Author/presenters
Program
Registration
Sponsors
Links
Testimonials/Pictures
History
Writer's Contest
Spring 2008 Winning Entries
International Peace Poem Project
 |
Julie H. Ferguson believes writers need practical assistance, current information, and support from published authors throughout their journeys to publication. So far, she has guided hundreds of aspiring authors towards publishing success through her presentations and individual coaching. Julie's stated mission is the improvement of writers’ acceptance rates. For the last ten years Julie has delivered her creative writing and publishing presentations through international conferences, Vancouver Community College, and the Surrey Creative Writing Diploma program. As a professional speaker, she is also in high demand with school districts in western Canada, keynoting at teachers’ pro-d events and leading lively sessions for their students. Her company, Beacon Literary Services, provides an array of products and services for writers of all kinds. For more information about Julie and her presentations, please visit www.beaconlit.com.
Julie H. Ferguson |
|
DANIEL WOOD 2 -2978 West 2nd Ave. Daniel Wood has worked in the media for 30 years. He’s the author of 14 books, including a novel, The River of Gold; a social studies textbook, Exploring Our Country; a book on natural history, Wolves, a kids’ book, Simon and His Knock-out Yawns; and a book exploring the meaning of nature called Western Journeys: Discovering the Secrets of the Land (co-authored with Beverley Sinclair). He has also written scores of magazine articles for such publications as The Walrus, Chatelaine, N.Y. Times, Islands, Vancouver, Discover, Explore, The Georgia Straight, GEO, and Canadian Geographic. His photography regularly accompanies his articles. He has been a feature contributor to CBC Radio and appeared on numerous TV shows. Between 1989- 1991, he was Writer/Editor of the Globe and Mail’s WEST magazine. During his tenure at WEST, it won the National Magazine Award as the best periodical in Canada. He has received 25 finalist nominations in the National Magazine Awards, including the 1990 nomination for writing the best article in Canada. He has won the Gold Award three times and the Silver Award four times. He has, as well, been a non-fiction finalist in the National Author’s Awards and won the National Science Writer’s Award in 1994. In 2002, he was finalist for the Lowell Thomas Award from the American Travel Writers Association for best travel article in the world. In the same year, he won the Northern Lights Award for best travel article in Canada and the Gold Prize for best regional travel article from the International Regional Magazine Awards. He has been nominated 42 times as a finalist in the Western Magazine Awards and won on 15 occasions. He won the Western Magazine Awards’ top prize for best magazine article three times: 1986, 1992, and 1996. He was also a finalist in the 1997 and 1998 Jack Webster Awards. In 1998, he was finalist in the B.C. Book Prize. In total, he has been a finalist or has won 93 regional, national, or international writing awards. In recognition of his work, the Western Magazine Awards gave him its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000, the first writer so honoured. In the 1980s, he served on the National Executive of the Periodical Writers’ Association of Canada, as President of the Western Magazine Awards, and as President of the B.C. Federation of Writers. He has also served as a faculty member at the Banff Centre for the Arts, the Surrey Writers’ Conference, and the Festival of the Written Arts in Sechelt, B.C. As well, he has taught non-fiction writing at Simon Fraser University for 20 years. Prior to working as a writer, Daniel Wood taught in and organized schools. He spent two years in rural Borneo, helping to set up the first schools there. He taught at a junior high school in Port Alberni, B.C. and at Vancouver’s experimental New School. In the mid-70s, he taught in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia. It was at that time that he wrote his most successful book, Kids! Kids! Kids! It sold over 150,000 copies. Daniel Wood has travelled to over half the world’s countries and lived for extended periods of time in the United States, Denmark, Nepal, Malaysia, Afghanistan, and Greece. His recent writing and photographic assignments have placed him in a number of unusual situations. He has been treed by a pair of unhappy rhinos in Nepal, spent a week in South Africa’s Kalahari Desert with the last nomadic Bushmen, spent five days off Newfoundland to report on life on the Hibernia Oil Platform, gotten drunk on tuak with Borneo’s Iban tribesmen, kayaked for two weeks north of Greenland, and explored new-found tombs, full of gold-faced mummies, in the remote Egyptian Sahara. His hobbies include collecting tribal artefacts and modern art, hiking, cooking, and playing poker. Brief Bio Vancouver’s Daniel Wood is one of Canada’s best-known magazine writers, and winner of 31 regional or national writing awards. He’s also the author of 14 books. His stories often deal with conflicts around social justice, environmental abuse, and the outsider’s role in a doctrinaire world. He has taught writing at Simon Fraser University for 20 years, and is one of the founders both the Western Magazine Awards and the Federation of B.C. Writers. In recognition of his work, the Western Magazine Awards gave him its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000, the only writer so honoured.
Books by Daniel Wood
The River of Gold (Longman, 1969) |
|
|
|
