Stella Harvey

And if the progress Stella's both witnessed and helped create since her arrival has momentum, future newcomers, at least those with a bias for the written word, won't find the transition quite as jarring. As founder of The Vicious Circle Writers Group and the Whistler Readers and Writers Festival, Stella's boosted the profile - not to mention the social connections - of those who toil over blank pages and partially formed ideas.

It probably helped matters that she wasn't particularly aligned with Whistler's principle forms of art and culture at the time: mountain and outdoor sports. "I felt quite like an outsider when I moved here. Not being an adrenaline junkie myself - I'm married to one - much of the local culture wasn't readily available to me. Finding my way in a community that was so focused on what kind of physical activity you did today was really difficult."

"There weren't as many cultural events I was interested in at that time. And that was only nine years ago. When you think about it, we've come a long way in terms of what's available locally. There was no literary festival. There was no film festival. Both have come about in last handful of years. There wasn't a lot of art and culture available at the time; that's why I thought we just had to create it. A lot of other people thought the same thing and now, I wouldn't recognize the place, there's such an awareness of all the different events going on. More than I can go to."

After getting her bearings and finding no local writers' group, Stella took a chance in 2001 and placed an ad in the paper seeking like-minded individuals. Twenty-six writers and aspiring writers showed up at her home in Emerald for the first meeting. Her current subscription list runs to 150 and the Vicious Circle's members have enjoyed success in writing books, screenplays, stage plays and works appearing in numerous magazines and literary journals.

A year after founding the writers' group, Stella tackled a homegrown literary festival. Well, even Stella will admit that first festival in 2002 was more "...akin to a private study group." But big events grow from humble beginnings and the 2009 Whistler Readers and Writers Festival will welcome more than 100 aspiring writers and 20 guest authors, including this year's BC Book Prize winner, Lee Henderson and current writers-in-residence, Wayne Grady and Merilyn Simonds.

But near and dear to Stella's heart is leveraging the star power of the Festival - as well as any cultural event - to showcase the talents of local artists. "We have very talented, recognized, published writers in town. The things they write are good enough to capture the attention of publishers in Canada's largest cities. They should be recognized locally. Sure, I could bring in big names from around the world but I don't want to do that. I want to focus on Canadian authors and to increase the Whistler base and the profile of Whistler writers."

"It's too easy to discount our local talent. I think it's human nature as opposed to anything else... and it's my mission in life to stop it! I want to make people see that we are as good as anybody else."

And if you want to see for yourself, Stella heartily suggest you come out to this year's Festival, September 11-13.