Friday 7:00 pm – Caroline Heath Memorial Lecture: “Wayfinding: Creativity and Community in Hard Times” with Dr. Jenna Butler
Also livestreamed & recorded. Available on the SWG YouTube channel post-conference
Join us for the annual keynote lecture by Dr. Jenna Butler. Writer and advocate Arundhati Roy advises us, “Change is one thing. Acceptance is another.” Change will certainly come; it is, as the adage goes, the only constant, and it is barreling at us in multiple forms now, whether we like it or not. Choosing to quietly accept that change is another thing entirely. In times of climate crisis, war, global unrest, and dissolution, writers hold the ability to bring communities into difficult and vital conversation with each other: our words call us home to individual responsibility and collective agency.
Dr. Jenna Butler (she/her) is a queer BIPOC poet, teacher, and editor. She is the author of six collections of poetry and essays. Revery: A Year of Bees, essays about beekeeping, climate grief, and trauma recovery, was a finalist for the 2021 Governor General’s Literary Award and was longlisted for CBC Canada Reads. A professor of creative and environmental writing, Butler teaches for Sage Hill Writing and the University of Victoria. She works on the land on the unceded traditional territories of the lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ peoples.
Register for your free Zoom link here:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_NsEXTVZMSim8K8llSew0_Q
Friday, 8:15 pm – John V. Hicks Long Manuscript Award in Literary Nonfiction ceremony
It’s a celebration of the winners of the 2026 John V Hicks Long Manuscript Award in Literary Nonfiction! The first, second and third place winners will read from their work. Winners will be announced by late September.
Register for your free Zoom link here:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_5kWoCFqWTjGBuHsPZ8gE-A
