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  Writers Festival 2010Writer in Residence 2010Writing for KidsCreek Bread fund raiserLawrence HillGrowing the Seed - Pembie TEN WAYS TO TELLHow to get you feet wetLINE-POACHING MONTHBookclubs battleLeaked DocumentsOnly seven spaces on W-in-R programWRITER-IN-RESIDENCE 20092009 Whistler Readers and Writers FestivalLIterary Leanings 2009 - FeedbackPOETRY COMPETITION "POETS PAUSE"Seminar for never-ever writersNews Release - Literary Leanings 2009Literary Leanings 2009Whistler Select Awards and JudgesWhistler Designated 2009 Cultural Capital of Canada
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 TEN WAYS TO TELL FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE #1. BOOK SALES UP, CRIME STATS DOWN September 15 2009 Whistler, BC Sixty people walk into a bar. Before the night is through, 20 of them will have written poems. No, that’s not the opening line to a joke, although if you’d seen Whistler columnist GD Maxwell come on stage in a kimono to emcee the Haiku Idol, you could be forgiven for thinking that Saturday night’s near-sold-out Gala was just about laughs. However, after a rousing debate on whether men and women read differently and a moving performance of spoken word by Shane Koyczan, Haiku Idol had its debut, turning Players Chophouse at 10pm into a great little literary salon, with everyone from Players Chophouse’s bar manager Nick McLaughlin, and one-time mayoral candidate Kristi Wells to Tourism Whistler's Jeff MacDonald to the first husband of the Writers Festival Dave Harvey writing poems under the gun. Pemberton writer Katherine Fawcett, Whistler's unofficial poet laureate Pam Barnsley and dark horse Haiku Master Jeff Maskell ended up in a top 3 sudden death round, which Fawcett won by scientific applause-ometer, winning $50 in loot - just enough, she admitted, to cover the money she dropped earlier that day buying new books. Haiku Idol wasn’t the only success-story of the 8th Whistler Readers and Writers Festival. Despite a faltering economy, attendance was up 15% over last year’s festival. While two-thirds of attendees came from the Whistler/Pemberton/Squamish area, others came from as far as Vancouver, Vernon, Salmon Arm, Victoria, Calgary, Edmontoon, Washington and Virginia specifically to attend the event and its 20 various sessions and seminars, covering the gamut from writing poetry and short stories, to pitching magazines, to writing for the big screen. The Festival also sponsored guest author CC Humphreys (Vlad The Last Confession) to deliver 3 workshops at Whistler Secondary School for 100 grade 8-12 students. Apart from reviving the lost art of haiku, the Festival weekend also saw several aspiring magazine contributors develop relationships with editors, a 12 year old write a screenplay, and a sharp decline in crime and attendance at the emergency clinic. The bottom-line, though, is that a Writers Festival is successful when it inspires people to write. From the attendee at the Pickled Poet’s Walk, who said, I never had the chance to write poetry before, to the other participants at the Festival who said universally that they were very likely or likely to attend another event at the Festival, ranking it high for inspiration and motivation, the 8th Whistler Readers and Writers Festival hit its mark. As guest author, novelist Nancy Lee, later wrote to Festival organiser Stella Harvey, The festival was amazing the events, the coordination, the venues, and most importantly, the connection between the visiting writers and the participating writers made for a fantastic experience for everyone involved. The level of professionalism, communication and regard for the visiting writers was the highest we’ve experienced at any out-of-town festival and that includes ones we’ve done in the UK and Paris. |