With another Vancouver International Writers Festival come and gone, The Georgia Straight runs down the highlights of the various readings, interviews, and panel discussions. For example, at a CBC Radio panel, fiction writer Natalee Caple advocated for (as quoted in the Straight) “literary sex: better, more accurate sex scenes in Canadian novels … written by stronger, more difficult, troubled, kick-ass women characters.” The Straight goes on to report that “Hilarity took the reins when Caple confessed that when she had to break one of her characters’ legs for plot development she ‘felt kind of bad, so I decided he gets a hand job.’ All the air was quickly squeezed out of that fun balloon by the host interrupting to inquire whether or not writers were allowed to say hand job on the radio.”

Related links:
The Georgia Straight‘s story on the Vancouver International Writers Festival