Get Ready for This Year's Word Reading and Writing Festival

Autumn has nearly arrived and with it comes the 22^nd annual Word Reading and Writing Festival. I’ve participated at the Vancouver event nearly every year since it began and I can tell you that it’s a terrific experience.

Word has expanded over the years and now runs for five days in Vancouver. This year, events will start on Wed., Sept. 21^st and end in the main event on Sunday, Sept. 25^th, at Library Square, (at the main library on Georgia Street). You can find a schedule of events and the different venues through the week HERE.

This is a free festival with music, author readings, panel discussions, workshops, and activities for the kids. For those of you who don’t live in Vancouver, Word (also known as Word on the Street) will be held in Halifax (Sept. 17), Saskatoon (Sept. 18), Lethbridge (Sept. 24), and Toronto (Sept. 24). You can find further information about those events HERE.

I’ll be helping out at the Crime Writers of Canada table with other writing colleagues from 1 to 3 pm, but please drop by to visit our table whenever your schedule permits. Fellow crime writers will be there from 11 to 5:00 pm, and they’ll have lots of good information to share about local writers and Crime Writers of Canada.

I’m not sure of the exact location of our table yet, but volunteers give out free programs that allows you to find everyone who’s representing their organization, magazine, publishing house, indie books, and so forth. It really is a paradise for book lovers, so I hope to see you there!

Debra

Word, Vancouver is Coming Up!

One of my favourite annual events to attend and participate in is Word, Vancouver (formerly known as Word on the Street). Over the past twenty years, the event has grown from a single-day festival to a four-day long celebration of reading and writing. The culmination of all that fun happens on the last Sunday of every September in various cities across Canada. This free event is a wonderful day where authors, editors, magazine and book publishers, literacy and writing organizations gather from all over the Lower Mainland and beyond to enjoy a day of readings, panel discussions, book bargains and music.

Crime Writers of Canada will once again be exhibiting on Sunday, September 28^th. This time we’ll be indoors at the Vancouver Public Library (on Georgia Street), so if it rains we’ll at least stay dry! I’ll be manning the table from 1 to 3 p.m. with fellow writer Derrick Carew to tell people about the CWC and celebrate the new titles that Derrick and I, and other writers have released this year. Hope to see you there!

Debra