The 3rd Annual Galiano Literary Festival will be running from February 24-26 2012 and will be held at the Galiano Oceanfront Inn & Spa here on Galiano Island. The Galiano Literary Festival is run by Galiano Island Books, one of the few remaining independent bookstores in B.C. The bookstore has been on the island for over 10 years, and has become a ‘hub’ of the island community.
Last year, we celebrated “The Book” as historical icon, objet d’art, and physical manifestation of ideas.
A full slate of workshops, readings and panels will discuss a wide variety of book and writing-related topics, providing different approaches to the main focus of this event, which this year is “Books: Windows to the Past, Present and Future”. To address this theme, we are inviting authors who use both fiction and nonfiction to tell us of the past, explore the complex issues of the present, and create alternate realities of what the future might hold. How does the lens of our current values and beliefs distort how we see and describe the past and how do we use the past to explain or justify who we are? How do books help us to explore and change our views of current events and the world in which we live? How do speculations about the future shape our thinking and decision making today? These are some of the questions our authors and participants, through readings, panels and informal discussions will consider.
We will also be hosting a “Bruce Springsteen Celebration” – music, frivolity and Robert J Wiersema reading from his new book on Springsteen “Walk Like a Man” an event for the whole community at the South Community Hall on Sunday, February 26th which festival attendees are welcome to attend.
THE AUTHORS:
Jean Baird has been an English professor, program director for an arts facility, managing editor for business publications,consultant for non-profit organizations, and creative director of Canada Book Week for the Writers’ Trust of Canada. Most recently she has been working on a BC-based project about the use of Canadian literature in secondary schools. Jean also co-authored “The Heart Does Break: Canadian Writers on Grief and Mourning with George Bowering.
George Bowering, Canada’s first Poet Laureate, was born in the Okanagan Valley. He has taught literature at the University of Calgary, the University of Western Ontario and Simon Fraser University, and he continues to act as a Canadian literary ambassador at international conferences and readings. A distinguished novelist, poet, editor, professor, historian and tireless supporter of fellow writers, Bowering has authored more than eighty books including works of poetry, fiction, autobiography, biography and youth fiction. His writing has also been translated into French, Spanish, Italian, German, Chinese and Romanian. In 2002, Bowering was recognized by the Vancouver Sun as one of the most influential people in British Columbia.
Marie Clements is an award-winning performer, playwright, screenwriter, director, producer and founding artistic director of urban ink productions and fathom labs highway. Her ten plays including Copper Thunderbird, Burning Vision, The Unnatural and Accidental Women, and Urban Tattoo have been presented on some of the most prestigious stages for Canadian and international work including the Festival de Theatre des Ameriques (Urban Tattoo 2001, Burning Vision 2003) in Montreal, and The Magnetic North Festival (Burning Vision 2003 and Copper Thunderbird 2007) in Ottawa, and have garnered awards including 2004 Canada-Japan Award, short listed for the 2004 Governor General’s Literary Award, Jessie Richardson Awards and a Jack Webster Journalism nomination. As a writer Marie has worked in a variety of mediums including theatre, performance, film, multi-media, radio, and television. This winter, Marie has been selected to be a part of this year’s Women in the Director’s Chair. Copper Thunderbird was published by Talon Books Fall 2007 and her initiative fathomlabshighway.ca is in its second year. She is a freelance contributor to CBC Radio, and has worked in the writing department of the tv series Davinci’s Inquest.
Claudia Cornwall, a freelance writer for over 20 years, has written four books. Her Letter from Vienna: A Daughter Uncovers her Family’s Jewish Past,won a BC Book Prize for best non-fiction. She has been published in many Canadian magazines and newspapers including The Globe & Mail, Reader’s Digest, (the Canadian, the international and the Mainland China editions), BC Business, as well as the on-line magazine, Tyee. She teaches courses for writers at SFU and Douglas College. Her most recent book is At the World’s Edge: Curt Lang’s Vancouver, 1937-1998. Reviewer George Fetherling wrote, “Cornwall, a local writer and teacher, was a friend of Lang’s for the last 12 years of his life. Like so many of those who knew him, she seems to have been struck by the man’s manic creativity, his capacity for invention and his eerie ability to find the connective tissue linking one idea or genre to another. The result is her skilfully written combination of biography and memoir…”
Charles Demers was born and raised in Vancouver. He is an activist and comedian, a regular performer on CBC Radio One’s The Debaters, and former co-host of Citytv’s comedic panel show “The Citynews List” in Vancouver. In 2005, he was the judges’ choice for Vancouver’s funniest new comic; since then he has been featured on national radio, in print, as well as in festivals and live venues across Canada and the Pacific Northwest and with Paul Bae as the sketch duo “Bucket”―the act Robin Williams called “the future of comedy.” His book Vancouver Special was published by Arsenal Pulp Press in 2009, and was shortlisted for the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize at the BC Book Prizes. His first novel, The Prescription Errors, was published in 2009 by Insomniac Press.
Ann Eriksson is a biologist and novelist, and the author of three novels:Decomposing Maggie, In the Hands of Anubis, and Falling From Grace. Ann combines a background in ecology with her life experiences to create works of fiction grounded in nature and populated with compelling characters. She is working on a fourth novel about killer whales, pollution, and mental illness. Ann lives on Thetis Island.
Patrick Friesen a resident of Winnipeg for 30 years and Vancouver for a dozen years, now lives in Brentwood Bay, Vancouver Island. He has published numerous books of poetry and has written several stage and radio plays. Friesen has also collaborated with choreographers, dancers, musicians and composers. He tours on a regular basis, giving readings and workshops all over the country. His book, A Broken Bowl, was a finalist for the 1997 Governor-General’s Award.
Zsuzsi Gartner is the author of the acclaimed story collection All the Anxious Girls on Earth and editor ofDarwin’s Bastards: Astounding Tales from Tomorrow, a 2010 BC Book Prize Nominee. Her fiction has been widely published and anthologized, most recently in The Walrus, and Best Canadian Stories 2010 and 2011, and broadcast on CBC and NPR. Her latest short fiction collection, Better Living through Plastic Explosives, was a Globe & Mail Best Book and on the Vancouver Sun’s top ten Canadian titles of 2011, as well as a finalist for the prestigious 2011 Scotiabank Giller Prize.
Kim Goldberg is a poet, journalist and the author of six books. Her latest book isRED ZONE, a poem diary of homelessness in Nanaimo, BC, where she lives. The book has been taught as a literature course text at Vancouver Island University, and critics have compared the writing to Allen Ginsberg, John Steinbeck, Marge Piercy and George Stanley. Her other books of poetry and nonfiction include the popular Where to See Wildlife on Vancouver Islandand Ride Backwards on Dragon, a series of linked poems based on the 66 movements of the ancient martial art of Liuhebafa, which Kim has been studying since 1997. Ride Backwards on Dragonwas a finalist for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. Kim has received the Goodwin’s Award for Excellence in Alternative Journalism, the Rannu Fund Poetry Prize for Speculative Literature, and other awards. Her poetry and prose have appeared in magazines and anthologies around the world. She holds a degree in biology, is an avid birdwatcher, and has written extensively on environmental issues including the 1990 car-bombing of redwoods activist Judi Bari.
Genni Gunn’s nine books include three novels –Solitaria (long-listed for the Giller Prize), Tracing Iris andThrice Upon a Time; two story collections – Hungersand On the Road; two poetry collections – Faceless andMating in Captivity; and two poetry collections by Dacia Maraini in translation Devour Me Too, and Travelling in the Gait of a Fox. Her operaAlternate Visions (music by John Oliver) was produced in Montreal in 2007. Her works have been translated into several languages, and have been finalists for the Commonwealth Prize, the Gerald Lampert Poetry Award, the John Glassco Translation award, and the Premio Internationale Diego Valeri for Translation. She lives in Vancouver.
Eve Joseph was born in 1953 and grew up in North Vancouver. Her first book of poetry “The Startled Heart” was published by Oolichan Press in 2004 and nominated for the Dorothy Livesay Award. Her second book “The Secret Signature of Things” came out with Brick in the spring of 2010 and was shortlisted for the Victoria Butler Prize and the Dorothy Livesay Award. She recently received the 2010 P.K. Page Founder’s Award for poetry and the 2010 Malahat Creative Non Fiction Prize.
Susan Juby’s novels have been published all over the world and nominated for many awards, including the Amazon/Books in Canada First Novel Award and the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour, an Arthur Ellis Award by the Crime Writers of Canada and for an Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America. She is the author of the bestselling Alice MacLeod trilogy, which was adapted into a television series called Alice, I Think that aired on CTV and the Comedy Network. Her memoir, Nice Recovery (Viking), was a Globe and Mail Top 100 Book for 2010.Publisher’s Weekly called her latest novel, The Woefield Poultry Collective, a “…funny and touching yarn about an endearing band of social wrecks who are impossible not to love.” Booklist pronounced it “sparklingly witty and charming… [it] delightfully combines satire and a distinctly modern voice with old-fashioned sweetness… laugh-out-loud writing is tempered by the characters’ emotional pain and efforts to help one another heal. Woefield Farm may not produce a single crop, yet it’s fertile ground for superb storytelling.” Susan was raised in Smithers, BC and teaches creative writing at Vancouver Island University and at U.B.C. She lives with her husband in Nanaimo, B.C.
Grant Lawrencehas long been a leading voice in Canadian arts and entertainment.
For years, the gregarious and encyclopedic Lawrence has hosted the top-rated CBC Radio 3 Podcast with Grant Lawrence, a weekly showcase of Canadian independent music. Grant also hosts Grant Lawrence Live, a live and interactive daily program on CBC Radio 3′s popular web radio station, also airing on Sirius XM 152. Grant can be heard throughout the week on various CBC Radio One programs such as DNTO, All Points West, On The Coast, and various afternoon programs across the country, and has been a frequent past contributor to Q, Spark, and Sounds Like Canada.
Grant recently published his first book, Adventures in Solitude, a memoir of his experiences spending his summers growing up in the coastal wilderness of Desolation Sound, BC, which went to #1 on the BC Bestsellers List, #2 on the National Bestsellers List, won the BC Book Prize for the2010 Book of the Year, and was a finalist for the inauguralHilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Non-Fiction.Grant still spends much of each summer at his cabin in the Sound between MC gigs at summer festivals. Grant is married to Canadian singer Jill Barber and they live together in Vancouver, BC Canada.
Susan McCaslin is a prizewinning poet, author of eleven volumes of poetry, including her most recent,Demeter Goes Skydiving(University of Alberta Press, 2011). In Oct. of 2011 she published a book of essays prefaced by short poems titledArousing the Spirit (Wood Lake Publishing). She has edited two poetry anthologies on the relation between poetry and spirituality, as well as written numerous essays and a children’s book. Susan is Faculty Emeritus of Douglas College in New Westminster, British Columbia where she taught English and Creative Writing for twenty-three years. She is currently living in Victoria, BC.
Kit Pearson was born in Edmonton, Alberta in 1947 and grew up there and in Vancouver, B.C. She received her B.A. from the University of Alberta, her M.L.S. from the University of British Columbia and her M.A. from the Simmons College Center for the Study of Children’s Literature in Boston. She worked for ten years as a children’s librarian in Ontario and B.C., and is now a full-time writer living in Victoria. Her books have been published in Canada in English and French, in the U.S., Austtralia, New Zealand, Japan, the Netherlands, Germany, Great Britain, China and Korea. She has won fourteen awards for her writing, including the Vicky Metcalf Award for her body of work in 1998.
Pamela Porter brings her latest verse novel, I’ll Be Watching, as well as her fresh-off-the-press collection of poetry, No Ordinary Place, to this year’s LitFest. Her third poetry collection, Cathedral,was shortlisted for the 2011 Pat Lowther Award, and her poems have won the Vallum Magazine Poem of the Year Award, the Prism International Grand Prize in Poetry, and have been shortlisted four times for the CBC literary awards. Her verse novel, The Crazy Man, won the 2005 Governor General’s Award, the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award, the Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Children Award, and other accolades. M. Travis Lane has written, “Porter’s poems are pervaded with a sense of grace, of mercy, beauty and benediction.” Pamela lives near Sidney with her family and a menagerie of rescued horses, dogs, and cats, including a formerly wild mustang.
Linda L. Richards is the author of five novels, is editor and co-founder of January Magazine and a leading expert in electronic book publishing technologies. Linda has lived in Los Angeles and Munich but was born in Vancouver, Canada. She is currently based on Galiano Island with her partner, the artist David Middleton, their crazy dog, Jett and their Galiano wild cat, Tiger-Lily. A faculty member of the Simon Fraser University Summer Publishing Program, she enjoys working with new writers. When she isn’t writing books, writing about books, teaching or reading, Richards enjoys hiking the wild beaches near her home, quite often thinking about her current work in progress.
Bob Robertson has been writing funny things for many years. In February 1987 he joined forces with Linda Cullen to write and perform a CBC Radio comedy series called “Double Exposure”. It ran for ten and a half very successful years with an average weekly audience of over 300 thousand listeners. During that time, Double Exposure was nominated three times for the Actra Radio awards (The Nellies) winning for Best Comedy Program. In 1994, Double Exposure began to write, produce and perform an annual New Year’s Eve television special on the national CBC TV network called “A Swift Kick in The Year End”. It ran for three years with exceptional ratings of over two million viewers. In 1997, Double Exposure was contracted by the CTV network to produce a weekly comedy program. As well as performing on camera and writing, Bob Robertson was one of the executive producers of the series. Double Exposure ran on CTV for three years until the spring of 2000. During that time it was nominated for six Gemini Awards including the Chrysler Canada “People’s Choice Award” for the six highest rated Canadian television programs. Double Exposure also won the U.S International Film and Video Festival’s Gold Camera Award as well as the Saskatoon Film and Video Festival’s Golden Sheaf Award. As a writer, Bob co-wrote a best-selling Canadian comedy book in 1995, published by Whitecaps Books and called “Double Exposure”. He has also written over 40 political satire columns for The Globe and Mail, and wrote a weekly political satire column for the Ottawa Citizen for over two years. Bob’s latest project is a humourous book about the hysteria surrounding the end of the Mayan Calendar on December 21st, 2012, called “The Mayan Horror” published by Anvil Books which was launched in November 2011. Bob also continues to entertain Canadians across Canada on radio, television and in conferences. In 2004, Bob, as part of Double Exposure was inducted into the B.C. Entertainment Hall of Fame in 2004. You can see the Double Exposure star in the sidewalk on Granville Street, Vancouver’s Entertainment Row.
Sheryl Salloumwas born and raised in British Columbia. She has lived and worked in various regions of the province. Sheryl graduated from Simon Fraser University with an English Major and Early Childhood Minor. A freelance writer for over twenty years, she has published articles in several Canadian magazines and newspapers. Her areas of interest include Canadian art, culture, and history and children’s issues. For over ten years, Sheryl wrote book reviews for Focus on Adoption; she is a regular book reviewer for British Columbia History. In 1995, she published Underlying Vibrations: The Photography and Life of John Vanderpant (Horsdal & Schubart). That book was a finalist for a BC Book Prize. In 1987, Sheryl published Malcolm Lowry: Vancouver Days (Harbour Publishing). She and her husband have one daughter. They have lived in Vancouver since 1992. When she is not writing, Sheryl is engaged in numerous outdoor activities.
Timothy Taylor published his first novel Stanley Park in 2001. It was an immediate bestseller and a critical success. Taylor has since published a prize-winning collection of short fiction, Silent Cruise, and a second bestselling and critically acclaimed novel, Story House. His third novel, The Blue Light Project was published in March 2011. Taylor is the winner of the Journey Prize, and has been finalist or runner-up for six other major national fiction prizes in Canada, including the prestigious Giller Prize. His work has also been chosen as the ‘One Book One City’ selection for Vancouver and named a finalist for Canada Reads. Taylor has also been widely published and recognized for his non-fiction magazine and newspaper work and has been winner or finalist a dozen separate magazine awards, including three gold medals in 2010 at the National and Western Magazine Awards. He is a columnist with the Globe and Mail’s Report on Business Magazine, as well as a contributing editor at EnRoute Magazine and Vancouver Magazine. He has also written for Institutional Investor, The Wall Street Journal, Food & Wine, Cooking Light, Western Living, The Vancouver Review, Toro Magazine, Saturday Night, Adbusters, the National Post, the Vancouver Sun and many other publications.
Audrey Thomas Born in Binghamton, New York she immigrated to Canada in 1959, where she attended and later taught at the University of British Columbia. From 1964 to 1966 she lived in Ghana, an experience which has had a deep impact on her work. In 1987 she won the Marian Engel Awardfor her body of work. She has three times received the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, for Intertidal Life (1984),Wild Blue Yonder (1990), and Coming Down from Wa (1995). In 2008, she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.
Rhea Tregebov‘s novel, The Knife Sharpener’s Bell, has been called an
“assured and affecting. It was named a Top 100 Book of 2010 by
the Globe and Mail, and has been awarded the 2010 J.I. Segal award for
Fiction on a Jewish Theme. The novel was also shortlisted for the ForeWord
Magazine Book of the Year Awards, Fiction Category, 2009. Coteau Books was
nominated for the Award for Publishing for the novel in the Saskatchewan
Book Awards, 2009. Born in Saskatoon and raised in Winnipeg, Tregebov lived for many years in Toronto, working as a freelance author and editor. Since 2004, she has lived in Vancouver where she is Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia, teaching workshops in poetry and translation.
Robert J. Wiersemawas born in Agassiz, British Columbia, in 1970, and has spent his life immersed in books. He attended theUniversity of Victoria, where he earned an Honours Degree in English Literature. He has worked in bookstores for the last 20 years — he is currently the Event Coordinator at Bolen Books in Victoria, where he curates one of Canada’s most highly regarded literary events series. Before I Wake, Wiersema’s first novel, was published in the summer of 2006 to exceptional reviews, and went on to become a national bestseller, and was named a Globe and Mail Best Book for 2006. The World More Full of Weeping, a novella, was published in 2009, and was shortlisted for the Aurora Award. His second novel, Bedtime Story, was published byRandom House Canada in November 2010, and became a national bestseller. His first non-fiction book, Walk Like A Man
Wiersema lives in Victoria, in a house filled with music and books.
Mark Zuehlke is the author of twenty-two books. Nine of these comprise the best-selling Canadian Battle Series, which tells the story of Canada’s army during World War II. The latest in this series is the fall 2011 release, Breakout from Juno: First Canadian Army and the Normandy Campaign, July 4-August 21, 1944. When complete, the Canadian Battle Series will be the most extensive account by a single author of a nation during World War II ever published. Mark is also a novelist, whose Elias McCann series has garnered much critical praise. The first title in this series,Hands Like Clouds, won the Arthur Ellis Award for the 2000 Best Novel and the third instalment, Sweep Lotus, was nominated for the 2004 Arthur Ellis Best Novel. His Canadian Battle Series title,Holding Juno: Canada’s Heroic Defence of the D-Day Beaches, captured the 2006 City of Victoria Butler Book Prize. For Honour’s Sake: The War of 1812 and the Brokering of an Uneasy Peace was both a City of Victoria Butler Book Prize Finalist and winner of the 2007 Canadian Authors Association Lela Common Award for Canadian History. Mark lives in Victoria.
THE PROGRAMME:
All events held at the beautiful Galiano Oceanfront Inn & Spaunless otherwise noted!
Friday, February 24th 2012:
1:00pm – 5:00pm: Writing Workshop with Audrey Thomas (In the Madrona Room) **SOLD OUT!**
Short Fiction “Friendly” Workshop! Bring paper and pens, creative energy and a desire to learn the art of writing a short story from one of Canada’s most celebrated writers, Galiano’s own Audrey Thomas.
Pre-Registration required. Tickets are $40 and are not included in other passes.
1:00pm – Kit Pearson Reading @ The Galiano Activity Centre!
Please join us for a very special reading with Young Adult icon Kit Pearson! She will be reading at the Activity Centre. All ages are invited to attend. By Donation.
7:00pm – Welcome Reception! (In the Lounge)
This ticket is intended for those who may not have time to attend any sessions, but would like a chance to mingle with authors, listen to Live Music by Brad Prevedoros and enjoy a good cocktail party.
Sponsored in part by Harper Collins Canada, Random House of Canada & Brick Books!
Saturday, February 25th 2012:
9:30am-11:00am – Keynote Presentation by Bob Robertson
Panel Discussion with George Bowering, Jean Baird, &Timothy Taylor (In the main dining room)
Everyone enjoys a good story, but more than that, as masters of propaganda from Constantine to Hitler have always known, stories can affect how we lead our lives, what we value and how we understand the world around us. In this panel, authors Timothy Taylor, George Bowering and Jean Baird will explore what responsibilities, if any, authors have to their readers to make the boundaries between fact versus fiction, description versus persuasion, and perception versus illusion clear. As an object that becomes frozen in time and place as soon as the ink dries on the page, the book also provides a unique window to other cultures and times which did not exist before the printed word, another issue on which our panelists will share their perspectives.
11:15am – 12: 15pm- Reading with Zsuzsi Gartner, Genni Gunn, Susan Juby (In the Madrona Room)
12:45pm – 1:45pm – Reading with Gary Geddes, Grant Lawrence (In the Madrona Room)
12:45pm – 1:45pm – Presentation with Linda L. Richards (In the Roundhouse -’Yoga Room’ in Gardens)
Technology is touching every aspect of the book industry, but how will this impact on the books we love? Join author, editor and journalist Linda L. Richards for an exploration of the e-book, what it might mean to the books we love and how both readers and writers can evaluate current and emerging technologies with regards to their own needs.
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Presentation with Charlie Demers:On Comedy (In the Madrona Room)
Author Paul Auster once observed that “The joke is the purest, most essential form of storytelling. Every word has to count.” Meanwhile, comedian Brent Butt wonders on his Twitter feed if, by calling himself a “humourist,” he’d feel less pressure. Join author and comedian Charles Demers as he attempts to bridge the writer-humourist-comedian divides, sharing some thoughts on comedy writing as well as reading some sample selections.
2:00pm – 3:00 pm – Writing Workshop with Rhea Tregebov (In the Roundhouse)
The Counterfactual: Using What You Don’t Know to Start Your Story. This workshop will examine how departures from your own autobiography can generate plot. The in-class writing exercise will demonstrate how the “counterfactual” (what didn’t happen) can get you writing.
3:15pm – 4:15pm – Illustrated Reading with Sheryl Salloum (In the Madrona Room)
Move over Emily Carr—BC has another significant early female painter. Accomplished with landscapes and portraits, Mildred Valley Thornton (1890-1967) was a distinctive painter. She completed approximately 300 portraits of First Nations ancestors and joyous, vibrant images of Canada. A fun-loving, driven, and passionate individual, Thornton’s story is as unique as her art. Based on her engagingly written and richly illustrated biography,The Life and Art of Mildred Valley Thornton (Mother Tongue Publishing, 2011), Sheryl Salloum’s talk will include images of Thornton’s remarkable work.
3:15pm – 4:15pm – Reading with Timothy Taylor andMark Zuehlke
4:30pm – 5:30pm – Reading with George Bowering,Patrick Friesen, Pamela Porter
4:30pm – 5:30pm – Presentation with Ann Eriksson:Confessions of a Fiction Writer
In this informal, candid and lighthearted session designed for beginning and aspiring writers, Ann will share her deepest and darkest secrets about her life as a novelist. Topics will be based on her popular e-newsletter, A Novel Journey, which takes subscribers along on the ride as Ann writes her fourth novel. Expect a sneak preview from the manuscript-in-progress. Questions from the audience are encouraged!
7:00pm – Authors’ Dinner (in the Dining Room) Tickets $30.00 **SOLD OUT!**
A perfect way to round out the first day of programming! Relax and enjoy a beautiful West Coast meal in the company of friends, writers, friends who are writers, or writers who are friends! The meal is 3 decadent courses. Price does not include drinks.
Sunday, February 26th 2012:
9:45am – 10:45am – Reading with Marie Clements, Eve Joseph, Susan McCaslin (In the Madrona Room)
9:45am – 10:45am – Workshop with Grant Lawrence–The End: Finding The Inspiration To Reach The Two Most Satisfying Words In Writing (In the Roundhouse)
It’s one thing to decide to write a book, it’s another thing entirely to sit down, write, revise, and finish what you started. In this very positive, how-to keynote seminar for aspiring writers, Grant Lawrence provides the tips, tricks, methods, and rewards he used when attempting to write and finish a book in the 2000s (also known as the Age of Distraction) while holding down a full time job. Hear Grant’s personal story of widespread rejection throughout the publishing industry, only to persevere and publish his critically acclaimed national bestseller Adventures in Solitude.
11:00am – 12pm – Workshop with Claudia Cornwall:Mining Letters for Literary Gold (In the Madrona Room)
From Claudia: My workshop about Letters is an introduction to a vast subject! I will start by drawing on my own experience with letters as sources of inspiration. Where does their power come from? How can you use them to inform your text? We will discuss reading the lines and reading between the lines. I will touch on some copyright issues, provide resources about where to find letters in Canada, and provide links to interesting letters and books about letters. I will also invite participants to share letters, ones they have written, received or ones that they own. (This is not required though!)
11:00pm – 12pm – Writing Workshop with Kim Goldberg: Kung Fu for Writers (In the Roundhouse)
From Kim: Tap into your creative energies using a combination of martial arts movements, Qigong and writing prompts to awaken your body, unleash your mind and stimulate the flow of words. Discover what happens to your creative powers when Angry Horse Turns Head Around or Green Dragon Stretches Claws. This one-hour workshop is an introductory sample to my six-week Kung Fu for Writers course that I teach at Victoria College of Art. The goal is to develop a spontaneous writing practice (“first thought, best thought,” in the tradition of the Beat poets) that is alive to the moment unfolding around us and within us. Please join me in this exciting journey into mind-body connection! No prior background in martial arts is necessary. Anyone can do this. More details on my Liuhebafa blog:
http://liuhebafagirl.wordpress.com/
2:00 pm at the South Community Hall:
“Bruce Springsteen Celebration” – music, frivolity andRobert J Wiersema reading from his new book on Springsteen “Walk Like a Man” an event for the whole community. Tickets are $10!
About “Walk Like A Man” (from http://www.robertwiersema.com)
A frank, funny, and inventive blend of biography, music criticism, and memoir told in thirteen tracks.
As he enters his sixties, Bruce Springsteen remains a paragon of all that is cool in the world of rock. He is a genuine voice of the people, the bastard child of Woody Guthrie and James Brown, and an elder statesman who has inspired generations of bands. He has won twenty Grammy Awards, an Oscar, and two Golden Globes and is a double hall-of-famer.
There are dozens of books about the Boss. What is left to say? Nothing objective, perhaps. But when it comes to music, objectivity is highly overrated. Robert Wiersema has been a Springsteen fan since he was a teenager, following tours to see multiple shows in a row, watching set lists develop in real time via the Internet, ordering bootlegs from shady vendors in Italy. His attachment is deeper than fandom, though: he has grown up with Springsteen and his music as the soundtrack to his life, beginning with his youth in rural British Columbia and continuing on through dreams of escape, falling in love, and becoming a father.
Walk Like a Man is the liner notes for a mix tape, a blend of biography, music criticism, and memoir. Like the best mix tapes, it balances joy and sorrow, laughter seasoning the dark-night-of-the-soul questions that haunt us all. This is a journey into adulthood (with all the wrong turns and false starts life throws at us), and of the man and the music that have accompanied him along the way.
Galiano Island Literary Festival 