Galiano Literary Festival is celebrating its ninth festival this coming weekend, February 23–25, creating a cozy, creative atmosphere on gorgeous Galiano Island. Specifically held during the off-season, the festival features workshops and readings with a wide variety of published authors in a beautiful setting. Stay at the charming Galiano Inn where all the action is, and don’t forget to drop by Galiano Island Books for all your literary purchases.
The festival opens with a bang on Saturday, February 24 with a panel starring Linda Cullen, George Bowering, Charles Demers, and Mary Walsh called “Is Humour More Than Just a Joke?” George Bowering and Charlie Demers co-authored The Dad Dialogues: A Correspondence on Fatherhood (and the Universe) (Arsenal Pulp Press).
Festival go-ers will also have the pleasure of hearing Ashley Little on Saturday morning. Ashley has won the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize and the Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize, and been a finalist for the ReLit Award, the City of Vancouver Book Award, and twice been longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. Anatomy of a Girl Gang (Arsenal Pulp Press) has been optioned for television. Her latest book is Niagara Motel (Arsenal Pulp Press).
John MacLachlan Gray will present from White Angel (Douglas & McIntyre), a novel based on the 1924 murder of Janet Smith in Vancouver—when the city was at the edge of the empire, still reeling from the Great War with a barely functioning police department and a thriving criminal class.
David Chariandy rounds out Saturday afternoon. His most recent novel, Brother, won the 2017 Roger Writers’ Trust Award for Fiction. His debut novel, Soucouyant (Arsenal Pulp Press), received stunning reviews and nominations from eleven literary awards juries, including the Governor General’s Literary Award shortlist and the Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist.
A writer to watch, Leesa Dean, will be reading with Gurjinder Basran on Sunday, February 25. Leesa has been a finalist for the Irving Layton Award and the Quebec Writing Competition, and her first book Waiting for the Cyclone (Brindle & Glass) was nominated for the 2017 Trillium Award.
Not to be missed on Sunday morning is Dr. Martina Scholtens, a clinical instructor with the Faculty of Medicine at UBC, Dr. Scholtens worked at the province’s only refugee clinic for ten years, caring for patients from around the globe, and writing a book about her experiences there. Your Heart Is the Size of Your Fist (Brindle & Glass) is filled with hope and humour, creating a deeply moving portrait of how one doctor attempts to provide quality care and advocacy for patients while remaining culturally sensitive. Dr. Scholtens will appear with Michael Harris.
Charlie Demers will be live-recording a podcast episode with crime novelist Sam Wiebe. Well Reds: A Left Book Podcast engages with fiction and non-fiction books of interest to the political left. Demers’ forthcoming book is Property Values (Arsenal Pulp Press).
On Sunday afternoon, George Bowering and George Stanley will be reading from their latest book, Some End / West Broadway (New Star Books), published in a flip-book format. Bowering was Canada’s first Poet Laureate and has authored more than eighty books, including works of poetry, fiction, autobiography, biography, and youth fiction. Stanley has published nine books of poetry, most recently After Desire (2013) and North of California St. (2014), both from New Star.
Later on Sunday, crime readers will not want to miss Iona Whishaw and Elle Wild. Iona has published short fiction, poetry, poetry translation, and one children’s book. A Killer in King’s Cove (Touchwood Editions) was her first adult novel and the first book in the Lane Winslow series. There are now four books in the series. Her heroine was inspired by Iona’s mother who, like her father before her, was a wartime spy. Read all about the Lane Winslow mystery series in our interview with Iona.
http://www.readlocalbc.ca/event/galiano-literary-festival-2018/