Siavash Shabanpour

Siavash Shabanpour was born on march 30 , 1981 in Tehran . Around 1998, he Found words and rhythm as his strengths towards expressing himself, and finally his first poem was born. Soon after his early poems, His taste and his poetic mind was picked up by critics. Since then , his artistic vocabulary have been flourished Iranian newspapers as well as online publications.

He studied law in Iran, but decided to move to Canada. Few years later he studied theater at York University in Toronto and finally in 2012 he achieved the Bachelor of art. Currently he is a graduate of Theatre studies from York University and has begun his carrier as a young director.

His theater credits include; Apartment 812 which he was the writer for as well in 2008, The Story of Panda Bears told by Saxophonist who has a Girlfriend in Frankfurt in 2010, When it All Falls Down in 2010.

Creative Writing Workshop:

“Breath and the Writer” is an experimental workshop which employs breathing and concentration techniques from theater training to help the writer find the moment of inspiration. The workshop also uses all other art forms as a starting point for the writer to use.

The work shop starts with simple stretches and breathing work followed by concentration exercises. At that point participants are exposed to a specific piece of art, like a poem, a song, short movie or a painting which they are to use as an inspirational diving board. Participants have limited time to write.

There is no restriction in terms of the form or the approach to the writings, the point is to write wherever the inspiration may lead. Pieces vary from poem to short story or just a paragraph. The core point of the workshop is to write, and the approach to writing and not the content. Participants hopefully will be able to take with them a new approach to writing.

After the writing portion of the hour is up, participants take a short break and come back to share what they have and their approach with the group so that it would facilitate a conversation about the process. Participants do not require to have a background in writing, the only requirement is the ability to write in Farsi and an appetite to learn, experiment and discover new ways.