Mapping our Memories: Collecting Memories with Janice Kulyk Keefer

How often have you wanted to write down your stories but just can’t make yourself put pen to paper or fingers to the key board? Join us for Janice Kulyk Keefer’s workshops starting Tuesday, Oct. 27, 7:00 pm at our studio, where you will convert your spoken words to written text or even videos. Sometimes the most authentically told stories are the ones we speak.

While we are interested in seniors’ memories from across Toronto for our Mapping our Memories project, we are at the moment planning to include in seniors’ stories tied to Roncesvalles and Parkdale in a publication. Join our group, record some stories, and next year your work could be in print.

Bring ideas about the stories you’d like to develop to the workshop. With Janice’s guidance we will record, transcribe and transform your ideas into stories that have impact and resonance.

We will also use prompts that will act as doors into the past of your own individual lives and the communities that formed you. Significant experiences and the places in which they occurred, aspects of cityscape and parkland that marked your home ground or boundaries, milestones in adolescence and adulthood, the various dramas of childhood — all are grist for this program’s story-telling.

Of course, editing those stories after the spoken word is transcribed will receive considerable attention in this program.

No previous writing experience is necessary. Email or call us (647-313-1654) to enrol. Payment will be at least one story for our Mapping our Memories project! Otherwise, IT’S FREE!

The author of a family memoir Honey and Ashes, Janice is professor emerita from Guelph Humber, where she taught Modernist Literature and Creative Writing. She is also a poet, critic, novelist and essayist. Read more about her here.

Writing Memoir with Author Carolyn Bennett

Mondays, Sept., 21, 2026 – Nov. 9, 2026: in person and online

Public reading: Thursday, November 12, 7pm Back Lane Studios

7 weeks/ $200 Limit: 12 people

Facilitator: Carolyn Bennett

Back Lane Studios (BLS) is once again offering this popular workshop for those interested in getting their memories down on paper for family, friends, and possibly a wider readership. A special emphasis will be placed on finding the funny in your memories. We’ll use themes as guides, with an emphasis on Toronto memories.

What this workshop is:

A space to begin, hone and share your work
A supportive environment in which to explore significant moments in your life
A group of like-minded individuals who will hold each other accountable to produce writing. Your commitment to the group is important.
A chance to present your work at a public reading at Back Lane Studios and to have it considered for the BLS Mapping Our Memories Project.

The program will be a combination of online and in-person meetings.

Carolyn will provide more details about the program schedule shortly.

After a meeting with participants from the program Carolyn held earlier in the year, Carolyn established the preliminary schedule as follows: Sessions will be online, beginning Monday, Sept. 21 at 7:00 pm (earlier at 6:30 pm if necessary)

In-person meetings will be held once a month at Back Lane Studios on Saturdays from 10:30 to 12:30 pm.

More about Carolyn:

Writer and comedian Carolyn Bennett has toured with Yuk Yuks, and has showcased at the Just For Laughs Festival. She co-founded and performs at Hirut Hoot, a monthly comedy cabaret in Toronto. She has had her own CBC comedy special and has performed on many shows for charity. As a comedy writer she worked for many CBC variety shows, and was a staff writer for This Hour Has 22 Minutes. She won the 2013 TIFF Screenwriters Lab Jury Prize and was nominated for a Writers Guild of Canada award.

She has had a novel published (Please Stand By NON Publishing 2019) and her stories have appeared in Canadian Notes and Queries, The Quarantine Review, Prairie Journal of Canadian Literature, and Blood + Honey. She produces and hosts the literary reading series Bright Lit Big City in Toronto. She is currently working on a collection of short stories.

Carolyn, who has offered several programs at Back Lane Studios, returned in January, 2026, with another memoir writing program, followed by the in-person reading of participants’ work at the studio (in the photo above). It was a hardworking group! The stories were well-crafted, evocative and full of heart. Thanks to all of the participants. and to Carolyn, the course leader. We hope she will be available later this year for another memoir-writing course.

A Testimonial

Carolyn’s memoir class was more than I expected. I really looked forward to Saturday mornings with her and the wonderful group. She listened to and read our work.

She helped me gain confidence in my writing with her thoughtful feedback. Her years of writing expertise were invaluable. The atmosphere was very supportive and open. She was an excellent teacher and guide.

Would highly recommend her class!!

– Lisa Webster, Winter 2026