Study Sports Writing With Morgan Campbell At The Banff Centre For Arts And Creativity

You read the headline right.

This October I’m heading west for a two-week stint as a faculty member at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, where I’ll help direct the Sports Writing Residency in the Literary Arts program.

If you’re interested in enrolling, CLICK HERE to learn about the program and start the application process.

It’s a big step up for me. I’ve mentored journalists, read manuscripts, and written blurbs for soon-to-be released books. There’s even one fairly-well known journalist on the Toronto media scene whose origin story dates back to a writers workshop I ran for a group of 8th-graders back in about 2011. The kid handed in the cleanest prose I had seen all day, and I told his teachers to make sure he kept writing. Now he does it for a living and I still can’t decide if he owes me a beer for launching his career, or I owe him an apology for bringing him into this business.

Point is, this time the mission’s a little different. I’m not teaching raw beginners how to structure a paragraph; I’m helping professional writers go from idea to finished product, or make a good story great. A new challenge, and I’m thrilled to take it on.

Before any of you leap to conclusions: no, this doesn’t mean I’m done writing. Yes, we all know the old saying that “those who can, do, and those who can’t, teach.” I guess it applies to certain fields in certain eras, but doesn’t fit the modern media landscape, where making a living means doing, teaching, negotiating, public speaking, and maybe working a day job.

So as somebody who still writes, I can tell you that the chance to spend two weeks away from everyday life, focus on important work, and immerse yourself in the craft is an absolute gift. If I had an opportunity like this, to get away, zone in, and overcome the big-project inertia that holds so many of us back, I would do it. But the way my life is set up, I have to stay busy to keep the bills paid, and I’m too tied up chasing numbers to take a two-week writing retreat.

But as a faculty member, I’m excited to guide people through the experience. I don’t just hope everybody I work with leaves Banff a better writer. I’ll do my best to make sure that happens.

So how did I wind up with this assignment?

As any prescriptivist grammar word nerd could tell you, it’s not who you know but whom you know.

In this case, I knew Dave Bidini, whom you know either from his band, the Rheostatics, or his publication, The West End Phoenix, the last indie alternative print outlet standing in a volatile Toronto market.

I’ve written a few pieces for the WEP, and Dave is big fan of my book, so when the Banff Centre drafted him to teach sports writing, he recommended that they sign me up, too. After I committed to the project, I suggested they add Mirin Fader, feature writer at The Athletic, and author of biographies on Giannis and Hakeem Olajuwon. When she decided to Bring Her Talents to Banff, the sports writing residency had its Big Three faculty members.

Now we need students.

If you’re an aspiring writer who’s into sports, this could be the workshop for you. And if you’re a mid-career pro looking to sharpen their skills and make progress on a big project, you should apply for sure. Veteran writers benefit from these workshops for the same reason that pro athletes have coaches. We’re all experienced, but we all still have room to grow.

If you missed that info and application link up top, HERE IT IS ONE MORE TIME.

Portal closes April 8, but I know I’ll hear from you before then.

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