Sage Hill Writing Experience

Patrick Lane is one of the esteemed writers who have been members of the Sage Hill faculty.

Kate Hill

The Sage Hill Writing Experience is a summer residential writing workshop that draws students from across Canada and abroad. It runs for ten days each July/August near Lumsden, offering adult workshops in poetry, fiction, novel writing, playwriting, non-fiction, and children’s writing—all led by esteemed Canadian writers. It also offers an annual fall Poetry Colloquium, and a summer Teen Writing Experience. Sage Hill evolved from the now-defunct Saskatchewan Summer School of the Arts. From 1966 to 1989, the School ran each summer and included programs in writing, Music, visual art, Dance, photography, and drama. In 1989, after funding cutbacks, the Saskatchewan Arts Board announced that the School was to be closed. The Saskatchewan Writers Guild initiated the Sage Hill program; after the closure of the School, the Guild set up a steering committee and obtained funds in order to maintain Sage Hill, which is the only ongoing professional-level residential program to have survived the closure.

From 1990 to 1993, the Sage Hill Writing Experience took place at a former radar base near Saskatoon, and in 1994 it moved to its current location at St. Michael’s Retreat Centre. Sage Hill is facilitated by an executive director and a nine-member board of directors. Faculty have included Sandra Birdsell, Di Brandt, Lorna Crozier, Patrick Lane, Robert Kroestch, Guy Vanderhaeghe, Jane Urquhart, Don McKay, Anne Szumigalski, and many others.

Holly Luhning