For the third year, Words Alive – Downtown Brandon’s Premiere Book Festival – will present two evenings of readings as well as two daytime workshops.

The evening of October 23, beginning at 7 p.m., will feature West Coast author Des Kennedy as well as Christina Penner.

The following day, at 10 a.m., freelance writer and editor Jim Chliboyko will give a workshop, guiding participants in the ins and outs of making a living as a writer. In the afternoon, novelist Michael Van Rooy will teach some of the finer points of the craft of writing.

Saturday evening, again beginning at 7 p.m., two more authors will be on hand to read and discuss their work. Margaret Sweatman will kick off things off, followed by East Coaster Joel Thomas Hynes.

• Award-winning journalist, broadcaster, author and environmental activist, Des Kennedy has written two novels and four books of essays about gardening, one of which was nominated for a Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour, as was one of his novels. An authority on gardening, he has hosted garden tours in Ireland, New Zealand, China and England. He will be reading and discussing his most recent novel, entitled “Climbing Patrick’s Mountain”.

• Based in Winnipeg, Christina Penner is a computer science professor by day and a novelist by night. Her first published work, “The Widows of Hamilton House” was nominated this spring for the Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book by a Manitoba Writer. She is currently working on her second novel.

• Also from Winnipeg, Margaret Sweatman is a playwright, poet, singer and novelist. Her plays have been produced on several stages and she has performed with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra and the National Academy Orchestra. In 2006, she won a Genie Award with her husband Glenn Buhr for Best Song in Canadian Film. She will be reading from her fourth novel, “The Players”.

• Representing the East Coast will be Joel Thomas Hynes, who hails from Calvert, Newfoundland. His first book, “Down to the Dirt” won the Percy Janes First Novel Award, was short-listed for the Atlantic Book Awards and the Winterset Award, and was nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. In addition to being an author of short stories, novels and plays, Hynes is also a professional actor.

Following the readings, live jazz as well as a wine and cheese reception will close both evenings.

All Words Alive activities are free and open to the public, thanks to a generous grant from the Brandon Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation.