Accolades flow to Whistler writer Susan Reifer

Whistler Writers Festival 08 presenter Susan Reifer is finishing her year in style.

Susan has won the 2008 Alto Tourism Media Award for excellence in travel journalism for her feature “Alberta Unbound,” which ran in SKI Magazine in November 2007.

Separately, Susan has been named a finalist for the Tourism Industry Association of Canada’s 2008 Tourism Excellence Travel Media Award; this award, sponsored by the Globe and Mail, will be presented at TIAC’s leadership summit in November. Susan’s nomination is based on her body of published work about Canadian travel experiences.

Giller-guru Joseph Boyden is coming to Whistler, February 2009

The Whistler Writers Group is pleased to announce its star-studded line-up for the February 2009 Literary Leanings event in Whistler, British Columbia.

Giller prize-winner Joseph Boyden (Through Black Spruce) will join his wife and fellow novelist Amanda Boyden (Babylon Rolling), Steven Galloway (The Cellist of Sarajevo) and the CBC’s Shelagh Rogers (host of The Next Chapter, a new weekly radio show devoted to Canadian writing of all kinds) in what promises to be a hot-in-demand ticket.

Local writer Sara Leach signs publishing deal for children’s book

Founding member of the Vicious Circle, Sara Leach, has inked a publishing deal with Orca Book Publishers for a children’s book set in the Gulf Islands. The book’s working title is Jake Reynolds: Chicken or Eagle.

Sara Leach, an elementary school teacher, and mother of 2 children, has been published in the Pique newsmagazine, Whistler Question, and been a featured writer at Literary Leanings and at the Whistler Writers Festival.

Said Leach recently, “I never could have achieved this without Whistler’s wonderful critique group or all the work everyone has put in to bring the many presenters to the festival and the writer-in-residence to town.”

Leach is also the author of Mountain Machines, a children’s picture and counting book, that is currently being prepared for publication.

Snake-charmer Leslie Anthony reads at Whistler Library, Nov 17, 7pm

It’s here at last. Whistler scribe Leslie Anthony is celebrating the launch of his new book: Snakebit: Confessions of a Herpetologist.

Billed as the Far Side meets the Orchid Thief, with a nod to Bill Bryson, Snakebit is in stores everywhere, just in time for Christmas. Although it’s geared to a wide audience, the hot tip is that it’s the ultimate stocking stuffer for the armchair naturalist, traveller, adventurer, bio/conservation type and lover of schadenfreude, in your life. 

For real life insight into what a powder-obsessed snake-lover actually looks like, you can meet Leslie at the Whistler Library this Monday. November 17, 7pm.