The University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies has added a new online guided writing course to its roster of creative writing courses taking place this spring and summer. 

The course, taught by novelist, journalist and veteran SCS instructor, Kim Echlin is designed to help writers at any level either start a writing project they have had percolating in their mind or to overcome writer’s block and breathe new life into a piece that has stalled. 

“Guided Writing is useful to create structured time to write, to get past writer’s block, to discover both creative energy and story-telling technique,” explains SCS Creative Writing Program Director Lee Gowan. 

Students will follow Echlin’s instructions and structured writing prompts and write for at least half of each class. The other half of each class will be devoted to studying technique and workshopping pieces with their classmates. 

Every student will be given the instructor’s Writing Handbook, The Scribal Art, to supplement their in-class writing. This handbook includes a number of illustrative examples as well an introduction to techniques that all writers need to know for fiction, genre writing, memoir and nonfiction.

“At the end of this course students will not only be better writers but better readers, recognizing key elements of style,” says Gowan.

The first offering of Guided Writing will take place Tuesday evenings from July 6 – August 30, 2020.

How we all work and learn has been changing rapidly. SCS wants to support you through this evolution. We recognize that in addition to new assistance options for online learners whose finances were impacted by COVID-19, there is an appetite from our learners for content to help explore new territory, engage your minds, and learn skills and ideas you can apply to your lives and careers now. 

We reached out to our community of learners to get a better idea of just what kinds of content and the topics you would like to gain insight into. We asked, you responded, we listened. The UofT SCS Knowledge Hub series is the result. 

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With so many workplaces currently experiencing upheaval due to COVID-19, it’s no secret that employee stress levels may be higher than usual. 

One way organizations can help mitigate this stress for their teams, is by ensuring that employees feel safe raising any concerns or complaints they may have. 

Instructor and co-developer of the newly-launched SCS Specialized Certificate in Managing, Investigating, and Resolving Workplace Harassment Complaints Jennifer Pernfuss says that unfortunately any workplace relationships that were strained before COVID-19 may be even more conflict-ridden now. “The additional stress of the pandemic coupled with anxiety related to tension-filled working relationships tests employees' mental health.  Most of us respond to conflict by retreating which can translate into disengagement and dissatisfaction which hampers productivity,” she explains. “In today’s virtual world, ‘hiding’ as a way of avoiding conflict is easier and no less harmful to everyone involved and your business.”

Pernfuss says now is the time to encourage employees to come forward with issues so they can be addressed, resolved, a sense of well-being can be preserved and productivity enhanced. “In cases of alleged harassment, it’s an obligation to act,” she adds. “Abating the tension and stress in working relationships is more important now than ever and those involved are grateful for the support.” 
Her top 6 tips for creating a safe environment for employees to voice concerns are: 

1. Encourage to employees to communicate concerns of conflict or mistreatment.
2. To maintain neutrality, hold the perspective that conflict is simply a signal that something wants or needs to change.
3. Remember - behind every complaint is a request (complaint - "I get cut off in meetings and I feel invisible").
4. Be present. Listen carefully for the request behind the complaint ("I want my ideas heard during our team meetings").
5. Explore how best to achieve the desired outcome (design agreements with the team to ensure everyone can contribute meaningfully to the discussion).
6. Resolve the issue quickly and effectively and document the process thoroughly.

Jennifer Pernfuss is the founder of RESPECT: Conciliation & Education and for the past 25 years she has been helping organizations effectively address and resolve workplace harassment complaints and conflict. Jennifer has degrees in law and psychology. She is a certified ORSC coach and she has coupled this cutting-edge approach with her legal training and field experience with unprecedented results. In addition to her restorative work, she is a 'Respect In The Workplace' trainer, speaker, facilitator, coach to complainants and respondents and leaders, and co-developer of an online training program, Optimal Resolution Method. She teaches Identifying, Addressing and Effectively Managing Workplace Harassment Complaints at the School of Continuing Studies.

Governments and health organizations need powerful tools to fight an invisible foe like COVID-19. In addition to cooperation from communities and the expertise of medical professionals, one of the most vital tools we have is the ability to quickly and effectively collect and analyze information. 

That’s where data science comes in. As SCS data science instructor Larry Simon explains: “Data analysis is crucial to understanding the dynamics of a threat such as COVID-19.  We can’t see it, so we need to infer how it’s transmitted by observing data about people’s interactions and habits.”

For example, key factors like the number of additional people that will be infected by each person while they are infectious tell us how quickly the total number of people affected will grow, and how much control is required to dampen that growth.

Statistical analysis is also crucial to understanding how much of an impact the crisis will have on the economy and government deficits.

According to Simon, data analysis can also help us to discover whether there are multiple strains of the virus with different characteristics. “Similarly, there may be genetic differences that make some populations more susceptible than others,” he says. 

One of the challenges of using data science to help combat a pandemic like COVID-19 lies in the accuracy of the data itself. “There are no doubt people who have had COVID and recovered but haven’t reported it.  This represents a systemic bias which would cause underreporting of cases and overreporting of the likelihood of dying as a result of contracting COVID,” says Simon. “Even more so with asymptomatic cases.”

Another challenge is the possibility of countries either not releasing their data or altering what they do share publicly or with other governments. 

As with almost any data collection, there is also the issue of privacy. Simon says that particularly in Western cultures, personal privacy of great concern for people, which can make it difficult to implement automated monitoring and reporting. “If people were willing to give up some privacy and share more health-related data in real time, such as through smart watches, track-and-trace could be much more effective,” he says. 

Still, data science has been used in some impressive ways to help stop the spread of COVID-19. “The most amazing thing has been the use of Machine Learning to speed up the discovery of potential treatment drugs and vaccines. “Sophisticated modelling and distributed computation is allowing far more rapid medicine development. During the pandemic many home computer users allowed their machines to be used over the Internet to do the huge number of calculations necessary to predict how COVID proteins fold.” Simon says. “Hopefully we’ll learn from the experience and invest in having testing capacity available on demand for future challenges.”

Larry Simon is an entrepreneur, management consultant, and angel investor, specializing in IT strategy and data analytics. He has over 30 years of experience advising startups, global corporations, and government institutions. He is the founder and a Managing Director of Inflection Group. Prior to this he was a Partner with Ernst & Young Consulting, their CTO and National Director of their strategy and delivery centres. He has previously served on the faculty of the Rotman School of Management, as the Head Judge of the Canadian Information Productivity Awards (CIPA), and as a Councillor of the Institute of Certified Management Consultants of Ontario. Simon holds an MBA from the University of Toronto, and a B.Math (Computer Science) from the University of Waterloo.

Simon teaches Foundations of Data Science, Deep Learning, and Intelligent Agents & Reinforcement Learning at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies. 

While working from home has allowed many people to continue to work through the Covid-19 pandemic and social distancing requirements, remote work comes with its own unique set of challenges.

Where once team members could pop by each other's desks to easily collaborate or get a bit of quick feedback, now they may need to schedule a time to chat in advance and use a messaging or video chat app that may not lend itself well to the usual brainstorming and collaboration techniques.

On top of this, reading non-verbal cues in order to gauge group sentiment, which can be key to navigating complex political or cultural landscapes, can be tricky via webcam and impossible via messaging apps.

Working from home can also make for an environment where team members are easily distracted.

School of Continuing Studies Project Management instructor Sunita Guyadeen says these work-from-home challenges may be compounded during a crisis like COVID-19. "The uncertainty of COVID-19 is a distraction and stress all on its own," she explains. "Team members may be dealing with sick family members or may have a partner that works in healthcare. Not knowing when or if anything will go back to the way it was pre-COVID I find preoccupies the thoughts of most team members. This makes it difficult to stay focused."

In addition, Guyadeen says the financial impact of COVID-19 on many organizations has forced projects to slow down or stop altogether which can be both unsettling and demoralizing. "The abruptness of the self-isolation, social distancing and restrictions gave no time for preparation so many project team members may not be well-equipped to work from home for example," she says.

"Project team members are now not only dealing with their projects but they have to carve out time to deal with child care, educating their children etc. So this can also be a distraction and a stress that indirectly impedes progress on projects."

Fortunately, Guyadeen says, there are things project managers can do to keep projects running smoothly while team members work from home. Here are her top five tips for remote project management:

1. Set and agree on expectations around availability, response time and communication mediums team members should use when working remotely. This will prevent surprises and function as rules of engagement.

2. Try to maintain a personal touch or contact with team members so the informal people relationships can be maintained

3. Keep to a structure i.e if you did stand-ups every day at 9:00am when in the office - maintain that remotely.

4. Get in the habit of recapping meeting discussions in rough notes to ensure nothing gets forgotten or lost in translation when the meeting is over.

5. Trust your team members. Relinquish your inner task master and rely on the team to take accountability for their tasks and deliver.

Sunita Guyadeen has several years of experience as a program manager, project manager, business analyst and business process practitioner in both the private and public sectors. She has spent the last several years functioning in a senior management capacity leading combined business and technical teams through large transformation and business process re-engineering initiatives in the telecommunications and financial services industries. She teaches Agile Essentials in Project Management, Agile Project Management Basics: Methods and Solutions, and Agile Leadership and Transformation.

Former School of Continuing Studies Creative Non-Fiction student and Toronto ER doctor Dawn Lim has put her writing skills to work on a piece for MacLean’s magazine, sharing a glimpse of what work is like for her and her colleagues on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto.  

The piece is accompanied by photographs Lim says she has taken to document “the day-to-day pulse of the UHN” and to provide herself with some sense of control during the pandemic. One of the photos, a powerful image of medical staff intubating a patient, is the cover photo for the June 2020 issue of the magazine. 

"Healthcare workers don't often get thanked. When I was at the height of my professional burnout, storytelling helped me heal," Lim says of her decision to document and share her experience. "When this pandemic is finally over and we feel tempted to move on and not look back, I hope this photo essay will give us a chance to pause and reflect on the work we did--to really acknowledge to ourselves that the work we do is valuable. I feel incredibly grateful that I was able to share our story with Canadians."

Click here to read Lim’s piece and see her the rest of her photos featured in MacLean's: https://www.macleans.ca/society/health/i-saw-fleeting-moments-no-one-remembers-one-er-doctors-photos-from-the-coronavirus-frontlines/  

*Photo by Dawn Lim

Even the most prolific writers can bump up against a case of writer’s block from time to time. Whether you’re a pro or taking the time social distancing has given you to try your hand at getting your stories down on paper for the first time, getting the words flowing can be a challenge.  

Instead of waiting for the perfect bolt of inspiration to strike, try using these thought-provoking prompts from three of our online Creative Writing instructors, Amy Jones, Elizabeth Ruth, and Michel Basilieres, to improve your craft, beat writer’s block or discover something new about a character or story you’re working on: 

Jones’ Prompts: 

1. Go over to your bookshelf, close your eyes, and pick up the first book you touch. Open that book to a random page, read the first full sentence on that page, and use it as the inspiration for a scene.

2. Write about a memory you have of being stuck in the rain.

3. Imagine your character has gone hiking in a forest on a mountainside. There is no one else around. Describe what they hear, see, smell, taste, and/or feel as they pass through different parts of the forest.

4. Write a dialogue between two characters. Character A wants Character B to move in with them, and Character B doesn’t want to. What tactics does Character A use to try to convince them? How does Character B react?

Ruth’s Prompts:

5. This exercise for writing a poem was intended for public transit but can now be modified for walking instead. Carrying a notebook, walk one block, (social distancing of course!) look up, look around, write down one sentence describing something you see or hear or smell. Continue walking another block. Stop, look around, do the same. Repeat for ten blocks. (Poetry and exercise, what could be better!) Finally, take the last line you've written and place it at the top of the page. This will become your opening line. You may also use it at the end, it that repetition seems appropriate. If you prefer your poem to have a fixed form, rather than writing free verse, arrange your lines in couplets.

6. Take a prose fiction story you have already written, but which is not in its final form. Rewrite the same story, only this time change the gender of your protagonist. What, if anything, does that do to your plot? Dialogue? Central Theme? If you made changes to the story, ask yourself why? This exercise is meant to help identify implicit gender bias in fiction.

7. For Creative Non-fiction or Memoir: What are the three defining moments of your life? Everyone has them, though we don't usually speak of them. These will be the experiences, good and/or otherwise, that make you who you are today. It could be something life altering like an immigration experience, a wedding day, birth of a child. It could be something like a sexual assault or the day you found out your parents were getting a divorce. Perhaps a key life moment was the day you decided to come out as LGBT or buy a lottery ticket, or enter medical school? Whatever your three key defining experiences in life, they will be particular to you. Next, look at your list of three and choose the one you feel most uncomfortable about sharing, most private about, and write that moment now. Be vivid and use sensory language.

Basilieres’ prompts:

8. Remember that story your parent or grandparent used to tell over and over and over at every family gathering? That had meaning for them. Tell that story.

9. Use this 19th Century Character generator and start an argument over an inheritance between two of them. I like "Bumbling Tutor Recently Returned from Abroad" vs. "Headstrong Heroine who is having an Affair with the Groundskeeper".

10. Chose a story or novel by your favourite writer, and copy out five continuous pages, by hand - with pen or pencil on paper, no typing. Pay attention to the punctuation. I guarantee you'll learn more than you imagine.

For more inspiration or writing exercises, Ruth also recommends the book Writer’s Gym in which professional writers, Ruth and a handful of other SCS Creative Writing instructors included, share advice and writing prompts. 

Amy Jones’ fiction has appeared in Best Canadian Stories and The Journey Prize Stories. Her debut collection of stories, What Boys Like, was the winner of the 2008 Metcalf-Rooke Award and a finalist for the 2010 ReLit Award. Her debut novel, We’re All In This Together (McClelland & Stewart, 2016), won the Northern Lit Award, was featured on Quill & Quire’s "Books of the Year 2016" and the Globe & Mail’s "Best Canadian Fiction of 2016”. Originally from Halifax, Amy now lives in Toronto, where she is working on her second novel.

Jones teaches Creative Writing: Introduction and Writing Short Fiction: Introduction at the School of Continuing Studies 

Elizabeth Ruth is the author of three critically acclaimed novels, Matadora, Smoke, and Ten Good Seconds of Silence. Her work has been recognized by the Writer's Trust of Canada Fiction Prize, the Amazon.ca Best First Novel Award, the City of Toronto Book Award, and the One Book One Community Program. Elizabeth is also the author of a novella for adult literacy learners entitled, Love You to Death, and the editor of the anthology, Bent on Writing. In Jan 2014 the CBC named Elizabeth one of the Ten Canadian Women You Need to Read.

Ruth teaches Creative Writing: Introduction and Creative Writing II at the School of Continuing Studies. 

Michel Basilieres is the author of the novel Black Bird, a stage play and two CBC radio plays. He is a frequent reviewer for the Toronto Star and has written for the Globe & Mail, Maisoneuve Magazine and The Danforth Review. Black Bird received widespread acclaim and honours, including the Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award. It was shortlisted for the Stephen Leacock Medal, the Commonwealth Writer`s Prize, and included on both the Globe & Mail and Maclean`s best of the year lists. It is available in English, French, Dutch and Serbian, and is taught in schools across the country.

Basilieres teaches Creative Writing: Introduction, Writing Short Fiction: Introduction, Creative Writing II, and Writing Short Fiction II at the School of Continuing Studies. 

The University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies (SCS) has launched a $100,000 fund to support learners who are dealing with financial challenges due to COVID-19.

Students experiencing financial need due to COVID-19 can apply for a one-time bursary of up to $750 to finance their SCS course tuition costs. The bursary is available to both new and returning students.

While SCS does offer other bursaries and award programs designed to provide financial assistance, Dean Maureen MacDonald says this fund was developed specifically as part of SCS’s response to the impact of COVID-19 and as a way for SCS to give back to its community of learners during what is an extremely challenging time for many of them.

“We have such a wonderful, dedicated community of people who have taken the skills and knowledge they gain with us and used them to better the wider community we’re all a part of. This is one way we can continue to support their learning journeys, and to support new learners just getting started,” she explains.

“It’s one way we can say thank you.”

Applicants will be asked to demonstrate financial need and share how funding will assist with achieving their learning objectives.

Applicants who meet these criteria will be randomly selected to receive tuition support until the full amount of the Opportunity Fund has been spent.

Applications for the Opportunity Fund bursaries are being accepted now online.

For full eligibility requirement information and to apply, please visit our Opportunity Fund Terms of Reference information page.

We are all living through unprecedented times. COVID-19 has had a staggering impact on every aspect of life for people both here in Canada and around the world. At the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies, we are committed to continued communication that is sensitive to the new realities we all face. At the same time, we want to remain connected to all our members of our lifelong learning community.  We appreciate that this new reality may mean that you have pockets of time for self-investment and learning. We also acknowledge that these are times where we all have heightened concerns about our finances.  

With that in mind, we are working to develop some free educational content so that you can have access to trustworthy information delivered by experts to help you learn the skills you need now, maintain a sense of community and keep your mind sharp and engaged.

This is where you come in. We’d like to know what topics you would like to gain free access to. And, as an extra incentive to share your thoughts with us via the survey link below, we will be entering all participants into a draw for free tuition (up to $700, no cash value) for one of our full-length online courses! *Please note that this contest is now closed, although we would still love to hear your feedback via the link below. 

Click here to complete the survey.

When the spread of a highly infectious illness demands that people physically distance themselves from their communities in order to keep everyone as safe and healthy as possible, it can be easy to feel disconnected and lonely. That’s why it is vital to find ways to maintain connections through this time of crisis.

SCS networking instructor Jean Chow says she keeps a quote from Rev. Cecil Williams above her desk to remind her just how important our connections to one another are.  The quote says “We need this. When we meet face to face, we become human. We lift each other up.”

Chow often asks her students what networking means to them, and the answers she receives (building relationships, meeting new people, making friends, socializing) all fall under the umbrella of connection. That’s why she says networking skills can help stave off feelings of isolation and loneliness during times of physical isolation.

While modern technology makes connecting from afar easier than it has ever been, Chow says it’s important to consider who you are connecting with and what their needs might be. “As a Boomer, we tend to default to email but I’m mindful when connecting with my younger friends (IG DM and WhatsApp) and my 22-year old niece (FB messenger) by choosing the media channel they use frequently,” she says.

Chow also recently switched to video conferencing for the classes she was no longer able to conduct in person. “I’ve transitioned my in-person classes on-line on quite seamlessly and as someone who is very social. I’m delightfully surprised how much I love teaching virtually,” she says.

Meanwhile, for connecting with loved ones, she has been making use of video and phone calls. “I had planned an Easter visit to be with my 90+ year old parents in Calgary but of course, my visit has been postponed so I call now them daily, sometimes twice a day instead of our usual Sunday weekly call,” she explains. “This ritual provides all of us tremendous comfort and assurance. Hearing them say they love me every night means so much to me. My siblings also live in Calgary so they help connect me with our parents through video calling on WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. My Dad loves touching the screen!”

In addition to video and phone calls, Chow maintains an active social media presence to connect with students, mentees, colleagues, acquaintances and even strangers. She recommends anyone trying to stay relevant within their business network make an effort to post comments and content to LinkedIn.

As a single woman who has called many countries home, Chow says she is no stranger to finding ways to stay engaged and happy from a distance. Here are her top ten tips to stay connected while social distancing:

1. Keeping a journal – digital or paper – gives you a place to offload your thoughts. I also have a blog and contribute and share posts and articles on LinkedIn.

2. Do something nice for your neighbours whether you live in a condo, apartment building, or a house. Check in while maintaining social distance and ask if you can pick something up for them if you are making a trip to the grocery store.

3. Connect with nature. Walking meditation helps and a good one can be found in “Peace is Every Step” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

4. Meditate even for 5 minutes to help clear your mind.

5. Learn something new! With so many ways to learn online – YouTube, IGTV, Coursera, etc., most of us have access to so much. We are fortunate because not everyone has Internet access. I’m sad to see on Twitter that people who don’t have Internet access gather around the exterior of branches of the Toronto Public Library trying to find a way to log in if they have cell phones. It also shows us the value of our libraries and social services.

6. Some establish new routines immediately. It grounds them and gives a sense of control. As a creative, I maintain some routine to get work done while also allowing (and sometimes scheduling) time for my mind to wander and be free.

7. Move! Make sure you don’t sit in front of your computer all day. Stretch! Jump! Dance! Do the Wonder Woman power pose made famous by Professor Amy Cuddy! And if you haven’t yet, watch her TED talk!

8. Pick up the phone and call someone you love, someone who lives alone, someone you’re thinking of.

9. Take the initiative and identify someone you can help by introducing them to someone in your network who can help, mentor, share their expertise and experience.

10. Breathe and be thankful for all that you have this moment. The universe will unfold as it should.

Jean Chow is a serial entrepreneur, business coach, and mentor. She teaches Fearless Networking: Connecting Creatively and Confidently at the School of Continuing Studies.

The University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies Comparative Education Service (CES) has been designated by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to conduct educational credential assessments for the federal Agri-food Immigration pilot program, launching this March.

The Agri-Food Immigration Pilot is a new federal immigration program designed to help address the labour needs of the Canadian agri-food sector while providing eligible temporary foreign agriculture and agri-food industry workers with a pathway to Canadian permanent residence.

CES will support the pilot project by assessing academic credentials that range from High School diplomas to postsecondary diplomas and degrees and conducts a review of their recognition and comparability to ensure that candidates for the program have achieved the foreign equivalent of a high school level education or greater.

CES will begin accepting applications for this new stream as of March 1st, 2020.

For more information, please visit our Agri-food information page here: 

https://learn.utoronto.ca/comparative-education-service/agri-food

From growing up in a convent to becoming an activist student to a career in midwifery and a forbidden love, Joan Bismillah’s life is the stuff major motion picture plots are made of. But it wasn’t until she became a Creative Writing student in her 80s that she became convinced she should get her story down on paper. 

Now, at 91 years of age, Bismillah has not only written her story, but her memoir, A Chameleon from the Land of the Quagga, has been published as well.   

Beginning with her childhood in South Africa, the book tells the story of Joan’s early life in a convent, where she later tried to return and become a nun to escape her grandmother. “My grandmother was a Victorian tyrant,” she explains. “We were often at loggerheads. And to get away from home – nice girls those days could not leave home without bringing disgrace to their families – I went to see Mother Superior at the convent and asked her to rescue me… and she said ‘My dear to be a nun there are certain vows and you would probably manage most of them. But the final one, obedience? No, you will not be able to cope with that.’”

The theme of disobedience reappears throughout the memoir as Bismillah becomes a young activist, then a midwife and falls in love with an Indian medical student. The two are secretly married and flee to England to escape the prejudice and oppression they encounter in South Africa. They later settle in small-town Southwestern Ontario, where Bismillah once again learns to adapt to the world around her.

It was in Canada that Bismillah’s love of learning was rekindled. “We had arrived from London, England and landed in Fergus, Ontario. 4000 people turned into 380. I helped my husband out and took the children to school and there was nothing to do. I was just completely lost,” she says. 

“Guelph University was just opening its art department. Quite by chance I ran into a very kind gentleman who happened to be the Dean. And he said, we’re just opening now, why don’t you come to a meeting?” 

Joan recalls wondering at the time if she was still capable of learning at her age. “I was all of 35,” she laughs.  

“I enrolled that same evening and thought, I’ll take German - because it was close to Afrikaans - so at least I won’t make a fool of myself. I think as you age, you become very self-conscious when you’re with a lot of younger people. They’ll look at you and you think: Oh my God, what am I doing here? Anyway, it worked out and I enrolled full-term for the next four years which helped me come to terms with living in Canada.”  

It wasn’t until after Bismillah’s husband died and she was in her 80s that she began taking creative writing classes at the School of Continuing Studies. She says the writing was a panacea of sorts for her grief and that the encouragement of her classmates and instructors, particularly Ibi Kaslik, was in large part what led her to completing her memoir. 

“[Ibi] was by far the best teacher I’ve had. She was dedicated and she had our interest at heart and you couldn’t help but listen to her,” Bismillah says. 

One of the things that surprised Bismillah most about writing her memoir was how well she remembered the events of her life once she began writing them down. 

“Everything just came flooding back in a way and I could remember in detail,” she explains.

Even her own writing ability took her by surprise, but she says her SCS instructor gave her the confidence boost she needed early in her classes. 

“I was surprised at how I could write and it was all because I was encouraged by somebody like Ibi who had instilled it at the very beginning and that was it and I didn’t bother about it again.” 

Beyond those early doubts about her writing ability, Bismillah says the most challenging thing about writing her memoir was finding the discipline to get it done. “I sat down and I decided that I would treat it as a job,” she says. 

“You have to be disciplined. So I would start at nine or 10 in the morning and I would work right through until five or six in the evening most days. That I think was the most difficult thing, was to sit down and tell myself, you’ve got to finish it, you know, get on with it. It’s to be disciplined, I think.

Bismillah says she wants to encourage other people who might feel it’s too late to learn something new or to tell their own stories to think again.  

“First of all, it’s never too late. And the stories are always worth being told for the simple reason that long after you’ve gone, it’s still there and it’s an example of how people live or what people do and how we survive. And that’s the only reason I can think of for wanting to write the story,” she says. 

Bismillah also stresses the importance of sharing each other’s stories to build a more empathetic world. “Living in a multicultural society as we are, it’s important because we become more tolerant of each other if we know something about each other. Otherwise we become ignorant,” she explains.

“We all have basically the same emotions and same feelings. That is common. But there are all these other factors in life that makes our life interesting or uninteresting or sad or whatever and those are important, and I think you learn from them.”  

For information about the School of Continuing Studies Creative Writing courses, click here: https://learn.utoronto.ca/programs-courses/creative-writing

Joan Bismillah’s memoir, A Chameleon from the Land of the Quagga, is available through Friesen Press: https://books.friesenpress.com/store/title/119734000068962624/Joan-Bismillah-A-Chameleon-from-the-Land-of-the-Quagga