Townsman Staff
Canadian author Glenn Dixon will be setting up as Writer-in Residence at Mt. Baker Secondary School in Cranbook from October 28 to 31, part of the annual Vancouver Writers Fest outreach program.
Glenn will be mentoring a group of Grade 10 writing students every day, as well as giving presentations to other classes and holding a workshop for local teachers.
"I'm really excited to do the Vancouver Writers Fest writer in residency program this year in Cranbrook," Dixon said. "I spent my summers growing up in the East Kootenays and the Columbia Valley. It's one of the prettiest parts of the Rocky Mountains. I'm also excited about working with students in the high school there. I guess once a teacher, always a teacher.
"I love the natural curiosity of kids this age. I love seeing them get excited about books and writing, so I think it's going to be a great week."
Dixon is a writer with a passion for words, music and exploring remote corners of the world. His first book, Pilgrim in the Palace of Words, is a journey through the 6,000 languages of the Earth.
His most recent book, Tripping the World Fantastic, looks at the music of our planet. In researching this book, Dixon travelled the globe for a year to explore how and why people make music. From a tour of Bob Marley's house to sitar lessons in India to the talking drums of West Africa, he sought out music in its various forms to try to understand how playing and creating music is a form of communication found everywhere around the world.
Dixon has travelled to more than 70 countries, been published in the National Geographic, New York Post, and the Globe and Mail, and worked on documentary films in Egypt, Tibet, Russia, Peru, Ecuador and Turkey to name just a few.
His residency is thanks to the Vancouver Writers Fest, through its Spreading the Word schools program, which offers communities that cannot attend the Festival because of geographic and/or economic limitations an opportunity to have some of the best authors come to them.
The Writer in Residence program is sponsored by Amazon and supported by the Writers Fest's Michael R. Shaw Fund. Amazon.ca is committed to fostering the creation, discussion and publication of new authors and new books.