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whistlerwritersfest.com
Whistler Writers Festival Unveils Award-Winning Author Line-Up
The 13th annual festival showcases emerging and established literary talent
Whistler, BC, July 31, 2014 — The Whistler Writers Festival has attracted a full slate of award-winning Canadian and International literary authors for readings, workshops and seminars during the three-day festival happening Friday October 17th through Sunday October 19th, 2014. The festival has a new website at whistlerwritersfest.com, which hosts the festival schedule, author biographies, and an online ticket purchasing system. Tickets for the 2014 festival go on sale August 8th.
The festival selection includes a mix of established, award-winning authors, rising literary stars and breakout local talent. “We’re delighted to reveal such an impressive program of authors and presenters,” says Festival Director Stella Harvey. Host Bill Richardson will engage Joseph Boyden in conversation about his most recent novel The Orenda, winner of Canada Reads and nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and Governor General’s Award for Fiction. The CBC’s Mark Forsythe will connect with author, actor, playwright, and broadcaster Ann-Marie MacDonald, writer of international bestsellers Fall on Your Knees and The Way the Crow Flies. She will be reading from her new novel, Adult Onset.
Other notable authors include Audrey Thomas, three time winner of BC’s Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize; Dr. Vincent Lam, whose book The Headmaster’s Wager was a finalist for the 2012 Governor General’s Prize; Grant Lawrence, author of bestselling Adventures in Solitude: What Not to Wear to a Nude Potluck and the BC Prize winning book, The Lonely End of the Rink; actor and playwright Luba Goy (CBC’s Air Farce), whose play Luba, Simply Luba was the winner of the 2014 Kobzar Literary Award; and Charles Foran, winner of the Governor General’s Award for Mordecai: The Life and Times.
The Whistler Writers Festival has a mission to search out and shine the spotlight on fresh talent, and will showcase writers Kathryn Para, winner of the 2013 Mother Tongue Publishing’s Search for the Great BC Novel Contest; and environmental journalist Arno Kopecky, who penned the literary travelogue The Oil Man and the Sea. Local authors to be discovered are award-winning children’s writer Sara Leach, author of Count Me In and Warm Up; and writer and psychologist Nancy Routley, author of Ditch the Diet—It’s Not About the Food.
This year, the festival will present a new event, the Opening Night Literary Cabaret, which pairs author readings with performances by local musicians. “We’ve had a lot of requests to expand our reading series,” says Harvey. “We’re really excited to offer a new daytime reading series with exceptional literary talent, as well as our outstanding evening events.”
A never-before offered spoken-word “wordshop”, will be led by Kevan Anthony Cameron a.k.a Scruffmouth, a veteran of the North American spoken word scene. And one of the most unorthodox events—for a writers’ festival—is Tasting the Devine: Cooks with Books, which includes a Chefs’ reception, book signing and appetizer samples from Shelley Adams (Whitewater Cooks), Lisa Ahier (SoBo) and Eric Arrouzé (A Gourmand in Training.)
About the Whistler Readers and Writers Festival: The Whistler Writers Festival is run by the Whistler Writers Group, a non-profit organization, founded in 2001 to promote literary arts throughout Whistler and the Sea to Sky corridor. Each year the three-day event brings world-renowned authors to Whistler for workshops, panel discussions and readings. The intimacy of this festival with its focus on events for both readers and writers is what makes it unique. For more information visit: whistlerwritersfest.com
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