Run Time: July 22–26, 2024. 10:00am–4:30pm

Location: Glen Elm Branch Library, 1601 Dewdney Avenue East, Regina, SK

Marie Powell’s castle-hopping adventures across North Wales resulted in her award-winning medieval fantasy series Last of the Gifted, set in 13th C Wales. She is also the author of 40+ children’s books with such publishers as Scholastic, Amicus, and Crabtree. Her short stories and poetry appear in literary magazines like Room and subTerrain, and her nonfiction appears in more than 70 magazines and online markets. Among her five university degrees, Marie holds a Creative Writing MFA from UBC. Her hobbies include experiments in gardening, medieval cooking, and cat whispering.

Guest Author: Jonah McFadzean

Jonah McFadzean is a Regina-based artist with a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts degree in Visual Art (Drawing) from the University of Regina. He loves comics, cartoons, video games, and toys–all of which inspires the work he creates. Jonah’s studio work focuses on dreamlike narratives, cartoony illustrations based on childhood memories/emotions, and nostalgic artifacts of ephemera. Mostly, he likes drawing monsters.

Partners and Sponsors: Many thanks to Regina Public Library, the City of Regina, Community Initiatives Fund, Saskatchewan Arts Board, Canada Council for the Arts, SaskCulture, and SaskLotteries.

Run Time: July 22-26, 2024. 10:30am–4:30pm

Location: Rusty MacDonald Branch Library, 225 Primrose Dr, Saskatoon, SK

Cooper Skjeie (/shay/) is a writer and teacher of Métis and German-Norwegian ancestry raised on Treaty 6 and Métis Territory in Saskatoon. His poem, bleach, was published by Prairie Fire Magazine and is a finalist for a 2024 National Magazine Award. An alumnus of Sage Hill Writing, he won the 2023 RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Poetry and an Indigenous Voices Award for Unpublished Poetry in English that same year. Skjeie currently sits on the Board of Directors at Poetry in Voice and is completing his MFA at the University of British Columbia.

Guest Author: Warsha Mushtaq

Warsha Mushtaq is a writer and artist from Treaty 6 territory, currently residing in Saskatchewan. She is pursuing a BA in History from the University of Saskatchewan with a minor in Philosophy. She served as the third Saskatchewan Youth Poet Laureate and her poetry has appeared in Prairie Fire Magazine. Having attended the Sage Hill Teen Writing Workshops for four years, Warsha fondly recalls writing with peers by the South Saskatchewan River, an experience that ignited her passion for poetry.

Partners and Sponsors: Many thanks to the Saskatoon Public Library, Community Initiatives Fund, City of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Arts Board, Canada Council for the Arts, SaskCulture, and SaskLotteries.

Run Time: July 15th–19th, 2024. 10:00am–4:00pm

Location: Online delivery

Shane Arbuthnott is the author of Guardians of Porthaven, as well as the Molly Stout series. His debut novel, Dominion, was nominated for multiple awards, including the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize. His short fiction has appeared in On Spec and Open Spaces. Shane grew up in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and now lives in Regina with his family. For more information on Shane and his books, visit www.shanearbuthnott.com.

Guest Author: David Alexander Robertson

David A. Robertson is a two-time winner of the Governor General’s Literary Award, won the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award, and has received several other accolades for his work as a writer, podcaster, and social advocate. He was honoured with a Doctor of Letters by the University of Manitoba for outstanding contributions in the arts and distinguished achievements. He is a member of Norway House Cree Nation and lives in Winnipeg.

Partners and Sponsors: Many thanks to the Saskatchewan Festival of Words, Community Initiatives Fund, Saskatchewan Arts Board, Canada Council for the Arts, SaskCulture, and SaskLotteries.

Run Time: July 15–19, 2024. 10:00am–4:00pm

Location: John M. Cuelenaere Public Library, Prince Albert, SK

Shauna Eveleigh Harris is a poet and Somatic Therapist whose work has been published in Spring magazine, untethered magazine, The Prairie Journal and online at The Fieldstone Review. Her poems have won the second place prize (twice!) in the Tisdale Writers’ Group Contests and her poem Girl at the Bar with High Heels was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2019. She is currently working on two simultaneos debut manuscripts: a collection of haiku about her trip to the high desert, and a collection of lyric poems. She lives in Prince Albert with her family and books.

Guest Author: Lynda Monahan

Lynda Monahan is the author of four collections of poetry, A Slow Dance in the Flames (Coteau Books 1998), What My Body Knows(Coteau Books 2003) Verge (Guernica Editions 2015),a cowritten collection, A Beautiful Stone: poems and ululations (Radiant Press 2019) and a chapbook titled The Book of Bill. Her newest collection of poetry titled The Door at the End of Everything is upcoming with Shadowpaw Press in the spring of 2024 She has been writer-in-residence at St. Peter’s College facilitated retreat, Balfour Collegiate in Regina, writer-in-residence at the Prince Albert Public Library and writer on the wards at Victoria Hospital in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. She recently completed a year as lead artist for an Artists in Communities project through the Sask Arts Board, mentoring local artists to develop long term community arts programming

Partners and Sponsors: Many thanks to the John M. Cuelenaere Public Library, Prince Albert & Area Community Foundation, Community Initiatives Fund, Saskatchewan Arts Board, Canada Council for the Arts, SaskCulture, and SaskLotteries.

Run Time: July 22– 26, 2024. 10:00am–4:00pm

Location: Online delivery

Madonna Hamel is a writer – performer who works in a variety of genres including radio documentary, one-woman monologues, and nonfiction essays. Her documentary “She Moves Between Worlds” won A World’s Best Radio Award at The New York Radio festival. Her doc “Portrait of Lincoln with the Wart” is cited in various sources as a primer on Americana music. Her touring show “Mother’s Apron” was showcased at The Lyric, and toured BC and Saskatchewan, and is now being adapted into a novel. She was awarded 2020 weekly columnist of the year for her column, Pop 89, in Your West Central Voice. She was awarded the 2020 Wallace Stegner House residency where she wrote “Hearth Day”, which was awarded Prairie Fire‘s first prize for Creative Non-Fiction in 2021.

Madonna helps students find the format that works for them, and to understand their inclination by paying attention to every little thing. Students enjoy her workshops; many return every year, have formed strong bonds, and are always welcoming to new students. Rather than focus on “originality”, which ends up being a wild goose chase after “novelty”, she stresses authenticity and honesty. In that vein, she encourages young writers to “dare to be clear”. One way of achieving clarity is by focusing on word choice, so students start every class with new words they’ve found – or just recently realized they love.

Guest Author: Anne Lazurko

Anne Lazurko’s novel, What Is Written on the Tongue, received the 2023 Fiction Award at the Saskatchewan Book Awards and was shortlisted for both the 2023 Saskatchewan Book of the Year and the 2022 Glengarry Book Award. Her novel Dollybird won the Willa Award for historical fiction and was shortlisted for a Saskatchewan Book Award. With short fiction and poetry published in literary magazines and anthologies, Anne is an active editor, teacher and mentor in the prairie writing community. She has a degree in Political Science, is a graduate of the Humber creative writing program, and writes from her farm near Weyburn, SK.

Partners and Sponsors: Many thanks to the Swift Current Chinook Regional Library, Community Initiatives Fund, Saskatchewan Arts Board, Canada Council for the Arts, SaskCulture, and SaskLotteries.