Shuswap Association of Writers

04/28/2026

Friday evening! Come on out.
Public welcome by donation.
Michael Slade's Shock Theatre @ Prestige Resort 7pm.

04/15/2026

WHO CAN YOU EXPECT TO SEE at the WORD ON THE LAKE WRITER'S FESTIVAL?

Why, Singer, Songwriter JILL BARBER, of course!

Barber is a three-time Juno Award nominated singer-songwriter, and Certified Gold recording artist, with an unforgettable voice once heard, never forgotten. Her critically acclaimed repertoire spans a transformative spectrum from folk, to vocal jazz, to pop, and includes songs in both French and English.

Her evocative and timeless songs have been featured in film and TV, scoring shows such as Orange Is The New Black, The L Word, and Heartland, as well as powering a global advertising campaign for Chrysler with the track ‘Never Quit Loving You.’

Named Sirius XM’s Jazz Artist of the Year, Barber has 1.2 million monthly listeners on Spotify and has scores of fans, including Blue Rodeo, Ron Sexsmith, and the late Kris Kristofferson, who called Jill “a real songwriter, and a damn good songwriter.”

An unforgettable, enchanting performer, Jill has headlined iconic venues such as Toronto’s Massey Hall, Ottawa’s National Arts Centre, Vancouver’s Vogue Theatre and Tokyo’s Blue Note, and appeared at notable festivals including the Montreal Jazz Festival, Woodford Folk Festival in Australia, Green Man Festival in Wales, and at World Expo Dubai in 2021 and World Expo Osaka in 2025.

In 2026 she is embarking on a very ambitious Symphony Orchestra tour, presenting Under Paris Skies, a celebration of French chanson, where she will be commanding a 60-piece orchestra as a vocalist. Her first show takes place with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra on Feb 6th, 2026.

Jill is also a children’s book author, with two books to her credit, Baby’s Lullaby, Music is for Everyone, and the forthcoming picture book, That Time of Year, all published by Nimbus.

04/15/2026

Who can you expect to see at the WORD ON THE LAKE FESTIVAL? Why, MICHAEL SLADE, of course!

MICHAEL SLADE is a criminal lawyer who has acted in more than 100 murder cases. His specialty is psychopathology. His 15 thrillers about the Special X psycho-hunters of the RCMP fuse police and legal procedure, whodunit, history, horror, and suspense. TOO MANY HYDES: The Last Stand of Special X – the climactic novel in the series that began with HEADHUNTER in 1984 – will be published this year. As a playwright, he has written and staged MICHAEL SLADE’S SHOCK THEATRE for 18 years. He was guest of honour at BLOODY WORDS and the WORLD HORROR CONVENTION, speaker at 3 RCMP Regimental Dinners and the International Police Leadership Conference, and the BC Magistrates Dinner.

“Crime writer Michael Slade is the real deal! As a trial lawyer, Slade knows psycho killers, s*x predators, and their horrific crimes inside out. As a Mountie, I worked s*x crimes and led a team of ViCLAS psycho-hunters for 7 years. If reading Slade makes you react, ‘Wow! Serial killers don’t really do that to people, do they?’, I can tell you, yes, they do.” – RCMP Staff Sergeant Christine Wozney (ret.), CO of the Violent Crime Linkage Analysis team (West Coast).

Slade Website & e-bookstore: www.specialx.net

04/15/2026

Who can you expect to see at the WORD ON THE LAKE FESTIVAL? Why CBC's GRANT LAWRENCE, of course!

Grant Lawrence is an award-winning writer, musician, broadcaster, and live event host. He is the author of four best-selling books for adults: Adventures in Solitude (2010), The Lonely End of the Rink (2013), Dirty Windshields (2017), and his latest number one bestseller, Return to Solitude (2022). Bailey the Bat and the Tangled Moose, his first children’s picture book, was released in 2021. Grant’s second children’s book, Adventures in Desolation Sound, a picture book version of Grant’s first book Adventures in Solitude, was released in 2024. Grant Lawrence is the first author in the history of the BC Book Prizes to win the Bill Duthie Booksellers Choice twice.

Grant is also the host of the CBC Music Top 20, the lead singer of the internationally acclaimed garage band The Smugglers, a Canadian Screen Award winner, and a former columnist for the WestEnder, the Vancouver Courier, Vancouver Is Awesome, North Shore News and Powell River Peak.

Grant Lawrence is married to musician Jill Barber and they live in Vancouver with their two children. In 2025, Grant hosted, edited and produced Whale Tale, the gripping true story about a unique family of West Coast orcas.

grantlawrence.ca

04/15/2026

Who can you expect to see at the WORD ON THE LAKE FESTIVAL?

CHARLES DEMERS, of course! Charles is a comedian & humourist, author, voice actor, playwright, screenwriter, & speechwriter based in Vancouver. One of Canada’s top stand-up comics — who has opened for Sarah Silverman, Marc Maron, Bob Odenkirk, and others — he is also a regular performer on Sirius satellite and CBC radio, including 20 years on the comedy smash-hit The Debaters. He is one of the stars of two Emmy-winning Netflix animated series, Beat Bugs (based on the immortal music of The Beatles), and provides the voice of ‘Poutine’ on Will Arnett’s patriotic superhero send-up Super Team Canada, for which he has also written two episodes. Demers’s iTunes Canada #1-selling stand-up album Fatherland, from 604 Records, was nominated for the 2018 Juno Award for Best Comedy Album.

He is the author of the bestselling essay collections Vancouver Special (a finalist for the Hubert Evans BC Book prize for Non-fiction), The Horrors, and The Eh Team; the novels The Prescription Errors, Primary Obsessions, and Noonday Dark; and the forthcoming children’s picture book I Sure Do. He is the co-author, with Canada’s first Poet Laureate George Bowering, of The Dad Dialogues, a collection of epistolary non-fiction on fatherhood.

His bestselling comedic crime novel, Property Values, has been optioned for development as a feature film by Pioneer Pictures of Los Angeles, with a screenplay cowritten by Demers. Charles has written scripts for stage, radio, & screen; has taught creative writing at the university level; & edited-curated Robin’s Egg Books, a humour imprint from Arsenal Pulp Press.

He has written for Jacobin, Vancouver Magazine, and Outdoor Canada, and appeared as a featured guest on the popular WTF podcast with Marc Maron. He is a speechwriter (and joke-writer) for British Columbia Premier David Eby.

04/15/2026

https://wordonthelakewritersfestival.com/registration-information/

04/15/2026

03/19/2026

Early Bird registration February 27 – April 12th (Prize draw details below)Registration opens April 13th and closes April 26th, 2026All registration tickets include taxes and gratuity. Register Online for the Festival BASIC EARLY BIRD registration – $275Includes Saturday, and Sunday workshops on...

03/19/2026

Here is the growing list of fantastic presenters at 2026 Word On The Lake Writers’ Festival. Gail Anderson-Dargatz National and International bestselling author Jill Barber Singer, Songwriter Andrew Buckley Storyteller, Educator, Keynote Speaker Finnian Burnett Author Charlie Demers Comedian, auth...

01/13/2026

Askew's Word on the Lake Writing Contest is open for submissions until midnight January 31st, 2026. Click the link for full contest rules and guidelines. https://wordonthelakewritersfestival.com/saw/writing-contest/