Whistler Writers Festival

I am thrilled to be attending the Whistler Writers Festival from October 12th to 15th. It promises to be a whirlwind of literary enthusiasm with touches of comedy and music as well as lively cabarets and salons of the literary variety. Some of Canada’s best-loved authors, including David Chariandy, Leanne Dunic, Terry Fallis, Steven Heighton, Helen Humphreys, Grant Lawrence, Suzette Mayr, Sandra Ridley, Mark Leiren-Young, Terry Watada, Barbara Gowdy, Monia Mazigh, Frances Itani, Michael Harris and Lee Maracle will tempt us with their stories and share their insights. At the Saturday lunch, John MacLachlan Gray, Sheena Kamal, Michael Redhill, Alisa Smith and Jenny D. Williams, all authors with a penchant for crime (between the covers only), will share dark secrets.

Some authors will have dates with publishers in hope that a golden ring will soon follow. And the highlight for some, on … drum roll … Friday the 13th, will be the announcement of the winners of the Whistler Independent Book Awards. Wish them all luck!!!

Finalists for the 2017 WIBAs in Fiction and Non-fiction

The fiction finalists are:

Annie Daylon for Of Sea and Seed: The Kerrigan Chronicles, Book 1
R.L. Prendergast for The Confessions of Socrates
Farida Somjee for The Beggar’s Dance

The non-fiction finalists are:

Monique Layton for Notes from Elsewhere: Travel and Other Matters
Patricia Sandberg for Sun Dogs and Yellowcake: Gunnar Mines—A Canadian Story
Paul Shore for Uncorked: My Year in Provence

(Full disclosure: In case you are puzzled, the above scene is not Whistler but is the closest I could get to a winter photo on short notice!)

Author: Patricia Sandberg

A former mining and securities lawyer, Patricia relied on her family’s history and interviews of over 150 people to write about the Cold War uranium mining town in Northern Canada that residents said was ‘the best place they ever lived’. She is now working on a novel. Sun Dogs and Yellowcake has won two international awards, was shortlisted for the Canadian Authors Fred Kerner award, and was finalist for Whistler Independent Book Awards 2017.

Love to hear your thoughts!