2026 Galiano Literary Festival

The Yellow House

July 18 and 19

Author Sheri-D Wilson on the 2025 Festival:

The Galiano Literary Festival is excited to announce our upcoming 2-day Festival. This year, we have an eclectic line up featuring Novelists, Women in the Trades, Poets, Spoken Word performers, and Storytellers.

We kick off with a Storytelling Workshop at 11 am at the Yellow House facilitated by Rosemary Georgeson, and you can find more details about that in a separate article in this edition of the Active Page. Participation is free, but as a fully volunteer run society, we always appreciate any donation, no matter how small.

The Saturday afternoon schedule begins officially at 1pm; there will be a break for dinner between 5 and 7. The afternoon will mainly feature novelists and a panel discussion, Women Writers in the Trades with readings by Hilary Peach (Welder/Inspector), Kate Braid (Carpenter), and Kahala Lichti (Electrician). Among the other readers is Robin McLean, whose novel Pity the Beast has been described (by The Guardian, no less!) as “A work of crazy brilliance.” We'll also hear from Comedian and novelist Charlie Demers who's finding time for us away from his regular appearances on CBC's The Debaters.

After dinner, a first for Galiano: CBC Non-Fiction Literary Prize Winner Susan Cormier and her partner Bryant Ross, the Producers of the Vancouver Story Slam, will be telling stories, and Susan, who is a beekeeper, will be reading from her brand new book “Dead Bees Still Sting.” Susan and Bryant run what The Georgia Straight have called “the most popular grassroots literary event in the province.... the second longest-running show of its kind in the world.”

On of the Society's guiding principals is that we will provide relevant, educational and inspirational opportunities for local and emerging artists, community members, and program participants to connect, collaborate and learn from one another. Thus we're very happy to have local writers Alison Colwell and Rena Graham join us to share more of their powerful and insightful writing.

Sunday will be mainly poetry and spoken word, with, amongst others, performance poet Nate Nate Nainers, who'll be reading new book “Smokin’ Holy Spirits” (Galleon Books) and former Hard Rock Miner Micael Turner will be back on Galiano thirty odd years after reading from his novel “Hard Core Logo” at the Gulf Islands Poetry Festival. His books include Hard Core Logo, The Pornographer’s Poem and, more recently, 9×11 and Other Poems Like Bird, Nine, x and Eleven. 

Also appearing on Saturday evening after the dinner break and accompanied for part of the time by Jack Garton on accordion, is performance poet Stephen Roxborough. An internationally acclaimed, award-winning writer, Rox has been twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize (2003, 2006), appeared at the Skagit River Poetry Festival (2004), Brave New Words (Whidbey Island, 2009) and co-edited radiant danse uv being, a poetic portrait of bill bissett (2006).

And talking of bill bissett, he'll be back. There really isn't anyone quite like bill. That's one of the reasons he was awarded the Order of Canada and an honorary doctorate from Thompson Rivers, and why he was denounced in the House of Parliament years ago as a pornographer, and why, as poet Miranda Pearson put it, being such a non-gendered person, subsequent to his being denounced, he was the subject of a hate campaign in the 80's and 90's stoked by a homophobic shock jock in Calgary to the point where bill was actually in fear of his life and had to keep his whereabouts concealed. As a gay writer in Canada, and because of his outsider art he was never really a candidate for teaching in a University -- the life blood of so many writers, although he was shortlisted as one of three writers to be appointed the first Poet Laureate of Canada. As a measure of the generosity of his spirit, you don't need to look any further than his volunteer work as founder of the Secret Handshake Club in TO, a peer support group for people and artists with For all these reasons, for his over 60 books, for his complete dedication to his art, he's been a huge inspiration to generations of Canadian poets and the LBGTQ+ community. He's deeply loved and will be for as long as his work is out there. There's no one quite or even remotely like bill.

Changes to the lineup may be unavoidable – at the time of writing, we're over a month away and, you know... life happens. There isn't room here to name everyone here, and we are still waiting for confirmation from some readers, but you'll find all the details updated on our website and our Facebook Event Page whenever we get new information.

This year, we are charging $30 for individual days (Saturday/Sunday) or $50 for both days, however NOBODY WILL BE TURNED AWAY BECAUSE OF A LACK OF FUNDS. Tickets can be bought through Eventbrite – there is a button on our Facebook Event Page, and one on our website galianolit.ca You will also be able to buy tickets on the day. We won't be selling tickets through the Bookstore, however.

We'd like to take this opportunity acknowledge our supporters: the CRD Arts and Culture Project Grant, Galiano Island Books, Babes, the Hummingbird Inn, and all our tireless volunteers, particularly our wonderful Board: Rosemary Georgeson, Donna Usher, Marianne Mikkleson (Secretary), and Allison Ashcroft (Treasurer).

Geoff Inverarity

Chair, Galiano Island Literary Festival Society