WOTS Wordshop: Speed Mentoring with Editors Canada

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Are you interested in becoming an editor? Do you want to learn more about editing as a career path? Are you curious about how an editor could improve your work?

Editors Canada will be throwing a speed mentoring event at this year’s Word On The Street Toronto festival at David Pecaut Square. Attendees will have the opportunity to learn more about the editing industry from six experienced editors, including Jenny Lass, Genevieve Clovis, Suzanne Bowness, Robin Marwick, Chrissy Miskonoodinkwe Smith, and Carolyn Brown.

This session will see participants split up into small groups working with a mentor to explore the world of editing together. Groups will switch mentors approximately three times throughout the hour.

This in-person workshop is free to attend. However, if you have the means, we invite you to consider a donation to The Word On The Street as a way of helping to keep these arts events accessible for everyone into the future.

The WOTS Wordshop is located in room 310 of Metro Hall, accessible through the festival site at David Pecaut Square. Take the elevator to the third floor and follow the signage. Advance registration is required. Please arrive 5-10 minutes before the workshop begins, and bring something to write with!

Jenny Lass is a medical writer and editor from Toronto. For over 25 years, she has worked in a variety of industries, including academia, advertising, pharmaceuticals, publishing and government. Jenny has been a medical editor at Ontario Health (Cancer Care Ontario) for the last 14 years, focusing mainly on cancer screening and prevention, and provides plan language training to her colleagues. She also co-authored the bestselling Grain-Free Gourmet cookbooks for people with digestive disorders. In her spare time, she enjoys rock climbing and petting neighbourhood cats.

Genevieve Clovis, of Clovis Editorial, is a speculative fiction editor, author, and writing coach. She specializes in substantive and stylistic editing for indie authors and publishers. Genevieve takes great joy in ensuring her clients' novels are as monstrous and diabolical as intended. When not frolicking in the woods, Genevieve runs a variety of online writers groups and dabbles in the not-so-dark bookbinding arts.

Suzanne (Sue) Bowness is a writer, editor, content strategist and consultant. She has written for publications from The Globe and Mail to University Affairs magazine. Since 2002, she has provided content creation, editing and consulting services to corporate clients through her business CodeWord Communications (www.codeword.ca). Her book The Feisty Freelancer: A Friendly Guide to Visioning, Planning, and Growing Your Writing Business (www.feistyfreelancer.com) was published in 2025 by Dundurn Press.

Robin Marwick is a Certified Professional Editor and a board-certified Editor in the Life Sciences. She has over 25 years of experience as a medical editor and has worked on a wide variety of projects that include consumer health books and websites, journal articles, continuing professional education, phone and video scripts, and systematic literature reviews. She gives talks on bad graphs and has an Airedale terrier.

Carolyn Brown has worked for more than 40 years as an editor and writer. She started as a general editor working on a variety of publications and media but has specialized in scientific and medical publications for more than 30 years. She has edited medical journals, annual reports, books, brochures, videos, radio scripts and more. She was a manager of an editorial shop for almost a decade and has a background in electronic production of publications. For the past 15 years, she has worked as a freelance writer/editor, editing large reports on climate change for government and non-government publishers as well as teaching writing and editing, both scientific and general. She is a Certified Professional Editor of Editors Canada and an accredited Editor in the Life Sciences (Board of Editors in the Life Sciences).

The Word On The Street is an annual celebration of storytelling, ideas and imagination, hosting Canada's largest FREE book and magazine festival annually and promoting great books by Indigenous and Canadian authors year-round.

Also check out other Arts events in Toronto, Literary Art events in Toronto, Festivals in Toronto.