Writers Festival 2009 Authors
Presenters for the Festival of Writers 2009 Festival
Powell River Festival of Writers is pleased to present Sylvia Taylor and Anthony Dalton as this years presenters.
Sylvia Taylor
Sylvia Taylor is an award-winning freelance writer, editor and instructor and communications consultant Vancouver’s Lower Mainland, with a passionate commitment to communication.
Whether supporting others in their self-expression, collaborating in commissioned work or creating insightful commentary and reportage, Sylvia draws from her education, administrative, healthcare, and creative, professional background.
She writes a wide variety of magazine and newspaper articles and commercial works, consults with entrepreneurs and companies and works with authors here and abroad to bring their books to life. She was Fraser Valley Regional Director for the Federation of BC Writers from 2000-2008 and now serves as President.
She is also an inspiring public speaker and adult educator, teaching creative and non-fiction writing at conferences and writing programs, and judging numerous writing competitions. Her devotion to the arts and women’s wellness led to a 2002 nomination for the Women of Excellence award.
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Sylvia will be presenting at the Festival:
LifeStory Writing: Finding the Extraordinary in the Ordinary
From cave walls to computers, humans have been sharing the stories of their lives.
Everyone has a LifeStory worth writing and it’s never too early or too late to tell it. Whether it’s a whole-life autobiography or slice-of-life memoir, for family and friends or the publishing world, our lives take on greater meaning as we contribute to a legacy of history and legacy.
Every life is a treasure house of experiences. Mine the memories of your life and loved ones to find those wonderful gold-nugget stories. Learn writing, organizational and publishing tips and skills to make those nuggets shine.
Anthony Dalton
Expedition leader, Anthony Dalton, FRGS, is an adventurer and an author. In the 1970s he led regular expeditions by 4-wheel-drive vehicles into and across the Sahara, through the deserts of the Middle East and into the mountainous terrain of Afghanistan. In 1980 he was the organizer and leader of a CBC-TV (Ottawa) filming expedition from Timbuktu to the Saharan salt mines of Taoudenit in northern Mali. In 1984 he travelled hundreds of miles along the Arctic coast of north-western Alaska alone in a 13′ 7″ inflatable speedboat. Moving to warmer climes, in 1989 he helped deliver a 60′ Hatteras motor cruiser from Montego Bay, Jamaica, to Los Angeles. The 1990s saw Dalton switch his attention to the rivers of the Sundarbans jungle of Bangladesh to track Royal Bengal tigers in their natural habitat. In 1994 he joined twelve members of the Cree First Nation on a traditional York boat voyage on the Hayes River between Norway House and Oxford House. While canoeing the second half of the Hayes River from Oxford House to York Factory in 2000, he participated in a television documentary on great Canadian rivers for the Discovery Channel.
An accomplished public speaker and author, Dalton has written four non-fiction books and collaborated on two others, plus he has three more non-fiction books in production. His illustrated non-fiction articles have been published in magazines and newspapers in twenty countries and nine languages. He is currently working on a two television documentaries based on his books.
Magazine assignments have taken him to the Australian Outback, the Falkland Islands, Namibia, Vanuatu, New Zealand, Bahrain, Oman, and Saudi Arabia, Norway, Hudson Bay, and the Arctic. Plus he has sailed in the Mediterranean, Atlantic, Baltic and North Seas as crew on the mighty windjammers of the Russian and Ukrainian tall-ship fleets.
Dalton’s favourite pastime is boating in any form. He built a 21′ Polynesian outrigger speedboat for use in his home waters of British Columbia, plus he owns a 33′ sailboat with auxiliary diesel power.
Anthony Dalton’s recent books:
ALONE Against the Arctic (Heritage House, October 2007)
BAYCHIMO, Arctic Ghost Ship (Heritage House, October 2006)
J/BOATS Sailing to Success (MBI Publishing, November 2005)
WAYWARD SAILOR, in search of the real Tristan Jones. (International Marine/McGraw-Hill, May 2003).
Book collaborations:
The Best of Nautical Quarterly, Vol 1, The Lure of Sail (with Reese Palley)
(MBI Publishing, 2004)
Herreshoff Sailboats (with Gregory Jones) (MBI Publishing, 2005)
Associations: Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, Fellow of the Explorers Club
National President of Canadian Authors Association ,Member of The Writers Union of Canada, Member of the Welsh Academi.
