Editor's note: In conjunction with the Festival of the Written Arts (FOWA), Coast Reporter will be publishing a selection of author biographies in advance of this year's festival slated for Aug. 14 to 17. Festival goers will also want to check out the official festival preview section in the Aug. 8 edition of Coast Reporter.
Connections among the writers appearing at this year's FOWA include the one between Paul Quarrington and Dave Bidini. The musical connection between these two long-time pals goes back to the film adaptation of Quarrington's Governor General's Award-winning novel Whale Music for which Bidini and his Rheo-statics bandmates composed the Genie Award-winning soundtrack.
Quarrington currently fronts a country/blues band called Porkbelly Futures. Both authors are huge sports fans and both have written bestselling books on the subject. After Bidini successfully defended Quarrington's humorous hockey novel, King Leary, on CBC Radio's Canada Reads, an appreciative Quar-rington pledged to buy Bidini's beer for life.
Bidini has also written about hockey and rock music life in his bestsellers Tropic of Hockey and On a Cold Road. Their most recent books are Quarrington's darkly humorous novel The Ravine, and Bidini's fascinating travelogue Around the World in 57 Gigs. Both appear on Sunday afternoon at the festival this year, and both are sure to be entertaining. For more information on these two and all the other writers coming to the 26th Sunshine Coast FOWA, check out www.writersfestival.ca or call 604-885-9631 for tickets.
