Some tender news to share

Hi friends,

As many of you know, PCR has always been a scrappy labour of love. Funding has been a constant challenge, and despite coming so close to breaking even in 2025, we were recently denied our latest grant application. At this point, I can’t continue to self-fund the festival and carry the financial risk alone.

So the Paper Covers Rock festival is going on pause for at least the next year.

2025 was such a beautiful event and the festival evolves in wonderful ways with each iteration, so that made this decision very difficult — but at the same time, all the more necessary. Rather than push forward in survival mode and over-extend myself, I’m choosing to step back and regroup. And in a year, if the community truly misses it, wants it, and feels it’s necessary in its previous format, we’ll look at new and creative solutions for gathering to share writing and ideas around a table together.

In the meantime, I’m genuinely loving the Local Author Q&A series — and those are staying. I’d like to keep building momentum online, continuing to spotlight writers, share work, and nurture the kind of literary community that doesn’t depend entirely on a venue and a schedule and … you know, a budget.

If you’ve attended, supported, sponsored, volunteered, read, shared, dropped a Country Grocer receipt into our donation box, or otherwise believed in this project — thank you so much. It has mattered so much, for me and I think for everyone who has attended.

This is not a cancellation or a goodbye, it’s just a shift to keeping the conversation online for a little while. Not ideal, I know. If we have enough funds in the Country Grocer box (#90) to host a reading circle or something later this fall, I think that would be a great way to do something small but valuable.

I’ve been noodling over a new book project that I thought would be a blend of BC history, family legacy, and modern memoir. When I saw the ProWritingAid NovBegin contest, which offers mentorship and guidance toward submitting the first 5,000 words of a new novel project, I thought, “Hey, what a great instigator to finally get going on this!” I thrive on deadlines, and the entry date for this contest is end of March. Perfect.

Then I read the fine print. Fiction only. Fuck!

I don’t write fiction…

Or do I? I started to think about my book project through the lens of fiction, and all the doors swung wide open. Some of the factual dead-ends that had been stalling me became entry-points, instead. By using history as a lattice, I hope I will have just enough structure to lean on my strengths as a nonfiction writer while exploring that which scares me most: filling a wide open page with my own imagination.

(Just writing that made my stomach churn and my throat close up a little. I’ll be ok.)

So I wanted to share that not only because it’s a great opportunity for unpublished writers starting a novel project, but as a reminder that we can try, practice, pretend, write, be, and do whatever we want creatively. Sometimes it feels weird in the body, maybe even makes you want to puke a little. That’s what Paper Covers Rock was for me over all these years: Every single workshop challenged me and what I thought I could (or should) do, in some way. Sometimes I was uncomfortable, in the best possible way.

Creative exploration is scary. But to try something you never thought you were capable of and let it lift your wings a little — it blasts the heart wide open. What a great place to begin.

I’ve written a lot about the value of retreats in past newsletters, and I’m starting to look ahead to my upcoming retreat at Cill Rialaig in Ireland this June. I will be working on the new book as well as a textile project during my ~9 days in a stone cottage along the sunny shores (/jk) of the wild Atlantic coastline. I’ll document my experience there to share on my personal page, Paper Town, so be sure to subscribe there as well.

I mention it here now because they have two application deadlines each year, in March and September. If the idea of an artist retreat in Ireland appeals to you, you have to request the intake package by email. There’s still time to squeak in an application by mid-March if, like me, you thrive on deadlines!

I’ll be sharing another local author spotlight in a few weeks’ time. Until then, if you have any ideas or suggestions about how Paper Covers Rock can continue to support you creatively over the coming year, please do let me know!

Thanks for reading,

Terri Potratz
Founder + Director, Paper Covers Rock