Community Events
UPCOMING
Poetry for All Workshop – Creating Space @ Caetani Centre (starts March 7th)
Poetry belongs to ALL people. Historically, people have created, captured and expressed their lives and dreamings into poems (or stories) orated around fires and community gatherings. Everyone's voice and story matters as a part of the larger human web. This workshop will encourage and offer tools to help you value your own voice and story.
Together, we'll explore and learn about the art form of the poem, which also often tells a story. We'll read and learn from other poets' poems, but also, write our own. We will learn the skills and craft of writing strong and impactful poems with lessons/practice on details and images, using space on the page, the power of a good metaphor, etc.
For more info or to sign-up, visit: Creating Space @ Caetani Centre
Carmen Banman’s painting of workshop facilitator Michelle Doege.
RECENT EVENTS
Writing Workshops with Michelle Doege
Authenticity in Writing workshop, Valley Voices Reading Series, Vernon, BC
Poems of Our Queer Diversity, workshop, art exhibit & performance, Belonging: A Reflection on Creative Resistance and Resilience, Vernon, BC (2024)
Poem Alive: Heart Center & Arteries that Feed, Valley Voices Poetry Festival, Kelowna, BC (2023)
From Prose to Poetry: Oak Table Writers’ Workshop, Caetani Centre, Vernon, BC (2019)
Poetry for All, Gallery Vertigo, Vernon, BC (2019)
Heat in Writing: Does Gender Matter?, Craft Talk, Augsburg College MFA Program, Minneapolis, MN (2016)
Story Alive: Four Flash Lessons, Spoke Literary Festival, Vernon, BC (2016)
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Readings with Michelle Doege
Root of Light art by friend and collaborator, Penny Poole
Michelle Doege & other local authors, First Friday Celebration of Literary Arts at Ceatani Centre, Vernon, BC (2025)
Michelle Doege, Em Dial & Mikaila Stevens, Antler River Poetry, London, ON (2025)
Michelle Doege, Queer Poetry Workshop participants & other artists — art exhibit & performance, Belonging: A Reflection on Creative Resistance and Resilience, Vernon, BC (2024)
Michelle Doege, Root of Light (Shanti Arts, 2022), poetry book launch & readings:
Vernon Museum & Gallery Vertigo , Vernon, BC (2023)
Okanagan College — English & Fine Arts Reading, Penticton, BC (2023)
Valley Voices Reading Series, Kelowna & Summerland (2023)
Read Local Okanagan, Covid Reading Series (virtual, 2020)
Michelle Doege & other authors, Wherever I Find Myself: Stories of Canadian Immigrant Women, launch and reading at Vancouver Central Library (2017)
What workshop participants have to say ….
Photo Credit: Kristin Froneman
“Michelle doesn’t just tell us ‘this is what a poem is’ – she shows us and is open to whatever we want to write. This is not your Grade 10 - English Literature class, where you discuss Keats & Wordsworth. This is a cathartic meeting of people who are interested in and love poetry in an open, inviting and creative environment. Highly recommended!”
~ Kristin Froneman, Writer & Journalist, workshop participant
“This was such an incredible group, and Michelle, a fantastic facilitator – so encouraging and engaging with lots of helpful information and examples. Excellent examples of poetry and poetic forms: Learning, Laughter, Voice and the freedom to express in an open and supportive environment!” ~ workshop participant
“Michelle, herself an inspired writer, encouraged our creative voices in a relaxed and warm atmosphere of learning and respect. I looked forward to every one of our six Saturday meetings, enjoying camaraderie with other writers as we read and shared poems under Michelle’s attentive guidance. The workshop, designed for practiced and less experienced writers alike, was indeed “poetry for all.” I feel newly inspired in my own writing and am eager for Michelle’s next workshop!”
~ Chris Thorpe, author of Survival Strategies & workshop participant