Member milestones The Federation of BC Writers is home to a variety of tenacious and dedicated writers whose accomplishments range from publishing short stories, books, articles, and poems to hitting their word counts, winning writing contests, and more. In these pages, we celebrate the successes of our BC and Yukon writing community. These are just a few of the incredible milestones our members have reached lately: Teresa Hedley’s memoir, What’s Not Allowed? A Family Journey with Autism, is an accepted submission for the Governor General’s Literary Award, 2021. What’s Not Allowed? was reviewed by Terrance James in BCBookLook’s “Living with autism.” Margot Fedoruk not only completed her creative writing degree after her children left the nest but also finished her first book, Cooking Tips for Desperate Fishwives: An Island Memoir. It has been Fedoruk’s lifelong dream to write a book. DK Eve won several awards this year: first prize for both the 2021 Island Short Fiction & Word on the Lake contests; second place in the North Shore Writers Association contest; and the Vancouver Island Regional Library’s first Poem in Your Pocket contest.
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wordworks | 2021 Volume III September
Arianna Dagnino published, in Italian, Il Quintetto d’Istanbul (Ensemble 2021), a literary account of what it means to be writing in transcultural and bilingual modes. She will be on a book tour in major Italian cities. Pauline Le Bel’s poem, “The Chestnut Agreement,” about her finding a mate for a lonely old chestnut tree on Bowen Island, is now a highly amusing and somewhat informative YouTube video. Dreaming big in a small Kootenay village, novice author Susan Dunnigan pursued the dream of narrating her memoir. Raw and real, Warrior Angel: Beyond Disability: A Family’s Quest for Ordinary is now an audiobook, read by the author. Sanjana Karthik had her work read out loud by the mayor of White Rock for National Poetry Month. This was something she was able to accomplish last year as well, and she received an honorarium. Valerie Fletcher Adolph’s pandemic goal was to publish a trilogy of light-hearted historical mysteries to lighten the spirits of readers. Set in post-WWII England, the novels follow an intriguing cast of unique characters.