A FESTIVAL FOR BOOKLOVERS
BOOKAPALOOZA 2026
June 20, 2026, 10 am to 4 pm
Minden Community Centre
55 Parkside St, Minden, ON K0M 2K0
Celebrate words, creativity and inspiration. Chat with authors, editors, illustrators & publishers. Gain insight and ideas.
Free admission to the exhibit hall.
Children's books, romance, history, science fiction, fantasy & adventure!
Giveaways, Door prizes
FEATURED AUTHOR PRESENTATION
Interviews with our featured authors
by Emily Stonehouse - Editor, Haliburton Echo
2:00 - 2:30 pm - Authors book signing
2:30 - 3:30 pm Featured Authors presentation/interview, Q & A
This is a ticketed event. Tickets are $35 + HST which
includes a $20 voucher towards the
purchase of a book by one of the featured authors
MARISSA STAPLEY
New York Times bestselling author of Reese’s Book Club pick Lucky, as well as international bestsellers Mating for Life, Things to Do When It’s Raining, and The Last Resort. She has also co-written The Holiday Swap and All I Want for Christmas with bestselling author Karma Brown under the pen name Maggie Knox. Her latest novel is The Lightning Bottles, a tale of lost love in the grunge era of rock ‘n roll.
Many of Marissa’s novels have been optioned for television and her journalism has appeared in publications across North America. She has also worked as a sports reporter, cemetery gardener, bartender, destination travel rep, stable hand, and
magazine editor — but becoming an author is a dream she has harboured since the age of seven, when she decided she was going to be the next L.M. Montgomery.
She lives in Toronto with her family.
NOTE: Lucky is in film production with Anya Taylor-Joy as lead.
Marissa Stapley links & interviews
BIANCA MARAIS
Bianca Marais is the author of the bestselling Witches of Moonshyne Manor, Hum If You Don’t Know the Words and If You Want to Make God Laugh. Her most recent novel A Most Puzzling Murder, is an interactive whodunit, inviting readers to solve the clues before The End.
Bianca holds a certificate in creative writing from the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies, where she now teaches creative writing. She is one of the hosts of the popular writers’ resource podcast, The Shit No One Tells You About Writing.
Before turning to writing, she started a corporate training company and volunteered with Cotlands, where she assisted care workers in Soweto with providing aid for HIV/AIDS orphans.
Originally from South Africa, she now resides in Toronto with her husband.
Bianca Marais links & interviews
BOOKAPALOOZA 2025
WITHROBERT J. SAWYER
Robert J. Sawyer, Canada's preeminent science fiction writer, winner of the Hugo, Nebula and John W. Campbell Awards. The most recent of Rob's twenty-five novels is The Downloaded.
A fabulous day full of words and writers and readers. Here's just a few photos of the day devoted to the magic of writing and reading. Bestselling, internationally recognized Canadian author of terrific thrilling novels, Linwood Barclay, kept the full house audience entertained and engaged at the Big Book Club in conversation with Ruth E. Walker.
BOOKAPALOOZA 2024
WITH LINWOOD BARCLAY
