Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts
5511 Shorncliffe Avenue V0N 3A0 Sechelt, BC, Canada

We have just posted our February newsletter that includes our working plan for the summer of 2021. Although the best laid plans are subject to change during a global pandemic, we are feeling hopeful in Sechelt! As always, we thank our public sector funding partners Canadian Heritage Canada Council for the Arts | Conseil des arts du Canada BC Arts Council and District of Sechelt for their ongoing support that is so vital to our operations and our capacity to plan and move forward. https://writersfestival.ca/2021/february-newsletter/

Thank you, Nicholas Simons, MLA for Powell River-Sunshine Coast for promoting BC writers, books and publishers! Check out what Nicholas is reading, friends! It's Monday Was a Simpler Time: Reflections on a Pandemic, the anthology we put together in the fall, featuring new work by 16 Canadian writers. Association of Book Publishers of British Columbia Read Local BC

Sechelt friends: The District of Sechelt is looking for your input!

Saturday, February 6 at 7 p.m. Register in advance for this free event.

Day 5 of Family Literacy Week and what a week it has been. Kenneth Oppel is with us today to talk about the inspiration, ideas, and research that go into each book. He has many super-fans on the Sunshine Coast, both students and teachers, and he was so generous with his time and with the answers to the questions everyone had. What a wonderful opportunity for young readers and writers on the Sunshine Coast. There was quite the buzz in the Zoom room today! www.kennethoppel.ca

Today is Day 4 of Family Literacy Week in School District 46 - Sunshine Coast. Monique Gray Smith is with us to share her latest book When We Are Kind (Orca Book Publishers). Monique reminds us about the power of love and kindness expressed through word and action, our capacity to hold each other up, and the power of story. Thank you, Monique.

We were so looking forward to celebrating Farzana Doctor and this book at the 2020 Festival. And then everything changed. Farzana launches her latest novel, Seven, tomorrow at 4 p.m. (Pacific)/7 p.m. (Eastern). Hope to see you there! See link comments!

This event, brought to you by the Sunshine Coast Arts Council, is on Saturday, September 19. Click on the link below the photos to register.

Tickets go on sale tomorrow (Sept 15) at 10 a.m.!

We're proud to be a member of the Sunshine Coast Literacy Coalition. Would you or someone you know benefit from one of these free courses?

Saturday, August 29. Please support your local independent bookstore. We need them now more than ever before. Talewind Books in District of Sechelt

Today would have been the opening night of the 2020 Festival. We've stitched together a little slideshow to remind you of what we've built together and what we can look forward to again one day. If you were in the Pavilion on the closing night of the 2014 Festival, you will remember the finale. It has stayed with me all these years and it is so appropriate for these times. All This Trouble, music and lyrics by Brendan McLeod, was performed by Brendan with spoken word verses by Jillian Christmas and Zaccheus Jackson. Thinking of our Festival community today. Be well, friends.

Sigh. We’re into what would have been Festival week and the memories are flooding in. The Volunteer Party is always on the Tuesday. We miss you all so very much. The quiet in the park is almost overwhelming these days. Take good care, be well and be safe. We’ll be together again! Thank you all.

We are pleased to announce the Greg Younging Undergraduate Award in Publishing Studies. This award will help support the training of emerging Indigenous publishers at SFU Publishing. More information: http://books.bc.ca/greg-younging-award/

Tonight (Thursday, Aug 6). Join the launch celebration for Aislinn Hunter's latest novel, The Certainties, at 7 p.m. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca//the-certa/9780735276871) (Knopf Canada) Click here (https://sfu.zoom.us/j/98576208761) to join the Zoom launch.... See you there!

Tomorrow at 2 p.m. (Yukon is in the Pacific Time Zone.) This event is free. Details are below. See you there!

Happy BC Day! We suggest celebrating the day with a good book! You can find some great book suggestions at https://www.readlocalbc.ca or listen to the The BC and Yukon Book Prizes podcast series at https://soundcloud.com/bcyukonbookprizes. You can also read the latest issue of BC Bookworld online at https://bcbooklook.com/latest-issue. Your local independent bookstore may be taking a day of well-earned rest today but they will have great suggestions too. Special BC book love ...to our amazing Sunshine Coast publishers: Caitlin Press, Douglas & McIntyre, Harbour Publishing, and Nightwood Editions. #WeLoveBCBooks Read Local BC Association of Book Publishers of British Columbia Talewind Books

Thank you, ZOOM and publisher Edmund Arceo for a gorgeous summer issue. So grateful for your support of the youngest poets in our community. Flip through these pages. How lucky are we to call this place home!

Part-time permanent employment opportunity at the Sunshine Coast Arts Council

Thanks to the Sechelt Public Library (and Rose!) for shining a light on books we had hoped to present at the 2020 Festival. More great titles can be found here: https://writersfestival.ca/2020/festival-2020-reading-list/