The Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts and School District 46 – Sunshine Coast are pleased to announce the Celebration of Authors, Books and Community (CABC) 2026 Writer-in-Residence program.
Funded in part by a generous Responsive Community Grant from the Sunshine Coast Foundation, the program aims to support a new generation of storytellers on the Sunshine Coast by offering students in-depth, week-long workshops with professional writers that will inspire them and help develop their skills and storytelling/writing abilities.
Kathleen Gros, a cartoonist and graphic novelist from Vancouver, was selected as the 2026 CABC secondary writer-in-residence. Gros travelled between Chatelech Secondary and Elphinstone Secondary from February 23-27 to deliver workshops on making zines (short magazines), publishing graphic novels and creating comics. She worked with approximately 50 creative writing, art and English students at each high school.
Gros’s most recent graphic novels include Carousel Summer, Anne: An Adaptation of Anne of Green Gables (Sort Of), and Jo: An Adaptation of Little Women (Sort Of). She graduated with a BFA in Illustration from Emily Carr University of Art and Design and currently teaches students of all ages at Place des Arts in Coquitlam, and teen students at Emily Carr University of Art and Design.
The CABC elementary writer-in-residence is Tanya Lloyd Kyi, who is excited to be working with grade 5, 6 and 7 students at Roberts Creek Elementary during the week of April 20-24.
Tanya Lloyd Kyi is the author of more than 30 books for children and young adults and is an instructor at the UBC School of Creative Writing. Her most recent titles include The City of Lost Cats, Feeling Your Feelings, What Will I Discover; Our Green City, Better Connected (written with her daughter, Julia Kyi); and The Best Way to Get Your Way.
The Roberts Creek Elementary Writer-in-Residence program will culminate with a celebratory public event featuring Kyi and some of the student participants reading from their work. The event will take place on Friday, April 24 from 5-6 pm at the Roberts Creek Legacy Garden (or, in the case of inclement weather, the Roberts Creek Elementary School Library).
CABC is a joint initiative of School District 46—Sunshine Coast and the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts that brings writers into Sunshine Coast classrooms to talk about books and writing and encourage students to express themselves through both the written and spoken word. Each year CABC also publishes Coastal Voices, an annual anthology of student writing.