| British Columbia Destinations Beds, books and beaches: lit trips in B.C.
By Sue Kernaghan
Sometimes, you just want to curl up with a good book. Sometimes, you want to write one. Either way, you’ll want peace, quiet and a room with a view.
Sounds like time for a lit trip – a holiday for book lovers. A lit trip can, like literature itself, be anything you want it to be. It can be as inspiring as a literary festival, as life changing as a writers’ retreat, or as simple as a paperback in your overnight bag.
The place? Try British Columbia. There’s scenery (but you knew that), solitude (if you want it), and a calendar full of writers’ events, workshops and retreats.
And you’ll be in good company: many of Canada’s best-known writers – from George Bowering and Margaret Laurence to Carol Shields, Margaret Atwood and Alice Munro – have spent at least part of their careers here.
Current writers in residence include science fiction luminary William Gibson and Generation X author Douglas Coupland.
It’s also comforting to know that writers’ accommodations have improved in the 50 years since Malcolm Lowry wrote Under the Volcano in a North Vancouver shack. These days, a writer’s (or reader’s) retreat can be a city centre hotel replete with art, jazz, and books; a Gulf Island spa resort, a serene seaside retreat centre, or any number of little cabins in the woods.
The Listel Hotel on Robson Street, for example, is Vancouver’s artiest and most literary hotel. In 2005, the hotel joined forces with Raincoast Books to publish The Vancouver Stories, a collection of 15 tales about the city by some of Canada’s best-known writers.
A copy of the book is found in every one of the hotel’s art-filled rooms, and a take-home copy is offered as part of the Listel Hotel’s Books, Bed & Breakfast package.
Or perhaps you’d like a getaway with your whole book club? Poets Cove Resort & Spa on Pender Island offers a Between the Covers package. Aimed at book clubs and book lovers, it’s available from October to April (that’s curling-up-by-the-fire season).
The package includes two nights’ villa or cottage accommodation and a spa credit for each guest. Tucked between Vancouver and Victoria, Pender Island is easy to reach from anywhere in the Pacific Northwest – it just feels remote. May we suggest a spooky thriller by, say, Pender Island’s own William Deverell?
Another place to seek inspiration, especially for fans of conservationist and writer Roderick Haig-Brown, is at Haig-Brown House, the writer’s former home just outside Campbell River on Vancouver Island. Haig-Brown wrote most of his 25 books in his study in this 1923 riverside farmhouse. Three guest rooms are offered for overnight stays and group tours can be arranged in summer.
Campbell River is also the gateway to Cortes Island and the serene Hollyhock Centre, one of Canada’s best-known educational retreat centres. Among the dozens of programmes offered each year are several writing workshops led by experts in the field.
During the summer of 2008, for example, workshops included Writing Life Stories with Obie Award-winning playwright Julie Portman, and A Passion for Narrative with Governor General’s Award-winning novelist Jack Hodgins.
Yoga classes, forest trails, massage and bodywork, kayaking, organic vegetarian meals and an ocean-view hot tub can all help get the creative juices flowing. Hollyhock also offers simple retreats for artists, writers and seekers of refuge to enjoy the centre’s peaceful ambience.
Writing workshops are also offered at the Metchosin International Summer School of the Arts near Victoria. Celebrating its 25th year in 2009, the centre, on the campus of Lester B. Pearson College, is set on a wooded hillside overlooking Vancouver Island’s Pedder Bay Inlet.
Looking for a different kind of scenery? Island Mountain Arts, in the historic Cariboo Mountain town of Wells, offers a range of writing courses as part of its 32-year-old Summer School of the Arts.
The 2008 program included Writing Children’s Books, Non-Fiction Book, Magazine and Travel Writing, and Writing a Memoir.
Evening events and accommodation are available, and Barkerville Historic Town, British Columbia’s largest historic site, is just a few kilometres away. Island Mountain Arts also runs a number of adults’ and kids’ courses simultaneously, making for a great family edu-trip.
For meeting, greeting and reading – without the writing assignments – check out one of BC’s many writers’ and readers’ festivals. The season kicks off in the fall with a host of literary events in Vancouver.
The Word on the Street is a one-day book and magazine festival held simultaneously in cities across Canada each September. Vancouver’s version, held at Library Square downtown, attracts an estimated 35,000 visitors for readings, panel discussions, music, contests and more.
In October, the Vancouver International Writers’ and Readers’ Festival, one of North America's leading literary events, brings some of the world’s best-known writers to the city.
Intimate, interactive and informal, the festival has, over the past two decades, given readers a chance to meet such luminaries as Martin Amis, John Irving, P.D. James, J.K. Rowling, and Salman Rushdie.
Other literary fests include the Powell River Festival of Writers, which draws well-known BC authors to the Sunshine Coast each March, and the Shuswap Lake International Writers’ Festival, held in Salmon Arm each May.
In August, book lovers head to Sechelt for the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts, the country's longest running summer Canadian writers' festival. The 2008 event brought, among others, Michael Ondaatje and Gail Anderson-Dargatz to Sechelt’s Rockwood Centre.
Summer 2009 will also see the sixth annual Summer Dreams Literary Arts Festival in Vancouver’s Stanley Park. Plans include spoken word performances and a story slam competition, as well as dancers, musicians, panel discussions, open mics and a children’s area.
With the province’s host of literary fests, one must wonder if famous writers will find inspiration for their next works here? Possibly. But you certainly can. Bring a laptop, a pen, or just an autograph book. BC has the setting; you provide the plot.
Contacts:
Barkerville Historic Town: www.barkerville.ca, 888-994-3332.
Haig-Brown House: www.haig-brown.bc.ca, 250-286-6646.
Hollyhock Centre: www.hollyhock.ca, 800-933-6339 or 250-935-6576.
Island Mountain Arts: www.imarts.com, 800-442-2787 of 250-994-3466.
The Listel Hotel: www.thelistelhotel.com, 800-663-5491 or 604-684-8461.
Metchosin International Summer School of the Arts: www.missa.ca, 800-667-3122 or 250-391-2420.
Poets Cove: www.poetscove.com, 888-512-7638 or 250-629-2100.
Powell River Festival of Writers: www.prwriters.com, 866-373-2607.
Shuswap Lake International Writers’ Festival: www.saow.ca
Summer Dreams Literary Arts Festival: www.pandorascollective.com/sdrfestival.html.
Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts: www.writersfestival.ca, 800-565-9631 or 604-885-9631.
Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival: www.writersfest.bc.ca, 604-681- 6330.
The Word on the Street: www.thewordonthestreet.ca, 604-684-8266.
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