August 13 & 14
Wit, Words and Wisdom

The festival returns for the second year and will be under the big top tent at the Minden Hills Cultural Centre as part of a three-week cultural festival.  The literary festival will run August 13 and 14. There will be activities all day and a gala event on the evening of the 13.  On August 14 there will be a children's program in the morning, readings and performances by local writers in the afternoon. Also for those interested in playwriting, on the evening of August 14, the Minden Fringe will be happening at Wintergreen, to buy tickets call 286-2808 or 286-3202.  You can also stay on the centre's grounds to enjoy an exceptional concert after a week-long intensive advanced program with some of Canada’s musical masters, tickets are $12.  Details are on the Highlands Brass Academy website at www.highlandsbrass.org.  Details will be posted below for the festival schedule and will be continually updated. To view the festival poster, click here.

If you are interested in volunteering for the festival, are a writer interested in participating, or would like any further information then please call Sheryl Loucks at 286-2298. 

For the itinerary of the 2010 Literary Festival please scroll down or click on the blue R.D. Lawrence Literary Festival button below.  The festival has been made possible by support from the Canada Council for the Arts, donations, and the Township of Minden Hills.

How can you get a FREE PASS to the Literary Festival? Volunteer at the R.D. Lawrence Literary Festival 2010
Get your summer dose of inspiration, volunteer for the festival for as little as one hour to get yourself a free pass worth $50. The itinerary and biographies for the authors are posted below. We are looking for people to sell books, assist authors, help with event set-up/tear down, decorate, take tickets, usher and assist with refreshments. For more details and to sign-up please call Sheryl Loucks at 286-2298.

BIOGRAPHIES OF WRITERS

 

Antanas Sileika: is the Artistic Director of the Humber School for Writers. Born of Lithuanian parentage, Antanas was the co-editor of Descant and has won a National Magazine Award.  Each of his novels Dinner at the End of the World and Buying on Time, were short-listed for the Stephen Leacock Medal and the Toronto Book Award and were received enthusiastically by critics and readers alike. His most recent novel, published by Random House, Woman in Bronze (named a Globe and Mail Best Book), was equally well received.  His next novel titled Underground is forthcoming from Thomas Allen in 2011.

 

Betsy Struthers: is the winner of the 2004 Pat Lowther Memorial Award for the best book of poetry by a Canadian Woman for Still, Black Moss Press. She has published eight books of poetry, three novels, and co-edited an anthology of essays. Her first book of short stories, Relay: Short Fictions, will be released prior to the festival by Black Moss Press in 2010. Struthers received the Silver Medal for the Milton Acorn People’s Poetry Award in 1994, was short-listed for the Arthur Ellis Best First Novel Award in 1993 and the CBC Literary Awards in 2006.

 

Ed Kay: wrote the juvenile fiction novel Star Academy, published by Doubleday Canada, September 2009. As a screenwriter, Ed has won three Gemini Awards for This Hour Has 22 Minutes, a Canadian Screenwriting Award, and three Canadian Comedy Awards. He has won multiple awards for screenwriting and producing children’s programs. He won a Gemini for Best Animated Program for Olliver’s Adventures. He was nominated for a Leo Award for Best Screenwriting for I Dig B.C., and was a finalist for Canadian Screenwriting Awards for Being Ian in 2006. He has also been a finalist for National Magazine Awards.

 

Michelle Berry:  won first place in the Enfield & Wizentry inaugural $5,000 prize for her novel This Book Will Not Save Your Life, to be published in 2010. Her novel What We All Want won the Torgi Talking Book in 2002, she took third in the Writes of Passage Short Fiction Contest in 1995. She has another new book out this year, a short story collection called I still don't even know you. She will in 2010 have published four novels, three short fiction collections, and an art book. She taught short fiction writing at Ryerson University, Trent University and Humber College.

 

Robert Rotenberg: His first novel Old City Hall, published by Simon &Schuster, was named as one of Quill & Quire’s 15 books that mattered in 2009. It has been nominated for the prestigious British Silver Dagger Award, translated into three languages with four more to come and was optioned by Shaftesbury Films, who intend to turn it into a television series. His second novel will be published by Farrar Strauss & Giroux in the U.S. and Simon & Schuster in Canada. Robert was the managing editor of Passion, The Magazine of Paris, and founded The Magazine of Toronto.

 

Thomas Scott: is a poet whose first book User’s Guide to a Blank Wall, published by GREF in 2006, included a French translation by Daniel Soha. It was critically acclaimed by French reviewers such as Nuite Blanche. Thomas won the Discovery Night in 2009 at the Art Bar in Toronto’s Clinton Hotel in February 2009, and gave a reading there in April of 2009. His second book, How Things Got Like This, will be published in 2010 by GREF with another Soha translation. Scott’s poetry was published in Canadian Forum, and he has written television for CBC.

R.D. Lawrence Creative Writing ContestBack to Top

R.D. Lawrence Creative Writing Contest - click on this title to view the contest poster

For Contest details please click here.

New Deadline: November 19, 2010
Length: Entries may not exceed 1,500 words.
Is there an entry fee? There is no entry fee this year as this is included in the celebration of Minden's Sesquicentennial celebrations.
What is the youth category?
Youth are entrants ages 8yrs to 14yrs or Grades 5-8. Youth need to identify themselves in their email or in their written title page for their entry.
Is there an entry form?
We do not have a specific entry form but we do require the following information:
Your name
Mailing address/email address
If no email address then please include your telephone number
Title of your submission
One paragraph about your submission, not to exceed 150 words.
One paragraph about yourself, not to exceed 150 words, which will be posted should your entry be chosen.
When will winners be announced? Winners will be announced at RDLP on December 11 and presented as well at the R.D. Lawrence Literary Festival at the Minden Hills Cultural Centre in 2011. Winning entries will be published on this website for the rest of 2010 and until the end of 2011 contest.

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