Illuminating Worlds Reading Event
Featuring Four Authors, Four Genres
Tickets on sale now at whistlerwritersfest.com
May 22, 2018: Whistler, B.C. – The Whistler Writers Festival is excited to announce the line-up for its second event in the Spring Reading Series, Illuminating Worlds, which will take place Friday June 22 at the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre. Doors open at 7pm, and the show starts at 7:30pm. The event features four authors and their latest books which span four genres, including a memoir, a book of short stories, a long poem, and a novel, by Chelene Knight, John Mavin, Arleen Paré and Timothy Taylor, respectively.
Chelene Knight was born in Vancouver, and is currently the Managing Editor of Room Magazine. A graduate of The Writers’ Studio at SFU, Chelene has been published in various Canadian and American literary magazines. Her debut book, Braided Skin, was published in 2015. Dear Current Occupant is her second book. Chelene is also working on a historical novel set in the 1930s and 40s in Vancouver’s Hogan’s Alley.
John Mavin is the author of Rage, a collection of dark literary short fiction, who teaches creative writing with Simon Fraser University’s Southbank Writer’s Program. A past nominee for both the Aurora Award and the Journey Prize, his writing has been translated, studied, and published internationally.
Arleen Paré has published five books, Paper Trail, Leaving Now, Lake of Two Mountains, He Leaves His Face in the Funeral Car and The Girls with Stone Faces. She has won the Victoria Butler Book Prize in 2008, the Governor General’s Award for Poetry in 2014 and the CBC Bookie Award. Arleen now resides in Victoria, where she lives with her partner, Chris Fox. She has two adult sons.
Timothy Taylor is a Giller Prize nominated author of 8 books, including Stanley Park and The Blue Light Project, which was awarded the CBC Bookie Award in the literary fiction category. He is also the winner of the Journey Prize, and has been finalist or runner-up for six other major national fiction prizes in Canada. He is an associate professor of creative writing at UBC and lives with his family in Vancouver.
The event’s moderator is Rebecca Wood Barrett, an award-winning filmmaker and writer living in Whistler, BC. She is a seven-time finalist in the World Ski and Snowboard Festival’s 72 Hour Filmmaker Showdown, and has won the People’s Choice award two times. Rebecca’s short fiction has been published in Room, The Antigonish Review and Pique Newsmagazine.
“Our audiences love variety, so we’re bringing together four exciting authors writing in four different genres,” said Stella Harvey, Artistic Director, Whistler Writers Festival. “These award-winning authors are also exploring subject matter and themes that are unique to their experiences and imagination. For instance we’ll delve into the meaning of home and belonging in the 80’s and 90’s in the Downtown East Side; what it’s like to confront the rage and sorrow of lives based on lies and abuse; an exploration of the art and lives of Canadian sculptors Florence Wyle and Frances Loring; and the space between the ordered, rational world and what is believed.”
Tickets are $22 for the Illuminating Worlds reading event, and are available now at whistlerwritersfest.com.