by Gillian Crowley –
Writer and journalist Richard Wagamese enjoyed the 2015 Sidney & Peninsula Literary Festival so much that he’s agreed to return for the 2017 Festival. This time the renowned B.C.-based author (Indian Horse, Medicine Walk) will be giving a writing workshop to lucky participants.
To be able to bring authors of this caliber to the Festival, the organizers will be presenting fundraisers over the coming year. Seven local published writers have already generously contributed their talents this past spring to a reading series held at the Red Brick Café in Sidney. During this fall three more fundraiser readings will be held. Almost all proceeds go towards mounting the fall 2017 Festival which is organized entirely by volunteers.
“We’re very excited about the next Festival and plans are well underway. This time the festival will be held at the Mary Winspear Centre and we’ve added a new event – a cabaret at which authors will mingle with the audience and be part of a light-hearted panel discussion,” says Janet Daines, president of the non-profit Sidney & Peninsula Literary Society. This year Tanner’s Books has partnered with the Society to help support the fundraisers.
Confirmed authors for the fall fundraisers include Arthur Black on September 30, M.A.C. Farrant and Barbara Smith on October 28, and Steven Price and Pauline Holdstock on November 18.
Black, a well-known humorist and journalist, is three-time winner of the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour. Farrant, a local award-winning author, has written 11 collections of satirical and philosophical short fiction, a memoir My Turquoise Years, and a new collection of short stories The Days to be published this fall. She joins Smith, well known for her collections of true ghost stories. Her new book, The Valiant Nellie McClung, instead highlights McClung’s newspaper columns which often focused on social injustices of the day. Victoria-based Price is a prize-winning poet and novelist who followed his debut novel Into that Darkness with By Gaslight, a detective “tour de force” published internationally this summer. In November he will join Holdstock, author of literary fiction, essays and poetry. Her award-winning books include Into the Heart of the Country and her most recent novel, The Hunter and the Wild Girl, was named a Best Book of 2015 by both the CBC and the National Post.
A participant at an earlier fundraiser said: “I’d never attended a reading before and didn’t know what to expect. But hearing the authors discuss the background to their books, then read from their work and answer questions really helped me connect with their writing. Now I’m hooked!”
Updates and tickets at www.sidneyliteraryfestival.ca.
