Faculty of Arts

Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture

The Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture (CCWOC) at the University of Manitoba is a hub for creativity and a place to learn about and celebrate the transformative potential of creative writing and storytelling. CCWOC provides support for established and emerging storytellers and writers within and beyond the university community, aiming to empower people from diverse backgrounds to develop skills and create stories.

Three men posing for a picture, the man in the middle is seated. Text: Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture.

Writer/Storyteller-in-Residence Program

The Writer/Storyteller-in-Residence program brings together established and emerging writers and storytellers, offering workshops, one-on-one consultations and public events. The program, which has been running for over 15 years, is open to UM students, staff and alumni as well as to the wider community.

  • Melanie Dennis Unrau – Fall 2025 Writer-in-Residence

    Melanie Dennis Unrau is a white settler poet, editor, scholar, parent, and climate organizer from Treaty One territory and Métis homeland in Winnipeg. She is the author of the poetry collections Goose (Assembly, 2025) and Happiness Threads: The Unborn Poems (The Muses’ Company, 2013), the literary study The Rough Poets: Reading Oil-Worker Poetry (McGill-Queen’s UP, 2024), and the chapbook The Goose (above/ground, 2022). With the other members of the Land and Labour Poetry Collective, Mel co-edited the poetry anthology I’ll Get Right On It: Poems on Working Life in the Climate Crisis (Roseway, 2025). 

    Consultation with Writer-in-Residence Melanie Dennis Unrau

    Thursday afternoons by appointment (Zoom or in-person)
    Location: University of Manitoba, Fort Garry Campus 
    Date: September 18-December 11, 2025. No appointments October 16, 2025

    Interested writers can book a 30-minute consultation and can submit up to five poems (maximum ten pages total) or ten pages of prose (12 point, double spaced) no later than the Monday prior to the Thursday appointment. Please advise of any cancellations as soon as possible. 

    Book a consultation
     

Welcome event

The CCWOC introduces and welcomes Melanie Dennis Unrau, who will share a selection of poems from her new book Goose and describe her creative vision to the UM community. Student writer Hope Hiebert will preface Melanie’s appearance with a reading. Acting Director Nancy Kang hosts the event.

All are welcome. The event is FREE.
No registration required.

Wednesday, September 17, 2025
4:00–5:00 pm + reception following
St. John’s College ROOM 108
Introductory reader/speaker – Hope Hiebert
 

Hope is an English major working towards their Bachelor of Arts degree. As a Métis student, they aim to include cultural values in their writing projects, such as nature preservation, the importance of respect, honouring history, and having a strong sense of self. Their writing tends to be in the general genre of fiction and is driven by vivid imagery, as well as atmospheric prose. Typically, they enjoy reading and writing literary fiction, horror, and high fantasy. Besides these pursuits, Hope is also interested in sociology and Indigenous studies. In the future, their goal is to work as a literary editor in the publishing industry.

Attend a Free Writing Workshop

Climate Poster Screen-Printing
September 19, 2025
Cross Common Room, St. John’s College, Room 108
1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

All are welcome, and we especially invite environmental groups on campus, to join and make screen-printed posters for the Draw the Line Day of Action on September 20. Bring your big feelings and experiences after a summer of wildfires and evacuations. Bring a short poem or phrase for your poster or just come to brainstorm and create with us. This workshop is co-organized by the Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture (CCWOC) and the Manitoba Energy Justice Coalition (MEJC) with support from the Winnipeg Arts Council’s WITH ART program. Facilitated by MEJC-affiliated visual artists Natalie Baird and Toby Gillies with CCWOC Writer-in-Residence Melanie Dennis Unrau.

Work-and-Climate Poetry Workshop #1: Write a Haiku or List Poem
September 29, 2025 
Quiet Room, St. John’s College, Rm. 111 
2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Join Writer-in-Residence Melanie Dennis Unrau to read some examples of work-and-climate poems from the new anthology I’ll Get Right On It: Poems on Working Life in the Climate Crisis (Roseway, 2025) and write our own poems about climate change and our paid or unpaid work. This workshop is open to everyone, especially new and emerging poets.

Work-and-Climate Poetry Workshop #2: Write a Pantoum or Concrete Poem
October 14, 2025 
Quiet Room, St. John’s College, Rm. 111
2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Join Writer-in-Residence Melanie Dennis Unrau to read some examples of work-and-climate poems from the new anthology I’ll Get Right On It: Poems on Working Life in the Climate Crisis (Roseway, 2025) and write our own poems about climate change and our paid or unpaid work. This workshop is open to everyone, especially new and emerging poets.

Work-and-Climate Poetry Workshop #3: Workshop a Poem
October 27, 2025 
Quiet Room, St. John’s College, Rm. 111
2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

For this final workshop in the Work-and-Climate Poetry series, bring a poem you wrote at an earlier workshop (or on your own) for a group workshop and feedback session. This workshop is open to everyone, especially new and emerging poets. Send your poem to Writer-in-Residence Melanie Dennis Unrau at ccwocwir@umanitoba.ca by Friday, October 24 so that we can have printouts ready to share. Participants in this workshop will be invited to contribute to a chapbook of poems to be launched at the Writer-in-Residence closing celebration on Wednesday, December 3.

Visual Poetry Writing Workshop #1: What Is Visual Poetry? And Trace Your Own Poem
November 3, 2025 
Cross Common Room, St. John’s College, Rm. 108
2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

This workshop with Writer-in-Residence Melanie Dennis Unrau will begin with a brief introduction to visual poetry. Then, in the style of Melanie’s new book Goose, we will make traced poems out of found text and images. Everyone is welcome, especially writers with an interest in visual poetry.

Visual Poetry Writing Workshop #2: Copyright for Found Poetry, Visual Poetry, and Creative Writing
November 17, 2025 
Quiet Room, St. John’s College, Rm. 111
2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

This workshop with Copyright Strategy Manager Althea Wheeler and Writer-in-Residence Melanie Dennis Unrau will provide an overview of copyright concerns and advice for writers of visual poetry, found poetry, and other creative writing. There will be time for questions following the presentation. Please bring something you have been working on to show/share. Everyone is welcome, especially writers with an interest in visual poetry.

Visual Poetry Writing Workshop #3: Workshop a Poem
November 24, 2025 
Quiet Room, St. John’s College, Rm. 111
2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

For this final workshop in the Visual Poetry series, bring a visual poem you wrote at an earlier workshop (or on your own) for a group workshop and feedback session. This workshop is open to everyone, especially new and emerging poets. Send your poem to Writer-in-Residence Melanie Dennis Unrau at ccwocwir@umanitoba.ca by Friday, November 21 so that we can have printouts ready to share. Participants in this workshop will be invited to contribute to a chapbook of poems to be launched at the Writer-in-Residence closing celebration on Wednesday, December 3.

 

Closing event

Closing Event and Chapbook Launch

December 3, 2025 
4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. + Reception
108 St. John's College
Host: Acting Director Nancy Kang

This event will celebrate the work undertaken by Writer-in-Residence Melanie Dennis Unrau and will include readings by participants in the Work-and-Climate Poetry and Visual Poetry workshop series held in the Fall 2025 term

All are welcome. The event is FREE. Light refreshments will be available. No registration required.
 

Past Writers/Storytellers-in-Residence

See more past Writers/Storytellers-in-Residence

Apply to our Writer/Storyteller-in-Residence Program (currently seeking Winter 2027 applicants)

Writer-in-Residence

Applications are currently being accepted for the Winter 2027 residency until October 31, 2025.

A writer/storyteller is sought for the position of Writer/Storyteller-in- Residence at the University of Manitoba’s Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture. A three-month residency taking place in the Winter Term of 2027 will require the successful candidate to spend approximately 16 hours per week providing mentorship and practical artistic advice to developing writers and storytellers at the University of Manitoba, to give a limited number of readings and/or performances on campus, and to lead an informal non-credit workshop series. The remaining time is to be devoted to the successful candidate’s own artistic projects. The salary is $15,000.00 CAD (subject to mandatory deductions) and the residency also includes rent-free accommodation and return transportation to Winnipeg. 

The Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture (CCWOC) is a hub for creativity and a place to learn about and celebrate the transformative potential of creative writing and storytelling. CCWOC provides support for established and emerging storytellers and writers within and beyond the university community, aiming to empower people from diverse backgrounds to develop skills and create stories. Located at the University of Manitoba in the city of Winnipeg, the Centre sponsors readings, lectures, master classes and creative community projects. Winnipeg is renowned for its vibrant arts community and its multicultural citizenry, including the largest urban population of Indigenous people in North America. The Centre builds upon these local cultural strengths as a basis for its creative and critical work.

Learn more 
 

Apply

Applications should include a cover letter summarizing the applicant’s qualifications for the position and describing the artistic and mentoring work they would undertake during the residency. Applications must also include:

  • A CV or resume of career achievements (publications, performances, awards, residencies)
  • A writing sample of no more than 20 pages (double-spaced and typed in a standard 12-point font)
  • Two letters of reference discussing the applicant’s skills as an artist and a mentor
  • Storytellers are encouraged to submit links to their performance videos

Candidates of all nationalities are encouraged to apply, however preference will be given to Canadian applicants. Full proficiency in English is required and publications or performance credits in English would be an asset. The Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture is committed to principles of employment equity.

Please submit your application to ccwoc@umanitoba.ca. Attachments must be in Microsoft Word or PDF format. Hard copies of materials will not be accepted.

Diversity and immigration statement
The University of Manitoba is committed to the principles of equity, diversity & inclusion and to promoting opportunities in hiring, promotion and tenure (where applicable) for systemically marginalized groups who have been excluded from full participation at the University and the larger community including Indigenous Peoples, women, racialized persons, persons with disabilities and those who identify as 2SLGBTQIA+ (Two Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, questioning, intersex, asexual and other diverse sexual identities). All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadian citizens and permanent residents will be given priority.
If you require accommodation supports during the recruitment process, please contact UM.Accommodation@umanitoba.ca or 204-474-7195. Please note this contact information is for accommodation reasons only.


FIPPA Statement
Application materials, including letters of reference, will be handled in accordance with the protection of privacy provision of The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (Manitoba). Please note that curriculum vitae may be provided to participating members of the search process.

Who we are

A headshot of Nancy Kang
Headshot of smiling woman wearing a purple plaid shirt with a background of trees.

Director

Dr. Jocelyn Thorpe (on leave)

Dr. Jocelyn Thorpe is a settler scholar in the Women's and Gender Studies Program and the Department of History, in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Manitoba. She studies histories and legacies of colonialism and environmental injustice, as well as the creative ways that people work toward a more just world. She has been the Director of the Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture since 2021. 

Acting Director

Nancy Kang

Dr. Nancy Kang is a literary scholar teaching in the Faculty of Arts’ Women’s and Gender Studies Program. She serves as Acting Director of the Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture in 2025-26. She was long-listed for the CBC Poetry Prize (2023), the inaugural winner of the Elizabeth Alexander Creative Writing Award in Poetry (USA, 2020), and First Runner-Up for the Enoch Pratt Free Library Poetry Contest (USA, 2018). Her creative writing has appeared most recently in Amerasia Journal; Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism; The Fiddlehead; and WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly. She is a member of the Creative Writing Advisory Board at Meridians journal, housed at Smith College and published by Duke University Press. She also co-authored The Once and Future Muse: The Poetry and Poetics of Rhina P. Espaillat (2018), a study of the respected Dominican American writer, translator, and literary community builder. 

Steering Committee

Dr. Warren Cariou
English, Theatre, Film & Media

Dr. Lindsay Diehl
English, Theatre, Film & Media

Dr. Adele Perry
History

Dr. Nancy Kang
Women's and Gender Studies

Dr. Matthew Tetreault
Indigenous Studies

Fellowships

C. D. Howe Memorial Fellowships in Creative Writing and Oral Culture

With contributions from the Manitoba Scholarship and Bursary Initiative, the C.D. Howe Foundation has established a fund at UM in support of the Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture. Two fellowships, valued at approximately $10,000.00 each, will be offered to successful candidates (the amount is based on the average of the last five years and is subject to change).

Please send your application or any questions to the Coordinator at CCWOC@umanitoba.ca. Deadline for applications is June 1, 2025. No late applications will be accepted.

Eligibility

We offer fellowships to graduate students who:

  • Are enrolled full-time in the Faculty of Graduate Studies, in a master's or doctoral degree program
  • Have achieved a minimum degree grade point average of 3.5 (or equivalent) based on the last 60 credit hours of study
  • Are conducting thesis research in creative writing (producing an original work of literature) or on the critical study of oral cultures
  • Students with lived experience of Indigenous and other oral cultures are particularly encouraged to apply.

Application requirements

Candidates are asked to submit an application consisting of:

  • A description of their proposed or ongoing research (maximum 500 words). No Bibliography is required
  • A current academic transcript
  • Two letters of reference from professors at a post-secondary institution. If more than two letters are submitted on behalf of the student, only the first two received will be counted. Letter writers may submit directly to the coordinator at the email below.

Candidates will be assessed as follows: record of academic achievement (30 per cent), plan of research (40 per cent), letters of reference (30 per cent).

The award is not automatically renewable but previous recipients may apply. Recipients may hold the C.D. Howe Memorial Foundation Fellowships in Creative Writing and Oral Culture concurrently with other awards, consistent with the policies of the Faculty of Graduate Studies.

Decisions will be made by the end of July. Only successful applicants will be notified through electronic correspondence from the Financial Aid and Awards Office. No feedback on applications will be provided. All decisions are final and non-negotiable.

Current recipients

2025-2026

Shohreh Saeedibagha, Ph.D. student in Education

Bren McKay, Master's student in English, Theatre, Film & Media

Past recipients

2024-2025 

Sehar Mushtaq, Ph.D. student in Peace and Conflict Studies
Jonathan Hildebrand, Ph.D. student in History

2022-2023
Natalie LoVetri, Masters' student in English, Theatre, Film & Media
Sehar Mushtaq, Ph.D. student in Peace and Conflict Studies

2021-2022
Natalie LoVetri, Masters' student in English, Theatre, Film & Media
Sehar Mushtaq, Ph.D. student in Peace and Conflict Studies

2020-2021
Antony Zang, Masters' student in English, Theatre, Film & Media
Sehar Mushtaq, Ph.D. student in Peace and Conflict Studies

2019-2020
Micheline Hughes, Ph.D. student in Native Studies
Virginia Page Jahne, Masters' students in English, Theatre, Film & Media

2018-2019
Michelle Lietz, Ph.D. student in English literature
Dominique Reynolds, Masters' student in French

2017-2018
Melanie Braith, Ph.D. student in English
Nick Kosmenko, Ph.D. student in Applied Health Sciences

2016-2017
Micheline Hughes, Ph.D. student in Native Studies
Allison Penner, Masters' student in History

2015-2016
Damien Lee, Masters' student in Native Studies
Susie Fisher, Masters' student in History

2014-2015
Kirsty Cameron, Masters' student in English
Micheal Minor, Ph.D. student in English, Film & Theatre

2013-2014
Lydia Schoeppner, Ph.D. student in Peace and Conflict Studies
Daniel Guezen, Masters' student in French, Spanish and Italian

2012-2013
Ryan Duplassie, Ph.D. student in Native Studies
Agnieszka (Agnes) Pawlowska, Ph.D. student in Native Studies

2011-2012
Alon D. Weinberg, Masters' student in Native Studies

2010-2011
Sean Braun, Masters' student in English, Film & Theatre
Daria Patrie, Masters' student in English, Film & Theatre

2009-2010
Gordon Blackburde, Masters' student in Native Studies
Susan Rich, Masters' student in English

Text: Funding Opportunity. CD Howe memorial foundation fellowships in Creative Writing and Oral Culture.

Community and outreach

Manitoba Book Awards 

The Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture is proud to support Manitoba writers as the sponsor of the Manitowapow Award through the Manitoba Book Awards. 

The award is presented every two years to two Indigenous writers or oral performers who demonstrate excellence in writing, storytelling or spoken word and who also actively support Indigenous verbal arts in Manitoba. 

Donations

CCWOC gratefully accepts donations from individuals, corporations and other organizations which help support its vision, goals and objectives. Donors will receive a receipt for income tax purposes.

Complete the form at the link below. In the "Direct my gift to" field, choose "Enter a fund name". In the "Enter a fund name" field, type "Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture".

Donate to CCWOC

For more information on making a donation to CCWOC, please contact donor.relations@umanitoba.ca

Contact us

The Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, MB Canada

ccwoc@umanitoba.ca
204-474-6984