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Cascadia Poetry Festival, April 30 to May 3, 2015 in Nanaimo

The Cascadia Poetry Festival is an international event which seeks to bioregionally animate & culturally construct Cascadia by gathering writers, artists, scientists and activists to collaborate, discover and foster deeper connection between all inhabitants and the place itself. Over four days the fest features Academic, Democratic and Performance components, late night readings, a Small Press Fair and one workshop. Some of the best poetry minds in the bioregion, many Canadians not well known in the U.S., will gather, discuss this place and begin to better understand Cascadia and our role here. The festival was founded by SPLAB, a Seattle-based non-profit organization founded in 1993 and the first iteration happened in 2012. Cascadia III will happen in Nanaimo, BC, in 2015.
Web Site

Seven Headliners and Many Featured Readers

Here are two of our headliners who will be coming to the festival. Sam Hamill
Poetry Foundation Site

Brenda Hillman 2014 Griffin Prize Winner
Web Site

Cascadia Poetry Festival 3 Nanaimo British Columbia April 30 to May 3, 2015 Cascadia Poetry Festival Check back for details, and future posts

WordStorm's New Season

WordStorm
Please note we have changed our location and are now on Tuesdays.
Now at
Demeter's Coffee Vault
499 Wallace Street, Nanaimo, BC
Phone: 250.591-0776

Demeter's Coffee Vault
TUESDAY, September 25th, 2012

Doors Open at 6:15 for reservations. Come early for coffee and a snack, if you like.
Program starts at 7:00 with the open mic


Yvonne Blomer

Yvonne Blomer lives in Victoria, BC where she works as a poet, memoirist, writing teacher, event organizer and mom. She was born in Zimbabwe and came to Canada when she was two years old. With her husband she has taught in Japan, cycled in Southeast Asia and lived in the UK where she completed an MA in Creative Writing: Poetry. Her poems have twice been shortlisted for the CBC Literary awards and have appeared in literary journals in Canada, the US, Japan and the UK. Her first collection of poetry, a broken mirror, fallen leaf (Ekstasis Editions), was shortlisted for The Gerald Lampert Memorial Award in 2007. She is the host/organizer of the Planet Earth Poetry Reading Series in Victoria, B.C. In 2012 Yvonne’s illustrated series of poems Bicycle Brand Journey will launch with Jack Pine Press. Please see the poster for her most recent book, The Book of Places. Poster

Naomi Beth Wakan

Naomi Beth Wakan has published over forty books including Sex After 70 and other poems and the ALA selection, Haiku – one breath poetry. Her books of essays from Wolsak and Wynn, are Late Bloomer-on writing later in life, Compositions – notes on the written word, Bookends – a year between the covers, and A Roller-coaster ride – thoughts on aging. Her poetry and essays have appeared in many magazines including Geist, Resurgence, Senior Living, Still Point Quarterly and Room. She is a member of The League of Canadian Poets, Haiku Canada and Tanka Canada. She lives on Gabriola Island with her husband, the sculptor, Elias Wakan. Web Site.

Ann Graham Walker

Ann Graham Walker was a finalist in the 2010 Malahat Open Season Awards and the 2011 Prism International Poetry Contest. Her work has been published in the Gaspereau Review, Prism International, Word Works, the Rocksalt Anthology, Leaf Press's Wild Weathers love poem anthology and in numerous anthologies that have come out of BC poet Patrick Lane's Glenairley, Ocean Wilderness and Honeymoon Bay writing retreats. Her chap book "The Puzzle at the End of Love" is an organic sequence of lyric narratives about love gone awry, the poems drawn from family stories and sometimes from long family silences. Ann recently went back to school and got an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College. She lives in Nanoose Bay with her Irish husband and three rescued cats. The twelve-year-old Border Collie, alas, passed away late last year.

The Third Annual Hazelwood Writers’ Festival

The Third Annual Hazelwood Writers’ Festival Hazelwood Herb Farm Sunday, August 12th, 2012, 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm 13576 Adshead Road, Ladysmith, B.C., Canada V9G 1H6 Phone: (250) 245-8007 info@hazelwoodherbfarm.com Admission: $10.00 (Gate receipts go to the local writers.) Featured Performers and Readers

Kate Braid




Kate Braid has written poetry and non-fiction about subjects from Georgia O’Keeffe, Emily Carr and Glenn Gould, to mine workers and fishers, and a memoir, Journeywoman, about her 15 years as a carpenter. She has published five books of poetry and co-edited with Sandy Shreve, In Fine Form: The Canadian Book of Form Poetry. Her work has won a number of awards and is widely anthologized. Kate's Web Page

Tom Wayman

Tom Wayman’s recent books include a poetry collection, Dirty Snow (Harbour, 2012), a novel, Woodstock Rising (Dundurn, 2009), and a critical monograph, Songs Without Price: The Music of Poetry in a Discordant World (U of Vancouver Island, 2008). His 2007 collection of stories, Boundary Country, currently is a contender for the 2012 One Book One Kootenay competition. Poetry anthologies he has edited include The Dominion of Love (Canadian love poems), 2001. He most recently taught at the University of Calgary, 2002-2010. Since 1989, he has lived in southeastern B.C.’s Selkirk Mountains.


Local Writers and Performers

Featuring Wind Weaver
Paul Bezooyen & Terry Mack

Greg Blanchette, Jule Briese, Kim Clark, Barbara A. Denz, Tricia Dower, Janet Dunnett, Kirsty Elliot, David Floody, David Fraser, Kim Goldberg, Kenn Joubert, Janice Lore, Edeana Malcolm, Mary Ann Moore, Mary Elizabeth Nelson, Naomi Beth Wakan, Ann Graham Walker, and M.C. Warrior

Reserve in advance so we know the numbers at ascentaspirations@shaw.ca.

Jointly sponsored by the Hazelwood Herb Farm and the WordStorm Society of the Arts and supported by the Canadian League of Poets, the Canada Council for the Arts and the Writers’ Union of Canada.

WordStorm at the Diners Rendezvous

WordStorm MONDAY, May 28th, 2012 Diners Rendezvous 489 Wallace Street, Nanaimo, BC Phone: 250.740-1133 Doors Open at 6:15 for reservations. Come early for dinner, if you like. Program starts at 7:00 Featured Performers Martha Royea

Martha Royea lives in Gibsons, BC. Poetry is a major passion – reading, writing, hearing, speaking it and translating poems from the Spanish. Her poems appear intermittently in chapbooks and anthologies, including several Leaf Press publications edited by Patrick Lane. Her own chapbook, If I Could Pray, was published by "26 Leaves" in 2007 and reissued by request in 2011. Love Songs for Dead Mothers is still developing.

Liz McNally

Liz McNally is an émigré; part of a large, now distant, Irish family. True to her heritage, she is prone to melancholy and humour in equal measure and feels there’s nothing a great poem or a good song won’t fix. Liz is an observer. She takes her notebook everywhere to capture the extraordinary poetry of people’s lives in ordinary moments. She has enjoyed the company of other poets in a handful of Chapbooks and dreams of a time when she can say the words “my recently published book of poems”.

Savannah Featherstone

When Savannah Featherstone is not running the contracting business that she and her husband own, you can find her upholstering old chairs or in her art studio combining paper, glue, and paint on different types of canvas. Although she has written poetry off and on since an early age, it has only been in the last few years that poetry has taken a significant and defined place in her creative practice. Savannah lives in North Saanich with her husband, a loyal and neurotic Border Collie and two extremely spoiled felines.

Dan Lundine - Double Lightning Reader Book Launch for Signpost - A Prairie Town

Dan Lundine was born and raised on Vancouver Island. When high schools had tired of him, he joined the RCMP in January of 1962 and was immediately sent to Regina, Saskatchewan to train. After seven years of service, Dan left the force and obtained a teaching degree at the University of Regina. He then taught school for thirty years in Regina, West Germany, and Langley, BC. Upon leaving the classroom, Dan and his wife, Carol, moved to French Creek on Vancouver Island and operated a bed and breakfast for a number of years. They are now retired and living in Qualicum Beach, BC.

Honeymoon Bay Poetry Chapbook Launch

April 23, 2012 7:00 - 9:00
Diners Rendezvous
489 Wallace Ave, Nanaimo, BC
Join Patrick Lane, along with 18 master poets
for this FREE exciting eclectic evening full of variety and fine words.
Amrita Sondhi, Barbara Black, Barbara Pelman, Elizabeth McNally, Joanna Qureshi,
Judith Heron, Martha Royea, Mary Ann Moore, Pamela Porter, Richard Osler,
Ann Graham Walker, David Fraser, Linda Thompson, Patricia Smekal, Chris Donaldson,
Mary Beth Nelson, Maureen Bendick, and Somae Clarie Murray.





Each year, Patrick Lane offers four writing retreats on beautiful Vancouver Island. At each of these retreats, sixteen poets come together for four days to improve their craft through writing exercises and discussion. New work is at the heart of these retreats, where Patrick provides structure, guidance, editing advice and personal consultation. These retreats are not traditional workshops, although all work done there is read and discussed during a free exchange of poems. Poets who participate bring with them years of study and practice, and many have gone on to publish in magazines, chapbooks and books, and have as well been the recipients of numerous awards and prizes.
Each retreat results in a beautiful chapbook anthology containing a poem written at the retreat by each participant, with an introduction by Patrick. The chapbooks are created by one of Canada’s finest book designers, Ursula Vaira, the publisher of Leaf Press. (Excerpt from the web site of Patrick Lane)


This launch will feature three chapbooks produced at two January and and one July retreat at the Honeymoon Bay Resort at Lake Cowichan on Vancouver Island.


In the Darkness. In the Dream, January 2011
Love in the Time of Predators, July 2011
I am the Angel of Old Grey Horses, January 2012


http://www.patricklane.ca/writing-retreats/
http://www.patricklane.ca/about/

WordStorm April 16th with Lorna Crozier

Lorna Crozier - Featured Reader
Web Site
Diners Rendezvous
489 Wallace Street, Nanaimo, BC
Phone: 250.753.0042
Bring your friends. Give them a ride. This is an event not to be missed.

Lorna Crozier was born in 1948 in Swift Current, Saskatchewan. As a child growing up in a prairie community where the local heroes were hockey players and curlers, she “never once thought of being a writer.” After university, Lorna went on to teach high school English and work as a guidance counsellor. During these years, Lorna published her first poem in Grain magazine, a publication that turned her life toward writing. Her first collection Inside in the Sky was published in 1976. Since then, she has authored 14 books of poetry, including The Garden Going on Without Us, Angels of Flesh, Angels of Silence, Inventing the Hawk, winner of the 1992 Governor-General’s Award, Everything Arrives at the Light, Apocrypha of Light, What the Living Won’t Let Go, and most recently Whetstone. Whether Lorna is writing about angels, aging, or Louis Armstrong’s trout sandwich, she continues to engage readers and writers across Canada and the world with her grace, wisdom and wit. She is, as Margaret Laurence wrote, “a poet to be grateful for.”

Since the beginning of her writing career, Lorna has been known for her inspired teaching and mentoring of other poets. In 1980 Lorna was the writer-in-residence at the Cypress Hills Community College in Swift Current; in 1983, at the Regina Public Library; and in 1989 at the University of Toronto. She has held short-term residencies at the Universities of Toronto and Lethbridge and at Douglas College. Presently she lives near Victoria, where she teaches and serves as Chair in the Writing Department at the University.

Beyond making poems, Lorna has also edited two non-fiction collections – Desire in Seven Voices and Addiction: Notes from the Belly of the Beast. Together with her husband and fellow poet Patrick Lane, she edited the 1994 landmark collection Breathing Fire: Canada’s New Poets; in 2004, they co-edited Breathing Fire 2, once again introducing over thirty new writers to the Canadian literary world.

Her poems continue to be widely anthologized, appearing in 15 Canadian Poets X 3, 20th Century Poetry and Poetics, Poetry International and most recently in Open Field: An Anthology of Contemporary Canadian Poets, a collection designed for American readers.

Her reputation as a generous and inspiring artist extends from her passion for the craft of poetry to her teaching and through to her involvement in various social causes. In addition to leading poetry workshops across the globe, Lorna has given benefit readings for numerous organizations such as the SPCA, the BC Land Conservancy, the Victoria READ Society, and PEERS, a group committed to helping prostitutes get off the street. She has been a frequent guest on CBC radio where she once worked as a reviewer and arts show host. Wherever she reads she raises the profile and reputation of poetry.

AGM Night

WordStorm would like to thank the Inn on Long Lake, 4700 North Island Highway, V9T 1W6 Nanaimo for providing the accommodation for Lorna Crozier while she is in Nanaimo for her reading and for her workshop.

Inn on Long Lake Web Site.
The Inn on Long Lake is the Jewel of Nanaimo hotels on Vancouver Island. Located on picturesque Long Lake, travelers are drawn to its doors with the promise of beautiful sunrises and the feel of having nature at their own front door.

Poetry Aloud - National Poetry Month Reading

POETRY ALOUD
Hosted by Greg Skala

Wellington Public Library,
3032 Barons Road, Nanaimo
April 5th, 2012
7:00 to 8:00 P.M.







Vancouver Island Poets,











Mary Ann Moore, Kim Goldberg and David Fraser,
will perform their work on the theme of

Balance

The poets will explore the theme of balance in life, love, the human body and the natural world in this special
National Poetry Month presentation.

WordStorm March 26th - Diners Rendezvous 489 Wallace, Nanaimo 7:00 pm

Bill Levity



Bill Levity is the genial host of, 'For The love of Words'; a monthly spoken word night at the Duncan Garage Showroom that is in its fifth year and going strong. He has also parlayed his particular form of word Schtick at the Islands Folk Festival and Poetry Festival Gabriola. Bill's other artistic loves are MCing, songwriting and acting. He's been active with the Shawnigan Players for over twenty years in such groundbreaking roles as Jim Keegstra in 'Ilsa, Queen of the Nazi Love Camp', and David in 'Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love'. A good panto is never far away; his favourite roles being , Griselda, The Ugly Stepsister, and The Evil Queen in Snow White. Bill's poetry usually trends towards sex, wit and beer; tho nature is usually tightly woven through all three.

Missy Peters



Missie Peters is a spoken word artist from Victoria, B.C. She is the inagrual recipient of the M Award for Favourite Spoken Word Artist and a two-time Victoria Slam Champion. She is the director of Not Your Grandma's Poetry and the Victoria Spoken Word Festival. When not improvising with the spoken word duo SpeakEasy she is preparing for her new solo show The Secret Lives of Scientists.

Cynthia Woodman Kerkham




Cynthia Woodman Kerkham was born in Toronto and raised in Hong Kong and Vancouver. She has a degree in Asian Studies and English literature from UBC and has worked as an au pair in France, a potter, a journalist and a teacher. Her poems have appeared in many literary journals including The Antigonish Review, Room, CV2, The New Quarterly, The Malahat Review, Passages North, Grain and Prairie Fire. In 2009 she won the Federation of BC Writers Literary Writes Competition, and in 2011 she won the Malahat Review's Open Season Award for poetry. Good Holding Ground, her debut collection of poems, was published in spring 2011 by Palimpsest Press. When not sailing the Westcoast, she lives with her family in Victoria in a constant state of renovation.

WordStorm

Now at
Diners Rendezvous
489 Wallace Street, Nanaimo, BC
Phone: 250.753.0042


MONDAY, February 27th, 2012

Doors Open at 6:15 for reservations. Come early for dinner, if you like.

Program starts at 7:00 with the open mic

Karen Enns



Karen Enns is from southern Ontario, where she was born and raised in a Mennonite farm community. Her poetry has appeared in The Fiddlehead, The Antigonish Review, Grain Magazine, PRISM international and The Malahat Review. She lives in Victoria, B.C. That Other Beauty is her first poetry collection.

Eve Joseph



Eve Joseph grew up in North Vancouver. As a young woman she traveled widely before moving to Victoria where she now lives with her family. Her first book, The Startled Heart, was shortlisted for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. The Secret Signature of Things is her second poetry collection.

Patrick Friesen



Patrick Friesen, formerly of Winnipeg, now lives on Vancouver Island, writing and teaching part-time at the University of Victoria. He writes poetry, essays, drama, scripts, songs, and text for dance and music. Friesen has collaborated with various musicians including Big Dave McLean, Cate Friesen and Marilyn Lerner, and with choreographer/dancers Margie Gillis and Stephanie Ballard. Friesen has recorded two CDs of text and improv music with Marilyn Lerner, and with Lerner, cellist Peggy Lee and percussionist Niko Friesen. His most recent poetry book is Jumping in the Asylum (Quattro Press, 2011).

Ascent Aspirations Magazine News February Issue
Ascent Aspirations Current Issue February 2012
February Issue


Yearly Anthology Contest (Publishing Date 2012)
Theme: Disorders January 31 Deadline
Disorders Anthology

Special Anthology of Art and Children's Stories Contest
Extended Deadline
Children's Stories




Archived Copies of Ascent Aspirations Print Magazine
Inexpensive but Impressive and Interesting Xmas Gifts
We are no longer publishing a print magazine so these copies are becoming collector's items. Special offer. See details.
Back Issues

Caught in My Throat, David Fraser's fourth collection available on-line
Caught in My Throat

What's New
What's New

Submissions
Submissions
We accept submissions year round and decide on placement of accepted submissions for issues forthcoming or as far away as four months.


On Poetry
Poetry and Poetics with Naomi Beth Wakan and David Fraser
On Poetry

WordStorm Nov. 28 Diners Rendezvous 489 Wallace, Nanaimo 7:00 pm

WordStorm, November 28th, 2011

Cathy Ford




Cathy Ford was born in Lloydminster, Saskatchewan, and grew up in northern British Columbia. She has a B.F.A.
and an M.F.A. from the University of British Columbia (1978). She now lives on Mayne Island, and in
Sidney, B.C., working as poet and fictioniste, publisher, editor, and teacher. She was President
of the League of Canadian Poets in 1985/86, and one of the founding members of the League's Feminist
Caucus in 1982. From 1984 to 1986 she was a member of a national task force of Women and Words,
working to create a draft constitution for a national association of PanCanadian Women and Words.
She was a member of the Board of Directors of the Literary Storefront from 1980 to 1982, and is
also a member of the Federation of British Columbia Writers and PEN.

“Ford’s poetry is dense, luminous, and almost trance-inducing”

“The collection is filled with images of nature, literary allusions, hope for peace, and dazzling word play.”

“Ford has mastered both the long line and the short one. The pacing demands close attention, and it rewards the reader with riches.”

“ The language is precise, and as usual, Ford creates splendid images…”


“ Lifting brief passages to include in a review seems like sacrilege. These poems need to be read
and savoured and pondered in their entirety. The lines wash over the reader like an incoming tide, full of possibility and promise…”

-Room of One's Own, Summer 2011


“Her commitment to feminist politics underwrites this book that, at over twenty years in the making, has the feel of a life’s work.”


“…employing the long lines that recall Adrienne Rich’s reclamation of Whitman’s line in books like An Atlas of the Difficul
t World, often begins with a political context…”

“the art of breathing underwater refuses Adorno’s famous contention that there can be no poetry after
Auschwitz and instead holds a vital inquiry into the place for beauty after suffering and tragedy.”



- The Malahat Review- Summer, 2011




SPECIAL MENTIONS FROM THE PAT LOWTHER AWARD SUBMISSIONS

From the jurors of the 2011 Pat Lowther Memorial Award. “A few books we just have to tell you about”.


The Art of Breathing Underwater, Cathy Ford: Ford confronts life with sheer elegance and weaves a majestic mantle of language.

Richard Osler

Richard Osler writes poetry when he isn’t watching the poetics of the stock market’s rise and fall as a specialty money manager. His poems have been accepted in numerous journals including the Malahat review, Prarie Fire, Antigonish Review and CV2 which published a feature interview with him in its Winter 2011 issue. He also leads weekend writing retreats for poets and conducts poetry workshops in drug and alcohol recovery centres. The Cowichan Valley in B.C. has claimed him as one of its own since 2010.



Joy Huebert, Gisela Ruebsaat, and Katrin Horowitz will be reading from their collaborative book, Pathways Not Posted

Joy Huebert is a Victoria writer and winner of the 2008 Short Grain Postcard Story Competition.
She has been published in several literary magazines and three chapbooks
produced by the Root Cellar Press. She is an editor of the short story
collection, Magic Night, and placed second in the Vancouver Story Slam.

Gisela Ruebsaat is a Victoria poet who has been published in Island Writer. Her work
explores the intersection of music, spoken word and song. She has worked as a speechwriter
for governments in Ontario and BC and currently acts as Legal Analyst for the Ending Violence Association.

Katrin Horowitz published her first novel, Power Failures, in 2007. Last year she was a winner
in Victoria's Night on the Town prose competition for her story, Blues for a Bridge.
She is finalizing a new novel, Convenient Lies, and is also working on more short stories.
Kim Clark - Book Launch









Kim Clark lives on Vancouver Island. Disease and desire, mothering and the mundane propel her ongoing journey between poetry and prose. Her work can be found in e-zines and other publications in Canada and the U.S.. Kim holds a BA in Creative Writing from VIU. She won the 2005 Cecilia Lamont prize for fiction and her story “Solitaire” was shortlisted in the Malahat Review’s 2010 Novella Contest.

Kim’s first book, Attemptations, published by Caitlin Press, is a collection of short, long and longer fiction.



The book hook—
a peek into Attemptations:

Imagine you’re given the startling news that your body is only capable of having six more orgasms . . .

Vancouver Public Library, Writer in Residence Call

Vancouver Public Library, Writer in Residence Call for Expressions of Interest
Publishers might want to pass on this information to your authors. More information is in the attached doc:

From August 13 to December 7, 2012, the Vancouver Public Library will host a resident author. The Writer-in-Residence program, now entering its eighth year, promotes Canadian writing and literature to Vancouver citizens. The aims of the residency are to foster greater appreciation for Canadian writing, provide opportunities to interact with the resident author and to provide the space, time and resources for a Canadian author to write.

The Writer in Residence will provide advice to emerging writers through one-to-one consultations, workshops and seminars as well as outreach to targeted communities. This full-time position (35 hours/week) requires 25% of the author’s time be spent on Library programs or projects, leaving 75% of the work week available for creative writing.

Applicants must identify in their cover letter the innovative ways their residency would foster an appreciation for Canadian writing. Residencies that involve communities not typically exposed to Canadian literature are particularly encouraged. Application deadline is January 13, 2012.

Talking Music

Holger Petersen
Vancouver
November 22 – 7:00 PM
People’s Co-op Bookstore


Was at the launch in Calgary
And it was really great
And the book rocks! Ha

Poetry love,
Sheri-D

Sheri-D Wilson
Poet
Artistic Director
Calgary Spoken Word Festival
Director
Spoken Word Program
The Banff Centre

Editor
Spoken Word Workbook



Sheri-D's Web Site


Calgary Spoken Word Festival


Spoken Word Workbook

Slice Me Some Truth: An Anthology of Canadian Creative Nonfiction

Join us for author readings, book signings, and refreshments at the Slice Me Some Truth book launch!

Thursday, November 24 (7PM)

At The Well—821 Fort Street, Victoria

Authors reading:

Lorna Crozier, M.A.C. Farrant, Genni Gunn, Zoë Landale and Madeline Sonik

Slice Me Some Truth: An Anthology of Canadian Creative Nonfiction is a ground-breaking survey of today's creative nonfiction in Canada, a complex and captivating field of writing that the editors spent four years exploring in the creation of this book. Covering the areas of memoir, personal essay, literary travel, nature writing, lyric essay as well as researched literary journalism and cultural criticism, Slice Me Some Truth thoroughly explores the depth and breadth of creative nonfiction writing in Canada, highlighting brilliant writing from thirty-six authors from across the country.

Kim Clark + Madeline Sonik = Edgy Book Launch X 2

Kim Clark + Madeline Sonik = Edgy Book Launch X 2
Nanaimo Muse-eum, Tuesday, November 22nd, 2:30pm

Meet the authors, listen, chat, and stick around for
coffee & ogasmic cupcakes from Cutie Cakes!

In Afflictions & Departures, Sonik exercises both intellectual depth and emotional range. Not traditional memoir, these essays are as incisive as they are deeply moving and leave the reader with a sense of history as it was lived, not as it is codified in countless textbooks.



The stories in Clark’s Attemptations are peopled by women, often physically challenged women—darkly humourous, feisty, manic, persevering, observant, contemplative women. These characters will snag you and hold you there ‘til they’re good and done.

BookFest 2012 is welcoming new members to its planning committee!



Vancouver Island Children’s Book Festival (BookFest) is an annual event that celebrates excellence in Canadian children’s literature and book illustration by showcasing both well-established and new authors and illustrators. Authors and illustrators from across British Columbia and Canada are invited to present their work and tell stories about their creations and lives. BookFest combines a day-long festival with school and public library readings. In 2012, the day-long festival will be held on May 5 in downtown Nanaimo, and the school/library readings will take place on the days before and after May 5th.



The 2012 BookFest includes a fabulous lineup of children’s authors and illustrators. The 2012 authors include: Loris Lesynski, Martin Springett, Paul Yee, Werner Zimmermann, Mike Deas, Julie Flett, Julie Lawson, Joan Betty Stuchner, and Rick Scott. These authors bring a wide range of genre and age level from poetry to realistic fiction, from graphic novels to multicultural fiction. As a member of the BookFest 2012 Committee you have the opportunity to meet these authors, learn more about their art and share in the joy of bringing great Canadian Children’s literature to the young people in our community.

We would love to welcome you to work with us on this worthwhile event for our children, our community and our city.



We look forward to greeting you at our meeting Nov. 21, Monday at the Harbourfront Library, 6:00 to 7:30.



Paige Fisher and Deidre Bjornson

Patrick Lane Book Launch

The Collected Works of Patrick Lane

Signpost - A Prairie Town by Dan Lundine






Please join us for a book launch and reading.

Tuesday, November 8, 7:00 PM
The Quality Inn, Parksville
Refreshments will be served
Partila proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to the Stephen Lewis Foundation through Oceanside Grandmothers supporting grandmothers in Africa