For a second year, the Sunshine Coast, Arts and Words Festival at Gibsons Public Market was a huge draw, for folks wanting to take in a free art exhibit, literary readings, along with music and workshops over four days in August.
Author Cathalynn Labonté-Smith, who is president and founder of the Sunshine Coast Writers and Editors Society (SCWES), is hosting an event at Powell River Public Library (PRPL) on Saturday, September 9, at 2 pm. She hopes to receive feedback from local writers and authors on the possibility of a similar writer’s festival happening in the qathet region.
“I’m calling all local authors of all levels, published, unpublished, novices, all genres, to come for a meet and greet,” said Labonté-Smith. “Let’s hang and discuss forming a nonprofit to support and promote local authors on a continuing basis in a safe, inclusive and accessible environment for the benefit of all.”
Although, according to Labonté-Smith, the qathet region has had a writer’s festival in the past, it eventually petered out due to lack of people and resources. There is the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts (SCFWA), but the focus is on national writers and not necessarily writers who are local to the coast.
“The reason we started [SCWES] was because there was nothing [representation] for local writers,” said Labonté-Smith. “A small percentage of authors from the Sunshine Coast have been invited to the festival [SCFWA].”
The gathering on Saturday is meant to be a casual meetup and brainstorm session, to see what would work best for writers in the qathet region. One idea is a festival.
“The other option is to join our festival and our group, but we will see what they want to do,” said Labonté-Smith.
SCWES also publishes an anthology of the work presented at the festival called Arts and Words.
“We randomly pair authors and artists together, a painter or sculptor with a poem or story that is published and on exhibit at the Gibsons Library right now,” said Labonté-Smith.
During the festival at Gibsons Public Market, the art work can be seen as authors do their readings.
“Like most of my ideas, I can see the benefit to our [writers] community,” said Labonté-Smith. “I’m not just doing this with Powell River, but other communities that have never had a festival, or because of the COVID-19 pandemic, or because of a socioeconomic downturn.”
Labonté-Smith believes her organization has done well pairing visual arts with written arts, and can see that concept being successful here, since the qathet region has many of both genres of artists.
Festivals have brought monetary value to communities that are struggling, but Labonté-Smith’s emphasizes that she wants to support coastal writers 365 days of the year.
The meetup takes place, Saturday, September 9, from 2 to 3:30 pm in the community room at PRPL.
Labonté-Smith can be contacted at 604.724.3534.
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