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poetry workshops

Jane offers creative writing workshops and retreats. In each of these, a group of writers comes together to discover new work and improve their craft through writing exercises and discussion. When there is time, she can provide one-on-one feedback.


Jane has taught full-length formal Creative Writing courses at several universities. She’s also taught informal writing workshops in libraries, community centres, workplaces, schools and colleges, private homes – at conferences, poetry festivals and as continuing education courses.


If you would like to invite her to offer a workshop for your group, please contact Jane.


As part of the Poetry in Voice initiative, Jane is sponsored to visit elementary and high schools in person or online. This support is available on a first-come, first-served basis. You can learn about and apply for it through the Poetry in Voice website: https://www.poetryinvoice.com/. Jane has judged poetry recitation contests, online and in-person, for junior high and high school students for Poetry in Voice.


Jane will also teach poetry workshops in schools on an independent basis. Please contact her if you’d like her to visit your school.


In 2016, Jane was honoured as one of the 100 Notable Graduates of UBC’s Faculty of Education. http://educ.ubc.ca/person/jane-munro/ Her doctorate is in Adult Education.

Dr. Jane Munro, MA ’71, MFA ’78, EdD ’91

One of Canada’s finest poets, Jane Munro earned a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from UBC in 1978. Her thesis, Daughters, won the Macmillan Prize for Creative Writing. She taught creative writing at UBC and worked as a course designer at the Open Learning Institute, then completed a Doctor of Education in Adult Education in 1991. Her dissertation, which won the Charles A. Wedemeyer Award for book-length research in independent study and distance education, examined why students drop out of distance learning, and suggested ways to increase retention.

Starting in 1998, Munro spent a decade on faculty at Kwantlen University where she taught creative writing, developed the first online creative writing course, and served as Coordinator for Distributed Learning. From there, she moved to BC’s Open University (OLA) as Associate Dean of Arts and Science. Then, the Centre for Curriculum, Transfer and Technology (C2T2) seconded her for three years to help foster innovation and collaboration in online learning across the public post-secondary sector. She was instrumental in developing BC Campus. Throughout these years, Munro continued to write and publish poetry.

Munro’s 2014 collection Blue Sonoma won the prestigious Griffin Poetry Prize. The poems followed the path of her husband, who died with Alzheimer’s disease in 2013. The judges called it “hauntingly candid explorations of the hard truths of growing old.”

Munro’s other books of poetry include Active Pass in 2010, whose title poem was short-listed for a CBC Literary Award; Point No Point in 2006; and Grief Notes and Animal Dreams in 1995. Her work has been widely published and reviewed in literary journals and websites, The Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, and the Vancouver Sun, and was featured in The Best Canadian Poetry 2013.
In 2007, Munro received the Bliss Carman Award for Poetry. She regularly gives readings across the country and is a member of the poetry collective, Yoko’s Dogs, which published its first book Whisk in 2013. Active in the poetry community, Munro is a member of the Writers’ Union of Canada, the League of Canadian Poets, the Federation of BC Writers, and the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild.

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