Imagine... there’s a writers festival

How Jack Whyte’s daring idea led to the 20th anniversary of Word on the Lake.

reporting that she had landed at the wrong airport—Kamloops instead of Kelowna. McCracken placed a call to poet Garry Gottfriedson, who operated a ranch near Kamloops and was slated to be one of the workshop presenters. Although Gottfriedson was still haying that morning, he agreed to pick up the stranded literary agent. She would have to wait at his homestead until he finished haying, but “they arrived in plenty of time for the gala,” says McCracken.

Word on the Lake is held annually at the Prestige Harbourfront Resort in Salmon Arm. Author Deanna Kawatski, who is also a founding member of Word on the Lake, served as the main consultant for the festival in its early years. She recalls that first year too: “The air in the Prestige Inn buzzed with excitement as I wove through the chattering crowd of authors, agents and publishers. When I checked in, I learned that my room was on the fourth floor and that the elevator was broken. Broken! Luckily my partner, Eric, helped me pack my heavy bags; one containing material for the three workshops (on three different subjects) that I had agreed to give, up the steep stairs. At the top a chambermaid told me the elevator would be fixed in a week.”

Kawatski, who had spent much of the previous year as writer-in-residence at the Ryga Centre in Penticton, says she was inspired to help bring more literary life to the Shuswap. “It was the first writers festival to be held in Interior BC,” Kawatski says, “and presenters were brought in from as far afield as Toronto, Seattle and even Minneapolis.”

Kawatski is quick to acknowledge Fran Bach and Kay McCracken for getting the festival off the ground. “Together they built the ‘flying machine,’ but they’d be the first to agree that without the enthusiastic team of volunteers it never would have gotten off the ground.”

Deanna Kawatski will be in Salmon Arm at this year’s Word on the Lake (May 19–21). Other presenters include the Giller-nominated Brian Isaac Thomas, playwright Caitlin Hicks, author Theresa Kishkan, and publisher and author Howard White

Tanglewood