Current projects

Surrey Muse Art & Literature Awards, Since 2021
To celebrate our 10^th Anniversary, Surrey Muse Arts Society (SMAS) introduced five art and literature awards in poetry, fiction, nonfiction, music, and visual arts. These country-wide awards became open to Canadian citizens, landed immigrants, permanent residents, refugees, and international students. Submissions period is June 1 to August 15 with a sliding scale entry fee. Prize Money is $1,000 each for the five First Place Winner. The winners are selected by independent judges and jury members viewing anonymous submissions. Submission Guidelines and other details are made available at the link above. Begun as annual awards in 2022, they were made biennial after the 2023 contest due to unavailability of funds.

Surrey Muse, since 2011
Surrey Muse is an inclusive space initiated by writers, performers and artists who want to excel in our art, who strive to create supportive platforms for ourselves and our peers, and who wish to bring together through art and literature Surrey’s diverse communities. Surrey Muse presents 10-11 events each year featuring authors, poets, artists and performers with discussions, Q&A, Open mic, book table and refreshments. Presenters are selected from a Recommendations List that is populated by our team members, featured artists, literary advisors and artists themselves. The program is setup twice a year.

Revive Surrey’s Poet Laqureate Program, since 2023
The Society initiated a campaign to revive Surrey’s poet laureate program that had begun in 2015 and was discontinued in 2018. An online petition was launched to ensure that an important gain that was made for the benefit of all Surrey poets and poetry lovers was not lost. Over 250 signatures were collected from concerned Surrey residents, and the petition was presented via email to the current Mayor of Surrey. The People’s request was not accepted, and so, our campaign continues.

Surrey Muse writers, 2016, 2024
Surrey Muse Writers (SMW) began in 2016 as a drop-in for writers to present work, exchange ideas and provide feedback to each other to facilitate the development of creative writing projects. Guidelines were in place for a respectful, positive, warm and inspiring interaction. The drop-in group had a successful run from July to September meeting twice a month. In 2024, the SMW secured funding to introduce a workshop format that would include the feedback component.

Surrey Muse at Large (SMAL), since 2016
Surrey Muse At Large (SMAL) is an attempt to take a shorter form of Surrey Muse programming to communities that may not be able to otherwise access it. The concept is two-fold: to provide an interdisciplinary art and literature presentation stage with a discussion component to the local community of writers, readers and performers; and, to provide it long enough so that the possibility of emerging localized presentation groups becomes stronger. As well, the idea benefits presenting poets, authors, artists and performers by opening new audiences and communities to their work.
Garden Plot Reading Series
Word Arts LIVE

Women who Named the Unnamed: Pakistani & Local Women Heroes, January-September 2019
Surrey Muse, in collaboration with South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy (SANSAD) and Committee of Progressive Pakistani Canadians (CPPC), is honored to produce a memorial program to present fifteen women’s lives and their life long contributions to Pakistani society and to international women’s movements.
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