The Fat Oyster Reading Series comes to Fanny Bay Hall Nov. 25, featuring three non-fiction writers who will share a diverse mix of subjects from cougars and beavers to Second World War history.
The authors will read from their works at Fanny Bay Hall in an all-ages event from 7-9 p.m.
Mark Zuehlke is the award-winning author of the critically acclaimed Canadian Battle Series. In 2014, he won the Governor General’s Award for Popular History, the Pierre Berton Award.
In 2006, he won the City of Victoria Butler Book Prize and in 2007 the Canadian Author’s Association Lela Common Award for Canadian History. His latest book, Through Blood and Sweat, is an account of walking with Operation Husky in 2013 to retrace the steps of Canada’s soldiers who fought in Sicily seventy years earlier and whose sacrifice have been largely forgotten.
Zuehlke has also written a mystery series and has recently turned his hand to graphic novels. He lives in Victoria with his partner and fellow Fat Oyster participant, Frances Backhouse.
Backhouse is the author of six books, including the just-released Once They Were Hats, a quirky historical/cultural/ecological exploration of the mighty beaver. Her Children of the Klondike won the 2010 City of Victoria Butler Book Prize. She is also a veteran freelance magazine writer and teaches creative nonfiction at the University of Victoria.
The third reader, Paula Wild, is an award-winning author of six books and has written more than 1,000 articles for numerous periodicals including British Columbia Magazine, Reader’s Digest and Canada’s History Magazine. A B.C. Bestseller, The Cougar: Beautiful, Wild and Dangerous is the Gold Winner for Nature Book of the Year at Foreword Reviews’ USA IndieFab Awards and was a finalist for the B.C. Book Prizes’ Booksellers’ Choice Award. She lives in Courtenay and is currently working on a book about wolves.
The Fat Oyster Reading Series is sponsored by the Fanny Bay Community Association and Macs, Fanny Bay and Hollie Wood Oysters, with support from the Canada Council for the Arts.
For more information, visit fannybaycommunity.com.
— Submitted by Fat Oyster