Catherine Austen
Creative Writing
Celebrating Literacy
I’m thrilled to be heading to Shawville, Quebec, next month for “Get the Word Out!,” a literacy festival hosted by the Western Quebec Literacy Council.
I’ll be joining other local artists and authors Jamaal Jackson Rogers, Robin Blackburn McBride, Seymour Hamilton, Katharine Fletcher, and Venetia Crawford for a day of poetry, stories, workshops and presentations on all good things, literary-wise.
Read MoreShort Stories
[November UPDATE: You can read my latest short story, “Obsolete,” online in The Prairie Journal. Click on my name in the list on the Story page.)]
I’m thrilled to have a short story in the latest issue of The Dalhousie Review — my first one in its pages. The magazine was founded in 1921 and is still in print after 100 years. Amazing.
My story, “Down the Drain,” is about a writer on the brink of madness. (Over the brink by the story’s end.) It’s a piece I’ve read at two regional writers’ meetings to warm reception and assurances that the story is both funny and full of pain. Like life. Like the writing life, certainly.
Read MoreMYAIF: More Fun for Young Writers in Ottawa/Gatineau
[Updated March 18th 2022] Hey kids, I know you’re hustling to get your poems, stories, and graphic narratives finished in time to enter the Ottawa Public Library’s Awesome Authors Youth Writing contest. Some of you might even be prepping for tomorrow’s Awesome Author teen workshops or fondly remembering the pre-teen workshops of the past few weeks (thanks — I had a blast). But why not sign up for even more writing and illustrating fun this season?
Registrations are open for MASC’s annual Young Authors and Illustrators Festival (aka MYAIF).
Read MoreAwesome Authors 2022 is on!
Summer 2022 update: Winners of this year’s Awesome Authors contest are announced here on the Ottawa Public Library’s YouTube channel. 🙂
*Original Post:
The Ottawa Public Library’s Awesome Authors Youth Writing Contest is back! Young writers of the nation’s capital, get to work on your poems, short stories, and comics. You could win publication, glory, cold hard cash!
Learn all the details from the Awesome Authors page on the OPL website.
I’ll be judging English fiction in the 9-12 age category again this year — and I want to read your story!
Read MoreLaunching Squirrels
November 17 Update: Thanks to everyone who attended the virtual launch of When the Squirrels Stole my Sister. I loved seeing all your faces and having your company to celebrate the book. (And I think we all drew some fabulous squirrels, thanks to Sean!)
Please check out the book page: When the Squirrels Stole my Sister for lots of squirrelly entertainment extras.
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Catherine Austen writes books for kids and teens, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. She lives in Gatineau, Quebec.
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