The Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts is pleased to announce the shortlist for the Al and Eurithe Purdy BC Award for Excellence, a new annual prize recognizing an outstanding book of fiction or non-fiction written by a British Columbia author and traditionally published by a BC-based publisher.

The finalists were chosen from nearly 40 eligible titles published in British Columbia in 2025 and include two books of non-fiction and one book of fiction written by authors from Victoria, Williams Lake and Nelson.

“We would like to emphasize the quality of the books being written and published in the province—the field of eligible titles was impressive,” remarked Marisa Alps, the Artistic and Executive Director of the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts. “The books that were eventually selected are firmly rooted in the history and landscape of BC and are not only rewarding to read, but bring awareness to issues of cultural importance to British Columbians. They also remind us how a beautifully and skillfully told story can create connection and understanding.”

The 2026 shortlisted authors are:

George M. Abbott — Unceded: Understanding British Columbia’s Colonial Past and Why It Matters Now (UBC Press)
As the current Chief Commissioner of the BC Treaty Commission, George M. Abbott brings a rare insider’s perspective to Unceded: Understanding British Columbia’s Colonial Past and Why It Matters Now, chronicling more than 150 years of BC-Indigenous relations and the failure to resolve Aboriginal title.

Cecilia Dick DeRose, with Sage Birchwater — One Arrow Left: The Memoir of Secwépemc Knowledge Keeper Cecilia DeRose (Caitlin Press)
In One Arrow Left, Secwépemc elder, matriarch, and knowledge-keeper Cecilia DeRose (1935-2026) worked with writer Sage Birchwater to recount her journey from the meadows of the Cariboo through the trauma of residential school to receiving an honorary doctorate in recognition of her work in language and cultural preservation.

Sarah Louise Butler — Rufous and Calliope (Douglas & McIntyre)
Sarah Louise Butler takes readers deep into the rugged BC Interior in Rufous and Calliope, a powerful work of geographic fiction that features runaway children, treehouse hideaways, early-onset dementia and the persistence of hope amidst ecological grief.

Established through the generous support of Eurithe Purdy in memory of her late husband, acclaimed Canadian writer Al Purdy, the award recognizes books distinguished by literary excellence, dedication to craft, originality, and a strong connection to British Columbia’s cultural, historical, or literary landscape.

“It is an honour to be able to endow this new prize for BC writers,” said Eurithe Purdy. “I know from long experience how much effort writers put into sustaining our literary culture and how little recognition they normally receive. I hope this new prize will go some way to showing our appreciation.”

The award seal, which features a dogwood flower, was created expressly for the Al and Eurithe Purdy BC Award for Excellence by acclaimed artist Roy Henry Vickers. “A four-petal Pacific dogwood reminds me of the four directions of the sweat lodge and the four seasons,” explained Vickers. “… The eagle in the centre represents the sun and the moon, and the vision we have to see clearly what we can give to our community as teachers, healers, visionaries, and leaders.”

The three finalists—George Abbott, Sage Birchwater and Sarah Louise Butler—will be featured at the BC Books Showcase event moderated by Kathryn Gretsinger on Friday, August 14, at 2 pm during the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts. The winner of the $5,000 prize will be announced on August 13 at the Festival’s opening reception.

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The lunch boxes will be available, by pre-order only, for pick up at the Festival site on Friday Aug. 14, Saturday, Aug. 15, and Sunday, Aug. 16. between 12:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. Lunch boxes can be claimed at the lunch table near the Book Tent. The pre-order period will close 48 hours before the delivery period each day. 

There are five lunch options, priced at $30.00 each (includes tax and delivery). 

• Crispy Chicken Club Wrap with tortellini pasta salad and chocolate chip cookie 
• Gluten-free Chicken Club Wrap with Greek quinoa salad and peanut butter granola bar (GF) 
• Vegetarian Falafel Wrap with tortellini pasta salad and chocolate chip cookie (vegetarian) 
• Vegan Falafel Wrap with Greek quinoa salad and peanut butter granola bar (GF, vegan) 
• Roast Beef & Cheddar Baguette with tortellini pasta salad and chocolate chip cookie

If sandwiches aren’t your style, there are also delicious charcuterie boxes offered for $24.00 (includes tax and delivery) that contain imported cheeses, salami, prosciutto, olives, and crackers. The charcuterie box is gluten-free.

Please note: The purchasing platform, Zeffy, is 100% free for the Festival of the Written Arts as we are a registered charity. To make up for this, Zeffy asks for donations to their platform from the purchaser. If you do not want to donate to Zeffy, please select “other amount” at checkout and set to 0%. Thank you for your understanding. 

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Al and Eurithe Purdy

The Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts is pleased to announce the Al and Eurithe Purdy BC Award for Excellence, an annual prize recognizing an outstanding book of fiction or non-fiction written by a BC author and published by a BC-based publisher.

The prize is made possible through the generous support of Eurithe Purdy in memory of her late husband, the great Canadian writer Al Purdy, and was created to recognize his literary legacy and his close ties to British Columbia. “It is an honour to be able to endow this new prize for BC writers,” said Eurithe Purdy. “I know from long experience how much effort writers put into sustaining our literary culture and how little recognition they normally receive. I hope this new prize will go some way to showing our appreciation.”

The $5,000 prize will be awarded to an author whose work shows literary merit, dedication to craft and originality, and is rooted in BC’s cultural, historical or literary landscape. Starting in 2026, the award will be presented each year at the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts.

“We are thrilled to be able to support BC-published and BC-authored books through this award,” says Marisa Alps, the Artistic and Executive Director of the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts. “The Festival was formed in 1983 with the vision of amplifying Canadian writers, and we think Al and Eurithe Purdy’s award fits beautifully within this mandate.”

For this inaugural year, Alps compiled a list of eligible fiction and literary non-fiction titles published in British Columbia in 2025. (Beginning next year, the award will incorporate a formal submission process for publishers.) Excluded from consideration are reference works, children’s books, poetry, plays and self-published titles. Books will be evaluated by a dedicated reading committee, and a longlist will then be forwarded to an independent jury.

The shortlist will be announced in June 2026, and the three finalists will be invited to participate in the BC Books Showcase, a celebratory reading event hosted at the Festival of the Written Arts on Friday, August 14. The winner will be announced during the Festival’s opening reception.

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At the orientation you can meet other volunteers, help yourself to drinks and snacks, browse for some free books and magazines, and enter a draw for a prize basket with local goods and gift certificates for Sunshine Coast businesses. Folks are welcome to stay for the whole two hours, or just ten minutes!

• Wednesday, May 27 | 4:00 – 6:00 p.m.

NEW LOCATION: Seaside Centre, 5790 Teredo Street, Sechelt.

Attending a volunteer orientation meeting is not mandatory if you want to volunteer this year, but if you can come, please drop by. You are also welcome to fill out the volunteer contact form on our website.

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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 at 1:30 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.

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The deadline to submit to the 16th edition of Coastal Voices is almost here!

Coastal Voices is an anthology of writing by Sunshine Coast students which is published annually by Celebration of Authors, Books and Community (CABC), a joint initiative of School District 46 – Sunshine Coast and the Festival of the Written Arts that was formed to promote literacy and to encourage youth to express themselves through both the written and spoken word.

Students in Kindergarten to grade 12 have until Friday, March 13 to submit up to three poems, stories, personal narratives or short essays with a maximum length of 500 words. Volunteer adjudicators usually receive between 700-800 submissions each year, which they then have to whittle down to 150-200 pieces for the anthology.

The anthology’s professional design is possible thanks to Edmund Arceo, the publisher and founder of Zoom magazine. Arceo has been involved with Coastal Voices since its beginning sixteen years ago, and he volunteers his time and expertise each year to produce a beautiful volume that honours and celebrates its contributors.

For more information about submitting to Coastal Voices, students can talk to their teachers, or email project coordinator John Lussier at jl******@*****bc.ca.

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Special thanks to our generous auction donors…

Arts Club Theatre, BC Ferries, Canadian Tire (Sechelt), Coast Academy of Dance, Fred’s Sechelt, Gigi Hoeller Art, Painted Boat Resort Spa & Marina, Rockwater Secret Cove Resort, Sechelt Inn, and Talaysay Tours.

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Tickets are still on sale! Don’t miss your chance to hear from others in our incredible lineup of writers this year. You can buy tickets by calling 604-885-9631 or 1-800-565-9631 (toll-free), visiting our office in person (5511 Shorncliffe Avenue in Sechelt), or online via Tickit. You can find more information about the Festival and the remaining events by perusing the 2025 Festival Program.

We have three sold out shows (Event #1, Event #14, and Event #15), but we still have tickets available for all other regular events.

It’s raining, it’s pouring!

This weekend is going to be a rainy one! Come prepared with jackets and umbrellas. The Pavilion is an open-air site, so even though it is covered – it can still get chilly during the events.

Hungry during your event?

We are pleased to announce the return of the Festival Café! We will have fresh and local flexitarian options including a gluten-free/vegan soup, an assortment of sandwiches, and a variety of sweets. Located near the book tent, the Café will be open daily from 8:30 am – 6:30 pm.

Once you’ve got your lunch, come check out the Beverage Booth! Located between Rockwood Lodge and the Book Tent, there are a variety of non-alcoholic and alcoholic refreshments for sale. This year, you can find Sunshine Coast beer from Persephone Brewing and local cider from Banditry Cider.

Locally owned and operated, Strait Coffee will also be serving their delicious coffee and tea on site from Friday-Sunday! Their both will be located in front of Rockwood Lodge

Limited Parking on Saturday

If you are coming to the festival on Saturday morning or early afternoon (on August 16), please leave lots of time to find parking, or carpool, or travel by public transit. The Sechelt Farmer’s and Artisan Market is set up at the end of Cowrie Street until 2:30 p.m. on Saturdays, and it is very busy!

Shorncliffe Avenue will still be open for drop-offs/pick-ups, and we do have some limited parking for attendees with disabilities.

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Stay for the whole two hours, or just ten minutes! While you’re here you can meet other volunteers, help yourself to tea and coffee, browse for some free books and magazines, and enter a draw for a prize basket with local goods and gift certificates for Sunshine Coast businesses.

• Wednesday, April 16 | 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
• Friday, May 23 | 1:00 – 3:00 p.m.

LOCATION: Both drop-in meetings will be held in the Rockwood Lodge Living Room and Dining Room, Rockwood Centre, Sechelt.

If you’re interested in being a TICKET-TAKER, you will be able to speak with Front of House Manager Pat Dalgleish on both April 16 and May 23. Would you like to be one of our CAFÉ VOLUNTEERS this year? Festival Café Manager Lynn Grossutti will also be on hand to talk about this role and how you can help with food prep and packaging. And we may be lucky to have additional visits from other members of our production team!

Attending a volunteer orientation meeting is not mandatory if you want to volunteer in 2025, but we would love to see you if you can make it. You can also fill out the volunteer contact form on our website.

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Calling all young authors! The deadline to submit to the 15th anniversary edition of Coastal Voices, an adjudicated anthology of writing by School District 46 students, is rapidly approaching.

Students in Kindergarten to grade 12 have until Friday, March 14 to submit up to three poems, stories, personal narratives or short essays with a maximum length of 500 words. Submissions will be sent to a team of volunteer adjudicators from the community, who have the difficult task of choosing a selection of the best writing for publication. For the sake of fairness and impartiality, names and identifying schools are removed from each submission—the only information the adjudicators have when they make their decisions is the approximate age (grade) of the authors.

The adjudicators usually receive between 700-800 submissions each year, which then have to be whittled down to 150-200 pieces for the anthology.

“Each of these pieces of art represents what these gifted young people are thinking and feeling,” says John Lussier, a retired educator and the anthology’s coordinator. “They have created their own magic and then have been brave enough to share it with the world.”

Another important part of the anthology is its professional design, created by Edmund Arceo of Zoom Magazine. Arceo has been involved with Coastal Voices since its inception, and he volunteers his time and expertise each year to produce a beautiful volume that honours and celebrates its contributors.

Coastal Voices is published annually by Celebration of Authors, Books and Community (CABC), a joint initiative of School District 46 – Sunshine Coast and the Festival of the Written Arts that was formed to promote literacy and to encourage youth to express themselves through both the written and spoken word.

For more information about submitting to Coastal Voices, students can talk to their teachers, or email John Lussier at jl******@*****bc.ca.

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