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Ten years and writing

The Whistler Readers & Writers Festival celebrates its 10th anniversary this weekend
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Stella Harvey is "neck deep and drowning."

The founder and organizer of the Whistler Readers and Writers Festival is on the cusp of the event and so, understandably, her head is warped by every nagging, minute detail: changes in travel itineraries of guest writers, ensuring all AV equipment is rented and appropriate. It's Harvey's task right now to ensure all the Ts are crossed and it is, in a word, hell.

"Every year I say to myself, 'Why do I do this? Why?'" she says, but she's laughing as she does so. That laugh, which makes regular appearances during our conversation, says it all - she does this year after year out of love.

And why not?  For the past 10 years, Harvey has spearheaded the writers' festival, utilizing the passion and volunteer support of members of the Vicious Circle, local writers' group. The festival has grown from 20 people in Harvey's living room 10 years ago to well over 200 in 2010.

The festival has become a place for existing writers to hone their skills or try out new genres while offering curious non-writers the opportunity to try their hand at the craft, to get a feel for it. It offers lessons not just in the writing, but also in how to navigate the murky waters of the publishing world.

"We're trying to make the festival for anyone who would be interested in coming, so you don't have to be a writer. You can be interested in the literary arts; you can be just a reader. You might just be curious," Harvey says.

The roster of guests has become more impressive with each year. It has attracted high profile authors including Lawrence Hill and Joseph Boyden.

This year's roster includes A Complicated Kindness author Miriam Toews and The Colony of Unrequited Dreams author Wayne Johnston.

Attracting these authors has been key to the festival's success. It shines a light on the events, attracting people who come to hear authors read or hear them in the flesh and, as result, exposes them to everything else that's happening.

"If you put them (well-known authors) on the same stage as people who are less well-known, you get a chance to shine a light on not just the well-known person, but on the people who are up and coming. I think that balance is really important. Finding that balance is sometimes difficult," Harvey says.

In recent years, the Vicious Circle has partnered with the Vancouver International Writers Festival as a means to attract high profile authors who are already in the area But unlike the Vancouver festival, the Vicious Circle offers writers workshops, all of which are meant to be as inclusive - and as affordable - as possible.

This year, for their 10th anniversary, the festival, entitled Lit Grit, focuses on how to succeed as a writer.

"There are no overnight successes, unfortunately. What it takes is sitting down, doing it, organizing it and growing something," Harvey says.

Harvey moved to Whistler thinking she'd become a writer in 2000. Looking for a local support group, she was surprised to find there was not an active writers group in Whistler at the time.

She put an ad in the paper that week looking for people to start a circle. Twenty-six people showed up at her door. The Vicious Circle, as it would soon be known, was born.

"We were all pretty green as writers," says Whistler-based author Rebecca Wood Barrett, who answered Harvey's ad and has been a part of the group ever since.

At the time, the members were looking for something locally where they could all improve their writing. Andrea Schroeder, who will be taking part in this year's festival, taught the first workshop. From there, Harvey says the festival grew of its own volition. About half of each year's participants return the next year, bringing their own friends, and it just grew to incorporate multiple reading events and different styles of workshops.

Funding has been the biggest challenge since the festival's inception. The event costs about $20,000, which comes from grant money and fundraising, and goes to pay for the guest authors and for workshop instructors.

In 2010, the whole thing almost fell apart. The funding wasn't in place and the work seemed insurmountable. Harvey even issued a press release saying that the festival had been cancelled.

"But as much as we wanted to kill it, it seemed to just resurface," says Steven Vogler, who's been part of the Circle since the very beginning.

He says that as soon as the cancellation was announced, there was an outpouring of support from the local writers community and from the guest authors as well, pleading with the Vicious Circle to keep it going. Some corporate sponsors stepped in to help lift the festival off the ground, and they saw a 52 per cent increase in attendance - the largest increase the festival has ever had.

"It's running us now, we're not running it," Vogler says.

Harvey agrees, more or less. The last-minute details she's been dealing with are consuming her life, but she says that it's worth it. The festival is a homegrown event, for Whistler, by Whistler, and that's the most important aspect.

"You have to have something come from within and come from within the community, because it's a lot of work," Harvey says. "It's a lot of work and at the end of the day it has to mean something for those who live here. That's why I do it."