I worked in the local public schools for a time, sharing Syilx Okanagan culture. In 2019 I began my language-learning journey and decided to take some classes at the En’owkin Centre to learn more. What I didn’t realize at the time was that I would be part of the first cohort in “Canada” to earn my degree in my Indigenous language. I stepped away from my work since I was now a full-time student. Our teachers were all Elders and learning from them was a gift. Eight of us, all women, graduated in June 2023 at the University of British Columbia Okanagan with a degree in our Okanagan language called nsyilxcn. It is called the Bachelor of Nsyilxcn Language Fluency or BNLF.

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Brian was born in 1950 on the Okanagan Indian Reserve near Vernon, BC. After completing grade eight, he found work in the oil fields and in construction, and eventually retired as a bricklayer. At the age of fifty, without any formal training, he began to write and fifteen years later, he completed his first novel, All the Quiet Places. His bestselling debut won the 2022 Indigenous Voices Award, was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award and the Amazon Canada First Novel Award, and was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and CBC’s Canada Reads. He was also a member of the jury for the 2023 Scotia Bank Giller prize. Brian and his wife live in West Kelowna where he enjoys time with his three grandchildren and is currently working on his third book.

Born and raised on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tseil-Waututh peoples (Vancouver), C.E. Gatchalian (he/him) is a Filipinx queer author, playwright and editor who has authored six books and co-edited three anthologies. His memoir, Double Melancholy, was published in Spring 2019 by Arsenal Pulp Press. In 2022 he was one of the recipients of the one-time only British Columbia Lieutenant Governor’s Arts and Music Awards for his contribution to the arts in BC. He currently lives in Tkaronto (Toronto).

Reading: Double Melancholy: Art, Beauty, and the Making of a Brown Queer Man

In this intimate reading, acclaimed writer CE Gatchalian shares excerpts from his memoir Double Melancholy: Art, Beauty, and the Making of a Brown Queer Man—a lyrical and provocative exploration of race, desire, and artistic identity. Blending cultural criticism with personal reflection, the memoir traces the formation of a brown queer sensibility through encounters with literature, film, and family history. This reading will offer a glimpse into a richly textured inner world shaped by both beauty and marginalization.

Workshop: Writing the Unraveling Self

What if your writing didn’t have to “make sense”? What if you could let it stutter, fragment, contradict, or fall apart? In this hour-long workshop, participants will explore what it means to write from a place of emotional rawness and formal disruption. Through short, guided prompts and group reflection, we’ll challenge the idea that good writing must be polished or coherent—and embrace the mess, confusion, and vulnerability that often lead us closer to truth.

There is a pureness to Claire's voice that can silence a room. A moving songwriter and compelling guitarist, Claire combines smooth folk finger picking, jazz influenced progressions and a powerful yet vocal tender delivery. Her music delivers carefully crafted and vulnerable reckonings of self worth, escaping abuse, painful goodbyes, fragile family dynamics and ultimate hope for the future. Music publications around the world laud her lyricism, deft guitar playing and rich vocals. Claire Coupland brings a graceful contemporary feel to indie folk music.

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Danielle Krysa (Canada) has a BFA in Visual Arts, and a post-grad in graphic design. She is the writer behind the contemporary art site, (est.2009), and has curated art shows all over North America. Danielle is also an artist herself, and her mixed media collage work is held in private collections worldwide. She is the author of several art books, including “Creative Block”, “Your Inner Critic Is A Big Jerk”, “A Big Important Art Book - Now with Women”, and two children’s books; “How To Spot An Artist” and “Art and Joy”. Danielle has had the great pleasure of speaking at TEDx, PIXAR, Creative Mornings, and was interviewed in series of video segments on Oprah.com about breaking through creative blocks and self-doubt.

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Georgia Goerz is a Fine Arts student studying at the University of British Columbia in the beautiful Okanagan. Her work often takes an abstract twist, with pops of colour intertwined into a realistic setting. She has maintained a lifelong passion for art and has focused on creating her signature style and developing her skills in school in the past few years.

If you're called an "idiot" in this workshop‚ it's a compliment! Cultivate your funny bone while eliminating the 4th Wall to connect with your audience. Through the exploration of character development, physical comedy, and playing "in the moment", this seriously fun workshop will focus on expanding the actors' comfort zone and the benefits of taking creative risks.

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Author, Isobel Rondeau was born and raised in Edmonton Alberta and eventually settled in northern Alberta where she and her husband raised their two children. Currently residing in beautiful British Columbia, Isobel finds peace and tranquility while writing close to nature. Fiction stories about everyday people are what she enjoys writing about. Isobel also writes under the pen name Belle Rondeau.

NOVELS:
“Wings Of An Angel”

The life after residential school is not an easy one. Follow Mark Whitestone as his life unfolds before your eyes, laugh at his stories, cry at his heartbreak, love who he is and watch as his wings open.

“Absence Of Breath”

Walk with Sahtu as he meets various people in the afterlife and why they are important to him and his future self.

“Ava’s Curse”

Travel the country as young witch, Ava, and her friends try to break the curse that follows her family from generation to generation. Along the way you meet several characters who help or hinder their progress, in the end her magic must prevail. Book one. ‍

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Joanna Cockerline is a CBC Literary Awards prizewinner, Pushcart Prize nominee, and the author of the novel Still (Porcupine’s Quill, Autumn 2025). Her work has been published in Room, The Fiddlehead, En Route, and International Human Rights Arts, among other national and international publications. She is the co-author of the international short story collection Seeing Our Sisters (2024). She lives in unceded, traditional Syilx Okanagan Territory of Kelowna, BC, where she co-founded and runs a street outreach organization and teaches Literature and Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia Okanagan.

Still is the story of Kayla, who is living and working on the streets of Kelowna, BC, Canada, and of Little Zoe, a woman in the sex trade who is missing. Set in a vibrant and diverse community of people living on the streets, the novel explores sex work, living unhoused, the opioid crisis, friendship, what it means to survive, and what it means to find a home—especially within one’s self. Ultimately, Still is a story of community, friendship, resilience, and hope.

Kevin Andrew Heslop (b. 1992, Canada) released poetry, curatorial, film, screenwriting, and non-fiction debuts with Gordon Hill Press, McIntosh Gallery, Astoria Pictures, Rose Garden Press, and The Porcupine’s Quill from 2021 through 2025. During this period, he documented his life at artist residencies in Serbia, Finland, France, Brazil, Denmark, and Japan through long-form dialogues forthcoming with Guernica Editions as Craft, Consciousness: Dialogues about the Arts. At point of writing, with his fifth collaborative art exhibition installed in Canada, he is artist in residence with Teatro Oficina in São Paulo, Brazil, writing his debut feature film.

Kevin’s latest book, The Writing on the Wind’s Wall, consists of in-depth dialogues, conducted in his hometown, about Medical Assistance in Dying, with a medium, a politician, a psychiatrist, a prospective recipient, administering physicians, a media-studies scholar, a death doula, a religious leader, and relatives of the deceased. A chorus heard separately and brought together between its covers, the book is a testament of fled music to how a community felt, and what they believed, about living and dying here together now.

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Krystal Withakay (spaxwawlm/ Northern Lights) is of the syilx nation and is from Westbank, BC. She is a devoted syilx artist and  knowledge keeper. With over 20 years experience, Krystal continues her advocacy within syilx language and culture as a lifelong learner. Krystal's artistic abilities and wealth of knowledge are a reflection of syilx mentorship and continued support within her traditional territory.

Michael V. Smith works across many creative genres, as a writer, filmmaker and performer. Smith is also a full professor at UBCO in Kelowna, where he teaches Creative Writing. As an artist who relies heavily on improv, Smith is known for his quick wit, bizarre costume choices, and his delicious invitations to play with the audience.

Ollie Rankin is originally from New Zealand, where he got a lucky break working on the visual effects team for the Lord of the Rings trilogy. So began a twenty year career in the global film industry, racking up credits on more than two dozen movies. Throughout that time and during a subsequent career in the tech sector, Ollie experimented with many forms of creative expression. He’s been recognized for his fine art photography, musical comedy and essay writing, as well as for creating animated shorts, interactive virtual reality films and music festivals. Nowadays he splits his time between leading the non-profit United Humans Foundation and developing creative projects aligned with his vision of an inclusive, fair and sustainable future.

With his poetry persona, Heckler, Ollie calls out the inequality, exploitation and greed that have come to define western society. He challenges audiences to recognize that the status quo isn’t inevitable and that peaceful, productive coexistence is possible.

Identical twins, The Cramer brothers, have been performing together since they were teenagers. They’ve played various styles of music for audiences as far away as Taiwan, The UK, The Netherlands, Estonia and Brazil. At home in Canada they’ve performed for two Prime Ministers and several provincial Premiers. Their upbeat jazz sounds were a fan favourite at this year’s Ignite The Arts Festival and they can be seen at various wineries and festivals this summer throughout Alberta and B.C.

Yanti Sharples is a lifelong learner with a powerful love for life. Her lifelong aspiration has been to build strength, joy and community through the shared human experience of music. Through writing, singing, playing instruments and teaching Yanti shares her unique frequency with everyone. Yanti believes that the vibrations we emit from our bodies are the best medicine for what ails us. She aims to keep encouraging positive change in her environment by leading by example, as she is driven to make a difference in the world. Yanti plays the ukulele, cello and shaker. She is a seasoned vocalist and has fronted numerous bands in various genres including jazz, and blues. Yanti volunteers extensively in and around the small unincorporated village of Naramata in British Columbia that she is fortunate enough to call home.