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The little festival that could

The Whistler Readers & Writers Festival books up the weekend

Usually, a preface at the start of a book discusses the unfolding tale a reader is about to tuck into: chit-chat, facts, thank-yous are all laid out like an aperitif that comes before the main-course content of the story.

But when explaining the story of the Whistler Readers & Writers Festival, which takes place at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler and other venues from Oct. 12 to 14, the beginning must start with the festival's recent near ending.

For two months last winter there was no Whistler Readers & Writers Festival.

It was done, gone after 10 intense and productive years; its organizer and driving force Stella Harvey was exhausted and felt she needed to shelve it. It wasn't failing, it constantly grew, but it was wearing her out.

"The run-up to it had to do with all the work that goes into putting it on. It's a three-day event, we have very little money," she says, recalling the moment with a frustrated laugh.

"Through grants and other fundraisers to put the event on, at the end of the day you never know if people are going to come. People always do come and last year we had increased our attendance again, every year we do. It's just the idea of all this effort and, you know, we hope to break even."

Harvey has, in past years, even reached into her own bank account to help run the festival.

"The other part of it, apart from the work, is that the festival's longevity is really based on very few people. Trying to get some funding, so that we could hire someone, as opposed to me doing it, proves elusive. There just isn't that pocket of funding available to hire a director, for example."

So Harvey, whose first published novel Nicolai's Daughter has just been released, told the board charged with overseeing the Readers & Writers Festival last November during her evaluation of the 2011 event that she wouldn't be able to take it on in 2012.

"The feeling was it's a lot of work. Yes, we've met a lot of great writers and created something great in this community, and a number of writers have come out of this community as a result of the festival and our writer-in-residence program. But how long could you continue without sufficient funding and based on a few volunteers to make it happen every year," she says.

But it turned out it was too soon for any eulogies. Because like so many selfless volunteers who pour time and energy into events in Whistler, Harvey — who also runs the Whistler Writers Group, The Vicious Circle — decided she couldn't let it go without a fight.

Thinking about it the better part of a year later in a coffee shop at Market Place, she says she turned to her husband one night this past January and said she needed to continue.

"The feedback from last year's event was really, really positive. People were saying, 'Don't let this go. You have to continue. It's a great festival, so intimate,'" Harvey says. "We had our Christmas party at the beginning of December and people were saying to me how wonderful the festival was, and the authors. They didn't know I was leaving. We had that feedback, and also feedback from guest authors."

Canadian writers, no strangers to the anxieties of poor pay and uncertain professional prospects themselves, understood Harvey's situation. One, an award-winning writer from Newfoundland, Russell Wangersky, even sent her a cheque a year ago and a note that read "please continue." He had no idea that she might not.

It was this outpouring, along with a rest, that recharged Harvey's batteries and got her ready for 2012.

Whistler's place in the pantheon

Eleven years ago, the festival started with readings and workshops in homes around the resort. It started, literally, in Harvey's house.

Whistler short fiction, radio and non-fiction writer Stephen Vogler was there from the start. He will be moderating some of the sessions this year.

"It has been really interesting to watch it grow because it started as a grassroots initiative, people getting together in Stella's living room, writers and people interested in writing, and to see the level of commitment among all those people, the way it slowly grew and played out over those 11 years, it has been exciting," says Vogler

He recalled the first, nascent, festival.

"I can't remember if we had dinner, we often had potluck dinners there, which is a great way to get a bunch of people united in a common cause and have a good time. The workshops were over where I live, at The Point. The next day we had workshops in the Old Lodge, which was still the hospital then," he says.

"I actually took the workshop with (poet, novelist and non-fiction writer) Andreas Schroeder and (TV writer and young adult fiction author) Jennifer Cowan. I had a short story I was working on and it really helped, it was very small. Gradually, the festival grew each year.

"What I find great about the festival is that it brings in all these writers who are the finest literary artists in Canada and beyond, and it is so great to meet these people. It prompts me to read their work, and makes a connection between the local literary community and the broader one. That's the way you raise the bar in a town like this, I think, by not existing in a bubble but connecting with the highest level that is occurring elsewhere.

"I'm self-motivated as a writer but it does well to rub elbows and talk with these writers from across the country, it makes it seem real, that world, to sit down and have a beer with Joseph Boyden or Miriam Toews."

Vogler says that having the majority of workshops and readings at The Fairmont Chateau Whistler this year, for the first time, will do much to consolidate the festival through one venue.

On the cusp

Talking to writers and organizers and residents, one thing about the state of Whistler Readers & Writers Festival in 2012 becomes apparent, it's very cuspy. It's on the verge of an interesting future if it can hang on. Now that it's back from the brink of oblivion, a look at its chances for success brings into sharp focus that many of both the direct and peripheral players on its stage can take it beyond its current status.

The executive director of Vancouver's International Writers Festival (VIWF), Hal Wake, has welcomed a closer connection with the Whistler festival in the last two years, which is best illustrated by the blending of their dates — the Vancouver festival starts on Oct. 16, just after Whistler's event ends. Originally, the Whistler event was in September.

With VIWF now in its 25th year, it is a hugely successful six-day event with thousands taking part and dozens of Canadian and international authors such as Margaret Atwood, A.L. Kennedy and Martin Amis reading this year.

Wake says the relationship between the two festivals developed several years ago when Ontario authors Merilyn Simonds and Wayne Grady were in Vancouver, having just completed a stint as writers-in-residence in Whistler.

"They mentioned to me that the festival faced a number of challenges, and the Whistler festival was at a point of perhaps not continuing. Marilyn said, 'what if they move their dates to be right before Vancouver's? Then you could perhaps help provide writers, and that would remove a significant challenge for the folks in Whistler,'" Wake recalls.

He met Harvey to see what was possible in a practical sense.

"We have 100 writers coming from around the world to our festival and it seemed entirely reasonable for Stella to choose some of the writers that we had invited and for us to extend an invitation for them to go to Whistler," Wake says.

"Since they would be already coming out here, it would just be a question of their coming a few days early, going up and doing the Whistler events and then back coming here." Wake sees it as a successful arrangement so far.

"It works for everyone, I believe, because Whistler has a slightly different focus from us. There are more workshops, we don't do a lot of workshops with writers. It's quite frankly a lovely little perk for writers, particularly if they're coming from abroad, for them to spend a weekend in Whistler. It's a huge treat."

Scottish author John Burnside, who will be at both Whistler and Vancouver, is "chomping at the bit to be able to be in the mountains" in Whistler.

"He will get a sense of a very different landscape and community than Vancouver."

The struggles the Whistler festival has experienced is not uncommon for literary events of its size.

"Size matters in this instance. Sometimes a smaller festival is not eligible for the public funding that bigger festivals can get. When you're running a bigger festival based on volunteer and sweat equity, that's a real challenge. You are relying on the strength and commitment of volunteers," Wake says.

He can recall the Vancouver festival's own struggles over the years.

"We didn't start this way. It took a long time and some tough times in the beginning of the Vancouver festival to get the infrastructure in place," he says.

"It would be a shame if the Whistler community doesn't support the festival either through sponsorship, through whatever means the municipality has to support arts and culture. But ultimately, that's what it comes down to: with a smaller festival in a small community, people have to decide if they think it's worth them having. If they do, they have to come out, pitch in and support it.

"There's only so much you can do through the valiant efforts of individuals. From the vantage point of Vancouver, all I can say is that the Whistler festival brings some of the best writers in Canada and makes them available to hear and work with in workshop situations. It's pretty fantastic."

Support of a practical nature does trickle through. Along with the venue located at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler and smaller venues like nightclub Maxx Fish and the Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Centre, Whistler Mayor Nancy Wilhelm-Morden confirmed that in February Stella Harvey had requested $25,000 over five years from the municipality for the festival.

They were unsuccessful, but were granted $4,000 to cover the cost of a ticketed event at the Chateau.

"The criteria (for funds from the FE&A oversight committee) include that an event has a positive overall economic impact by way of growth in room nights and also in enhanced guest experiences," Wilhelm-Morden says.

"The Writers Festival didn't comply with the basic criteria for FE&A augmentation but what the FE&A did have was $55,000 set aside in the budget for 'test and development.' They approved some of those funds to go to the Spirit Within Festival (the First Nations festival recently produced by the Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Centre), and they agreed to give the Writers Festival some funds out of that budget as well.... We'll see how it goes this year and the response the festival gets, and if there is some indication that more funds are required next year, then the FE&A oversight group will look at it."

Unfortunately, like many of the smaller events in Whistler, it is hard to gauge the impact because little data is available. Harvey says the festival has grown from 10 participants in year one to 300 in 2011.

Louise Walker of Tourism Whistler says they do not keep much data on the smaller festivals in the resort, and no information on financial impact or audience composition was available for the Whistler Readers & Writers Festival.

Building a base

And then there is the outreach to new forms of writing, of entertainment, in order to keep the festival fresh and appeal to wider audiences.

One of the less traditional events, and one Harvey hopes will attract more youthful, less typical audiences to the festival will be its Pecha Kucha Night at Maxx Fish on Oct. 14. It is kind of spoken-word show-and-tell performance that is triggered for those on stage by a series of photos or images, about which they must speak for several minutes and include their knowledge and experiences. It rests firmly in the oral storytelling tradition.

It is an attractive opportunity to perform for both writers and cultural representatives from visual arts, architecture, and more.

The form has grown from its beginnings in Tokyo in 2003 to events in over 500 cities worldwide.

Aki Kaltenbach was blown away by the event in Vancouver and now organizes two Pecha Kucha nights in Whistler per year, one of which is tied into the festival.

"This is the third time we've been with the Writers Festival. What's so great about these events is that it draws a diverse group; we have the usual suspects who are active in the cultural scene in Whistler, but it tends to also bring a younger crowd. The venue itself does that," Kaltenbach says.

Briton Dee Raffo, 28, has been in Whistler for six seasons and has attended the festival for the past three years. Last year she started volunteering.

"My whole thing this year is to try and get some younger people involved in the festival. We tried this year to push a little harder to do this with Pecha Kucha, and also with Mountain Culture talk and Writing in Film. These are things that are a little more Whistler specific and might get the younger crowd in," she says.

"This festival is about the art of storytelling in all its forms, so it isn't just for people who sit in a comfortable chair and read books, and it isn't just for people who write into the night, it's for people just to enjoy the spoken word and enjoy a good discussion. There's even a storytelling part of a good argument."

And the festival, as Harvey mentioned, has built careers. Sara Leach is a Whistler-based children's author whose books Count Me In and Sounds of the Ferry have been nominated for awards.

"From attending the festival I've learned so much about craft, and also just getting the chance to meet published writers, I made contacts. I was inspired by them. Through my critique group (part of the Whistler Writers Group) I get a detailed critique of my work. For both of my novels I worked with the writer in residence prior to submitting it for publication," says Leach.

How many writers have helped in a similar way?

"Oh man, hundreds," she says. "Not that all of those hundreds have gone on to publication but I would say that hundreds of writers have been touched over the years.

"It really varies. It can be people who are just getting their toes wet, thinking about being a writer and the festival can inspire them to sit down and do it, and then there are people who are really experienced and looking to perfect a part of their craft."

Appendix, the future

Smaller literary festivals in Canada can range from two-day, 10-writer festivals to one-day events, says Hal Wake of the VIWF. He cited one in Cape Breton, another in Waterloo, Ont., as examples of literary kinship that could be considered close to Whistler's scale and ambition.

"There's quite a spectrum of festivals. The nice thing is that we are beginning to create a network and to talk to each other, and to share resources and ideas. That didn't happen with literary festivals even five or six years ago," Wake says.

"There is a sense of our being able to help each other on a variety of issues, if we communicate."

Whistler's mayor can see her hometown literary festival's significance to diversifying the resort's attractions off the slopes.

"It is an important event," says Wilhelm-Morden.

"It seems to be growing, not just in the number of participants but also in the level of importance year-by-year.

"All that funding stuff aside, these kinds of cultural events and festivals are becoming increasingly important to the municipality as we go down the road with developing our cultural tourism strategy.

"I think we are starting to reach a bit of a critical mass with respect to cultural tourism and the offerings that are out there, so I'm really excited about that."

Organizer Harvey knows what it will take to secure the future.

"Most of its success has been based on sheer perseverance and stubbornness. For its longevity there has to be more than just that," she says.

Ontario author Miranda Hill, a graduate of the Master's in Creative Writing program at the University of British Columbia, will be attending the Whistler festival for the first time with her husband Lawrence Hill, writer of The Book of Negroes.

"There are some beautiful little festivals. I've been able to touch down in a few of them," she says. "I think the flavour of each individual festival is really determined very much by the community and by the leadership of that festival. No two are the same, and that makes it fun as somebody who has attended a lot of festivals... it's really great to see how a place celebrates reading in their community."

When asked how he felt the Whistler Readers & Writers Festival is regarded in the wider literary world, Hal Wake of the VIWF laughed and says, "I honestly don't know how we're regarded in Vancouver!"

"Festivals tend to happen and the media don't review events so you don't get a sense that way of how you are doing, but the fact that the community shows up — that's the biggest marker you can have. I hope that Whistler understands, that the community understands, what an incredible opportunity they have with some of the best writers in the country visiting and being available for people to listen to, meet and talk to."

A writer's life X three

Alastair MacLeod, Miranda Hill, and Lawrence Hill are at the Whistler Readers & Writers Festival this weekend

Three Canadian writers at different stages in their careers, Alastair MacLeod, Miranda Hill, and Lawrence Hill will be at the Whistler Readers & Writers Festival, October 12 – 14.

They answered questions about their books and their lives as authors.

Alastair MacLeod, 74, has been writing for five decades. He won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 1999 for his novel No Great Mischief, and was awarded the Pen/Malamud Award for short fiction in 2009. He lives in Cape Breton and is currently working on a short story that will be "released to the world" at the Vancouver International Writers Festival.

"I can only write about three hours a day and I still do it in long hand, which makes me quainter than most people.

"I'm sure not 'fast food,' I am what's called a slow cooker. I don't work very much with specific deadlines, I give a lot of thought to what I want to write and then I sit down and do it. I read every sentence aloud to myself and keep it and go on to the next sentence. I don't do drafts. When you don't have deadlines you can take your time and be good.

"I'm looking very much forward to Whistler. There is a great line-up of writers, so I'm glad to be included. I will do my best to be an 'add' at Whistler. Since it's a festival I've never been to, I just want to appreciate the festival, appreciate my peers. It's always nice to share ideas. Although writers are solitary people, festivals are social events. It will be an adventure for me. I go to Toronto a lot, but Whistler to me sounds very exotic.

"It is hard to be a Canadian fiction writer financially. I think almost everybody in the arts is working for less than minimum wage. It's a very, very worthwhile thing to do, but I had students years ago who said they were thinking about being a writer or a hair dresser, and I said 'run to hairdressing' because every two weeks you'll get a pay cheque. As a fiction writer you don't. But if you really feel like you have to write, you should just write."

Miranda Hill won The Writers' Trust/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize for her story Petitions to Saint Chronic. Her collection of short stories, Sleeping Funny, was published in 2012. She is currently working on an as yet unnamed project that she is "keeping like a secret in my pocket." She lives in Hamilton, Ont.

"My best time to write is earlier in the day. On really glorious days I can really go beyond lunchtime, but so often other things call to me. One of the important things I've learned is don't be thrown off if your schedule is thrown off.

"I see myself first and foremost as a reader. A day cannot go by when I don't read, I wouldn't know how to live. Since I was really young I was in awe of what good stories can do. I wanted to be able to do that. Getting to the point of writing fiction was a great confrontation between the fear of not doing it and the fear of doing it, and it became a tipping point in the last decade, where the fear of not doing it was much greater. So I turned to it with intent. I was bad, but I had to push through that and see if I could be better.

"Whistler will be an opportunity to meet more people and read to them from my collection. I just love to read out loud and perform. It's a real privilege to be taking my first book out into the world and talk about it directly to people, instead of just having them encounter it on a shelf.

"Also, I've heard so many great things about the space, the geography, the town, the people, and the festival itself. No two festivals are the same."

Lawrence Hill, 55, has written seven books. His novel, The Book of Negroes, won the 2008 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for best book, the 2007 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, and CBC Radio's 2009 edition of Canada Reads. He lives in Hamilton, Ont. He is currently working on a new novel, called The Illegal, due to be published in 2013, and the TV adaptation of The Book of Negroes.

"I prefer to write in the early part of the day. I used to get up very early, but I just can't do it anymore, 4:00 a.m. - 4:30 a.m., now I have too many other things going on. And, preferably, I like to write when I have nothing else on my plate, so I can step into it or at least not do anything else until I've written.

"I seem to be either on or off. When I'm on, I'm writing a lot and when I'm off I don't write at all. If I am touring or promoting I will not be doing much original fiction.

"Many factors ended up coalescing and encouraging me to write, having parents who told me stories, having teachers who inspired me to write and made me feel I could, growing up mixed race in a white suburb of Toronto and leaning into writing as a way to discover myself. Those are all factors that drove me to writing. There's probably no better crucible for writing than growing up without a clue of who you are racially or what your identity is. It turns a lot of people to the drink or to the typewriter. I'm sort of joking, but that uncertainty of who you are and where you belong, you can feed off that alienation and write with it. I certainly did.

"I gave a reading after being invited by Stella Harvey (Whistler Festival coordinator) a few years ago, but it wasn't part of the festival. It was a one off. It was lovely, Stella's been on to me for years to come but it hadn't coincided with my writing schedule. I can cheer on Miranda (Hill, his wife) and support other writers and the festival."

Festival at a glance

Friday, October 12

8:00 p.m.

Reading event 1: Opening Night Gala Hosted by comedian and author Charles Demers. With Zsuzsi Gartner, Susan Juby, Miranda Hill, John Burnside, Stella Leventoyannis Harvey, Margaret Macpherson, Alistair Macleod and Jack White.

Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Centre

Admission $15

Saturday, October 13

9:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.

Workshop 1: Me, You, Her, Him: The Power of POV With Zsuzsi Gartner.

Fairmont Chateau Whistler

Admission: $25

10:00 a.m. – Noon

Workshop 2: Young Writers with Susan Juby. Limited to those under 19 years of age.

Whistler Public Library

Admission Free

10:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.

Coffee Break

Refreshments available at

The Fairmont Chateau Whistler

11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Workshop 3: Bringing the Outside In. With John Burnside and Mary MacDonald.

The Fairmont Chateau Whistler

Admission: $25

12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.

Lunch and Panel Discussion: Mountain Culture vs. Culture in the Mountains. With Feet Banks, Mike Berard, Margaret Machpherson and Stephen Vogler.

The Fairmont Chateau Whistler

Admission: $25, includes lunch

1:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Workshop 4: Writing for Young Adults with Susan Juby.

The Fairmont Chateau Whistler

Admission: $25

3:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.

Coffee Break

Refreshments available at

The Fairmont Chateau Whistler

3:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Workshop 5: Adventures in Adventure Writing. Leslie Anthony helps you navigate Creative Non-Fiction, Literary Journalism, and other ill-defined terms.

The Fairmont Chateau Whistler

Admission: $25

7:30 p.m.

Reading Event 2: Wine, Books and Jazz

With guest authors hosted by Stephen Vogler

The Fairmont Chateau Whistler

Admission: $20 includes a glass of wine, light appetizers and a well-blended discussion over jazz.

Sunday, October 14

10:30 a.m. – Noon

Reading Event 3: Muffin Break with local authors. Coffee and Muffins and a chat with some of our own scribes: Michel Beaudry, Katherine Fawcett, Sarah Leach, Nancy Routley, Paula Shackelton, Leslie Anthony and Stephen Vogler.

The Fairmont Chateau Whistler

Admission: $10

1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.

Panel Discussion: Writing and film. Moderator: Leslie Anthony. Panel: Jordan Manly, Robin O'Neill, Nicholas Teichrob, Rebecca Wood Barrett and Darcy Turenne.

The Fairmont Chateau Whistler

Admission: $15

3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Workshop 6: Spore Prose

With Fungus Among Us Mushroom Festival's Andy MacKinnon and Paul Kroeger.

The Fairmont Chateau Whistler

Admission: $10

8:00 p.m.

Reading Event 4: Pecha Kucha

With special guests Jillian Christmas and the boot-thumping vocals and guitar melodies of singer Chelsea D.E. Johnson.

Maxx Fish

Admission: $10 includes a drink



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