Writers Featured at the 2020 Wild Word North
The Peace Liard Regional Arts Council is grateful to Treaty 8, on whose traditional territory we reside.
Want to find out more? Check out the full line-up and schedule.
Return to Main 2020 Wild Words North Festival Page
Marilyn Belak lives in Dawson Creek and is a nature advocate. Her poetry is published in literary magazines and online including The Malahat Review, The Antigonish Review, and Leaf Press’ Monday’s Poem. Her work has also appeared in anthologies such as Enpipeline, Boobs and Unfurled through Caitlin Press and in chapbooks. She is an alumnus of Banff Wired Writing, Sage Hill Poetry, Vancouver Manuscript Intensive, and many other writing retreats. In 2020, Marilyn won the Distinguished Ekphrastic Writing Exhibit Award.
At Wild Words North Marilyn will be reading as part of the Ekphrastic Writing Broadside Video Launch.
Tanya Clary has lived in the North most of her life. She holds a Master’s degree in clinical counselling and is a therapist and psychology instructor. She’s the mother of three wondering humans and enjoys being physically active outdoors. She’s been writing fiction, non-fiction and poetry since she was a teenager, finding the process of writing a healing and expressive exercise. She’s gone long stages of time without writing, then stretches of time when writing prolifically. During COVID-19 and while isolated from her friends and family, she took to writing short stories and poetry once more.
At Wild Words North, Tanya will be reading as part of the Ekphrastic Writing Broadside Video Launch and will be hosting the presentation by the Northern Writers Group.
Shannon May Craig was born and raised in Fort St. John, BC. She is a professional contemporary dancer and has performed throughout Europe, Canada and the United States. In 2018, she moved to Vancouver to co-found a dance collective focused on telling stories through movement. Her interest in story-telling and life-long love of reading inspired her to take up writing, which she began to pursue in earnest with the enforced suspension of performing by the pandemic. She has drawn great encouragement from being recognized in the 2020 Ekphrastic writing exhibit, for which she received Second Prize.
At Wild Words North, Shannon will be reading as part of the Ekphrastic Writing Broadside Video Launch.
An Officer of the Order of Canada, Lorna Crozier has been acknowledged for her contributions to Canadian literature, her teaching and her mentoring with five honourary doctorates, most recently from McGill and Simon Fraser Universities. Her books have received numerous national awards, including the Governor-General’s Award for Poetry. The Globe and Mail declared The Book of Marvels: A Compendium of Everyday Things one of its Top 100 Books of the Year, and Amazon chose her memoir as one of the 100 books you should read in your lifetime. A Professor Emerita at the University of Victoria, she has performed for Queen Elizabeth II and has read her poetry, which has been translated into several languages, on every continent except Antarctica. Her book, What the Soul Doesn’t Want, was nominated for the 2017 Governor General’s Award for Poetry. In 2018, Lorna Crozier received the George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award. She lives on Vancouver Island.
At Wild Words North, Lorna will be reading from her latest book, Through the Garden: A Love Story (with Cats), and taking part in a Q&A led by Steven Price.
A multi-talented artist and member of the Fort Nelson First Nation, Curtis Henry Dickie will be performing a drumming prayer to open this year’s Wild Words North.
Dr. Jenny Kay Dupuis (Ojibway Anishinaabe) is a member of Nipissing First Nation. She is an educator, researcher, artist and motivational speaker who has over fifteen years’ experience focusing on issues that relate to Indigenous education, leadership and diversity, engagement and the importance of relationship-building today.
At Wild Words North, Jenny will be taking part in the Decolonizing Children’s Literature panel discussion.
kit fast is the curator at the Dawson Creek Art Gallery and a multi-disciplinary artist. At Wild Words North, kit will be presenting his video essay, standing waves: the making of each moment.
Patrick D. Ferris is an multi-genre author based in Fort St. John, B.C., Canada. He has written two series—the gritty Terry Reid cycle, with His Disciples Replicate published earlier this year and the forthcoming His Disciples in Motion (November 2020) and the whimsical cycling romance of the Gypsies series. His short stories have appeared in compilations and print.
At Wild Words North, Patrick is featured in the Regional Writer Spotlights.
Lorri Neilsen Glenn is the author and editor of fourteen books of poetry, creative nonfiction and scholarly work. Following the River: Traces of Red River Women, a mixed-genre historical memoir, was published late in 2017 with Wolsak and Wynn and is now in its third printing. The book explores Lorri’s Métis and Cree grandmothers’ lives and was short-listed for the Evelyn Richardson Nonfiction award and winner of the Miramichi Reader’s nonfiction award. Lorri has taught poetry and memoir in all provinces of Canada, as well as in Ireland, Chile, Greece and Australia. Former Halifax Poet Laureate, Lorri is Professor Emerita at Mount Saint Vincent University and a mentor at The University of King’s College MFA’s program in creative nonfiction.
At Wild Words North, Lorri will be leading the workshop, Your Life in Poetry and Prose: Shaping Your Stories into Art.
Christy Jordan-Fenton has been an infantry soldier, a bareback bronc rider, a survival instructor, and a wild pig farmer, among other things, and has lived in Australia, South Africa, and Vermont. She has a master’s diploma in Human Rights and Forced Displacement from UPEACE, and is a Vital Voices Lead Fellow. She lives in Fort St. John, BC, but keeps an active traveling schedule. She and her mother-in-law, Margaret Olemaun Pokiak-Fenton, speak with 100 audiences a year, from Anchorage to Havana. Her greatest passions are spending time with her three children (Margaret’s grandchildren), writing, and studying dance. Margaret is not only someone Jordan-Fenton has spent an enormous amount of time with throughout the journey of unearthing Margaret’s childhood stories for four books, and the grandmother of Jordan-Fenton’s children, she is also her best friend and partner in crime. The two have gotten up to many antics in their ten years on the road together sharing Margaret’s experiences. There may or may not be a story about a couple tattoos in there . . .
At Wild Words North, Christy will be participating in the panel discussion Decolonizing Children’s Literature, in partnership with Toronto’s Word on the Street.
Helen Knott is a Dane-zaa and Nehiyawak writer, spoken word poet, and advocate from the Prophet River First Nations living in Fort St. John, BC. Currently completing a Masters in First Nations Studies at UNBC, Helen was recently named one of 16 Nobel laureate-honoured world activists and one of 150 Indigenous Canadian artists honored with the Hnyatyshyn Foundation REVEAL Indigenous Art Award. She has published short stories and poetry in the Malahat Review, Red Rising Magazine, CBC Arts, the Surviving Canada Anthology, alongside other publications and poetry video productions. Helen has forthcoming academic pieces that focus on connecting violence against Indigenous lands and bodies. Her first book, In My Own Moccasins, was released in Fall 2019 by the University of Regina Press.
At Wild Words North, Helen will be taking part in the panel discussion Indigenous Memoir, in partnership with Toronto’s Word on the Street and leading the discussion with Sonnet L’Abbe.
Tracy Krauss is a multi-published novelist, playwright, and artist with several award winning and best selling novels, stage plays, devotionals and children’s books in print. Her work strikes a chord with those looking for thought provoking faith based fiction laced with romance, suspense and humor. She holds a B.Ed from the University of Saskatchewan and has lived in many remote and interesting places in Canada’s far north. She and her husband currently reside in beautiful Tumbler Ridge, BC where she continues to pursue all of her creative interests. “Fiction on the edge – without crossing the line” Contact: tracy@tracykrauss.com
At Wild Words North, Tracy is featured in the Regional Writer Spotlights.
Sonnet L’Abbé is a mixed-race Black writer, professor, musician and organizer of Afro-Guyanese, Indo-Guyanese, and Québecois ancestry, and the author of three collections of poetry: A Strange Relief, Killarnoe, and Sonnet’s Shakespeare. Sonnet’s Shakespeare was a Quill and Quire Book of The Year for 2019, was shortlisted for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize and the Raymond Souster Award, and longlisted for the Pat Lowther Memorial Award. Their chapbook, Anima Canadensis, won the 2017 bp Nichol Chapbook Award. In 2000, they won the Bronwen Wallace Memorial Award for most promising writer under 35. In 2014, they were the guest editor of Best Canadian Poetry in English. L’Abbé lives on Vancouver Island, is researching songwriting and is a professor of Creative Writing and English at Vancouver Island University.
At Wild Words North, Sonnet will be reading from their book Sonnet’s Shakespeare and taking part in a Q&A led by Helen Knott.
Joanna Lilley’s fourth book and debut novel, Worry Stones, was published by Ronsdale Press in 2018 and longlisted for the Caledonia Novel Award. Joanna is also the author of the poetry collection, If There Were Roads (Turnstone Press), the poetry collection, The Fleece Era (Brick Books) which was nominated for the Fred Cogswell Award for Excellence in Poetry, and the short story collection, The Birthday Books (Radiant Press). Joanna’s third poetry book, Endlings, a collection of poems about extinct animals, was published by Turnstone Press in spring 2020. Joanna lives in Whitehorse, Yukon, where she’s helping to set up a new literary society, Yukon Words. She is grateful to the Kwanlin Dün First Nation and the Ta’an Kwäch’än Council on whose Traditional Territories she resides.
At Wild Words North, Joanna will be leading the workshop, Seven Steps to Writing About Place.
Erín Moure (erinmoure.strikingly.com) is a poet and translator of poetry, based in Montreal and Kelowna. Recent works include Kapusta (Anansi 2015), Planetary Noise: Selected Poetry of Erín Moure (Wesleyan 2017, ed. by Shannon Maguire), a translation of Brazilian Wilson Bueno’s Paraguayan Sea from portunhol (Nightboat 2017, finalist for Best Translated Book Award), and the memoir Sitting Shiva on Minto Avenue, by Toots (New Star 2017, finalist for both the Mavis Gallant Award for Non-Fiction and for the City of Vancouver Book Award). 2018 saw a 30th anniversary reissue of Furious (Anansi, Governor General’s Award 1988) and a regional and family history of the North and South Peace, Century in the North Peace: The Life and times of Anne and John Callison (Zat-So). In 2019, Erín will be launching three new books: her translation of Galician poet Lupe Gómez’s Camouflage (Circumference Books, USA), a co-translation with Roman Ivashkiv of Ukrainian poet Yuri Izdryk’s Smokes (Lost Horse Press, USA), and her own The Elements, a book in homage to her late father (Anansi, Toronto).
At Wild Words North, Erín will be leading the workshop Translation: Wild Words for the North.
Steven Price is the author of Into That Darkness (2011). By Gaslight (2016), longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and Lampedusa (2019), a finalist for the Scotia Bank Giller Prize. Also an acclaimed poet, he has written two award-winning poetry books, Anatomy of Keys (2006), winner of the Gerald Lampert Award, and Omens in the Year of the Ox (2012), winner of the ReLit Award. He lives in Victoria, B.C.
At Wild Words North, Steven will be leading the Q&A with Lorna Crozier.
Rebekah Rempel studied creative writing at the University of Victoria. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in a number of journals, including Canthius, Grain Magazine, Prairie Fire, Room Magazine, and Contemporary Verse 2, as well as several anthologies, including Voicing Suicide (Ekstasis Editions), Sweet Water: Poems for the Watersheds, and Refugium: Poems for the Pacific (Caitlin Press). One of her poems received Canthius’s 2019 Priscila Uppal Memorial Award for Poetry. She has also contributed a poem to Bimblebox 153 Birds, an environmental arts exhibit in Queensland, Australia. She lives near Dawson Creek, BC.
At Wild Words North, Rebekah is featured in the Regional Writer Spotlights.
Seanah Roper is a BC based writer of fiction and poetry. She completed her BA in English Literature at Thompson Rivers University and holds an MA in Adult Education and Cultural Studies through Athabasca University. She has been published in various journals and anthologies including Undercurrents Anthology, OnSpec Magazine, Writing Without Direction Anthology and Filling Station Magazine.She lives in Fort Nelson, BC with her partner and small son where she is the Executive Director of a non profit literacy society.
At Wild Words North, Seanah will be reading as part of the Ekphrastic Writing Broadside Video Launch.
Norma Rrae (notmewriting.com) is a northern living author, healthcare worker, mother, grandmother, puppy-mom and art lover. Norma passionately writes short stories for contests, novels for fame and poetry for the love of it. Navigating her way through a puzzle of stories in her mind, Norma finds a wealth of inspiration in her house made of dogs and teenagers- it’s no wonder submerging herself into a fantasy world is what she’d rather do. In 2020, she’s publishing a short story, White Sheets, with Perfectly Poisoned Anthologies, and early 2021 will see her first novel, Cattywampus, printed. Her 2019 weekly story, Temerarious Tabias, in The Alaska Highway News, is what got her the bug for print.
At Wild Words North, Norma Rrae will be reading as part of the Ekphrastic Writing Broadside Video Launch.
Wayne Sawchuk’s early days were spent as a logger and trapper. In 1985, he helped his uncle build a trapper’s cabin at Mayfield Lake in the Northern Rockies and eventually bought the trapline. Through the 1990s he began taking extended horse packing trips into the area while helping shape the future of the Muskwa-Kechika Management Area, 6.5 million hectares of land where intact ecosystems co-exist with carefully regulated resource extraction.
At Wild Word’s North, Wayne will be launching his new book, Crossing the Divide: Discovering a Wilderness Ethic in Canada’s Northern Rockies, published by Creekstone Press.
Naomi Shore is a folk/roots artist from Northern BC, a lover of storytelling and sad songs. Her songwriting is honest, vulnerable and relatable. Her debut solo album Piece by Piece was released in early 2019. With her duo project, Twin Peaks, Naomi has had the good fortune of touring most of Canada as well as the East Coast of Australia. In 2015 Twin Peaks were awarded the Western Canadian Music Award for Roots Duo/ Group Recording of the Year for their album Trouble.
At Wild Words North, Naomi will host the virtual regional song-writers coffeehouse.
Tamara Dannecker Sunchild is a wrangler, carpenter and spoken word poet. Of Cree descent, she currently resides in Fort Nelson, BC. At Wild Words North, Tamara will be reading as part of the Ekphrastic Writing Broadside Video Launch.
Barbara Swail lives in Dawson Creek, BC. She works primarily in visual media but after a career writing everything except poetry, was inspired to try by the advent of Covid, the Northern Writers Group and the work of fellow regional artists.
At Wild Words North, Barbara will be reading as part of the Ekphrastic Writing Broadside Video Launch.
Jesse Thistle is Métis-Cree, from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. He is an Assistant Professor in Métis Studies at York University in Toronto, where he lives. He won a Governor General’s Academic Medal in 2016, and is a Pierre Elliot Trudeau Scholar and a Vanier Scholar. His book, From the Ashes, chronicles his life on the streets and how he overcame trauma and addiction to discover the truth about who he is.
At Wild Words North, Jesse will be taking part in the panel discussion Indigenous Memoir, in partnership with Toronto’s Word on the Street.
Rebecca Thomas is an award-winning Mi’kmaw poet. She is Halifax’s former Poet Laureate (2016-2018) and has been published in multiple journals and magazines. She coordinated the Halifax Slam Poetry team from 2014 to 2017, leading them to three national competitions with the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word. I’m Finding My Talk is her first book.
At Wild Words North, Rebecca will be taking part in the panel discussion Decolonizing Children’s Literature, in partnership with Toronto’s Word on the Street.
John Vaillant’s first book, The Golden Spruce, was a #1 national bestseller, winner of the Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction, the Pearson Writer’s Trust Non-Fiction Award and the Roderick Haig Brown Regional Prize. The Tiger was a #1 national bestseller, a Canada Reads selection, a Globe and Mail Best Book, and won the BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction, the Prix Bouvier, the Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award, the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize, the CBA Libris Award for Non-Fiction Book of the Year and the CBC Bookie Award for Best Overall Book. It has been translated into 15 languages. Vaillant has written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Outside, National Geographic and The Walrus, among other publications. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, with his wife and children.
At Wild Words North, John will be leading the Q&A with Wayne Sawchuk.
Katelyn Vandersteen is from Fort Nelson and has been writing for years. She mostly writes short stories though she is currently working on a novel. She takes inspiration from anything whether it is art, nature or sayings. She has published two anthologies containing stories written by students at the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC).
At Wild Words North, Katelyn will be reading as part of the Ekphrastic Writing Broadside Video Launch.
The Peace Liard Regional Arts Council and Wild Words North sincerely thanks this year’s sponsors.
