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Upcoming Events

Feb 8 – Author Talk – Creativity With a Day Job – with P.W. Bridgman

Tonight’s Topic, by P. W. Bridgman: P.W. Bridgman embraces Paul Muldoon’s dictum, “Form is a straitjacket in the way that a straitjacket was a straitjacket for Houdini”. According to one reviewer: To gain some of the benefit of Bridgman’s long experience of human nature by reading [his work] is an opportunity not to be missed.…

Canadian Authors BC Branch 2022 AGM

Date: Thursday December 8th Time: 7pm PST – The program will be approximately 1 hour. Location: Zoom meeting – link will be sent to registrants (see below for registration form). Agenda: This is a reminder sent to Canadian Authors BC Branch membership that we, the Executive Committee of Canadian Authors BC Branch, invite you to our 2022 AGM, taking place online through Zoom, December 8th at 7pm PST. As you are likely aware, this is our first year as a consolidated BC Branch, an evolution from the prior model of separate Vancouver and Victoria Branches. The executive will review progress with this change, discuss plans for next year, and members will be asked to elect the 2023 executive board. Robert Mackay, National Regional Director for BC, has promised an exciting presentation by two out-of-province members of CAA. The mystery topic will appeal to anybody looking for non-social media ways to promote their work. Register now and stand by for more info! BC Members should be receiving emailed copies of the following for review prior to the AGM: 2022 AGM Agenda 2021 AGM Minutes Executive Committee Report Membership Report Treasurer’s Report WIBA Report Please use the form below for registration, and to receive an email with: Zoom link iCal meetingmaker with Dec 8th 7pm PST meeting information and reminder settings We very much look forward to seeing all of you who can attend, and send best wishes.
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North Shore Writers’ Association 27th annual writing contest for fiction, non-fiction and poetry.

The North Shore Writers’ Association is running its 27th annual writing contest for fiction, non-fiction and poetry. First prize in each category is $100. Entry deadline is February 28, 2023. Contest details and submission requirements can be found here on our website.
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The Kasahara Gabriola Trust (KGT) is calling for applications for the 2023 Artist-in-Residence program on Gabriola Island, BC

Explore your Art on beautiful Gabriola Island The Kasahara Gabriola Trust (KGT) is calling for applications for the 2023 Artist-in-Residence program on Gabriola Island, BC. Open to all artistic disciplines. Residency runs May 1 – June 30, 2023 Application deadline is March 1, 2023. Apply online at artsgabriola.ca. Thank You for your time and consideration Roweena Bacchus, Gabriola Arts Council
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Feb 8 – Author Talk – Creativity With a Day Job – with P.W. Bridgman

Tonight’s Topic, by P. W. Bridgman: P.W. Bridgman embraces Paul Muldoon’s dictum, “Form is a straitjacket in the way that a straitjacket was a straitjacket for Houdini”. According to one reviewer: To gain some of the benefit of Bridgman’s long experience of human nature by reading [his work] is an opportunity not to be missed. A thread that will run through the presentation concerns the benefits and challenges of writing creatively when one is otherwise fully engaged in a separate career. Making one’s living writing creatively is something only a handful of Canadians have ever managed to do. Many of the listeners will, as well, have to fit their writing into otherwise busy lives. Bridgman will also touch on the writing of fiction and poetry and how one process informs the other and vice versa. The subject of getting one’s work published, both in print and e-zines, and then in books will also be addressed. Date: Wednesday, February 8th, 2023 Time: 7pm PST – The program will be approximately 1 hour. Location: Zoom meeting – link will be sent to registrants (see below for link to online registration form). About The Speaker: P.W. Bridgman P.W. Bridgman is a Pushcart Prize-nominated writer of poetry, fiction and literary criticism who lives in Vancouver. He has published two books of poetry and two books of short fiction. He began writing while an articled student-at-law. His fiction and poetry have appeared, or are forthcoming, in many journals and magazines. He has won prizes and has been short- and long-listed in several literary competitions, both in Canada and abroad. Some of his short stories and flash fiction pieces are represented in anthologies published in Ireland, England, Scotland, the USA and Canada. P.W. Bridgman chapbook, Deliverance-1961: A Novella in 32 Cantos, will be published in 2023 by the Pooka Press of Vancouver. Visit P.W. Bridgman’s website at: https://pwbridgman.ca/ Registration:
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January 18 – Author Talk – Writing: Yesterday and Today with Vickie Jensen

Tonight’s Topic, by Vickie Jensen: Vickie Jensen will tell what tough but essential lessons she has learned in 50 years of writing and publishing non-fiction. Specifically: What advice she would give her younger self. What are the advantages and challenges of working with traditional publishing houses (U of Wash Press, Douglas & McIntyre, Harbour Publishing) vs self publishing (her own company is Westcoast Words). How can a writer make a living in today’s world. Date: Wednesday January 18th Time: 7pm PST – The program will be approximately 1 hour. Location: Zoom meeting – link will be sent to registrants (see below for registration form). About The Speaker: Vickie Jensen is a writer of non-fiction, photographer and editor. Vickie has written about Aboriginal culture and people for more than 30 years, and with her husband Jay Powell has produced nearly 40 schoolbooks issued in a several Aboriginal languages.That focus has resulted in 14 non-fiction works on topics ranging from carving totem poles, to women who work B.C.’s workboats and how to build an underwater robot. Mary-Anne also volunteers with the Global South and recently travelled to Ecuador and Kenya on assignment with Global Affairs Canada. Visit Vickie’s website at: https://www.westcoastwords.com
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November 3rd – Author’s Talk – The Essay as Carrier Bag, as Gathering Basket with Theresa Kishkan

Tonight’s Topic, by Theresa Kishkan: I began my writing life as a poet in the 1970s and thought that I’d return to poetry after the births of my 3 children in the 1980s. But I found poetry wasn’t willing to have me back. I think I found my true calling when I started to write essays in the 1990s (my first collection of them, Red Laredo Boots, was published in 1996.) And what do I think of the essay? I guess I was taught that they can be descriptive, narrative, expository, analytical or reflective, which is maybe why it took me some time to find my own way to write them. They can be all those things, certainly, but also they can be terse and elliptical, lyrical, notes towards something larger, they can be mosaics, maps, juxtapositions of imagery and meaning. They can function in the spirit of Ursula LeGuin’s capacious carrier bag, holding string, seeds, bright feathers, little scraps of dialogue, bones for soup, poetry, music. Fact and ideas can sing themselves in long symphonic phrases, grateful to have the time and space to go off-topic. Carrier bag, gathering basket, magpie nest, the essay is an opportunity to (as John D’Agata observed) capture the activity of human thought in real time. Date: Thursday November 3rd Time: 7pm PST – The program will be approximately 1 hour. Location: Zoom meeting – link will be sent to registrants (see below for registration form). About The Speaker: Theresa Kishkan lives on the Sechelt Peninsula with her husband, John Pass, in a house they built and where they raised their 3 children. She has published 16 books, most recently Euclid’s Orchard, a collection of essays about family history, botany, mathematics, and love (Mother Tongue Publishing, 2017); a novella, The Weight of the Heart (Palimpsest Press, 2020), in which a young graduate student attempts to create a feminist cartography with the works of Ethel Wilson and Sheila Watson; and Blue Portugal and Other Essays (University of Alberta Press, 2022), a collection of lyrical essays. Her books have been nominated for many awards, including the Hubert Evans Award and the Ethel Wilson Prize. Her interests include textiles, ethnobotany, music, human and physical geography, and colour theory, strands of which are braided together in Blue Portugal. Visit Theresa’s website at: www.theresakishkan.com
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October 6th, 2022 – Writer Talk – Writing on Both Sides of the Veil

Nina Shoroplova, author and book editor, will interview these author-panelists for the October 6th Canadian Authors BC Branch Writer Talk, “Writing on Both Sides of the Veil” – three authors who lost a loved one write about how they dealt with their loss. Date: Thursday October 6th Time: 7pm PST – The program will be approximately 1 hour. Location: Zoom meeting – link will be sent to registrants (see below for registration form). About the author-panelists: Roxanne Davies of North Vancouver was for twelve years a journalist and over the years has co-authored three books (see News about Roxanne). She is the author of The Blue Riviera: A Daughter’s Investigation. Andrea Courey of Montreal is a sound healer and meditator offering workshops for those who are bereaved at andreacourey.com/sound-healing-meditation. She is the author of Conversations with Chloe: A Mother and Daughter Dialogue Across the Veil. Barbara Morningstar of Greater Vancouver worked in an administrative capacity in a number of Greater Vancouver hospices. She founded “In Autumn’s Cocoon” inautumnscocoon.com to offer education on a range of end-of-life topics. She is the author of Honoring the Mystery: Uplifting Insights from the Language, Visions, and Dreams of the Dying. About the host: Nina Shoroplova Nina Shoroplova recently published the bestselling Legacy of Trees: Purposeful Wandering in Vancouver’s Stanley Park (Heritage House, 2020). Legacy received an honourable mention in the 2020 British Columbia Lieutenant Governor’s Historical Writing Awards, organized by the BC Historical Federation. She published the bestselling Cattle Ranch: The Story of the Douglas Lake Cattle Company (Nina Woolliams, Douglas & McIntyre, 1979). Nina works as an editor, mostly of nonfiction books, taking authors’ manuscripts through every stage, from structural editing to proofreading. This panel comprises three of her client authors talking about how writing can help a person deal with losing a loved one. Visit Nina’s website at: ninashoroplova.ca
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Canadian Authors BC Branch

Upcoming Events

Feb 8 – Author Talk – Creativity With a Day Job – with P.W. Bridgman