Every year the WIBAs celebrate the very best in independent publishing, and this year is no different, with a solid line-up of finalists in three categories.  

The final winners in each category will be shared at the Whistler Writers Festival during the Literary Cabaret at 8 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 18 at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler. Tickets are available starting Aug. 21.

But first, you can hear from many of these finalists at the first reading event of the festival, Canada’s Best Indies, from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the Whistler Public Library on Thursday, Oct. 17.

We’re thrilled to share these finalists with you. 

Non-fiction finalists

Angie Counios for My List, My Rules: The Year a Checklist Saved My Life

Adam L. Harris for A Canadian Jew in Uncle Sam’s Army: Darkly Humorous Recollections of Disparity, Irony and Narrowly Surviving During the Cold War

Barbara Leimsner for Quitting the Master Race: A Daughter’s Journey to Break the Bonds of Hate

Fiction

Karen MacDougall for Palmyra

Hannah State for Journey to the Dark Galaxy

Daphne Wright for On Love and Death and Belonging

Children’s books

Douglas Cochran for Captain Festus and the Close Shave

Bruce Hanson for Double Cross

Judith Silverthorne for The Treasure Box