Lee is an acclaimed writer, teacher, and regents professor in the English Department at Washington State University. She holds an MFA and a Ph.D., and her prolific writing includes more than 50 published lyric essays and prose poems, the memoir Remote: Finding Home in the Bitterroots (Oregon State University Press), and eight scholarly books. A photographer and papermaker, Lee often combines image and text.

Note: The $30 entry fee is considered a donation toward the Sue C. Boynton Poetry program, under the Whatcom Poetry Series, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization and may be used as a tax deduction.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Read more
Categories: Workshops, Classes and Lectures Tags: #arts&culture creativity poetry Poets writers writing Writing Craft; master writing classes writing workshop
November 2016 – March 2024 Nov 2016 – Mar 2024