Sometimes we need to honestly understand our roots, our environment, and our influences to understand ourselves honestly.
By exploring where we came from, and the people who built the foundations we walk on, we can better understand ourselves. The power of generational influence runs deep.
Join Ida Linehan Young for this exciting and eye-opening writing workshop on Tuesday, May 6, 2025, 6-8pm!
Venue: Centre for Newfoundland Studies, Memorial University. (3rd floor, Queen Elizabeth II Library)
Register for free: on Eventbrite
We will build character sketches based on memories and prompts which include historic photos of our people and our place, as well as through questioning.
Be prepared to write for at least an hour in twenty-minute bursts with intermittent sharing of writings in a fun and safe space. Feel free to bring an enthusiasm for writing and your own work-in-progress or start from scratch and see where your unearthing of roots will take you.
Imagining History Writing Workshops are made possible by the Centre for Newfoundland Studies and WritersNL, with support from The Office of Public Engagement, Memorial University.
Ida Linehan Young became serious about writing in 2012 with her memoir, No Turning Back: Surviving the Linehan Family Tragedy, published in 2014.
Having found a passion for writing, and with a love of local history and lore, she wrote four works of historical fiction: Being Mary Ro (2018), The Promise (2019), The Liars (2020), and The Stolen Ones (2021). In 2021, the first three novels were issued the Silver Medal for Best Series—Fiction by the Independent Publisher Book Awards. The fourth novel in the series, The Stolen Ones, won the NL Reads 2022 competition and the Margaret Duley Award. The novel was also a 2022 Bronze Medal Winner (Historical Fiction) of the eLit Awards, presented by the Jenkins Group. Another work of historical fiction, A Secret Close to Home, was published in 2024.
In 2023, Ida wrote her first work of speculative fiction, The Room Upstairs, which appeared on the Atlantic Books Today bestsellers list.
Ida’s second work of non-fiction, If I Cry I’ll Fill the Ocean, appeared on the Globe and Mail bestsellers list. In 2024, it won the International Impact Book Awards in two categories, Memoir and Inspirational, and was long-listed for the Newfoundland and Labrador Book Awards.
Ida is a storyteller like her father, Ed Linehan, and her maternal grandfather, Frank Power. She writes stories about her beloved home province, Newfoundland and Labrador. She enjoys researching events from the late nineteenth century and weaving fictional characters through historical tales that complement the cultural richness, renewing interest in the province’s storied past. Sometimes she writes across different genres just to tell a story.
Follow Ida on Facebook, X, or Instagram or on her website!
Please note: This workshop is open to the general public.
Please email us at info@writersnl.ca.