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Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Northwords Writers Festival - 2014 Authors


Yellowknife's prestigious Northwords Writers Festival is coming up once again, heading into its 8th year. In the past they've hosted such notable and acclaimed authors as Michael Crummey, Douglas Coupland, Charlotte Gray, Michael Kusugak, Kathy Reichs, Richard Van Camp and many more. So who's slated for this year's festival, being held from June 5th to the 8th?

It looks like the headliner (not that they call it that) is none other than Robert J. Sawyer, probably Canada's most famous current sci-fi writer (remember, Atwood calls her stuff "speculative fiction," presumably while casting the tip of her nose towards her crystal chandelier). Sawyer's won Hugo and Nebula awards and had a (albeit short-lived) series on ABC-TV.

Other authors making the voyage north of 60 this year, according to the Northwords website, include:
  • Hayden Trenholm
  • Liz Westbrook-Trenholm
  • Dave Bidini
  • Todd Babiak
  • Monique Gray Smith
  • Billeh Nickerson
  •  Tara Lee Morin
I've got mixed feelings about this year's guests. I've heard of about half and am excited to discover the others, but I'm disappointed with myself that a writers festival in Canada can have an entire roster of writers that I've barely read. I've read short stories by Sawyer and Hayden Trenholm, but that's it. Goodbye "Well Read Canadian" badge.

I jest, of course. I'm happy for the Northwords committee for this wonderful guest list and wish them the best of luck. I hope to at least take in some of the events, and if you're a Yellowknifer pay attention to their website and to local media to see more announcements on events and venues.

In the meantime, here are links to the lone stories I've read by 2 of the above authors:

Robert J. Sawyer- "Forever"
Hayden Trenholm- "Like Monsters of the Deep"

(Gulp! I just realized that neither of those reviews were exactly glowing. Maybe I'll try to steer away from those guys. Or go incognito.)

1 comment:

Barbara Bruederlin said...

Buy them a coffee and you should be all friends again! Enjoy the writers' festival.