God Uses Ink 2003 - Expressing the Invisible
June 12-14, 2003 in Guelph, Ontario. Three days of solid instruction, stimulating interaction, exciting challenge, and worshipful community.
God Uses Ink is a conference for writers of all types and at all stages. This year's conference program includes six continuing classes and a variety of workshops designed for all writers from beginner to professional. (See the schedule for details.)
We will give you opportunities to grow in your skills, market your work, mingle with other writers and editors, share your experiences, increase your visibility, and perhaps realize your dreams. Learn to Express the Invisible from the experts - both editors and writers - we have assembled for God Uses Ink 2003.
Keynote Speaker: Mark Buchanan
The craft of writing calls us to render, in exact yet often sparing detail, what we see. It calls us to describe life as we find it, stains and cracks and gleam; its hideousness, its homeliness, its beauty. But there is another side to writing as well, especially for those of us who are Christians: to render the things unseen. To express the invisible. We are called to evoke things that eye has not seen, ear has not heard. How do we do that with the same subtlety, economy and precision as portraying the known? Our keynote speaker, writer and pastor Mark Buchanan, will explore this theme, helping us to Express the Invisible.
Presented by The Word Guild
The Word Guild is an association of writers and editors who are Christian, and who are committed to encouraging one another and fostering standards of excellence in the art, craft, business and ministry of writing. Click here for more information.
God Uses Ink - History
1984: An aspiring Christian writer named Fran Bain approached Brian Stiller of the EFC (publisher of Faith Today magazine) and Tyndale College (then Ontario Bible College) to ask them to begin a Christian writers' conference. Fall 1984 saw the first fruit of this vision: a weekend event (Friday evening and Saturday) at Ontario Bible College. The first conference featured local writers and attracted 68 participants.
1985: Audrey Dorsch became director of the conference, which had expanded to a Thursday to Saturday event, held each November. Organizers helped to launch other conferences in Regina (1985) and Langley (1986).
1990: The name "God Uses Ink" was used for the first time. In the early 90's, a conference at Briercrest in Saskatchewan also operated for a few years under the "God Uses Ink" banner.
1992: The conference moved from fall to summer (May/June) and was hosted by Redeemer University College in Ancaster. (There was no conference in the fall of 1991.)
1995: Larry Matthews organized the conference after Audrey Dorsch left Faith Today.
1996: Marianne Meed Ward, the new Faith Today editor, became GUI director and switched the location to Guelph Bible Conference Centre.
1999: The conference was jointly organized by Holly McIntire and Bill Fledderus (Faith Today staff).
2000: Faith Today senior editor Bill Fledderus headed up GUI.
2001: The EFC decided before the 2001 conference that they would no longer have the resources to sponsor God Uses Ink. A committee of volunteers who had been helping with GUI over the years offered to organize the conference for 2002.
2002: Formation of The Word Guild, a new organization for Canadian writers and editors who are Christian. The Word Guild is now responsible for planning and organizing the annual writer's conference.
