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Start an Easy Graphic Memoir With Jon Claytor

Monday, July 6, 2026

Upstart & Crow Studio

Description

Simply put, this workshop is about opening the door to telling your story with words and images. We’ll start a 12-page memoir, no skills necessary. We will do some simple drawing and writing activities to get started and then dive into creating your memoir with images and text and above all encouragement to continue your story. There is no such thing as a bad drawing, and we all have a story to tell. Let’s find out what yours is.

The registration fee for this event is $10. All proceeds of the event go to Upstart & Crow’s non-profit programming, including writer residencies, book clubs, grants and more. Please RSVP here to reserve your spot.

More about Upstart & Crow:

Upstart & Crow is a not-for-profit creative studio and literary incubator that champions writers, readers and stories, and the role they play in shaping our lives. We develop original programs, support artists and revel in creative projects focused on Literature In Translation / Climate Solutions / Poetry / Civic Dialogue / Community & Skills Building … all with the aim of elevating the role of literature and storytelling in our lives. Find us on Granville Island, Gibsons and online at upstartandcrow.com.

Accessibility:

The main studio of our shop is accessible for folks with mobility aids. There is a washroom on the main floor available for attendees. As part of disability justice and community care for the chronically ill, vulnerable and elderly, we ask that you refrain from attending if you feel sick.

Questions: hello[at]upstartandcrow.com.

More about Jon Claytor:

Jon Claytor is a graphic novelist, painter, and writer. Born in San Francisco, he lived and worked in several Canadian cities before settling in Sackville, New Brunswick. Claytor’s work ranges from oil painting and watercolour to comics. He has had solo exhibitions at galleries in Montreal, Toronto, Los Angeles and throughout the Maritimes. He has also written and illustrated stories for CBC Radio, the Frye Festival and the website ruralharmreduction.com.

Claytor co-founded SappyFest independent music and arts festival in 2006 and opened Thunder & Lightning Ideas Ltd. in 2013. He holds an MFA from York University and a BFA from Mount Allison University. He was nominated for a Juno Award for the cover of Gord Downie’s Battle of the Nudes in 2004. His graphic memoir, Take the Long Way Home, was published by Conundrum in 2022. Nowhere, a fictional graphic novel about growing up among monsters in a small maritime town is his first graphic novel.

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