Special Events

Throughout the year, the Festival hosts several special events. Subscribe to our email notification service, and we’ll let you know when updates are posted to this site.

Authors from across Canada speak to students on the Sunshine Coast

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Family Literacy Week in British Columbia is January 21-28, 2024, and to celebrate, School District 46 and the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts have partnered together to bring ten virtual author presentations to students January 22-26.

Featured authors include Kenneth Oppel, bestselling author of Silverwing; Karl Subban, whose book, The Hockey Skates, features his son, former NHL defenceman PK Subban; Kim Spencer, who won the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award for her middle-grade novel Weird Rules to Follow; and Samantha Beynon, who wrote School District 46’s Coast Reads pick Oolichan Moon, published by local company Harbour Publishing.

The authors hail from as far away as New Brunswick and Ontario, and as close as Gibsons. Local author and editor Kallie George is offering a writing presentation to intermediate students and will talk about her book series Wings of Olympus.

Other authors Zooming into schools during Family Literacy Week are Andrea Fritz, Natalie Hyde, Valerie Sherrard, Jack Wong and Karina Zhou, all of whom will inspire students and share information about their writing process and themes.

Canadian authors have visited School District 46 classrooms, both in-person and virtually, every year since 2007.

The literacy programming is organized by Celebration of Authors, Books and Community (CABC), a joint initiative of SD 46 and the Festival of the Written Arts that was formed to support literacy on the Sunshine Coast by bringing authors in to talk about books and encourage students to express themselves through both the written and spoken word.

Personalizing the Impersonal — Nonfiction Writing Workshop with Mark L. Winston

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Join the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts for a special event with Mark L. Winston, acclaimed writing instructor and award-winning author. Mark will share his insights and expertise in a day-long nonfiction writing workshop, “Personalizing the Impersonal.”

About the workshop

At its core, nonfiction writing is about telling a true story that entertains and informs. It is about personal experience, real people and events told in a compelling and creative way. 

This workshop will explore how to bring deeper reflections into your writing, engaging your audiences through story and personal anecdote linked to broad issues of public interest. We’ll work on brevity, clarity and focus. You’ll gain confidence in using your unique voice and style with greater proficiency through clear thinking, succinctness, simplicity and bringing key messages front and centre.  You’ll work on whatever writing is on your plate at the moment, with possible outlets including newspapers, magazines, books, blogs, press releases, websites, pitches or whatever is currently occupying your writing space.

The workshop will be interactive and participatory, using writing exercises, intensive group feedback, editing and revisions. Be prepared to write; bring whatever you like to write in or on.

Details

  • Date: April 29, 2023
  • Time: 9:30 am to 4:30 pm
  • Location: Rockwood Lodge Art Space, Sechelt, BC (5511 Shorncliffe Avenue)
  • Cost: $85.00 per registration (includes GST)
  • Registration: Please phone 604-885-9631 or email marisa(at)writersfestival.ca
  • Other details: Bring your preferred writing materials and lunch. Snacks will be provided.

NEW! Register online, via Showpass! (Please note: Showpass charges an additional $3.82 in processing fees). If you register directly through the festival by email or phone the fee remains $85.00.

About Mark L. Winston

Mark L. Winston (www.winstonhive.com) is the recipient of the 2015 Governor General’s Literary Award for Nonfiction for his book Bee Time: Lessons From the Hive. One of the world’s leading experts on bees and pollination, Dr. Winston is also an internationally recognized researcher, teacher and writer. He directed Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Dialogue for 12 years, where he founded the Centre’s Semester in Dialogue, a program that creates leadership development opportunities that equip and empower students to contribute to social change in communities. He’s appeared three times at the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts since 1996, with his books Nature Wars, Bee Time, and Listening to the Bees, the last book co-written with poet Renée Sarojini Saklikar.

He currently is Professor Emeritus and Senior Fellow in Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Dialogue.