Writers — the Denman Readers & Writers Festival Wants You!!!

Words matter.  So do titles ….

We are the “Denman Island Readers and Writers Festival”.  I’ve looked at the names of similar book-related events across the country, and no other festival has this combination of “readers and writers” in the title.  There’s only one – the Medway Readers Festival in Nova Scotia which has the word ‘readers’ in its title.

I think our name is significant – – Denman brings readers and writers together, and when we use the term ‘writers’, we mean the invited authors, local authors, AND festival attendees who enjoy writing themselves, who do write, or who would like to write.  As for readers, if we didn’t have readers, we wouldn’t have writers, so they are critical to our festival.

Readers and Writers Festival 2019 has two specific offerings aimed at aspiring writers.

First there is The Writing Week, led by Vancouver novelist and short story author, Caroline Adderson.  This will be Caroline’s third year in a row with us, and last year she earned rave reviews from her class of apprentice writers.  This program is intensive:  five days (July 15-19) of sharing manuscripts, reviewing others’ work, and receiving tips and feedback from Caroline.  It’s for people who have a manuscript, or a piece of writing well underway, and are committed to the exhilarating and challenging tasks of rewriting, and honing their craft.  Submissions are sent to Caroline in advance for her to review and then will be shared with the other workshop participants.  Taking the advice of last year’s Writing Week participants, this year the program will be open to only 8 people (5 spots are already taken).  This is an exciting opportunity to get high quality and constructive feedback on your writing.

The second writing program is the Blue Pencil Café, in which writers submit up to 4 pages of a revised and polished piece of writing for written commentary, followed by a 45 minute personal consultation on either the Friday or Saturday during the Festival.  Less intensive than The Writing Week, this is still a great chance to get valuable feedback from an accomplished writing coach, Jeanette Taylor from Quadra Island.  She has four books in print with Harbour Publishing and teaches fiction and nonfiction classes designed to help writers build on their strengths and develop new skills.  Only 8 slots will be available for the Blue Pencil Café. (3 of 4 slots on Saturday are already taken)

Full registration details of these two programs are on the festival website.

Stewart Goodings
May 7, 2019