Founded in 1988, Writers in Electronic Residence (WiER) is an educational and arts initiative that uses technology to connect students, teachers and Canadian authors as members of a creative writing community. Through on-line discussions that allow for a lively multi-party or many-to-many exchange, students and teachers in the classroom work with published poets, novelists, and story-tellers. Mentored by established authors, students discover their own voice and the power of writing, while the professionals gain direct access to a new generation of readers. Despite enormous changes in technology, occasional bureaucratic indifference, and intermittent financial challenges, WiER has remained true to the simple notion of an electronic writing salon for students and authors. Over the past two decades, thousands of students from hundreds of schools across the country have participated in online discussions, podcasts, and interactive writing conferences with some of Canada's best loved authors: Susan Musgrave, Lawrence Hill, Katherine Govier, George Elliott Clarke, and many others. In 2008, the program came under the auspices of the Writers in Electronic Residence Foundation, a national, non-profit charity that works with government, business and the not-for-profit sector. ["WiER: An Innovative Online Writers' Salon Marks 20-Plus Years was written with Jennifer Lewington."]