Celebrated First Nations author and award-winning journalist Richard Wagamese will present a free public workshop and teach a creative writing course at TRU this month.

After receiving a National Newspaper Award for Column Writing, Wagamese, an Ojibway from the Wabasseemoong First Nation in northwestern Ontario, became a published novelist. He published Keeper’n Me in 1994, following it with A Quality of Light in 1996. His autobiographical book, For Joshua, was published in 2002, and his latest novel, Dream Wheels, was published last year.

Wagamese, who lives outside Kamloops, BC, has also lectured and worked extensively in both radio and television news and documentary. In his novels, says his publisher, Random House, “he shares the traditions and teachings of his people, entwining them with an account of his own life-long struggle for self-knowledge and self-respect, staring the modern world in the eye and takes careful note of its snares and perils.”

He will present a free public workshop Thursday, March 15 from 6:30 to 9:30 pm in room 266 of TRU’s Arts and Education building to demonstrate the creative writing techniques that he will teach in his six-session course, From the Oral Tradition to the Printed Page, to be held March 29 to May 3.

“As a First Nations person, I have learned how to use the oral tradition of my people to effectively guide my writing,” said Wagamese. “Since my formal education ended at grade nine and I have published three novels and a memoir with a major Canadian publisher with my next novel on the way this August, I have apparently learned my craft well and I’m eager to bring this new program to beginning writers in the community,” he added.

The course, which covers the methods Wagamese uses as a professional, published author and which work for many forms of writing, will be presented at a cost of $130 for the public and $45 for TRU students.

For more information, please contact Inga Thomson Hilton at 250-828-5210 or by email.