The Public Lending Right Program
To Register Click HERE.
The Canadian PLR Program is overseen by the 15-member Public Lending Right Commission, a permanent advisory body which brings together the expertise and guidance of authors, translators, librarians, publishers, and government representatives from both English and French language communities. More than 20,000 creators (authors, illustrators, narrators, photographers, editors and translators) are presently registered with the Canadian PLR Program. PLR payments are made each February to recognize the public use and value of print books, ebooks, and audiobooks held in public libraries across Canada in all languages. The current PLR budget is nearly $15 million Canadian dollars.
Photo: Martin Lipman
Peter Schneider (he/him) has served as the Manager and Executive Secretary to Canada’s Public Lending Right Commission since 2012. In this role, he leads a dedicated team who deliver the PLR Program under the auspices of the Canada Council for the Arts in Ottawa, Canada. He has delivered detailed reports about the evolution and progress of the Canadian PLR Program at numerous PLR International conferences, including Dublin (2013), The Hague (2015), Paris (2017), and London (2019).
Prior to joining PLR, Peter worked for ten years as a program officer at the Canada Council for the Arts, administering grant competitions to professional writers and to literary and art magazines. His early career experience included stints as an accredited journalist, newspaper editor, and community radio producer.
Lori Knoll is the analyst for the Public Lending Right Program. She has over fifteen years of experience working on granting and prize programs at the Canada Council for the Arts.
Craft Bites
PGC members have been paired up with an International playwright to share their work and discuss the craft of playwriting with one another. You can tune into these live events and get a glimpse of what these theatre creators have been up to!
Craft Bites International is open and free to the public.
Please note Craft Bites is free but registration is required prior to one hour before each session.
(Registration will close one hour prior to the session.)
Member led workshop
This is a four-week course that runs from Jan 28 to Feb 18, 4-6pm Pacific (etc) and was previously offered through the Dramatist’s Guild of America. Catch the Canadian version in 2025! After the pandemic, theatre subtly (and not-so-subtly) changed. Companies reopened without the resources they had before. Suddenly, blanket submissions no longer worked as they once did. Join Donna Hoke and Caroline Russell-King for a class that talks about the things nobody wants to talk about – to maximize your scripts’ potential, you need to figure out how to strategically prepare your materials in a whole new way. During the four weeks, you’ll learn how plays make it from your computer to the stage and how to create personal marketing plans; you’ll talk about feedback, synopsis, open calls vs cold submissions, research, record keeping, and more. Making the more-limited opportunities work for you is the name of the game.
Workshop is $325 plus HST.
Registration and payment is required.
(If minimum 6 registrations are not met, fees will be refunded.)
