Tellers of Short Tales featuring Kathy Harms “Resilience in the Rubble” Book Launch
Thurs May 16, 2024 at 7pm

Located at 

I Heart New Westminster Community Space, #103-78 10th St, New Westminster, BC V3M 3X3, Canada. Located in Columbia Square Plaza.

Join us for an evening of “Tellers of Short Tales” to celebrate the release of the book “Resilience in the Rubble: A True Tale of Aid and Survival in Kashmir” by Kathy Harms.

The book is a memoir of Kathy’s time as a medical aid worker in Kashmir, Pakistan after the devastating earthquake that shook the region in 2005. The book also shares the story of Nadeem Malik, who was just 19 years old at the time of the earthquake. Through a series of interviews, Nadeem told Kathy his story of survival, and of stepping into the role of providing for his family, as the world around him was in upheaval.

On May 16th, we will be joined by other responders who worked alongside Kathy Harms in Pakistan, and who appear in the book. They will share more about their personal experiences from the time in Kashmir, and answer questions.

There will also be time to socialize, and signed books will be available for purchase.

The book is currently available for pre-order (Kindle version). You can purchase your copy here: https://www.amazon.com/Resilience-Rubble…/dp/B0CTHRN9Z9/

 RCLAS presents Tellers of Short Tales – Online Edition

Featuring Author Esmeralda Cabral
Host Angela Kenyon
Date: Thurs June 22. 2023
Time: 6:00 to 8:00pm Pacific Time

Zoom room will open early for open mic sign up starting at 05:50 PM Pacific Time

Let us know on the Facebook event page if you would like to attend.

OR
you can RSVP by email to secretary@rclas.com

The evening will include an Open Mic.
FREE ONLINE ZOOM EVENT. Everyone Welcome.

Esmeralda Cabral was born in the Azores, Portugal, grew up in Alberta, and now lives and writes in Vancouver. She is a graduate of The Writers’ Studio at SFU and holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from The University of King’s College in Halifax. Her writing has been published in Understorey, Gávea-Brown, The Common Online, Canadian Traveller, and Curiosity. She has contributed to nine anthologies and two of her stories have aired on CBC Radio. Her first book, a travel memoir entitled How to Clean a Fish And Other Adventures in Portugal, was published this spring by University of Alberta Press.

RCLAS presents Tellers of Short Tales – Online Edition
Featuring Author Cristy Watson
Host Angela Kenyon
Date: Thurs May 25. 2023
Time: 6:00 to 8:00pm Pacific Time
Zoom room will open early for open mic sign up starting at 05:50 PM Pacific Time

RSVP by email to secretary@rclas.com
FREE ONLINE ZOOM EVENT.

Everyone Welcome.
The evening will include an Open Mic.

Cristy Watson is an award-winning author of eight novels for middle-grade and YA readers (Orca Book Publishers and Formac/Lorimer), as well as having her poetry included in anthologies like, Worth More Standing (Caitlin Press), Contemporary Verse 2, and The Poetry Marathon Anthology (2017-Present). She won honourable mention in the first Coffee Shop Author Contest (Sponsor, Oolichan Press) and has volunteered for over a decade at the Surrey International Writers Conference and recently, with the BC Federation of Writers. She also loves presenting workshops and prior to the pandemic was a long-standing host of Zero-to-360, a literary Open Mic in Surrey, BC.

 RCLAS presents Tellers of Short Tales – Online Edition

Featuring Author Erik D’Souza

 Host Angela Kenyon

Date: Thurs April 27. 2023

Time: 6:00 to 8:00pm Pacific Time

Zoom room will open early for open mic sign up starting at 05:50 PM Pacific Time

RSVP by email to secretary@rclas.com

FREE ONLINE ZOOM EVENT.   Everyone Welcome.

The evening will include an Open Mic.

Erik D’Souza is an author, publisher, and professional speaker. In 2019, he published New Beginnings, a collection of creative writings from BC authors and donated all of its profits to SHARE. His most recent novel, Death in Halfmoon Bay, is a traditional mystery set on the Sunshine Coast of BC. He is the social media and webinar coordinator for Crime Writers of Canada and co-president of the Tri-City Wordsmiths. In addition, he hosts the popular reading series, Writers in our Midst at the Port Moody Public Library.

He lives in Port Moody with his wife, two teenage boys and a rowdy dog.

Author page: erikdsouza.com   Publisher site: timbercrestpublishing.com

RCLAS presents Tellers of Short Tales – Online Edition
Featuring Author Sylvia Taylor
Date: Thurs March 23. 2023
Time: 6:00 to 8:00pm Pacific Time

Zoom room will open early for open mic sign up starting at 05:50 PM Pacific Time

Let us know on the Facebook event page if you would like to attend.

OR
you can RSVP by email to secretary@rclas.com

The evening will include an Open Mic.
FREE ONLINE ZOOM EVENT.   Everyone Welcome.

Sylvia Taylor is an award-winning freelance writer, editor, educator, and book coach, who helps bring what needs to be said into the world. Her prose, poetry and numerous articles have appeared throughout North America. Sylvia has edit-coached over 130 manuscripts in all genres and works in both worlds of writing & publishing and business. Her marine-themed non-fiction books “The Fisher Queen” and “Beckoned by the Sea” were released by Heritage House.
Website: www.sylviataylor.ca

RCLAS presents Tellers of Short Tales – Online Edition 

Featuring Author Bill Arnott 

Date: Thurs Feb 23. 2023 

Time: 6:00 to 8:00pm Pacific Time

Zoom room will open early for open mic sign up starting at 05:50 PM Pacific Time 

Let us know on the Facebook event page if you would like to attend. 

OR 

you can RSVP by email to secretary@rclas.com

The evening will include an Open Mic. 

FREE ONLINE ZOOM EVENT.   Everyone Welcome.

Bill Arnott is the bestselling author of A Season on Vancouver Island, Gone Viking: A Travel Saga, Gone Viking II: Beyond Boundaries, and Gone Viking III: The Holy Grail (Fall 2023). He’s been awarded by the Whistler Independent Book Awards, ABF International Book Awards, Firebird Book Awards, won The Miramichi Reader’s Very Best Book Award for nonfiction, and for his expeditions has been granted a Fellowship at London’s Royal Geographical Society. When not trekking the globe with a small pack, weatherproof journal and laughably outdated camera phone, or showing off cooking skills as a culinary school dropout, Bill can be found on Canada’s west coast, making music and friends @billarnott_aps.

Website: https://billarnottaps.wordpress.com/

RCLAS presents Tellers of Short Tales – Online Edition

Featuring Author Winona Kent

Date: Thurs Jan 26. 2023

Time: 6:00 to 8:00pm Pacific Time

Zoom room will open early for open mic sign up starting at 05:50 PM Pacific Time

Let us know on the Facebook event page if you would like to attend.

OR

you can RSVP by email to secretary@rclas.com

The evening will include an Open Mic.

FREE ONLINE ZOOM EVENT.   Everyone Welcome.

Winona Kent is an award-winning author who was born in London, England and grew up in Regina, Saskatchewan, where she completed her BA in English at the University of Regina. After moving to Vancouver, she graduated from UBC with an MFA in Creative Writing. More recently, she received her diploma in Writing for Screen and TV from Vancouver Film School.

Winona’s debut novel Skywatcher was a finalist in the Seal Books First Novel Award and was published by Bantam Books in 1989. Since then, she has written nine more books, including her indie-published Jason Davey Mysteries—four novels featuring professional musician / amateur sleuth Jason Davey Figgis. The most recent book in the series, Ticket to Ride, was released in March 2022. Her fifth Jason Davey mystery, Bad Boy, will be released in October 2023.

Winona has been a temporary secretary, a travel agent , a screenwriter and the Managing Editor of a literary magazine. She’s currently the national Vice-Chair and the regional BC/YT rep for the Crime Writers of Canada, and is also an active member of Sisters in Crime – Canada West. After many decades working in jobs completely unrelated to writing, Winona recently retired, and is now happily embracing life as a full-time author. She lives in New Westminster, BC.

Website: www.winonakent.com

RCLAS presents Tellers of Short Tales – Online Edition

Featuring Author Trevor Carolan & “The Literary Storefront”

Date: Thurs Nov 24, 2022

Time: 6:00 to 8:00pm

Zoom room will open early for open mic sign up starting at 05:50 PM Pacific Time

Let us know on the Facebook event page if you would like to attend.

OR

you can RSVP by email to secretary@rclas.com

The evening will include an Open Mic for short stories. Space is limited.

 FREE ONLINE ZOOM EVENT.   Everyone Welcome.

Renowned author Trevor Carolan will share lively stories about The Literary Storefront ~ Canada’s first non-profit literary centre located in Vancouver’s colourful Gastown district from 1978-85.

Hope you can join our chat and learn more about a pivotal time in west coast history! 

Founded by poet Mona Fertig and inspired by Shakespeare and Company in Paris, The Literary Storefront was Canada’s first non-profit literary centre and flourished in Vancouver’s colourful Gastown district from 1978-85. A pivotal time in west coast history when feminist, nationalist, and multicultural passions surged to redefine what a socially-committed literary community could be, The Storefront housed the regional offices of The Writers’ Union of Canada, The League of Canadian Poets, an editing & printing company, and was the birthplace of the Federation of B.C. Writers. Carolan’s history recounts the inspiration, origins, achievements and tribulations of this seminal and legendary B.C. literary institution. The book includes interviews with many important authors and survivors from among the Storefront Society’s 500 members.

RCLAS presents Tellers of Short Tales – Online Edition
Featuring Special Guest Gina Armstrong of “Haunted History BC”

Date: Thurs Oct 27. 2022
Time: 6:00 to 8:00pm Pacific Time

Zoom room will open early for open mic sign up starting at 05:50 PM Pacific Time

Let us know on the Facebook event page if you would like to attend.

OR
you can RSVP by email to secretary@rclas.com

The evening will include an Open Mic for spooky short stories and poems.
FREE ONLINE ZOOM EVENT.   Everyone Welcome.

Award winning authors, and historians Gina Armstrong and Victoria Vancek 

sharing BC heritage, hauntings, legends & folklore while preserving Canada’s history.

Website: www.hauntedhistorybc.com

Hope you can all come!

Also I will be reading a poem at Killer Verse an event out in Delta this Sat evening Oct 22 if you are interested. Tix are $20 plus tax.

RCLAS presents Tellers of Short Tales – Online Edition
Feature Author Carleigh Baker
Date: Thurs April 28, 2022
Time: 6:00 to 8:00pm

Zoom room will open early for open mic sign up starting at 05:50 PM Pacific Time

Let us know on the Facebook event page if you would like to attend.

OR
you can RSVP by email to secretary@rclas.com

The evening will include an Open Mic for short stories. Space is limited.

FREE ONLINE ZOOM EVENT. Everyone Welcome.

CARLEIGH BAKER is an author and teacher of Cree-Métis and European descent. She lives on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh, and səl̓ilwəta peoples. Her debut story collection, Bad Endings (Anvil Press, 2017), won the City of Vancouver Book Award, and was also a finalist for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and the Emerging Indigenous Voices Award for fiction. She teaches creative writing at Simon Fraser University. Last Woman, a short story collection, and Mudlarkers, a novel, are forthcoming with McClelland & Stewart in 2023.
Website: https://carleighbaker.com/

RCLAS presents Tellers of Short Tales
– Online Edition
Feature Author Rachel Rose
Date: Thurs March 24, 2022
Time: 6:00 to 8:00pm

Zoom room will open early for open mic sign up starting at 05:50 PM Pacific Time

Let us know on the Facebook event page if you would like to attend.

OR

you can RSVP by email to secretary@rclas.com

The evening will include an Open Mic for short stories. Space is limited.

FREE ONLINE ZOOM EVENT.   Everyone Welcome.

Rachel Rose’s fiction debut, The Octopus Has Three Hearts, was published by Douglas & McIntyre in 2021, and was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. She is the author of four collections of poetry, including Marry & Burn, which received a 2016 Pushcart Prize, and was a finalist for a Governor General’s Award. Her memoir, The Dog Lover Unit: Lessons in Courage from the World’s K9 Cops, was shortlisted for the 2018 Arthur Ellis award for best non-fiction crime book. A former fellow at The University of Iowa’s International Writing Program, she was Poet Laureate of Vancouver from 2014-2017.

Save the Dates
Tellers of Short Tales – Online Edition
Thurs April 28 6pm  – Feature Author Carleigh Baker
Thurs May 26 6pm – Feature Author Shashi Bhat

RCLAS presents Tellers of Short Tales – Online Edition

Feature Author P.W. Bridgman
Date: Thurs February 24, 2022

Time: 6:00 to 8:00pm
Zoom room will open early for open mic sign up starting at 05:50 PM Pacific Time
Let us know on the Facebook event page if you would like to attend.

OR

you can RSVP by email to secretary@rclas.com

The evening will include an Open Mic for short stories. Space is limited.

FREE ONLINE ZOOM EVENT.   Everyone Welcome.

P.W. Bridgman’s third and fourth books—Idiolect (poetry)and The Four-Faced Liar (short fiction)—were published in 2021 by Ekstasis Editions. They were preceded by A Lamb in 2018 (poetry, from Ekstasis) and Standing at an Angle to My Age in 2013 (short fiction, from Libros Libertad). Bridgman’s writing has appeared in, among

other outlets, The Maynard, The Antigonish Review,Grain, The Moth Magazine, The Glasgow Review of Books, The Honest Ulsterman, The Galway Review, LitroUK, LitroNY, and The High Window.

RCLAS presents Tellers of Short Tales – Online Edition

Feature Author Richard Toews
Date: Thurs November 25, 2021

Time: 6:00 to 8:00pm
Zoom room will open early for open mic sign up starting at 05:30 PM Pacific Time

Let us know on the Facebook event page if you would like to attend.

OR

you can RSVP by email to secretary@rclas.com

The evening will include an Open Mic for short stories. Space is limited.

FREE ONLINE ZOOM EVENT.   Everyone Welcome.

Richard Toews is the author of “The Confession,” and “The Quiet in the Land,” two novels exploring the Mennonite world within the larger world of Russia in a time of crisis: WW II and the Russian Revolution. Toews spent his academic years teaching at Simon Fraser University’s First Nations Institute in Kamloops. During his time at SFU, Toews focused his research on the nature of justice as a defensive wall against totalitarianism. Both of his novels are the result of his academic life. In addition to writing novels, Toews has written, produced and directed a short film, “The Prodigal,” (winner of a Gold Remi at the Houston International Film Festival).

RCLAS presents Tellers of Short Tales

– Online Edition with host, Carol Johnson

Featured Cathy Stonehouse
Date: Thurs May 27, 2021

Time: 6:00 to 8:00pm

Zoom room will open early for open mic sign up starting at 05:30 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Let us know on the Facebook event page if you would like to attend.

OR you can RSVP by email to secretary@rclas.com

You will be sent the zoom link via email or Facebook message.

The evening will include an Open Mic for short stories. Space is limited.

Born and raised in the UK, Cathy Stonehouse has made her home for the past 30 years in East Vancouver, on the unceded, traditional Coast Salish territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh nations. She is the author of a novel (The Causes, Pedlar Press 2019), two collections of poetry (Grace Shiver, Inanna 2011, and The Words I Know, Press Gang 1994), and one collection of short fiction (Something about the Animal, Biblioasis 2011). With Fiona Tinwei Lam and Shannon Cowan, she co-edited the creative nonfiction anthology Double Lives: Writing and Motherhood (McGill-Queens University Press, 2008) and reviews fiction and nonfiction for a variety of literary publications; she also edited the literary magazine EVENT between 2000 & 2004. She has worked as an editor, typesetter, tutor, peer counselor, adult literacy and ESL instructor, and political organizer, and holds a BA (Hons) in English from Oxford University, an MFA in Creative Writing from UBC and a Certificate in Expressive Arts Therapy from Langara College. Currently, she is a regularized faculty member of Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s creative writing and interdisciplinary expressive arts programs, and freelances as an editor/manuscript consultant and workshop facilitator. She loves to draw and is rather fond of badgers.

Visit Cathy’s website http://cathystonehouse.com/

RCLAS presents Tellers of Short Tales
 – Online Edition with host, Carol Johnson
Featured Shawn Gale
Date: Thurs April 22, 2021
Time: 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm

Zoom room will open early for open mic sign up starting at 05:30 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Let us know on the Facebook event page if you would like to attend.

OR you can RSVP by email to secretary@rclas.com
You will be sent the zoom link via email or Facebook message.

The evening will include an Open Mic for short stories. Space is limited.

Shawn Douglas Gale is a Canadian screenwriter, an academic, and a critically-acclaimed author.

He is the author of the story collection The Stories That Make Us. He is also the author of the acclaimed fantasy series for all ages World of Dawn. He is working on developing it into film.

Gale’s many stories and articles have been published in anthologies and periodicals in the U.S. and Canada.

Gale is a member of Burnaby Writers’ Society, Royal City Literary Arts Society and the Writers’ Union of Canada.

Zoom room will open early for open mic sign up starting at 05:30 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Let us know on the Facebook event page if you would like to attend.

https://fb.me/e/3mwc2NEqW

 OR you can RSVP by email to secretary@rclas.com
You will be sent the zoom link via email or Facebook message.

The evening will include an Open Mic for short stories. Space is limited.

Born in Japan and now based in New Westminster, PJ Patten is a  graphic novelist, visual artist, tattoo artist and writer. He draws  inspiration from the ancient Japanese art of Haiga and Southern  California’s skate/surf/punk culture.   TOWER 25 is a 128 page graphic memoir about homelessness,  addiction, trauma and recovery.  Written and illustrated by PJ Patten, Tower 25 follows his journey  through homelessness, from living in a nice condo to sleeping in  bathrooms at the beach after losing everything to meth addiction.  This project engages with themes of addiction, trauma, responsibility and ultimately healing. It offers a first hand account of the struggles of being homeless and the challenges one is faced with trying to get off the streets.  

KT can be found online at www.northernlightsgothic.com and @KT_Wagner

Facebook link: https://fb.me/e/17bgKQ8Wn

Zoom room will open early for open mic sign up 05:30 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada) .
Host: Carol Johnson
Let us know on the event page if you would like to attend.
You will be sent the zoom link OR you can email secretary AT rclas DOT com to rsvp.
#RCLAS #royalcityliteraryartssociety #TellersofShortTales #ArtsNW
#royalcitylit

A program of monthly readings designed to engage fans of the short story genre with emerging and published short story writers.

Also, an open microphone will be available for writers who would like to share their stories.
The program is free for fans.
There will be a small token of appreciation for the features.