Services

Manuscript Evaluation & Editing

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Substantive edits and assessments, line edits, copy edits, proofreading, structural edits – whatever you need to improve your poetry, nonfiction, and fiction. dee can assist, whether you need help revising, cutting, or expanding your manuscript; or stylistic editing to clarify and refine; or sharp-eyed copy editing or proofing for consistency, grammar, usage and punctuation. For emerging and established writers. 

dee was poetry editor of Grain magazine. In addition to her own work, dee has edited five nonfiction manuscripts for other authors to ready them for publication. She served as the Saskatoon Public Library’s 35th Writer in Residence. She’s also a long-time member of an active writing group, and has mentored writers as they advance their work. 

Freelance Writing

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As a freelance journalist, dee has written for numerous magazines and newspapers, on topics as diverse as recycling tires, sustainable farm practices, and profiles.  

She has a solid communications background and people skills earned during her career as a journalist, government consultant, educator, entrepreneur, restaurateur, and Slow Food leader.  

Her well-developed skills in listening, interviewing, research and synthesizing ideas are supported by computer literacy and experience with platforms such as Facebook, Zoom and Word Press. 

Food Writing

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Custom culinary writing, recipe writing and editing. 

dee was a freelance columnist for the Calgary Herald and Calgary’s City Palate, and wrote features on exploring hunger and homelessness, immigrant food culture, politics, land and water access, animal welfare, farm labour, organics, agri-tourism, growers, chefs and ingredients, kitchen science, sustainability, and influential organizations such as Slow Food.  

She currently writes a regular column for Grainews.

 

Mentorship

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dee can help in the longterm as you work to shape your manuscript.  

In addition to formal mentorships through the Saskatchewan Writers guild and a year spent helping writers as the SPL’s Writer in Residence, dee has worked with several clients toward publication. As a chef, she mentored cooks, students, and employees, and taught cooking classes for 25 years in Calgary. 

Education

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From hands-on knife skills or culinary methodology workshop to a workshop on literary craft, dee is experienced with adults and teens in diverse learning situations. She is Zoom-friendly, kitchen-schooled, PowerPoint-competent, knife-wise, and computer-ish. She’s also a vastly experienced and talented chef-educator, dubbed a teacher “blessed with precision and whimsy.” 

After 25 years of teaching adults and kids to cook in Calgary, dee learned the nuts and bolts of thoughtful and attentive literary workshopping while attending Sage Hill Writing six times. She holds an MA in English and an MFA in Writing. She has facilitated workshops for the Saskatchewan Writers Guild, has taught creative writing to teenagers, first year university students, and emerging writers, and served as the Saskatoon Public Library’s Writer in Residence. 

Festivals, Events &  Special Occasion Speaking

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An engaging, talented and charming speaker and reader, dee’s presence, presentation style, and depth of knowledge in the culinary and literary world will mesmerize, enchant, and enrich your conference or festival event.  

dee has read and presented at Calgary WordFest, The Word on the Street, Edmonton’s LitFest, Moose Jaw Festival of Words, Cuisine Canada’s Northern Bounty, Saskatchewan Writers Guild Talking Fresh, envoi Festival in Winnipeg, Slow Food, and The Council of Canadians. She has read at reading series including Planet Earth Poetry in Victoria, The Bowery poetry Club in NYC, Hamilton’s Lit Live, Toronto’s ArtBar and knife fork book, and the Fat Oyster in Fanny Bay, BC, to name a few.  

Book Club & Writing Group Presentations

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dee can lead workshops, as well as read from and discuss her work, facilitate targeted discussions that focus on craft, literary practices, food matters, literary issues, or specialized subjects. 

A longtime writing group member, and multiple attendee at Sage Hill Writing and grad school university workshops and seminars, dee is closely familiar with the protocols of sharing work and the best practices of workshopping. She has taught creative writing to first-year university students at St. Peter’s College, Muenster, and to teenagers at Sage Hill’s summer writing camps. 

 

Questions? Comments? Invitation or request?

“Bread & Water is an emotionally arresting, beautifully written series of essays.”

~ Jurors’ Citation, Saskatchewan Book Awards, University of Saskatchewan President’s Office Nonfiction Award

“Food is a wonderful agent for storytelling... and Bread & Water demonstrates this brilliantly.”

~ Sarah Ramsey, starred review, Quill & Quire

“[Bread & Water is] An amazing feast... riveting... eloquent.”

~ Patricia D. Robertson, Winnipeg Free Press

“[Bread & Water is a] sensuous experience; she brings her poet’s eye and ear to everything within her purview.”

~ Professor emerita Kathleen Wall, Blue Duets

“A deep love of the art of cooking that includes the language of fine dining (cassoulet, confit) even if the lamb was raised in Olds and she picked the rhubarb herself... she impressively manages this collision of worlds with a wholesome, approachable style.”

~ Megan Clark, Alberta Views

“These finely focussed poems [in Wildness Rushing In] invite us into a sensuous and emotionally rich landscape.”

~ Don McKay, winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize

“The writing [in Wildness Rushing In] is honed and textured, the senses so alive that you can practically taste the language. There are moments of brilliance rare in a first book.”

~ Jurors’ Citation, Saskatchewan Book Awards

“dee Hobsbawn-Smith’s stories [in What Can’t Be Undone] are written with a poetic edge. Her descriptions, particularly western landscapes, are often luxurious, lending themselves a kind of nuanced impression, a delicate fingerprint on the reader’s mind. "

~ Lee Kvern, Alberta Views

“[Foodshed is] A rich encyclopedia of facts, farm-gate lore and original recipes... a politically engaging narrative in which Hobsbawn-Smith articulates the challenges and joys faced by small-scale producers... don’ t let the alphabet theme fool you. This is no tame nursery rhyme; it is a locavore call to arms.”

~ P.D. Robertson, The Globe & Mail

Taste Canada Book Awards Finalist
Taste Canada Book Awards Finalist

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