The Whistler Readers and Writers Festival, revitalized in its 12th year by a $30,000 investment from the Resort Municipality of Whistlers Festival Events And Animation program, is the perfect excuse to get out of town and curl up with 30 good books this weekend.
However, if venturing that far for R & R makes you slightly homesick, dont miss events starring these Vancouver authors:
Roberta Rich and others
Oct. 18; 8pm
Opening night gala readings in conversation with author Stephen Vogler
Millennium Place; $20
Rich, a former family lawyer, divides her time between Vancouver and Colima, Mexico. Her first novel, the bestselling The Midwife of Venice, has been published to acclaim in 13 territories.
Jane Silcott
Oct. 19; 11am-1pm
Memoir writing workshop
Fairmont Chateau Whistler; $25
Silcotts award-winning writing has been called fearless, honest, crisp, compelling, and cheeky. Her debut collection of memoirs, Everything Rustles, about middle age, marriage, loss, and laundry rooms, was published this spring with Anvil Press. She lives in Vancouver with her family and teaches for the UBC Writing Centre and the SFU Southbank Writing Program.
E.R Brown, Robin Spano and others
Oct. 19; 1-2pm
Crime writers lunch
Fairmont; $25
Brown (left) is a Vancouver writer whose short stories have been 
published nationwide and dramatized by the CBC. The Globe & Mail described his first novel, the BC-based crime thriller Almost Criminal, as funny and twisted in the same vein as Breaking Bad (but very Canadian on the crime) with tons of great Lower Mainland vibes.
Spano (right) grew up in downtown Toronto and now lives in Lions Bay. She studied physics at university but dropped out to travel North America on her motorcycle, waitressing in various cities and towns while trying to write her first novel.
Evelyn Lau, Elizabeth Bachinsky and others
Oct. 19; 2:15-4:15pm
Poetry reading and panel discussion
Fairmont; $20
Born in Vancouver in 1971, Lau (left) is the author of six volumes of poetry, two short story collections, two works of non-fiction, and a novel. Runaway: Diary of a Street Kid, published when she was 18, was made into a CBC movie. Her poetry has been selected for inclusion in the Best American Poetry and Best Canadian Poetry anthologies. You Are Not Who You Claim won the Milton Acorn Peoples Poet Award, Oedipal Dreams was nominated for the Governor-Generals Award, and Living Under Plastic won the Pat Lowther Award for best book of poetry by a woman in Canada. Evelyn is the 2011-2014 Poet Laureate for the City of Vancouver.
The author of five collections of poetry, 
Bachinskys work has been nominated for numerous awards, including the Pat Lowther Award, the Kobzar Literary Award and the Governor Generals Award for Poetry. She was born in Regina, raised in BC, and now lives in Vancouver, where she is an instructor of creative writing and editor of Event Magazine.
Genni Gunn and others
Oct. 20; 11am-1pm
Closing brunch with Jian Ghomeshi
Fairmont; $35
Gunn is a writer, translator and musician. She has published three novels: Solitaria, nominated for the Giller Prize 2011; Tracing Iris, made into a film titled The Riverbank; and Thrice Upon a Time, finalist for the Commonwealth Prize. She has also written the libretto for the opera Alternate Visions, produced in Montreal in 2007, and showcased at the Opera America Conference in Vancouver, May 2013.
Meanwhile, headlining the weekend are Patrick deWitt, author of novel The Sisters Brothers, which won the Governor-Generals Literary Award for fiction; Lisa Moore, this years Canada Reads winner; and Richard Wagamese, the 2012 recipient of the National Aboriginal Achievement Award for Media & Communications.
And for Q fans, award-winning broadcaster, best-selling author, musician and producer Jian Ghomeshi will be the festivals key moderator, including going in-conversation at the Oct. 19 gala with Giller Prize-winning author Will Ferguson. Ghomeshi will also be moderating the brunch panel on Sunday.
A full festival pass is $190, and the Fairmont is offering a Book & Bed package; call 604-938-8000 to enquire.
WhistlerReadersAndWritersFestival.com
Follow @KelseyKlassen and @WEvancouver for live coverage from the festival.
