Our Story

Created by the acclaimed and international best-selling author Joseph Boyden and Laura Vukson, Sweetwater Writers Workshop offers one-on-one mentorships and limited enrollment workshops that vary in length between two and eight weeks. One of Canada’s most recognized and celebrated writers, Joseph uses concrete methods and processes developed over 25 years of teaching. The focus is on your individual craft. Joseph’s mentorship style is intensely thoughtful and thorough, utilizing constructive criticism as he helps you develop your voice, define your style, layer your characters, and fashion your narrative.

Located beside the wild shores of Ontario’s Georgian Bay on the ancestral lands of the Anishnaabe people, we gather aspiring and already accomplished writers under a shared roof. Both a virtual and a physical gathering place, think of us as a home for wayward writers. We offer you an exciting, intimate, and creative environment where your fiction and non-fiction will flourish. Presently we’re meeting in virtual classes until further notice.

“Influential Writing Teacher”

Joseph Boyden was my first and most influential writing teacher. He’s a devoted storyteller himself, and a generous and passionate person, and when those qualities marry, the results can change lives. I know he changed mine.

Peter Geye author of Northernmost