UNB Department of English

Do you have an idea for a play you'd like to write? Or poems to share for feedback? ENGL 2195 Introduction to Creative Writing: Poetry and Drama is open for registration!

This course offers an introduction to the writing of poetry and drama, with a focus on basic technique, style, and form. Students will participate in workshops designed for peer feedback and discussion. ENGL 2195 is one of two required foundational courses in our Creative Writing program.

Poetry Weekend is approaching!

Our 2026 Fiction Contest is now open for submissions!

Our judge this year is Kirti Bhadresa!

Prize: $2000 + Publication!
Deadline: September 1, 2026
Guidelines: https://thefiddlehead.ca/contests/fiction
Submit: https://thefiddlehead.submittable.com/submit/357011/2026-fiction-contest

Another stack of summer reading! This time from Triny Finlay, who shares that these books are part of their research on the contemporary Canadian long poem and its entanglements with documentary and elegiac poetics. 📚📖☀️

What are you reading this summer? Here's Dr. Snook's of summer reads!

Such a fantastic opportunity! Registration details below 😊

NotaBle Acts is excited to offer all members of the community a free workshop with our 2026 Playwright/Dramaturg in Residence, Jill Connell!

Playwriting & Embodied Experience

Sunday, July 19, 2026
12:00pm – 3:00pm
UNB Carleton Hall room 304
No charge

A workshop for creative writers and theatre-makers interested in exploring the form and structure of plays. We will use free-writing exercises to explore our experience of the world and the feeling of things (versus an objective or outside perspective about the “logic” of things). We will then look for an associated shape that might contain this experience in live performance and explore this via dramatic writing. We’ll share these aloud with each other, prioritizing availability over interpretation and experimentation over perfection.

All levels of experience are welcome. Please bring a notebook and pen. Limited spots available: email [email protected] to register by July 17.

Jill Connell (she/they) is a playwright and theatre artist based in Tkaronto/Toronto. Her plays include The Supine Cobbler (published with Coach House Books), Arctic Ocean, HROSES: An Affront to Reason, The Tall Building and The Shark Tumour Collection. She runs the independent theatre company It Could Still Happen: a collective of interdisciplinary artists who create performances based on text, space and embodied practice.

Jill is a graduate of the playwriting program at the National Theatre School of Canada and holds a Masters in English from the University of New Brunswick. Over the past few years, she has been fortunate to teach performance and creative writing at Toronto Metropolitan University, the University of Toronto, Sheridan College, and Humber College.

It Could Still Happen

Writers' Federation of New Brunswick
New Brunswick Filmmakers' Co-op

Solo Chicken Productions
Theatre New Brunswick
Saint John Theatre Company
.ca Marshlight Theatre Company

We spy a few familiar names on this list! 😊

Last chance!

NotaBle Acts Summer Theatre Festival Auditions: July 6 & 7

The NotaBle Acts Theatre Company invites all interested to open auditions for our 2026 Summer Theatre Festival, which will be staged from July 22-August 1. Twelve different plays of varying lengths and genres, including one-act plays, play readings, and short 10-15 minute outdoor plays, will be cast at the auditions, with a large number of roles available for actors of all ages. Rehearsal time commitment will vary from just 1-2 rehearsals (for readings) to a few rehearsals per week (for short plays) to a more demanding schedule for the one-act plays. Rehearsals for the festival take place within a compressed 2-3 week time period, so actors will need to be available consistently over this time.

Those interested can attend auditions either on Monday, July 6th or Tuesday, July 7th (7:15-9:45 PM) at Memorial Hall on the UNB Campus, Fredericton.

Auditions will consist of readings from the plays, with no advance preparation necessary. Actors will audition in small groups at scheduled times with directors of multiple plays present. Please email [email protected] to book an audition time, indicating any preference for day and time. Actors may also audition via self-tapes if you are interested in auditioning but cannot make either of the audition dates, or if you would prefer that format for other reasons. Please email the above address to make arrangements if so, or if you have any questions about the festival or auditions.

NotaBle Acts aims to reflect the diversity of New Brunswickers on stage and particularly welcomes auditions from artists who identify as Indigenous, Black, persons of colour, 2SLGBTQ2IA+, and members of other marginalized communities.

Photo: Michael Holmes-Lauder