![CCWOC’s Winter 2025 Writer-In-Residence, Sonja Boon. Credit: R. Blenkinsopp](https://news.umanitoba.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SBoon-2024-RichBlenkinsopp.jpg)
CCWOC’s Winter 2025 Writer-In-Residence, Sonja Boon. Credit: R. Blenkinsopp
Writer, teacher and flutist latest Writer-In-Residence
Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture welcomes Sonja Boon
Sonja Boon is the newest Writer-In-Residence at The Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture (CCWOC) at the University of Manitoba. Boon will work with students, faculty, staff, alumni and members of the public from January to April 2025.
Sonja Boon is a writer, researcher, teacher, and flutist. The author of the memoir, What the Oceans Remember: Searching for Belonging and Home (2019), she has published creative nonfiction and poetry in numerous literary magazines, and is author/co-author of four scholarly books, including The Routledge Introduction to Auto/Biography in Canada (with Laurie McNeill, Julie Rak, and Candida Rifkind, 2022). For six years, Sonja was principal flutist with the Portland Baroque Orchestra and has performed with various orchestras around the world.
Boon is excited to work with the UM community. “I’m very much looking forward to creative conversations with UM folks and Winnipeg community members, and to being inspired by the low horizons and the endless skyscapes of the prairies,” said Boon.
“Sonja’s multi-modal creativity encompasses a rich and fluid array of talents,” said Nancy Kang, CCWOC Acting Director. “Her energetic craft taps into the finest nuances of personal identity to illuminate histories and regions. Like an embroiderer, she stitches out delicate yet deliberate intricacies of especially women’s lives. Her musicality, archival experience, ability to narrate oceans and genealogies with sensitivity and lyricism, as well as her buoyant presence, make for an inspiring addition to the Writer-in-Residence program.”
WELCOME EVENT
CCWOC will welcome Sonja Boon to the University of Manitoba at a welcome event held on campus. Boon will share a selection of her work and describe her creative vision to the UM community. Student writer Aevan Caples will will also read at the event. All are welcome. No registration necessary. The event is free.
Playing with Mud: Oceans, Archives, and Speculation
Wednesday, January 22, 2025
Readings and talk: 4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Reception to follow
Room 108 St. John’s College
WRITING WORKSHOPS
Boon is hosting seven free workshops for aspiring writers during the residency. View the full schedule of creative activities including cross stitch, how to prepare for stressful presentations, working with archival materials and more.
INDIVIDUAL WRITER CONSULTATIONS
As part of Boon’s role, she will be available by appointment to writers of all levels from now to April. To consult with Boon, students, faculty, staff, alumni and members of the public are encouraged to contact her to arrange a free 30-minute meeting.
For more information about any of these programs and events, please contact the Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture at ccwoc@umanitoba.ca.