We are thrilled to announce the instructors for Wordsworth 2019.
More names and course descriptions will be added as they are confirmed!
WordsWorth 2019 Instructors
Weeks 1 & 2– Writing Wrongs
Weeks 1 & 3
Louise Casemore is a creator, director, and Sterling Award winning writer/performer originally from Edmonton. She is the Artistic Associate for Calgary’s Ghost River Theatre, Artistic Director of Defiance Theatre, and recipient of the 2017 Enbridge/ATP Playwright’s Award. Through Defiance and as a freelance artist, Louise has been involved in almost 20 world premieres and counting, including her one woman shows OCD, Functional (Found Fest, Ignite Festival), GEMINI (touring 2018/19) and the upcoming cabaret exorcism that is Undressed. Additional credits include The Bereft Project with Charles Netto and Theatre Junction’s TJLabs, teaching playwriting and performance creation with the Writer’s Guild of Alberta, Alberta Playwright’s Network, and ATP Raucous Caucus, and serving as a proud member of Workshop West Playwrights’ Theatre Board of Directors. Defiance Theatre is committed to developing new Canadian theatre and exploring alternatives to conventional storytelling. Louise is a devoted to finding honesty and intimacy wherever she can, and all things strange and unusual.
(Photo by Marc J Chalifoux)
Colin Martin- “We are Legion(d)” Week 1, “Mythic Verses” Week 3 – lives, writes, and teaches in Calgary. He has published five chapbooks of poetry, and fiction and academic pieces in a number of journals and anthologies. He is thrilled to be back at Wordsworth; this year should be…legendary.
Week 2
Jani Krulc writes fiction and practices and teaches yoga. Her first collection of short stories, The Jesus Year, was published in 2013. This is Jani’s third summer at WordsWorth, and she is thrilled to return. She lives in Calgary with a pomeranian, a cat, and her partner, and is at work on her second book.
Weeks 1 & 2
Kim Firmston is a YA author with six published novels under her belt. Her novel, Stupid, was the winner of the Canadian Children’s Book Centre Best Books for Kids & Teens in 2014, Shortlisted for the Stellar Award – Red Cedar Young Reader’s Choice Awards, and translated into French (Oliver). Kim loves writing widely and including humour in her work, flipping topics on their head to see what the underside has to offer. She dabbles in playwriting, short stories, video games, websites, and articles. Her current projects include a beginner chapter book about super villains, a picture book about a Hipster Ninja Zebra Squirrel, and a YA sci-fi action-adventure novel set in space. Kim is the Alexandra Writers’ Centre Society’s youth program director and has been a writing instructor for over a decade. Kim has devoted her life to empowering writers and assisting them in elevating their projects into publishable works of art, each with their own unique twist and voice.
Weeks 2 & 3
Richard Kelly Kemick is an award-winning Canadian poet, journalist, and fiction writer. He is the author of Caribou Run, a collection of poetry. Having published widely in all three genres, his work has been included in anthologies in Canada and the United Kingdom. Richard is the recipient of multiple awards including two National Magazine Awards and first place in the 2017 Norma Epstein National Creative Writing Competition.
Ainsley Hillyard is an Edmonton-based performer, choreographer and educator working in
dance and theatre. She earned her Diploma in dance from Grant MacEwan College and a
Bachelor of Arts (Hons) from The School of Contemporary Dancers in affiliation with The
University of Winnipeg
Ainsley is a core artistic member of the Good Women Dance Collective, creating and performing
works for the Brian Webb Dance Company, Dancers Studio West, the Dance Made in Canada
Festival, TedX Edmonton, The Expanse Festival, The Art Gallery of Alberta and The Feats
Festival of dance, among others.
As an independent artist, Ainsley has choreographed for several theatre companies. Select
choreography credits include; The Other and Bears (Sterling Award for Outstanding
Choreography) with Pyretic Productions; Ursa Major and Snout with Catch The Keys
Productions, 9 Parts of Desire with The Maggie Tree, Jack and the Beanstalk with Alberta
Opera and assistant choreographer for Hadestown at the Citadel. Recently, she
created Jezebel, at the Still Point, a performance staring her French bulldog Jezebel.
Week 3
David Wilson (BMus, Mmus) is a Singer, award-winning Conductor, Voice Teacher, Senior Yoga Instructor/Teacher Trainer and Breath Therapist, ad the founder and principal of The Wilson Method for Voice. He is recognized across Canada as the leading authority on the use of Yoga, Functional Vocal Work and Breath Therapy to aid healthy singing and speaking techniques. He offers workshops to singers, actors, teachers and professionals on vocal power, emotional and creative freedom, anxiety and asthma relief, respiratory health, core stability, somatic movement and public speaking. David currently holds positions with Edmonton Musical Theatre, the University of Alberta, Cowtown Opera Summer Academy and the Theatre Arts program at MacEwan University. His DVD/Book, The Wilson Method for Voice will be released in 2020. www.david@body-breath-voice.com www.the-wilson-method.com @thewilsonmethod #the_wilson_method
Week 3 -Inner Green
Cathy Ostlere is an award-winning writer of creative nonfiction and young adult
fiction. Her first book, the memoir, Lost, was shortlisted for the 2009 Edna Staebler
Creative Non-fiction Award. She is a 2012 Governor General Award finalist for her play, Lost: A Memoir. Her second book, Karma, a YA novel-in-verse, has won or been shortlisted for many awards. Cathy’s an avid traveller, hiker, and has uncovered a new passion of genealogical sleuthing for her father’s biological family. She’s recently returned to the typewriter as a tool for exploring new writing. Cathy lives in Calgary and enjoys teaching myth, fairytales, horror, poetry, and the hero’s journey. This is her seventh summer teaching at Wordsworth and is delighted to be back!
Week 3
Lindsey Walker searches for beauty in the darkness in her Edmonton Music Award Album of the year nominated ‘this desolate bliss.’ Apocalyptic, cinematic and achingly sincere, the magnetic intensity of this album explores the wages of regret with palpable hope. An undulating tapestry of dark brooding anthems, infectious rock and sensual hymns, Walker defies lost loves legacy, cobbling a glorious new vision from the ashes. This bold new direction from her acclaimed debut album Our Glory marks an artistic evolution of haunting symphonic power. Lindsey Walker was voted Best of Edmonton Solo Artist by Vue Weekly (2017) and nominated for Female Artist of the Year EMA (2018). On releasing ‘this desolate bliss’ she earned distinction as a Canadian Songwriting competition semi finalist with eerie track St.Petersburg, the simmering Window also drew notice with an Indie Rock Recording of the Year EMA nom. Edmonton based, Winnipeg bred Lindsey roams extensively winning hearts with her raw honesty and soaring vocal dynamism. Since her 2013 EMA nomination as an “Artist to Watch” Walker has played venues from Vancouver to Halifax and gained a national audience of devoted fans. Find her wandering in the night pursuing all that dares to glimmer.
WordsWorth 2019 Courses
Check out these courses, being offered during week one of WordsWorth!
Marcello Di Cintio – Writing Wrongs: How do we craft stories that are both beautiful and “important”? How can we be both artists and activists? How can our personal stories serve the public good? In this nonfiction workshop, we will explore the human rights and social justice issues that stir our passions and respond to them on the page.
Colin Martin- “We are Legion(d)”: Heroes are all fine and well, but *sighs* kind of pointless and lame without the real stars of the tale: VILLIANS. The baddies keep coming and, let’s face it, they’re more honest, transparent, and hardworking than any lame heroes. It’s time to hear the stories of the true legends: the job creating, community supporting, and truly imaginative villains so often maligned by writers, assaulted by spandex-wearing thugs, and besieged by a biased legal system and its misguided enforcement officers.
Here are the courses being offered during week 2!
Marcello Di Cintio – Writing Wrongs: How do we craft stories that are both beautiful and “important”? How can we be both artists and activists? How can our personal stories serve the public good? In this nonfiction workshop, we will explore the human rights and social justice issues that stir our passions and respond to them on the page.
Here are the courses being offered during week 3!
Colin Martin- “Mythic Verses“: Ye gods and goddesses, heroes and knaves, golden apples and swampy swords. Once upon a time, to tell the tale, the bard had to take inspiration from the muses and weave a tapestry of fantastic song and verse. From the styluses and brushes of the ancient poets to the digital dreams of Schreibmaschinen, poetry has always had a romance with myth. It’s time for us to breathe deep of these ancient draughts and learn to sing with the beasts and legends who form our very imaginations.
Cathy Ostlere- Inner Green: Recently, the smoke from fires burning in Northern Alberta turned our province into a spooky dimly-lit place – like some dystopian world we’ve read in a book. If an orange sky changes how we feel can it change our writing too? In this class, we’ll explore our response to environmental change thru poetic forms: structured vs free verse; found poetry; eco-poetry, and haiku. In prose, we’ll examine the relationship between human culture and the natural world. What is this word nature? Can we connect to it through language? By writing deeply and with consciousness we will attempt to understand how our personal responses to the environment could change our inner and outer world.
WordsWorth 2019 Creative Team
Colin Matty (Camp Director) is a playwright, poet, performer, and enthusiast of wordplay in all its forms. He first began his journey with WordsWorth and the Writers’ Guild in 2011, and has since come to appreciate the incredible passion and power of the community of young writers it brings together. While not scheming ways to make the experiences at camp even more magical, Colin runs his best ideas through a typewriter and gives them to strangers on the street. This is his fourth year as camp Director, and he hopes this year’s WordsWorth will be the freshest yet! (Photo Credit: Cory Johnn Photography) 
Jesse Tollestrup resides in Treaty 7 on traditional Blackfoot territory. They have been told that they are an alien from another planet, a reincarnated musician from the 90’s, and an observer of the fifth dimension. In practice, Jess is an activist and wandering bard studying at the University of Lethbridge. Current projects include working alongside Bradley Parker to construct an Aeolian harp for the 2019 Crossing Boundaries symposium and providing improvised musical stylings for magicians and comedy improvisors. In 2017 Jess released their EP ‘The Pluto Year’ and chapbook ‘Metafesto’.
Gabriel Richardson is an Edmonton born actor, singer, and improvisor. He recently graduated from The National Theatre School of Canada in acting and is very excited to be returning to WordsWorth for his 3rd year! 
Pieter van Staalduinen is, among other things, a muggle still waiting for his Hogwarts letter. When not carefully scanning the skies for messenger owls, Pieter can be found rock climbing, teaching, reading, and writing poetry and a novel. Notably, he completely eschews traditionally mandatory skills like eating, sleeping, and breathing; no one is entirely sure how, and all he’ll say is that they’re an inefficient use of time. Although this is his first summer with WordsWorth, he’s certain he’s heard enough stories from campers to have lived at least one extra season vicariously. 
Sadie MacGillivray was born and raised in Iron River, AB. You know where that is: on the edge of nowhere — 30 minutes past the middle. She spent six summers as a camper at Wordsworth and loved every minute of it. She is currently completing her third year at MacEwan University in the Professional Communications stream, and is a little closer to becoming an editor than she was when she started at MacEwan. This past fall, Sadie finally achieved her dream of traveling to Japan. She climbed part way up Mt. Fuji before a semester of study at the Nagasaki University of Foreign Studies. At the university, she took a variety of classes and learned how fun teaching can be, as well as some local history about Nagasaki, flower arrangement, and, of course, some Japanese. Sadie hopes to be able to go back one day to visit friends and see more of Japan, including the sunset/-rise from the summit of Mt. Fuji. On another note, she will gladly accept any challengers to a game of volleyball. Anytime. Anywhere.