Take a break from C-Span, on Sept 12

If the Democratic convention has been absorbing your post-Olympic TV viewing, then you’ll definitely want to nab tickets to hear Mel Hurtig in Whistler on Friday night, September 12.

Mel Hurtig, one of Canada’s most vocal critics of the nation’s political and economic relationship with the U.S., will deliver the keynote address at the Whistler Readers & Writers Festival.  Hurtig’s new book The Truth About Canada, was published earlier this year.Hurtig spoke to Tourism Whistler yesterday: “I’m going to be talking about how Canada has changed and changed very much for the worse under the governments of Brian Mulroney, Jean Chretien, Paul Martin, and Stephen Harper, and why it’s crucially important to reverse the trends in our country that have been in place for the last quarter-century,” says Hurtig. “I’ve accepted the invitation to come to Whistler for the festival because I love Whistler, and of course I enjoy the opportunity to speak about the things that I think are important to Canada.”

Hurtig is celebrating his 17th anniversary as a bookseller,  a book publisher, and an author. The Whistler Writers Festival is celebrating its 7th.

We are Gangland…

I feel like I’ve become part of the Underground. I was always there. And hundreds of other people were always part of it. But we never met each other. We never knew the secret handshake. We just thought we were lone operatives. On August 25, entries for the first Whistler Select Writing Awards closed. And when the submissions in the 3 categories were tallied, there were 81 entries. 81 people writing about Whistler, writing in Whistler… just sucking back some wee puff of inspiration from a place that is unique enough to make millions of people decide that is where they want to go with their 2 weeks precious annual leave.  81 entries! If I were a prayerful girl, I would get down on my knees tonight, and I would say, bless Leslie Anthony and Glenda Bartosh and Steven Threndyle and Jeffery Tam and Stella Harvey and Laura James and Jules Older and Bob Barnett and John Lee, for sitting on the panels that will decide who, amongst those 81 entrants, will walk away with a chunk of the $2500 prize money that Whistler Blackcomb, Watermark Communications and the Pique have contributed to recognise that great writing.  But I’m more inclined to pour a neat glass of Scotch, and raise it to the Underground of scribblers that we are all part of.  Cheers.

Talent central

Whistler writer, Rebecca Wood Barrett, has won the 2008 Sea to Sky Literary Contest’s Long Fiction Category with her story, “His Nickname”.  It will be published in the upcoming Sea to Sky Literary journal Soundings, which will be distributed throughout the Sea to Sky Corridor by the Squamish Chief. There will also be a celebration at the Brackendale Art Gallery on Wednesday, Aug. 27 at 7pm.

Rebecca is one of the guest writers featured at the forthcoming Whistler Readers and Writers Festival. A writer and filmmaker, with several published stories and 25 short films under her belt, Rebecca will be leading the seminar, Script to Screen, on Saturday 13 September, from 8:30am to noon, exploring the wealth of creative tools that filmmaking offers to take ideas from the script page onto the big screen.

Watch also for Rebecca’s interview with Wayne Grady, 2008 Festival guest, in Whistler’s Pique newsmagazine.

 

Mel Hurtig is ready to shake up Whistler

If you’re among the people a little pissed at what Stephen Harper’s been doing while in office, you’ll want to be in the audience at Mel Hurtig’s September 12 talk in Whistler, to kick off the Whistler Readers and Writers Festival.

Hurtig is more than pissed. Love him or hate him, he’s been a tireless patriot for Canada, and he continues to defend the survival of the country, rabble-rousing and calling it as he sees it, in his new book, The Truth About Canada: Some astonishing, and some truly appalling things all Canadians should know about our country.

He himself calls it the most anti-establishment book ever published in his lifetime.

He spoke with Whistler activist, Council of Canadians board member, Pina Belperio, in the latest issue of the Pique.

 

What kind of feedback do you need?

Whistler Writers Group member, Sara Leach, has written an awesome article in this week’s Pique.

In it, she says that : “A good husband never says your jeans make you look fat. A good girlfriend tells you the straight up truth. The same is true of writing. Our family members want us to succeed and feel good about ourselves. They don’t always give us an unbiased opinion of our work. This is where a good critique group comes in. A critique group is a group of writers who come together to share and comment on each other’s work. While it is the job of family members to extol the virtues of your writing, no matter how much work it might still need, a good critique group offers constructive feedback about your writing, while keeping your self-esteem intact.”

Sara, a teacher and founding member of the Whistler Writers Group, will team up with fellow scribe Pam Barnsley to facilitate two sessions on Saturday, Sept. 13 at the festival. Feedback Blitz: How to Give and Receive Feedback, will take place Saturday at 4 p.m.

They’ll also facilitate a free drop-in class on Saturday morning at 8:30 a.m., Top 10 Tips to Crank Up Your Writing, a host of exercises geared at getting hands moving across the page.

 

5 Reasons to give blood to get to this year’s Whistler Writers Fest

1. It’s in Whistler, and not a Siberian gulag, that other outpost of prolific literary inspiration.

 

2. It’s the first literary event ever to feature LIVE WRESTLING. If you ever wondered what you would get if you crossed a poet, a politician and a priest, (apart from a Police song with no lyrics in its chorus), the Friday night “Who Gives a $^%?! About Words” muckrakers debate is for you.  Witness the verbal carnage as a preacher, a politican, a lawyer and an opinion columnist fight for their lives in the gladiator room of the Whistler Public Library.

 

3. There’s $2500 cash up for grabs. And to witness the raw emotion when starving artists are handed $1000 cash is better than reality television.  September 12 and 13 will see the celebration of the winners of the first Whistler Select Writing Awards, recognizing excellence in travel journalism, the best telling of an untold story and winning postcard-length short fiction.

 

4. You can rub shoulders with real life celebrities. They may not have the detox dramas of Lindsay, Paris or Britney, nor the cosmetic enhancements of Pamela, Jessica or Arnie, but the Whistler Reader and Writers Festival’s 2008 line-up features the real deal when it comes to the constellations of Can-lit. Witness the star power of Mel Hurtig, Wayne Grady, William Deverell, Shaena Lambert, Carrie Mac, Nancy Warren, Leslie Anthony and Susan Reifer. If they all went on strike, Canada would suddenly be eerily quiet.  (Pity Lindsay, Paris and Britney haven’t considered it.)

 

5.“Writer-chic” is the new black. Scrabulous is fabulous and a good vocabulary is sexy as hell. Upgrade your literary status with an intensive day of seminars on fiction, non-fiction and writing from life. Whether you need a kick in the bum to get your creative mojo going, a reverential review of your latest work, or just a chance to come out of the closet/garret/cubicle/bike park for the day, the Whistler Readers and Writers Festival is so confident that at least one of its 15 seminars will work for you, that if you’re not happy with your experience, we will immediately escort you back to the gulag.

 

What’s the difference between toe-jam and the Postcard Jam?

Today, the Whistler Writers group sent out a mass reminder to Sea to Sky writers about the Postcard Jam contest.

 

They figured that Sea to Sky residents, however new to the region, are likely familiar with traffic jams, rail jams, strawberry jam, and toe-jam.

 

They may be less up-to-speed with postcard jams – a situation worth redressing quickly, given the August 25 deadline in the Postcard Jam short fiction contest, presented as part of the first ever Whistler Select Writing Awards.

 

Postcard Jam submissions are being sought from all manner of writer, real or fake, pro or rookie, regardless of age, provided they are based in the Sea to Sky corridor. $500 cash, publication in the Pique, a spot on stage alongside Leslie Anthony, Candas Jane Dorsey and William Deverell, as well as the title of Postcard Grand Poobah are ALL up for grabs.

 

The real question is : why is it called a Jam?

 

Stories must be under 300 words? That’s the postcard part…

 

Submitted by August 25?  That’s the ACT NOW part…

 

There’s an online application form at www.theviciouscircle.ca, so you don’t even need a stamp, or a postcard, or a pen to participate.

 

 

To enter, visit : http://www.theviciouscircle.ca/submissions/postcard-jam.php

Crime and mystery come to Whistler

William Deverell, award-winning crime writer, will speak at the September 2008 Whistler Writers Festival.   

A former criminal lawyer, William Deverell is the creator of Street Legal and has published fourteen novels including April Fool, which won the Arthur Ellis Award in 2006. His new novel, Kill All the Judges, heralded by the Quill & Quire and Canadian Living Magazine for its dark wit and compelling plot, partly takes place in Ottawa as one of the protagonists run for a Federal by-election with the Green Party. 

Deverell will lead a workshop – WRITING THE MYSTERY NOVEL – in Whistler on Saturday September 12, at 12:30pm.  Whether you have an idea for a mystery novel, or several chapters underway , this interactive workshop with a guru of the genre will explore key elements of the mystery novel including: developing the concept, nailing down the plot, the importance of research to get the details right, and how to develop and play with your characters. Feel free to bring samples of your mystery, to contribute to the discussion.

Deverell will also join an all-star panel on Saturday night at Millennium Place, alongside snake-charmer Leslie Anthony, and writer-in-residence and speculative fiction writer Candas Jane Dorsey.  Check out the entire Festival program, or order tickets online at www.theviciouscircle.ca

Deverell sat last month on a panel at SFU’s Symposium on the Book  and r

ailed to the Globe and Mail’s Marsha Lederman about crime fiction being ghettoized by the literary establishment.  

Happily, Whistler writers are sufficiently ghettoised by the mountain bikers, snowboarders, longboarders, and endurance athletes, that we’re just happy to be geeking out on words, be you high-brow, low-brow, no-brow, genre-fiction, non-fiction or superherographicfiction… September’s fest says, BRING IT ON.