Adam Shoalts, Ph.D., is a professional adventurer and Westaway Explorer-in-Residence at the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. His expeditions range from mapping rivers to archaeological projects, but Shoalts is best known for his long solo journeys, including crossing alone nearly 4,000 km of Canada’s Arctic. Named one of the “greatest living explorers” by CBC and even … Read more
Timothy Taylor is the bestselling author of novels about contemporary people with contemporary problems, almost invariably of their own making. Taylor is also an award-winning magazine journalist who has written about food, travel, sports, visual art business, physics, and once about a group of Russian mathematicians who believe the Middle Ages were a fiction added to the … Read more
Returning to our Denman festival is John Vaillant, an author and freelance writer based in Vancouver, BC whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, National Geographic, and The Guardian, among others. His journalism, fiction, and non-fiction explores collisions between human ambition and the natural world. His latest book is the 2024 Pulitzer … Read more
Sarah Leavitt is the author of the acclaimed comic collection Something, Not Nothing: A Story of Love and Grief (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2024); the graphic memoir Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer’s, My Mother, and Me (Freehand Books, 2010), which is currently in production as a feature-length animation; and the award-winning historical fiction comic Agnes, Murderess (Freehand Books, 2019). She is an assistant … Read more
Drew Hayden Taylor is an award winning playwright, novelist, filmmaker and journalist. Born, raised and living on the Curve Lake First Nation in Ontario, he has done everything from performing stand up comedy at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. to being Artistic Director of Canada’s premiere Indigenous theatre company, Native Earth Performing Arts. Currently, … Read more
Lenore Newman’s love affair with food began on her family’s fishing boats, where she gained an early introduction into the world of direct marketing of local products. Lenore is an expert in food and agricultural technology and policy, and she is the Director of the Food and Agriculture Institute at UFV. She holds a research … Read more
Janika Oza is the author of the novel A History of Burning, winner of the 2024 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, a finalist for the 2023 Governor General’s Award for Fiction, longlisted for the 2024 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, and a New York Times Editor’s Choice. She is the winner of a 2022 O. Henry … Read more
Caroline Adderson is the author of five novels (A History of Forgetting, Sitting Practice, The Sky Is Falling, Ellen in Pieces, A Russian Sister), three collections of short stories (Bad Imaginings, Pleased To Meet You, A Way to Be Happy) as well as many books for young readers. Her work has received numerous award nominations … Read more
Fiona Tinwei Lam has authored three poetry collections and a children’s book. She edited The Bright Well:Contemporary Canadian Poems about Facing Cancer, and co-edited two nonfiction anthologies. Shortlisted for the City of Vancouver Book Prize and other awards, her work appears in over 45 anthologies, including Best Canadian Poetry (2010 and 2020) and Best Canadian Essays 2024. She has collaborated on … Read more
Mystery author Iona Whishaw grew up in Canada, Arizona and Mexico. She has an MFA from UBC, and spent her working life in education. Her Lane Winslow mysteries have won her the 2021 Bony Blythe Light Mystery Award and she has been a finalist for the Duthie book prize and two Lefty Awards. Her book … Read more