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THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED: We regret to inform you that this event has been cancelled. We hope to welcome Nina Dunic to our stage another time in the near future, and apologize for any disappointment and inconvenience caused by this cancellation.

Learn how to craft compelling stories and bring captivating characters to life through hands-on lessons from acclaimed authors and industry experts.

Heart First, Head Follows: Writing with Instinct and Emotion

You’ve read tips about structure and plot outlines, but they didn’t feel right to you. You prefer to start stories without knowing how they will end; you like surprising yourself. When you’re writing, you feel as if you’re chasing something elusive.

Join author Nina Dunic to explore how to write loose and free, and then intellectualize it during edits. Let’s work to our strengths — instinct, emotion, vigour, momentum — and clean up the pieces after.

Presented by TIFA in partnership with the Humber School for Writers.

The Clarion

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Nina Dunic

Nina Dunic's debut novel The Clarion won the 2024 Trillium Book Award, was longlisted for the 2023 Scotiabank Giller Prize, and received "Best of 2023" nods from The Globe and Mail, Apple Books and the CBC. She is a two-time winner of the Toronto Star Short Story Contest, has been longlisted for the CBC Short Story Prize four times, won third place in the Humber Literary Review Emerging Writers Fiction Contest, and was nominated for The Journey Prize.

Read more about Nina Dunic