The Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts is pleased to announce that George M. Abbott is the winner of the inaugural Al and Eurithe Purdy BC Award for Excellence for his book Unceded: Understanding British Columbia’s Colonial Past and Why It Matters Now, published by UBC Press.

Abbott was announced as the winner at the opening of the 2026 Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts on Thursday, August 13, and was presented with the $5,000 award by jury member and author Kara Stanley. As the current Chief Commissioner of the BC Treaty Commission, George Abbott brings a rare insider’s perspective to Unceded, chronicling more than 150 years of BC-Indigenous relations and the failure to resolve Aboriginal title.

The three-title shortlist for the prize included One Arrow Left: The Memoir of Secwépemc Knowledge Keeper Cecilia DeRose, by Cecilia DeRose with Sage Birchwater (Caitlin Press), and Rufous and Calliope by Sarah Louise Butler (Douglas & McIntyre). Serving on the jury were Colleen Hourigan, retired educator and SCFWA board member; Brian Thomas Isaac, the award-winning author of All the Quiet Places and Bones of a Giant; and Kara Stanley, acclaimed author of Fallen and The Pain Project.

In awarding the prize, the jury praised Unceded as a “timely and meticulously drawn chronology of the historical injustices imposed by the government of BC, clearly demonstrating how current debates regarding First Nations’ rights and land titles are the direct result of a series of policy decisions by key government officials beginning in the mid-19th century. Abbott chronicles the dedicated actions of First Nation leaders who, despite enduring decades of dispossession and deep injustice, have persevered to pass on a legacy of resistance down through generations. This is a book of both impressive archival research and profound relevance for the contemporary challenges faced in creating a better, more just, future. This book is written in clear and engaging language and should be required reading for all British Columbians.”

Established by Eurithe Purdy in memory of her late husband, acclaimed Canadian writer Al Purdy, the award recognizes an outstanding work of fiction or non-fiction written by a British Columbia author and published by a BC-based publisher. “I was extremely pleased with the response to the first Purdy BC Award for Excellence,” said Eurithe Purdy. “The shortlist was exceptional, and Unceded is a worthy winner. My congratulations to all concerned.”

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The Festival site

We refer to the entire Rockwood Centre as the Festival site. Everything is located in the park: the Festival Pavilion, our box office, the beverage booths, the Book Tent, washrooms, and Rockwood Lodge, where Special Events A, B and C take place. You can find a site map on our website.

Accessibility

Do you need accessibility seating or have accessibility requirements? Please call the office at 604-885-9631 or email su**********@*************al.ca before your event so we can help prepare for your visit. We also offer attendant tickets (while supplies last).

Talewind Books

Talewind Books is our wonderful Festival Bookseller and they will have the most amazing pop-up book shop located in the Tent above the Pavilion (see our site map). This is where you will find books by all the Festival authors, and where you can get them signed after each event. We are very grateful to Talewind owner Courtney Lamb and her hardworking and skilled team of booksellers.

Food options

We’ll have some light snacks (i.e. think chips, nuts and chocolate bars) for sale at the Festival’s Beverage Booth, but don’t forget you are welcome to bring food from home. If you want to wander off-site, the Sechelt Farmers and Artisans Market features a variety of food vendors on Saturday morning and afternoon (9:00 am – 2:00 pm), and the nearby Hackett Park Artisan Fair is taking place August 15-16. There are also some great eating establishments in Sechelt’s downtown, just a short walk away.

Drink Concession

Strait Coffee will be on site, selling coffee and tea. This wonderful company is locally owned and operated and roasts their coffee right here on the Sunshine Coast! You can stop by their storefront (4330 Sunshine Coast Hwy) to pick up some delicious food and snacks to eat while you’re at the Festival.

The Festival’s beverage booth will feature an assortment of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks as well as light snacks. The beverage booth accepts payment by credit and debit cards as well as cash. Free drinking water is also available here.

A zero-waste Festival

Our goal of zero-waste is now easier to reach, thanks to a partnership with Salish Soils and AjM Disposal. This project will see blue-bin service from AjM Disposal and help from the staff at Salish Soils who will take away sorted and labelled recycling after the Festival. Please assist Recycling Coordinator Uli Hadeler and our dedicated recycling volunteers by being mindful about how you sort your plastic, paper and food waste at one of our clearly marked recycling stations. You can also help reduce waste by bringing your own water bottles and coffee cups from home. You can refill your water bottles in the washrooms or from the water jugs kept at the Beverage Booth.

Contests and raffles

Try out our custom crossword puzzle, test your editing skills, or participate in our Rockwood Gardens hunt. Our popular contests are back and they are completely free to enter. The contest board will be set up at the Information Booth and you will find buckets for completed contest entries located throughout the site. Check the contest board for deadlines to submit your completed contest forms to win some great prizes. A big thank you to our volunteer contest committee, especially Maureen McBeath, Catherine Calder and Laura Davis, for creating such fun puzzles and quizzes.  

During the Festival, please consider buying a raffle ticket to support the Festival of the Written Arts… and you could win a luxurious two-night stay in a signature tenthouse at Rockwater Secret Cove Resort or a Festival Pass for 2027. Friendly volunteers will be selling raffle tickets throughout the weekend, or you can drop by the information booth or the festival box office where you can also purchase raffle tickets. The draw for the raffle will be held in the Pavilion on Sunday, August 16, at 4:30 pm. You do not have to be present to win.

Real-time captioning will be available in the pavilion for Events #1-18 thanks to the wizardry and skill of Michael Gurney.

Federation of BC Writers

Bryan Mortensen, Executive Director of the Federation of BC Writers (FBCW), is attending the Festival and would be happy to talk to anyone who wants to learn about the organization. At the Federation you can connect with other writers, hone your skills, showcase your work, and get support on your journey toward publication. The FBCW is also a sponsor of Special Event B, the Dialogue Workshop with Sam Wiebe. You can find Bryan in the Book Tent during Festival weekend.

Check the weather forecast

We never thought we would say this as we approach the eve of our Festival, but we are now hoping for rain (no lightning) and cool weather, anything that will help quell BC’s raging wildfires. Our thoughts are with the thousands of people who have had to evacuate or have lost their homes. On the Sunshine Coast, please be prepared for the weather, whatever it may be. Even if it’s warm during the day, our Pavilion stays cool and it can be chilly in the evenings. We recommend that you bring a sweater or jacket, just in case.

Join us for Coffee Hour

Enjoy complimentary coffee and tea and live music from The Soporifics (Ken Dalgleish and Boyd Norman) while you share stories, talk books and mingle with other festival goers. No registration is required.

Location: Beside the Book Tent | Date: Sunday, August 16, 12:30 – 1:30 pm | Cost: Free

Parking on Saturday, August 15

A final reminder that parking in downtown Sechelt will be very hard to find on Saturday, August 15 due to the Sechelt Farmers’ and Artisans’ Market, which will be set up on Cowrie Street from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm. If you are able, we recommend taking public transit or car pooling. If you do decide to drive that day, please leave yourself lots of time to arrive at the Festival. There will be drop-off/pick-up access in front of Rockwood Centre as well as a few parking spaces for those who need accessible parking. Shorncliffe Avenue will be open, but there will be lots of pedestrians to look out for and traffic will be congested. Overflow parking can be found near Chatelech Secondary.

Latecomers

Although the Festival has a wonderful, casual feel to it, our events almost always start right on time, thanks to our production team’s efficiency. Latecomers can be disruptive to both the presenter and the audience once the event gets underway. Sometimes arriving late is unavoidable, but please try to arrive at the Pavilion at least 5-15 minutes before your show starts.

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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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New in 2026, the Festival will offer delicious picnic lunch boxes, provided by Gourmet Girl Cafe and Catering. Gourmet Girl is a local Davis Bay community business that caters for events across the Sunshine Coast. You can drop by their storefront for some “comfort food with a twist” at 4720 Sunshine Coast Hwy, Sechelt. 

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 for lunch boxes will close on August 10 at 10:00 am.

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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SOLD OUT!

Register for a one-on-one meeting with Janine Young, a literary writer and the managing editor of Nightwood Editions. This 20-minute session provides the opportunity to get feedback from a publishing professional and learn about the editing process.

Janine Alyson Young is a literary writer from the West Coast of BC. Her short story collection Hideout Hotel was shortlisted for the Danuta Gleed Award, and she has been toiling over her first novel ever since. She is also the managing editor at Nightwood Editions, an indie publisher which proudly works with emerging and award-winning authors. She lives on the unceded traditional land of the Skwxwú7mesh People in Gibsons, BC. 

Please note that the selected registrants will have to submit a writing sample by July 30th. More information will be provided.

Festival and day passes do not include admission to Special Event A. To reserve a ticket for the Blue Pencil Sessions, fill out this order form and the Festival Office will contact you (while supplies last).

Location: Rockwood Lodge Art Space
Date: Sessions on Friday, August 14, Saturday, August 15 and Sunday, August 16
Cost: $40.00

Event B – Dialogue Workshop with Sam Wiebe

This event is supported by the Federation of BC Writers.

Join crime writer Sam Wiebe for a workshop on dialogue. He’ll discuss the difference between dialogue and real-life speech; how dialogue relates to character, pacing, voice, and plot; and why characters say one thing and mean another (even if they don’t know it).

Sam Wiebe is the author of the bestselling Ocean Drive as well as the Wakeland novels, one of the most authentic and acclaimed detective series in Canada, including Sunset and Jericho and The Last Exile. Guns Across the River is the latest in the series. His work has won the Crime Writers of Canada award, the Kobo Emerging Writers prize, and a silver medal from the Independent Publisher Book Awards, and been shortlisted for the Edgar, Hammett, Shamus and City of Vancouver book prizes. The Last Exile is a finalist for the 2026 BC and Yukon Book Prizes’ Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. Wiebe lives in New Westminster, BC.

Festival and day passes do not include admission to Special Event B. To reserve a ticket for the dialogue workshop, order at writersfestival.ca, visit the festival office in person or call 604-885-9631 (while supplies last).

Location: Rockwood Lodge Art Space
Date: Friday, August 14, 12:30 – 2:00 pm
Cost: $25.00

Event C – Writing Memoir with Donna Morrissey

SOLD OUT! Contact the Festival Office to be added to the waitlist

Just what the heck qualifies as memoir and how do you tell your story truthfully when everyone in it is still alive? In this workshop you’ll learn to distinguish between three types of memoir (book length, personal essay and narrative essay), decide which one works best for your story, and identify the main themes or ‘heart’ of your work.

Donna Morrissey is the author of the nationally bestselling memoir Pluck, which was a finalist for the Atlantic Book Awards’ Non-Fiction Award, and of seven acclaimed and bestselling novels, including the national bestseller Rage the Night. She won the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award and the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Fiction for The Fortunate Brother; Sylvanus Now was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize; and The Deception of Livvy Higgs was a One Read pick for Nova Scotia in 2017. Her fiction has also won awards in the US and the UK, and has been translated into several languages. Born and raised in Newfoundland, she lives in Halifax.

Festival and day passes do not include admission to Special Event C. To reserve a ticket for the memoir workshop, order at writersfestival.ca, visit the festival office in person or call 604-885-9631 (while supplies last).

Location: Rockwood Lodge Art Space
Date: Saturday, August 15, 12:30 – 2:00 pm
Cost: $25.00

Event D – Festival of the Written Arts Coffee Hour

Enjoy complimentary coffee and tea and live music while you share stories, talk books and mingle with other festival goers. No registration required!

Location: Beside the Book Tent
Date: Sunday, August 16, 12:30 – 1:30 pm
Cost: Free

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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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Why should you become a subscriber?

To make sure we can keep value in this program for everyone who subscribes, we are selling a maximum of 200 subscriptions, and we will close subscription sales whenever we sell out, or on May 16, 2026.

PLEASE NOTE:

Buying a subscription won’t automatically guarantee that you will be able to buy all the tickets and passes you want. To ensure access to the more popular events and passes, we will be capping sales at 2 passes and 4 tickets per event per subscriber during the presale period. We will also be reserving inventory for all events and passes to release on Monday, June 1, 2026, when sales open to the general public. This means subscriber inventory may sell out in some cases, and we urge you to order early to avoid disappointment. Subscribers will be able to purchase additional passes and tickets with their 10% discount as soon as general sales open on June 1st.

Questions? Please email in**@*************al.ca. You can purchase a subscription by using the link below, or by phoning the office at 604-885-9631 during business hours. Thank you for your support!

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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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