Writing women’s lives in memoir, biography, fiction and essays
Join us for
The Seven Deadly Sins
of Writing
September 23 - November 4, 2025
Early bird pricing!
Sign up by
August 31
and save $50:
$349 CDN (+HST)
After August 31:
$399 CDN (+HST)
7 classes
75 minutes each including Q&A
Every Tuesday starting at
6:30 pm ET
Lezlie Lowe
Kim Pittaway
Gillian Turnbull
The Seven Deadly Sins of Writing
7 Tuesdays:
Sept. 23, 30,
Oct. 7, 14, 21, 28,
Nov. 4
6:30 pm ET
All classes will be held on Zoom and recorded
Details
Gluttony, Wrath, Sloth, Lust, Greed, Envy and Pride: You know them as the seven deadly sins. But can harnessing the power of your inner sinner make you a better writer? Join author-teachers Lezlie Lowe, Kim Pittaway and Gillian Turnbull for this 7-week, 7-session exploration of sin and success. Together, we’ll explore how to tap the energy of these not-so-deadly sins, examine how women in particular are discouraged from these transgressive behaviours on the page and beyond, and provide practical ideas and strategies for harnessing their positive power.
Our sessions are insightful, thoughtful, welcoming and supportive: whether you’re a beginner unsure if the title “writer” applies to you, a published author seeking inspiration for new work, or an enthusiastic reader interested in what it takes to get stories onto the page, these sessions are for you. Join our circle!
In each class, Lezlie, Kim or Gillian will explore the writing implications of one of the deadly sins. Is word-gluttony getting in the way of trimming your text? How can you tap wrath to add power to your page? Can embracing your inner sloth help you fight self-sabotaging productivity goals? Each session will include exercises, readings and Q&A time. Our final session on pride will explore the barriers women in particular face in trumpeting their accomplishments, as we celebrate the work we’ve done in our 7 weeks together. Join us for conversations and creative time that is open, honest, practical and fun!
Week 1 – September 23
Class 1: Gluttony with Lezlie Lowe
Resist the urge to pile on the words, load up the sentences, keep stacking up the interviews and research; there’s power in parsimony. In this session, Lezlie will guide us through the difficulties of writing without a fixed word count or deadline and offer strategies for editing to tighten and brighten the words on your pages.
Week 2 – September 30
Class 2: Sloth with Gillian Turnbull
Are you just lazy when it comes to your writing? Or is productivity-obsession getting in the way of your creative rhythms? Could rest be the fuel your creative practice needs? Join Gillian as she guides us on an exploration of who sets the standards and how much is enough when it comes to inspiration, effort and getting words onto the page.
Week 3 – October 7
Class 3: Wrath with Kim Pittaway
Shrill. Bitchy. Emotional. While women might have lots to be angry about, we’ve long been told we shouldn’t express that anger: it’s unladylike. In this session, we’ll explore the power of rage on the page, and look at how tapping into wrath can help us harness righteous energy that can shame, convince, challenge—and even create change in the world around us. Let’s explore how we can get mad and get published by effectively harnessing this powerful emotional driver.
Week 4 – October 14
Class 4: Lust with Lezlie Lowe
What’s the itch you can’t scratch? In this frank discussion of pursuing passion projects, Lezlie will help us sort the true loves from the hopeless crushes and work on strategies for getting the stories that we just can’t let go of out of our brains, onto the page, and, just maybe, out into the world.
Week 5 – October 21
Class 5: Envy with Gillian Turnbull
If only you could write just like ... [insert name of favourite author] you’d have a bestseller. How often do you say that to yourself? Is envy of other authors regularly getting in the way of your own satisfaction in your work? In this session, Gillian will teach you to harness your envy for good, using techniques like mimicry to emulate the styles you love, while finding your own creative voice. We’ll also explore how to use that envy to jumpstart your ambition while exercising care, respect, and admiration for the writers in your community.
Week 6 – October 28
Class 6: Greed with Kim Pittaway
Filthy lucre: we’ve been trained not to talk about money—making it, keeping it, making it work for us. In creative fields, straight talk about cash is even more complicated: does caring about money mean you’re not a serious artist? Does working for free mean you’re undercutting your colleagues? And in an age of disappearing markets, AI-created content and contracts that forbid you from talking about what you’re making, is there any point in conversations about dollars and cents? Kim thinks there is, so we’ll spend this session in some real talk about revenue.
Week 7 – November 4
Class 7: Pride with Lezlie Lowe, Kim Pittaway & Gillian Turnbull
Do you find it hard to blow your own horn? In this ego-boosting, community-building session, we’ll talk about the challenges of gauging whether you’re self-promoting or underselling; the power of tooting someone else’s horn; and the serious business of celebrating your successes. We’ll take a crack at crafting authentic author bios, and we’ll share successes and goals as we wrap up our time together.
All classes will be held on Zoom and recorded
Your Teachers
Lezlie Lowe teaches in the School of Journalism, Writing & Publishing at the University of King's College, the Dalhousie University Creative Writing program, and in the King’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction program. Her first book, No Place To Go: How Public Toilets Fail Our Private Needs, was listed as a top-25 pick by CBC Books and The Toronto Star, and one of the top 100 books of the year by the Globe and Mail. The Volunteers: How Halifax Women Won the Second World War was released in 2022. Find her at lezlielowe.com
Praise for The Volunteers: How Halifax Women Won the Second World War
“The Volunteers feels more like a pulsing oral history than a stale record of the past....Lowe’s penchant for details borders on the fanatical....[C]ombines interviews, historical facts and her own family’s ties to both the city and the era into a tight, hessian weave.” The Globe & Mail
“...a true eye-opener...an exceptional book paying tribute to those those ladies of Halifax and its surroundings, who have gone unnoticed and unrewarded, until now.” The Miramichi Reader
Kim Pittaway is co-author of Toufah: The Woman Who Inspired an African #MeToo Movement with Toufah Jallow, and Unconditional: Break Through Past Limits to Transform Your Future with Dr. Samra Zafar. She is a Cohort Director in the MFA in Creative Nonfiction program at the University of King’s College in Halifax. A former editor-in-chief of Chatelaine magazine and long-time magazine editor and journalist, she is a recipient of the National Magazine Award Foundation’s Outstanding Achievement Award, among other honours.
Website: kimpittaway.com
Substack: https://substack.com/@kim
Instagram: @kimpittaway
Praise for Toufah: The Woman Who Inspired an African #MeToo Movement:
“riveting...harrowing and propulsive...” — New York Times Book Review
“...captivating debut...This powerful story shouldn’t be missed.” — Publishers Weekly
“A fiercely readable, potent memoir of a survivor who refuses to be silenced.”— Kirkus Reviews
Gillian Turnbull is the author of Sonic Booms: Making Music in an Oil Town. She is the Director of Writing and Publishing at the University of King’s College in Halifax and has written for Chatelaine, Maisonneuve, The Walrus and The National Post. She co-edited the 2024 collection Bad Artist: Creating in a Productivity-Obsessed World with Nellwyn Lampert, Pamela Oakley and Christian Smith.
Website: www.gillianturnbull.com
Instagram: @gillianturnbullauthor
Substack: Martie Talk
Praise for Bad Artist: Creating in a Productivity-Obsessed World:
“A brilliant collection on the hard truths of the daily nitty gritty for creatives.” David Sax, author of The Future is Analog
“...a wildly wonderful collection...Check out this wild read and get inspired.” The British Columbia Review
Refund policy:
We will issue refunds up to two weeks before the start of the series.
What To Expect
What to expect from Women on the Page classes
Our classes are delivered via Zoom by accomplished writers, editors, agents and teachers. Our sessions are practical, inspiring and encouraging. We’re honest about our processes and challenges as artists and publishing professionals, sharing hard-won insights, shortcuts and resources that work for us, and lessons learned and sometimes learned again. We offer these classes to share our passion for writing—the joy it brings, the hard work it takes, and the rewards it bestows as artists, community members and women.
Respect for each other and for each other’s work is a cornerstone of our community. We are imperfect and we sometimes stumble. When we do, our goal is to learn, improve, heal and grow, in community, care and connection with each other.
Unless otherwise indicated, classes are 60-90 minutes long and include a Q&A. In the days following the live Zoom sessions, participants will receive the recording link and other supporting materials such as handouts or slides, which you may download and keep.
When you register, you will be sent a welcome email with instructions on what’s to come. If you don’t see it in your in-box, please check your junk folder. If it isn’t there, please email womenonthepage@gmail.com and we’ll get you sorted out. You don’t need any special computer programs to participate. Simply click on the Zoom link which will be sent to you via email the day before the session. These links come direct from Zoom and can also sometimes end up in your junk folder, so check there too.