5th Annual Elephant Mountain Literary Festival, Nelson, BC July 6 to 10
One of Canada’s Greatest Literary Festivals—Toronto Star
The 5th annual Elephant Mountain Literary Festival, in April named as one of Canda’s greatest literary festivals by the Toronto Star, offers the festival’s usual impressive list of writers and presenters. This year’s lineup includes J.B. MacKinnon, co-author of the 100 Mile Diet, the book that launched the local food movement. Also among the delights in store for festival-goers are the widely celebrated Caroline Adderson, author of 14 books for adults and children, and the inimitable folk/jazz singer Jill Barber.
EMLF kicks off at the Nelson Public Library Wednesday evening, July 6th, with a talk on writing by Adderson, who has been shortlisted for the Governor-General’s Award and won B.C.’s Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize twice for her novels and story collections. The official opening gala in the Hume Hotel’s Hume Room on Thursday evening, July 7th, will feature delectable B.C. wine selections paired to CBC music aficionado and author Grant Lawrence, who will be reading. Also linked to a specific fine wine will be Barber, known nationally and internationally for her ability to blend genres from country to jazz to folk and Motown. She will offer a selection of tunes. Local winners of Kootenay Mountain Culture magazine’s fiction and poetry contest, and of the Nelson and District Arts Council’s Richard Carver Award, will briefly read at the gala as well.
On Friday evening, July 8th, at the Capitol Theatre, MacKinnon will be reading and offering a multi-media presentation along with Kootenay M.P. Richard Cannings, author of British Columbia: a Natural History, and Briony Penn, author of The Real Thing: The Natural History of Ian McTaggart Cowan, which was shortlisted for a 2016 BC Book Prize for nonfiction. The evening will be hosted by CBC personality and author Bill Richardson. Fans will have a chance to hear Richardson read from his latest poetry collection, The First Little Bastard to Call Me Gramps: Poems of the Late Middle Ages, on Saturday evening, July 9th, at the Hume Room, along with a reading by Adderson.
Saturday during the day, EMLF’s ever-popular panels—this year at Nelson’s refurbished CPR station—present considerations by festival headliners and other experts on three topics: environmental writing, children’s literature, and the current state and future prospects of literary publishing. For more information on all these events, as well as to purchase tickets, check out the festival website at www.emlfestival.com Tickets for the Capitol Theatre Friday night reading are available at the Capitol and Nelson’s Otter Books.
