August 13 & September 12, 2011
The festival returns for the third year at the Minden Hills Cultural Centre. On August 13, we will have a children's author speak in the morning included in fun activities for families, followed in the afternoon by an open mic for local authors. Last year, over a dozen local authors came out to read from their work. For the schedule please scroll down.
September 12, in honour of R.D. Lawrence's birth date, we will be holding an evening celebration featuring guest authors, live music, dessert and wine. Further details will be announced this summer but we are thrilled to be featuring Joe Fiorito, Toronto Star columnist and author of several books including national best-seller The Closer We Are To Dying. Tickets are $15 and available by calling 705-286-2298 or email: rdlawrenceplace@mindenhills.ca.
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 information about the 2010 authors at the 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.
Sell your books at the Literary Festival 2011
Local authors are invited to sell their books at the R.D. Lawrence Literary Festival. Sell your books and then get your work into the spotlight – read a passage on stage during the Open Mic afternoon on Saturday, August 13 from 1-5pm in the MHCC common room. If you don’t have a book to sell, but would like to read, please email Sheryl Loucks at rdlawrenceplace@mindenhills.ca or call 286-2298. Writers, songwriters, poets, spoken word artists, and youth are also welcome to come the day of and register for free to read.
R.D. Lawrence Literary FestivalBack to Top
2011 Itinerary
When: August 13
When Trees Could Walk - children's workshop
Saturday, Aug. 13 from 10am to noon
Cost: $10
Long before people and animals roamed the earth there was a time when two tree kingdoms ruled the planet, this is a time When Trees Could Walk and they marched to war.What happens next in this adventurous tale by Alex Hamilton Brown? Find out during the telling of this tale and others during a children's workshop on Saturday morning at 10am at R.D. Lawrence Place. Alex Hamilton Brown is a wonderful weaver of tales, who has won 25 international film awards for his work in screenwriting and filmmaking. This story serves as a springboard for an engaging fun children's workshop where he will share eight secrets of great storytelling.
R.D. Lawrence Literary Festival - Writers' Open Mic
Saturday, Aug. 13 from 1 - 5pm in Common Room
1:00pm Sheryl Loucks Host - reading R.D. Lawrence's work
RDLP Coordinator/writer/amateur actress
1:20pm Alex Hamilton Brown - Second Hand Brain
Award winning screenwriter/poet/author
2:00pm Brenda Baker - Sisters of the Sari published by Penguin
Fiction inspired by her experiences volunteering in India.
2:30pm J.R. MacLean - Waking Up Gilligan self-published
Peterborough based humour writer
3:00pm Donna Gagnon - (HHArts Council Director) writer
3:30pm Doug Pugh - reading fiction in progress
award-winning poet, co-founder TheRightEyedDeer
4:00pm Neil Campbell - Cellphones and Sapbuckets
Local newspaper columnist/author
4:30pm Jacqui Morrison - award winning mystery novelist
Mystery, adventure, humour, our writers have it all! Come out for a great afternoon of stories, browse for awesome locally written books, ask your questions about writing and publishing or find out the skinny on what plots are really about and get the scoop from the authors. Writers are welcome to drop-in and we will try to fit you in, to ensure a spot please call 286-2298.
R.D. Lawrence Literary Festival presents Joe Fiorito & Lea Harper
September 12 at 7pm
Minden Hills Cultural Centre – Common Room
Tickets: $15
Toronto Star Columnist Joe Fiorito is also a celebrated memoir writer, and has published critically acclaimed books. He was recently in May awarded the 2011 Gordon Bell Journalism Award. His razer sharp wit and uncanny insights into humanity have charmed thousands of readers. Lea Harper is an award-winning songwriter and poet who will delight with her new CD and work. Join us for a dessert and wine in an intimate evening with two Can Lit stars. This event is part of the R.D. Lawrence Literary Festival reading series and Joe’s appearance is sponsored by Arts Alive as part of the Memoir program now running at R.D. Lawrence Place. September 12 is R.D. Lawrence’s birth date and we will be honouring his memory on this evening as well.For tickets and information please call Sheryl Loucks at 705-286-2298 or email rdlawrenceplace@mindenhills.ca. For full details and author bios please click here.
Where: Minden Hills Cultural Centre 176 Bobcaygeon Rd, Minden ON
Parking: Parking is available at the centre and on Parkside Street.
Tickets: $10 for Children's workshop August 13
$5 For August 13 Writers Open Mic afternoon or a donation
$15 For September 12
All tickets are available for sale the Centre, R.D. Lawrence Place
or can be purchased with a credit card by phone and reserved.
Find out more about our award winning authors who have been to the festival:
BIOGRAPHIES OF WRITERS
.jpg) 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.
Short Story Contest 2011
New Deadline:November 23
Length: Entries may not exceed 750 words.
What Format should entries be in?
Entries must be fiction. They must use the word SANCTUARY. We prefer entries to be emailed to rdlawrenceplace@mindenhills.ca and they may be in Word or a similar program. Entries should be double spaced. If hard copies are being mailed, please send five copies to R.D. Lawrence Place, Box 648, 176 Bobcaygeon Road, Minden ON, K0M 2K0. Please do not put your name on the entry copies but enclose a separate piece of paper with the name of your entry, your name and contact information.
Who are the contest judges?
Michael Fay: former R.D. Lawrence Place Writer In Residence, a professional writer, playwright, and author with years of experience including being a past president of the Periodical Association of Canada.
Pauline Johnson: a retired teacher, editor, writer and former Writer In-Residence at R.D. Lawrence Place.
Sheryl Loucks: R.D. Lawrence Place Coordinator, award-winning journalist with 16 years experience, graduate of the Humber School of Writers post-graduate certificate in creative writing.
Ron Evans: professional published poet and writer and 2011 Writer In-Residence at R.D. Lawrence Place.
Do I get my story returned?
Stories will only be returned if you include a self-addressed envelope with the correct amount of postage.
Is there an entry fee? There is no entry fee as this contest is sponsored by the Haliburton County Voice and the Writer In-Residence Program of R.D. Lawrence Place which is supported by the Haliburton Highlands Writers and Editors Network.
What are the contest categories?
Children: ages 8 to 13
Youth: 14-18yrs
Adult: 19years and up.
Entries that are not identified in the introductory message or page will be automatically placed in the adult category.
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 yourself, not to exceed 150 words, which will be posted should your entry be chosen.
When will winners be announced? Winners will be announced on Dec. 3rd at R.D. Lawrence Place. Winners will be given the option of reading their winning entry during the awards. Winning entries will be posted on this website with the entrants’ permission until next year’s contest winners are announced.
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