Hello friends and booklovers,

There are a lot of people who hate January — me, I love it. This year the sun is out and the cold days make for fabulous downhill and cross-country skiing and ice skating. It’s a beautiful time to be outside and enjoying outdoor activities. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been working hard on some decidedly indoors activities. Not at all.

Our small but mighty team has been planning the 2025 festival and (drumroll please), we have DATES for this year’s event. So. Get out your calendar and prepare yourselves to block off four days. This year’s festival is Oct. 30 to Nov. 2, 2025.

Now, if you’re a long-time festival goer, you might notice something unusual about those dates. For the first time in decades, we’ve moved the festival and it’s no longer the weekend after Thanksgiving. There are a couple of reasons for this, which I’m going to share with you. We didn’t make this decision out of the blue — we made it because it’s going to have an incredibly positive impact on the festival.

We’ve been pretty honest with you that our festival, like festivals throughout the province, has experienced grant cutbacks, so some changes were inevitable. The new date enables us to continue to bring the best in literary programming to the Sea to Sky corridor. 

Moving the festival allowed us to continue to partner with the Fairmont Chateau Whistler, which has been a stalwart supporter of the festival. The Fairmont is our home, and we wanted to make sure we can keep bringing authors and guests to this venue. 

Moving the festival also takes us out of direct competition for authors with other regional festivals which means … more opportunities for us to bring your favourite writers to Whistler. 

The change in dates means we’re also planning something spooktacular for Halloween and enables us to mix up our programming a bit so that we have favourite events and some new experiences for our guests. Creativity matters not just in writing, but in event planning too! 

As always in the autumn, the timing is perfect to cozy up indoors with your favourite books and friends. Nothing beats a hot chocolate and a great book at the Fairmont.

We know for some of our guests, this is a big change, but we hope you’ll continue to support the fest, attend events, and share the festival with your friends and family. I’m thrilled about this year’s festival and can’t wait to share it with you.

Warmly,

Rebecca

Rebecca Wood Barrett, Festival Artistic Director