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Award-winning authors to visit Sea to Sky schools

Four authors of Whistler Writers Festival to inspire students

This fall, four award-winning authors who will be featured in the 2019 Whistler Writers Festival will join students in 16 schools in the Sea to Sky.

The minds behind Be My Love, My Story Starts Here: Voices of Young Offenders, Moccasin Square Gardens and The Marrow Thieves (Kit Pearson, Deborah Ellis, Richard Van Camp and Cherie Dimaline respectively) are stepping into classrooms to inspire and encourage young students. Through the Author in the Schools program, the four writers will talk about the process of storytelling in one-hour presentations to students in grades 6, 7, 8, 9, 11 and 12 in various schools.

Students from other schools have the opportunity to be bussed to the presentations.

These authors are worth a read. Dimaline's The Marrow Thieves earned the Indigenous writer multiple awards and nominations, while the author herself has been named the Emerging Artist of the Year at the Ontario Premier's Awards for Excellence in the Arts in 2014. She is also the first Indigenous writer in residence at the Toronto Public Library. As for Ellis, her work includes more than two dozen books for which she's won multiple awards. And she donated the royalties to charities that benefit women and children. Van Camp also has his name on a dozen books. As a member of the Dogrib (TłĮchǫ) Dene Nation, he is also a skilled oral storyteller. Pearson is a children's author who has won awards for her collection of work.

Not a student? You can also see these authors speak at the free Creating a Conversation with Your Readers talk at the Whistler Writers Festival on Oct. 19 from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Those under 19 years old are also welcome to Tim Wynne-Jones' — a Governor's General Award-winning author — Action and Dialouge Workshop for Young Writers on Oct. 19 at 2:30 to 4 p.m.

Find more information and event details at www.whistlerwritersfest.com.

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