Whistler Readers &Writers Festival 2010

Welcome

The Whistler Readers and Writers festival returns for a ninth year with an all-star line-up of guest authors, two streams of workshops and one unique event never seen at the festival before: PechaKucha (Japanese for chit chat) on Friday night, October 15th at Maxx Fish.

Drawing its name from the Japanese term for the sound of "chit chat", PechaKucha rests on a presentation format that is based on a simple idea: 20 images x 20 seconds. It's a format that makes presentations concise, and keeps things moving at a rapid pace. PechaKucha has become the forum for ideas on design and architecture and has swept the world in just four years, now taking place in over 300 cities globally. Local writers will face off against the slides and we’ll see what comes to mind. This will be followed by a performance by spoken word artist, C.R. Avery who has performed and toured extensively throughout North America and Europe as a beat-box poet.

The stars love this festival and continue to visit. On Saturday, October 16th at the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre, we’re excited to host the 2009 Governor General Award winning author for fiction, Kate Pullinger (The Mistress of Nothing), two-time Governor General nominee, Patricia Young (An Autoerotic History of Swings), the 2009 winner of the Writers Trust of Canada Non-Fiction prize and the BC Booksellers’ Choice Award, Brian Brett (Trauma Farm), award winning author, Russell Wangersky (The Glass Harmonica), City of Victoria Butler Book Prize winning author, Terence Young, (The End of the Ice Age), short-story author Jenn Farrell (The Devil You Know), writing couple and former Whistler writers in residence, Merilyn Simonds and Wayne Grady (Breakfast at the Exit Café: travels through America),  Kathy Page (The Find), and two-time Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize winning author Caroline Adderson. Local writer, Stephen Vogler will MC the event and make sure all is groovy.

Our very own local writer, Leslie Anthony follows his study of snake-lovers with an expose on another obsessive subculture, ski-bums, with White Planet. A Mad Dash through Modern Global Ski Culture. If skiers’ innate irreverence didn’t preclude them from having a holy book, then this would be it. He will launch his book at the festival on Thursday October 14th at the Whistler Public Library.  

And don’t forget the workshops and discussions happening all day Saturday. Are you interested in stream 1: Where traditional and digital media collide or are you more of a stream 2 kind of guy or gal: Crafting a great story? Whatever your choice, there’s something here for everyone.

We welcome one and all: the reader, the novice-soon-to-be famous writer, the emerging writer, the groupie and the experienced writer.   

Stella Harvey
Festival Director

Please click here to download the Festival Program.

To purchase tickets for the seminars and readings PLEASE CLICK HERE to visit the Vicious Circle store.