FAREWELL, FOR NOW.

The writing room is officially closed. We wish you inspiration, motivation and dedication to your writing lives as you dive, dash and dance into 2023!

Please stay connected to our Instagram account for writerly fun.

We will still be sending out our e-newsletters to give you updates on what we're up to as well as community connections to literary events.

Gertrude’s Writing Room is having a life change. We are closing our current space in an effort to shift our focus, to slow down, to retreat and rejuvenate.

While the space will no longer be open, we will continue our commitment to supporting writers through one-to-one engagement.

In 2023, our owner, Vanessa Shields will be taking a sabbatical to pursue new creative writing endeavours.

CHANGE IS NECESSARY

A love letter...

Dearest Gertrude's Writing Room family,

It is with a heavy but bursting-with-love heart that I share the news that we will be closing the writing room. Indeed, it has taken months of soul-searching and heart navigating (not to mention uncountable tears) to make the decision to pack up and close this fairytale-esque, creatively-driven space. It has been an honour and a privilege to create and share this space with you for nearly five years. Though we had our humble beginnings at a different location, this gem-in-the park space was our home for nearly three years. We managed with love and patience and dedication through lockdowns. This year, we experienced the incredible adventure that was Art in the Park.

We've hosted amazing workshops, dynamic classes, extraordinary collaborations, poetry circles, write-ins and creativity events. Many a creative dream has begun or been cultivated in this beautiful space. Certainly millions of words have been written and read in our little writing room. We could not have established and thrived in this space without you. Thank you. Thank you to the City of Windsor Culture Department/Willstead Manor for letting us dream and play in this vibrant space. Thank you to writers, local and beyond, for leading workshops and classes that will forever inspire and motivate us. Thank you to those 'I'm not a writer'-writers who showed up time and time again to teach us how to be courageous and write our heart's stories.

Alas, it is time for a shift in my own dreams. Letting go is a part of change that is, perhaps, the hardest. I weep for the joy and love that has seeped into my heart over the years through every exchange of words, sentences, stanzas, stories and songs. Each of you has imprinted on my writer's soul and I will take you with me into my next dream, into my sabbatical next year, and into the next iteration of Gertrude's Writing Room...whenever and wherever she may be in the future.

Extra special thanks to Alley Biniarz and Mariette Jones, our Sunlight Staffers who doused the space with unconditional love, motivation, care and bright, beautiful light!

Super mega thanks to all the teachers and collaborators who've shared their expertise, energy and time with us in this space over the years. It was an honour and a privilege to learn from you and share your love and devotion to creative writing.

This dream to open a safe, caring, educational, fun, cozy and inspiring space for writers in our community is flickering its flame - for now. Thank you for being a part of our creative family.

I wish you joy and peace, integrity and curiosity, adventure and whimsy, kindness and love, love, love in your lives. Embrace your creativity and write, write, write. The world needs your words. Each word matters.

This is not goodbye forever...but a dream shift and creative retreat. Gertrude's Writing Room will find a home again in the future.

Thank you for being a part of this wild, adventurous dream!
Vanessa