Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts

10/21/2024

The 2024 edition of the Vancouver Writers Fest starts today! Are you excited? I know we are...

Day 1 of begins with a nuanced and courageous conversation between Raja Khouri and Jeffrey Wilkinson, authors of The Wall Between. This event is available online and free to all.
https://writersfest.bc.ca/festival-event-2024/01

On October 3, 2023, Khouri and Wilkinson published The Wall Between: What Jews and Palestinians Don’t Want to Know about Each Other. This wall is not only one of concrete, but distrust, enmity, and hate, fueling the breakdown of civil discourse in public spaces around the world. How can it be dismantled with dignity and safety for all? The authors joined us on September 9 to record this essential conversation.

Raja Khouri joins us in-person on October 27 to host a screening of the conversation, followed by a Q+A where he will answer audience questions in a space for listening and reflecting on how we can all work towards a lasting peace, moderated by Avril Orloff.
https://writersfest.bc.ca/festival-event-2024/82

10/18/2024

Have you seen some of the wonderful events being offered at the Whistler Writers Festival? We're heading there for the weekend and we suggest you do too! There are still some tickets left...

10/09/2024

If you're in Sechelt today, don't miss this special MedTalks event, hosted by the Sechelt Hospital Foundation. Registration is free!

Finland. Iceland. Denmark. Sweden. These are the "happiest countries" on earth, year over year. Why is that?

Join John Helliwell, founding editor of the World Happiness Report, as he shares the latest findings in happiness research and life satisfaction across the ages.

This free lecture is open to all ages at Raven’s Cry Theatre in Sechelt on Oct 9, 2-3:30pm.

RSVP at https://www.sechelthospitalfoundation.org/upcoming-medtalks/

09/04/2024

The SCFWA sadly acknowledges the recent and unexpected passing of author Darrel J. McLeod, who presented at the 2019 Festival of Written Arts to read from and discuss his spectacular debut book Mamaskatch: A Cree Coming of Age, which won the Governor General’s Literary Award for non-fiction in 2018. We were also honoured to have Darrel participate in our Festival’s special 40th anniversary event “Walking With” (along with Joseph Dandurand, Danielle Geller and Angela Sterritt) in September 2022. Darrel was a talented, generous, kind and beautiful soul who made friends and fans where ever he went. He will be deeply missed and we send our sincere condolences to Darrel’s friends and family.

This photo of Darrel was taken by Roan Mee at the 2019 Festival of the Written Arts.

08/24/2024

If you missed this year's festival, or you want to relive some of the highlights, we're excited to release our Festival 2024 Wrap-Up podcast, produced by board member Sean Eckford!

Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts board member Sean Eckford looks back on some highlights from the 2024 festival. For news, updates, tikcet and lineup information visit www.writersfestival.

08/09/2024

Amazing opportunity! 🤩 Saturday passes have been sold out for weeks, but we just had one come available! This pass for August 17 will give you access to events 9 - 15, including Ann-Marie MacDonald's SOLD OUT event at 7:00 pm. Please phone our office at (604) 885-9631 immediately if you are interested, because it won't last long...

08/08/2024

We'll be kickstarting the festival next week with best-selling author and journalist Naomi Klein, who will be in conversation with Mo Amir, host of This is VANCOLOUR.

From August 15-18, we’ll be featuring 21 amazing authors throughout this year’s Sunshine Coast Festival of Written Arts, with musical guest three-time Juno nominated singer-songwriter Jill Barber to close out the event.

Visit our website (or the link in our bio) to access our printable festival planner. Tickets available while supplies last.

08/07/2024

Kevin Chong is the award-winning author of several books of fiction and nonfiction. His work has appeared in The Guardian, The Rumpus, and more. He currently lives in Vancouver and is an associate professor at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan campus. The Double Life of Benson Yu was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize.

Kevin will join the 2024 Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts for Event #12, taking place Saturday, August 17 @ 3:00 p.m. Tickets available on our website at the link in our bio.

ABOUT THE BOOK:
In a Chinatown housing project lives twelve-year-old Benny, his ailing grandmother, and his strange neighbor Constantine, a man who believes he’s a reincarnated medieval samurai. When his grandmother is hospitalized, Benny manages to survive on his own until a social worker comes snooping. With no other family, he is reluctantly taken in by Constantine and soon, an unlikely bond forms between the two.

At least, that’s what Yu, the narrator of the story, wants to write.

08/07/2024

On a warm June afternoon in King’s Cove, an explosion disrupts the peace. Lane investigates and finds a secluded cabin with an injured, mute young Japanese girl hiding nearby. Meanwhile, at the Nelson Police Station, Inspector Darling and Sergeant Ames discover a dead jeweller and a live wire at the scene of a heist. As Lane searches for the girl’s family, Darling’s team uncovers a local connection that leads to Cornwall and a mining interest on the McKenzie River. Offices are ransacked, and someone is following Lane. Amidst ransacked offices and hidden threats, the latest Winslow mystery delves into old promises and persistent prejudice.

You can catch Iona at 6 on Friday, August 16 @ 4:00 p.m. Tickets available on our website at the link in our bio. *Purchased tickets for Kyo Maclear are valid for this event.*

Silence

08/06/2024

We are very pleased to be able to present, along with the BC Arts Council, these Front Porch Grant Conversations for writers and other artists and cultural workers interested in knowing more about funding opportunities at the BC Arts Council. During the Festival of the Written Arts you can sign up for a 15-minute session with Program Advisor Michelle Benjamin.

08/05/2024

NEW PODCAST! With the Festival just around the corner, Artistic and Executive Director Marisa Alps and Festival Vice President Sean Eckford sit down to talk about some of the authors who will be presenting at the 42nd annual Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts, running August 15-18, 2024.

Festival board member Sean Eckford and Artistic and Executive Director Marisa Alps look ahead to the 2024 Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts, August 15 -18. www.writersfestival.ca

08/05/2024

🚨SOLD OUT 🚨
Looking for professional advice on how to write a memoir? Publisher of Howard White will be joining the 2024 Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts for Event B: Writing Memoir and Family History, with Howard White on Friday, August 16, from 11:45 am – 12:45 pm.

Howard will be sharing his years-long career advice in his workshop that offers tips for writing memoirs, as well as inspiration for those just getting started.

This event is by donation to the Festival of the Written Arts but hurry space is limited! Visit our website at the link in bio.

08/04/2024

Iona Whishaw is a former educator and social worker whose mother and grandfather were both spies during their respective wars. She is the award-winning author of the Lane Winslow Mystery series. The eleventh novel, “Lightning Strikes the Silence,” was recently named by CBC Books as a Top 20 Bestselling Canadian Book of 2024 so far. She lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, with her husband.


Whishaw will join the 2024 Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts for Event #6, taking place Friday, August 16 @ 4:00 p.m. Tickets available on our website at the link in our bio. *Purchased tickets for Kyo Maclear are valid for this event.*

ABOUT THE BOOK:
On a warm June afternoon in King’s Cove, an explosion disrupts the peace. Lane investigates and finds a secluded cabin with an injured, mute young Japanese girl hiding nearby. Meanwhile, at the Nelson Police Station, Inspector Darling and Sergeant Ames discover a dead jeweller and a live wire at the scene of a heist. As Lane searches for the girl’s family, Darling’s team uncovers a local connection that leads to Cornwall and a mining interest on the McKenzie River. Offices are ransacked, and someone is following Lane. Amidst ransacked offices and hidden threats, the latest Winslow mystery delves into old promises and persistent prejudice.

Silence

08/03/2024

Deborah Kimmett is a trailblazer in Canadian comedy. She has been a guest on CBC’s The Debaters for seventeen years and has a regular spot in CBC’s Winnipeg Comedy Festival and Laugh Out Loud. She is the author of Reality Is Overrated, Outrunning Crazy and That Which Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Funnier, and her play Miracle Mother was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award. Kimmett has also been a contributing columnist for More Magazine, Kingston Life, Toronto Life, Canadian Living and the Toronto Star. Her new book is called Window Shopping for God, published by Douglas & McIntyre.

Deborah will join the 2024 Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts for Event #16, taking place Sunday, August 18 @ 9:00 a.m.Tickets available on our website at the link in our bio.

ABOUT THE BOOK:
Deborah Kimmett has worshipped a lot of deities. After emerging from a rigidly Catholic childhood, she danced with witches, whirled with Sufis and explored the Power of Now like there was no tomorrow.

Whether describing her teenage fear of demonic possession (and wardrobe hack for thwarting the Prince of Darkness), the perils of a comedy career (alcoholism, alienation, sexism, etc.), or her reconciliation with her estranged brother as he faced terminal illness (just to up the stakes), Kimmett's writing is unflinchingly honest, laugh-out-loud funny and deeply relatable. As she says, “if you disassociate from your body, it’s called trauma. If you disassociate and get paid for it, it’s called a comedy career.”

08/02/2024

David Roche is a popular motivational speaker and performer, and he has taken his one-man show, The Church of 80% Sincerity, on tour across the world, performing from Sydney to Moscow, London to Los Angeles, and even at the White House. A recent recipient of the Order of Canada, Roche is also a volunteer for the Sunshine Coast Hospice in British Columbia.

Marion McKinnon Crook is a nurse, an educator, and the author of more than twenty-five books, including the bestselling Always Pack a Candle, which won the BC Historical Federation’s Community History Book Award. Always On Call is the much-anticipated sequel. In addition to her nursing degree, McKinnon Crook holds a master’s in liberal studies and a PhD in education.

Join the conversation at the 2024 Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts Event #9, taking place Saturday, August 17 @ 9:00 a.m. Tickets available on our website at the link in our bio.

08/01/2024

Kara and her husband, Simon, are at a desperate crossroads. In 2008, Simon fell off a scaffold, causing severe injuries to his brain and spinal cord. He made a remarkable recovery, eventually adjusting to life in a wheelchair and returning to his career as a musician, but he continues to suffer from debilitating pain that is beginning to strip away his selfhood. Ten years after her husband’s catastrophic injury, author Kara Stanley embarks with him on a journey to understand his chronic pain and find pathways into joy and relief. The Pain Project in the words of Naomi Klein “is ironically full of pleasure; on every page is another generous, original insight into this most intimate human subject.”

You can catch Kara & Simon at Event #11 on Saturday, August 17 @ 1:30 p.m. Tickets available on our website at the link in our bio.