Join us for The Ampersand Review February Writing Series!

Author Sydney Hegele will lead us in a two-hour workshop titled The Great Unsaid: Subtext, Distance, & Implication in Fiction Writing. Employing subtext in our work is a delicate task. Too little, and we have “on the nose” dialogue, our characters’ traumas sensationalized for shock-value. Too much, and "reading between the lines” becomes more work than our story is worth—our plot lacks stakes, our setting has nothing to anchor it, and our characters have no lives beyond the page. Through a series of generative writing exercises, participants will learn how to effectively use what is left unsaid to create evocative descriptions, realistic dialogue, higher stakes, and better plot pacing, inviting readers to become active participants in the world of their work. Participants are encouraged to use an on-going (fiction) work-in-progress of their own as a reference point through the exercises (a novel or short story), though everyone will receive a copy of the exercises and workshop notes to take home and use for future work as well. 

Sydney Hegele is the author of Bird Suit (Invisible Publishing 2024) and The Pump (Invisible Publishing 2021), winner of the 2022 ReLit Literary Award for Short Fiction and a finalist for the 2022 Trillium Book Award. Their essays have appeared in Catapult, Electric Literature, and EVENT, and have been featured by Lithub, The Poetry Foundation, and Psychology Today. Their essay collection Bad Kids: A Polyphony is forthcoming with Invisible in Spring 2026. Sydney is on faculty at both the Lighthouse Writer's Workshop in Denver, CO, and WritingWorkshops.com, where they teach craft workshops for both the Adult and Youth programs. They live with their husband and French Bulldog in Toronto.

Spots are limited so reserve your seat early!*

*Please note that anyone registered for a student ticket will need to show their Sheridan Student ID at the door. Writing Series take place in Room B222 @ Sheridan College HMC Campus.