Writers confirmed to date
Event #1 – Naomi Klein, in conversation with Mo Amir
Thursday, August 15, 2024 – 8:00 p.m.
Naomi Klein is an award-winning journalist, columnist, and the international bestselling author of nine books published in over 35 languages including No Logo, The Shock Doctrine, This Changes Everything, No Is Not Enough, On Fire, and, most recently, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World, which deals with issues of identity in a polarized and polarizing society. Her writing has appeared in leading publications around the world, and she is a columnist for The Guardian. She is the honorary professor of Media and Climate at Rutgers University, an Associate Professor in Geography at University of British Columbia and the founding co-director of UBC’s Centre for Climate Justice.
Naomi Klein will be in conversation with Mo Amir, the creator and host of This is VANCOLOUR, British Columbia’s bonafide culture and politics TV talk show. Mo is also a political commentator for CBC radio and television. Last year, Vancouver Magazine named Mo on the Power 50 list, as one of Vancouver’s most powerful people.
Event #2 – Catherine Hernandez
Friday, August 16, 2024 – 9:00 a.m.
Catherine Hernandez is a proud queer woman of colour and an award-winning author. Her debut novel, Scarborough, which was adapted into an award-winning motion picture, was a finalist for numerous awards, including the Toronto Book Award and Trillium Book Award, and was selected for Canada Reads. Her other books include the children’s books Where Do Your Feelings Live? and M is for Mustache: A Pride ABC Book, and the novels Crosshairs—which made CBC’s Best Canadian Fiction list—and the instant bestseller The Story of Us, a finalist for the Forest of Reading Evergreen Award.
Event #3 – Sarah Cox
Friday, August 16, 2024 – 10:30 a.m.
Author and journalist Sarah Cox brings us Signs of Life, stories from the front lines as biologists, conservationists, and ordinary people race to save hundreds of species before it’s too late.
In May 2022, Cox won the Canadian Association of Journalists’ Award for Environmental & Climate Change Reporting and her investigative reporting for The Narwhal has also been awarded the World Press Freedom Award and the Canadian Journalism Foundation’s Jackman Award for Excellence in Journalism. Cox’s 2018 book Breaching the Peace: The Site C Dam and a Valley’s Stand Against Big Hydro won a BC Book Prize and was a finalist for the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing (Writers’ Trust of Canada) and the George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature.
Event #4 – Charlene Carr
Friday, August 16, 2024 – 1:00 p.m.
Charlene Carr is the youngest of four children and the only girl. Living in a house full of boys taught her to fight for what she wants and to always reach higher (you have to when everyone in your family towers above you). She spent much of her childhood creating elaborate, multi-faceted storylines for her dolls and reading under the blankets with a flashlight when she was supposed to be asleep. Pursuing this lifelong obsession with stories, she studied literature at university, attaining both a BA and MA in English, including a study program at Oxford. Still craving more, she attained a degree in Journalism. A bit of a nomad, she’s lived in four countries and seven Canadian provinces. After travelling the globe and working an array of mostly writing related jobs, she decided the time had come to focus on her true love—novel writing. Charlene lives in Nova Scotia with her husband and two daughters. She is the author of eleven novels and received grants from Arts Nova Scotia and the Canada Council for the Arts to write her most recent book, We Rip the World Apart.
Event #5 – Sam George, in conversation with Jill Yonit Goldberg
Friday, August 16, 2024 – 2:30 p.m.
The Fire Still Burns is the powerful story of Sam George’s experiences at St. Paul’s Indian Residential School in North Vancouver.
Sam George is a Squamish Elder and a survivor of the Canadian Indian Residential School system. A retired longshoreman and semi-retired drug and alcohol counsellor, Sam now works as an educator with the Indian Residential School Survivors Society and speaks with students and community groups about his experiences. Jill Yonit Goldberg is a writer and a literature and creative writing instructor at Langara College in Vancouver, BC, where she teaches the Writing Lives course in which students collaborate with Indian Residential School survivors who are writing their memoirs. She worked with Sam George to bring his story to the page. Her novel, After We Drowned, is forthcoming with Anvil Press in 2024.
Event #6 – Kyo Maclear, in conversation with Naomi Klein
Friday, August 16, 2024 – 4:00 p.m.
Kyo Maclear is an award-winning novelist, essayist, and children’s author. Her books have been translated into eighteen languages and published in over twenty-five countries. She is the author of the hybrid memoir Birds Art Life (2017), winner of the Trillium Book Award. Kyo holds a doctorate in environmental humanities and is on faculty at the University of Guelph Creative Writing MFA. Her latest book is Unearthing: A Story of Tangled Love and Family Secrets, winner of the 2023 Governor General’s Literary Award for Nonfiction.
Event #7 – Waubgeshig Rice
Friday, August 16, 2024 – 7:00 p.m.
Waubgeshig Rice is an author and journalist from Wasauksing First Nation. He’s written four books, most notably the bestselling novels Moon of the Crusted Snow and Moon of the Turning Leaves. He graduated from the journalism program at Toronto Metropolitan University in 2002, and spent most of his journalism career with the CBC as a video journalist and radio host. Rice left CBC in 2020 to focus on his literary career. He lives in Sudbury, Ontario, with his wife and three sons.
Event #8 – Brent Butt
Friday, August 16, 2024 – 8:30 p.m.
Funnyman Brent Butt of Corner Gas fame gets serious in his debut novel, Huge, a dark and twisted thriller that became an instant national #1 bestseller. Brent is considered one of the funniest people in Canada, with a career in stand-up comedy that stretches into five decades, including numerous appearances at major festivals in multiple countries and being voted Best Male Stand-Up in Canada by his peers in the profession.
Event #9 – Coast Writes: Marion McKinnon Crook & David Roche
Saturday, August 17, 2024 – 9:00 a.m.
Our Coast Writes event features writers who live, work and write on the Sunshine Coast. David Roche’s essay collection, Standing at the Back Door of Happiness, explores the beauty found in unusual places while award-winning author Marion McKinnon Crook returns with Always on Call, a fascinating portrait of the hectic life of a rural nurse.
David Roche is a popular motivational speaker and performer, and he has taken his one-man show, The Church of 80% Sincerity, on tour across the world, performing from Sydney to Moscow, London to Los Angeles, and even at the White House. A recent recipient of the Order of Canada, Roche is also a volunteer for the Sunshine Coast Hospice in British Columbia. Marion McKinnon Crook is a nurse, an educator, and the author of more than twenty-five books, including the bestselling Always Pack a Candle, which won the BC Historical Federation’s Community History Book Award. Always On Call is the much-anticipated sequel. In addition to her nursing degree, McKinnon Crook holds a master’s in liberal studies and a PhD in education.
Moderator Andreas Schroeder is an award-winning author with more than twenty books of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and children’s literature to his name. As a journalist he has won a National Magazine Award and the Canadian Association of Journalists’ Best Investigative Journalism prize. He lives in Roberts Creek, BC.
Event #10 – Susan Juby
Saturday, August 17, 2024 – 10:30 a.m.
Susan Juby is the award-winning, bestselling author of Mindful of Murder, which debuted at number one on the independent bookstores’ bestseller list and was nominated for the Leacock Medal for Humour. She has also written Getting the Girl, Another Kind of Cowboy and The Woefield Poultry Collective, as well as the bestselling Alice series (Alice, I Think; Miss Smithers; and Alice MacLeod, Realist at Last). Her novel Republic of Dirt won the Leacock Medal in 2016. Susan Juby lives on Vancouver Island with her husband, James, and their dogs, who are convinced they could have lucrative careers as social media stars. In 2024 she released A Meditation on Murder, the hilarious sequel to Mindful of Murder.
Event #11 – Kara Stanley & Simon Paradis
Saturday, August 17, 2024 – 1:30 p.m.
Sunshine Coast author Kara Stanley and musician Simon Paradis team up in The Pain Project, an interactive collage of personal story, song, poetry, and science. Together they weave a multi-faceted look at the mysterious force that is pain.
Kara Stanley is a writer of fiction and non-fiction, a lyricist, and a movement teacher. Simon Paradis is a musician who has been playing in blues, rock, and roots bands across Canada for 30 years. A serious fall in 2008 resulted in life-altering injuries, but after a long rehabilitation process, he has returned to music again. Together, this couple has collaborated on Kara’s 2015 memoir Fallen, which was longlisted for the BC Award for Canadian Non-Fiction, and on Simon’s CD’s Good Road Home (2013); Mouthful of Stars (2015); and Grooves and Ruts (2019).
Event #12 – Kevin Chong
Saturday, August 17, 2024 – 3:00 p.m.
Kevin Chong is the award-winning author of several books of fiction and nonfiction. His work has appeared in The Guardian, The Rumpus, and more. He currently lives in Vancouver and is an associate professor at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan campus. The Double Life of Benson Yu was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize.
Event #13 – Lorna Crozier & Jess Housty
Saturday, August 17, 2024 – 4:30 p.m.
Lorna Crozier, one of Canada’s pre-eminent poets, shares After That, a meditation on grief and loss. Jess Housty (‘Cúagilákv) is of Heiltsuk and mixed settler ancestry. Their collection, Crushed Wild Mint, explores our shared humanity through sensory, textural poems.
An Officer of the Order of Canada, Lorna Crozier has been acknowledged for her contributions to Canadian literature, her teaching and her mentoring with five honourary doctorates, most recently from McGill and Simon Fraser Universities. Her books have received numerous national awards, including the Governor-General’s Award for Poetry. Jess Housty is a parent, writer and grassroots activist with Heiltsuk (Indigenous) and mixed settler ancestry. They serve their community as an herbalist and land-based educator alongside broader work in the non-profit and philanthropic sectors. Their debut poetry book, Crushed Wild Mint, is shortlisted for the 2024 Bill Duthie Bookseller’s Choice Award and the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. They reside and thrive in their unceded ancestral territory in the community of Bella Bella, BC.
Event #14 – Ann-Marie MacDonald
Saturday, August 17, 2024 – 7:00 p.m.
Ann-Marie MacDonald is a novelist, playwright, actor, and broadcast host. Her work has been honoured with numerous awards, including the Chalmers, the Governor General’s, Gemini, Dora Mavor Moore, John Drainie, the Gascon-Thomas, the Canadian Authors Association, the Canadian Booksellers Association, and the Commonwealth Prize. Her writing for the stage includes the plays Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning, Juliet), Belle Moral: A Natural History and Hamlet-911; her novels are Fall On Your Knees, The Way the Crow Flies, Adult Onset, and, most recently, Fayne. Ann-Marie graduated from the Acting Program of The National Theatre School of Canada in 1980. In 2019 she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. She is married to theatre director Alisa Palmer, with whom she has two children.
Event #15 – The Rockwood Lecture: Gregor Craigie
Saturday, August 17, 2024 – 8:30 p.m.
Journalist and author Gregor Craigie delivers this year’s Rockwood Lecture. His newest book, Our Crumbling Foundation, investigates Canada’s housing crisis and offers inspired solutions for creating new homes. A journalist for more than 25 years at the BBC World Service, CBC Radio, CBS Radio and Public Radio International, Gregor has hosted On The Island on CBC Radio One in Victoria, BC, since 2007. His first book, On Borrowed Time, was a finalist for both the Balsillie Prize for Public Policy and the City of Victoria Book Prize, and was a Globe and Mail Top 100 book in 2021.
Event #16 – Deborah Kimmett
Sunday, August 18, 2024 – 9:00 a.m.
Deborah Kimmett is a trailblazer in Canadian comedy. She has been a guest on CBC’s The Debaters for seventeen years and has a regular spot in CBC’s Winnipeg Comedy Festival and Laugh Out Loud. Her last comedy album, Downward Facing Broad, reached number 5 on iTunes. She is the author of Reality Is Overrated, Outrunning Crazy and That Which Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Funnier, and her play Miracle Mother was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award. Kimmett has also been a contributing columnist for More Magazine, Kingston Life, Toronto Life, Canadian Living and the Toronto Star. Her new book is called Window Shopping for God, published by Douglas & McIntyre.
Event #17 – Harbour Publishing’s 50th Anniversary
Sunday, August 18, 2024 – 10:30 a.m.
Join us as we celebrate 50 years of excellent books from Harbour Publishing. Howard White, Grant Lawrence and Betty Keller bring their unique perspectives to the inner workings of this independent publisher. Moderated by Andreas Schroeder.
Betty Keller is a teacher, mentor, editor and a writer who has authored or co-authored eighteen books, including biographies, histories, plays and novels. She is a founder of the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts and the recipient of the George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award for an outstanding literary career in BC. Grant Lawrence is an award-winning writer, musician, broadcaster, and live event host. He is the author of four bestselling books for adults: Adventures in Solitude, The Lonely End of the Rink, Dirty Windshields and Return to Solitude. His second book for children, Adventures in Desolation Sound, will be released in 2024. Howard White started Harbour Publishing in the early 1970s and his own books include Spilsbury’s Coast, Writing in the Rain, The Sunshine Coast and A Mysterious Humming Noise. He has been awarded the Order of BC, the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour and the Jim Douglas Publisher of the Year Award. In 2007, White was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.
Event #18 – Shelley Wood
Sunday, August 18, 2024 – 1:00 p.m.
Shelley Wood is writer and journalist whose fiction and nonfiction have been published internationally. Her debut novel, The Quintland Sisters, was an instant #1 Globe and Mail and Toronto Star bestseller. Her second novel, The Leap Year Gene, will be published by HarperCollins Canada and Union Square Press (US), in August 2024. Born and raised in Vancouver, Shelley has a home with her husband and dog in Kelowna, BC, and a job as the editorial director for the Cardiovascular Research Foundation, in New York, NY.
Event #19 – New Voices: Carly Butler & Tara Sidhoo Fraser, moderated by Megan Cole
Sunday, August 18, 2024 – 2:30 p.m.
Carly Butler is a bisexual Indigenous woman with ancestral roots in Mexico. She spent the first ten years of her life in the US, and was brought to Canada illegally in 1998. She has been a babysitter, a house cleaner, a barista and a birth doula, and now she is a stay-at-home-disability-mom and author. She lives with her husband and two children in Langley, BC. Apocalypse Child is her first book. Tara Sidhoo Fraser is a queer writer and creator of South Asian and Scottish ancestry. Her work has been published in Autostraddle and Anathema magazine, among others. Her first book, When My Ghost Sings: A Memoir of Stroke, Recovery, and Transformation, is a love story centred in selfhood and who is left behind when the past is obliterated. Tara lives in Vancouver, BC.
As a journalist, moderator Megan Cole has worked for community newspapers, CBC Radio and Canadian Press. As a podcast and event host, she has interviewed Michelle Good, Steven Price, Billy-Ray Belcourt, Ivan Coyote and more. Currently she works as the director of programming and communications for the BC and Yukon Book Prizes.
Event #20 – Wade Davis
Sunday, August 18, 2024 – 4:00 p.m.
Wade Davis is currently Professor of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia and was Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society from 2000 to 2013. His 23 books, published in 22 languages, include One River, The Wayfinders and Into the Silence, winner of the 2012 Samuel Johnson prize, the top nonfiction prize in the English language. In 2016, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada. In 2018 he became an Honorary Citizen of Colombia. His most recent book is a collection of essays, Beneath the Surface of Things, which is being published in April 2024. He lives on Bowen Island, BC.
Event #21 – Jill Barber
Sunday, August 18, 2024 – 7:30 p.m.
Jill Barber is the winner of a 2024 Canadian Folk Music Award for best producer of the year and a three-time Juno Award nominated singer-songwriter. She is an unforgettable, enchanting performer with over 1.3 million monthly listeners on Spotify. Her critically acclaimed repertoire spans a transformative spectrum from folk, to vocal jazz, to pop, and includes songs in both French and English. Her latest album, Homemaker, delivers ten quietly profound songs about the complexities of motherhood, marriage, and the struggle to feel at home in one’s own identity.