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A new chapter
Whistler is writing its own festival for readers and writers
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With the release of Finding Jim at this year's Whistler Readers and Writers Festival, Sue Oakey-Baker can add memoirist to her resume, which already includes teacher, outdoor guide and painter. Oakey-Baker grew up in Vancouver, but now calls Whistler home. Her photographs and writing have appeared everywhere from Pique Newsmagazine to the Canadian Alpine Journal.
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Richard Wagamese, one of Canada's most prominent First Nations writers, began writing professionally back in 1979. Since then, he's been a newspaper columnist, reporter, radio and TV broadcaster and producer, a documentary producer and the author of 13 books. His most recent novel, Indian Horse, was released in February last year.
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In his career as a novelist and travel writer, Will Ferguson has written more than a dozen books and won the Leacock Medal three times. In 2010, he was also the head writer for the Vancouver Olympics closing ceremonies where he wrote for William Shatner, Martin Short and Michael J. Fox. Last year, his novel 419 won the Giller Prize.
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2012 panel member, author Leslie Anthony.
Photo by Joern Rohde / joernrohde.com, submitted.
Festival organiser Stella Harvey with her husband Dave.
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Participants enjoy the 2012 festival;
Photo by Joern Rohde / joernrohde.com, submitted.
Alistair MacLeod
Photo by Joern Rohde / joernrohde.com, submitted.
Margaret Macpherson.
Photo by Joern Rohde / joernrohde.com, submitted.
Jack White
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Patrick deWitt was born on Vancouver Island, but has since settled in Portland, Oregon, where he lives with his wife and son. He's written two novels: his debut Ablutions and The Sisters Brothers, which earned him a Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction and a Roger Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. It was also shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Scotiabank Giller Prize.
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St. John's author Lisa Moore has a whole host of honours to her name. Her book February was on the longlist for the Man Booker Prize, named one of The New Yorker's Best Books of the Year and earned a spot on the Globe and Mail's Top 100 Books. Her Alligator and Open, meanwhile, were also finalists for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. News recently broke that her most recent offering, Caught, is up for this year's Giller as well.