The written word will once again be celebrated at the 2016 Word on the Lake Writers’ Festival taking place from May 20 to May 22.
Organizers have put together a stellar slate of authors and other publishing professionals, who will take part in skill development workshops and open forums.
Presenters
• Joëlle Anthony is a writer, teacher, and actress, originally from Portland, she currently lives in Canada. Her latest release, The Right & the Real was named a Bank Street’s 2013 Best Books of the Year.
• Singer/songwriter and photographer Victor Anthony was born in Nashville. He has released four CDs of original material including his latest, Mystery Loves Company. His musical style is based in the roots tradition of the American South but the lyrics are up-to-date vignettes of life and love, full of rich visual imagery and simple truth.
• Ted Bishop’s latest book, The Social Life of Ink: Culture, Wonder, and Our Relationship with the Written Word, combines memoir, travel, and cultural history as it moves from Samarkand to Budapest. It won the Wilfred Eggleston prize for nonfiction.
• International bestselling, award-winning author Susan Fox (also writing as Savanna Fox and Susan Lyons) writes “emotionally compelling, sexy contemporary romance” (Publishers Weekly). A native British Columbian, she sets her stories in B.C. Her books have been translated into French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and German.
• Jodi McIsaac is the author of the bestselling Thin Veil fantasy series and the thriller, A Cure for Madness. After stints as a short-track speed skater, a speechwriter, and fundraising and marketing executive in the nonprofit sector, she started a boutique copywriting agency and began writing novels in the wee hours of the morning. She is working on a historical fantasy series set in Ireland. http://www.jodimcisaac.com/
• Donna Milner is the author of the internationally acclaimed novels: After River, The Promise of Rain, Somewhere In-Between and the soon to be released, A Place Called Sorry. Her books have been published in 13 countries and translated into eight languages.
• Alyson Quinn was born in Zimbabwe to Irish parents and spent her childhood years in Southern Africa. She trained as a social worker and has spent over two decades working in the field of psychiatry. She has published three books. When the River Wakes Up is her first novel. It is both a tormenting inner struggle and a changing world scorched by the fire of new beginnings.
• Jodie Renner is a sought-after freelance fiction editor and award-winning author of three craft-of-writing guides. She has also published two handy clickable writers’ e-resources. Renner is also a well-known blogger and her craft-of-writing posts appear on various blogs.
• Robert J. Sawyer is one of only eight writers in history – and the only Canadian – to win all three of the world’s top science fiction awards for best novel of the year: the Hugo, the Nebula, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award.
According to a U.S. trade journal, he is the #1 all-time worldwide leader in number of award wins as a science fiction or fantasy novelist.
• Arthur Slade was raised on a ranch in Saskatchewan. He is the author of 18 novels for young readers including The Hunchback Assignments, which won the prestigious TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award and Dust, winner of the Governor General’s Award for Children’s Literature. He has taught writing at Banff, University of Toronto and was the Regina Public Library’s writer-in-residence in 2014-2015.
• Criminal lawyer turned crime thriller writer Michael Slade is the author of 14 novels that feature the Special X psycho-hunters of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. HEADHUNTER Reimagined – an all-new version of his first bestseller published in 1984 – is coming this year. Slade has been honoured by the World Horror Convention, and the international Police Leadership Conference.
• Alan Twigg became a member of the Order of Canada in 2014 “for his countless contributions to the promotion of British Columbian literature and publishing.” He has produced the educational newspaper B.C. BookWorld since 1987. Twigg is the author of 17 books, including histories of Belize and Cuba.
• Richard Wagamese is one of Canada’s foremost native authors and storytellers. A professional writer since 1979, he’s been a newspaper columnist and reporter, radio and television broadcaster and producer and the author of 13 titles.
He has won the George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature for his memoir One Story, One Song, the Canadian Authors Association Award for Fiction for Dream Wheels and the Alberta Writers Guild Best Novel Award for Keeper’n Me.
• Howard White is a historian, poet, essayist, editor, publisher and children’s author who co-founded the Raincoast Chronicles in 1972 and Harbour Publishing in 1974. In 2013 he became co-owner and publisher of Douglas and McIntyre (2013) Ltd. He has been awarded the Order of British Columbia, the Order of Canada and the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour.
For more information on the festival and to register for the annual event, visit wordonthelakewritersfestival.com.