Looking for a quiet walk on the beach or an inspiring story about life pivoting on a dime? A fascinating read, or a quick break to put the wind back in your sails?

Join us as Samantha Touchie takes us along on Long Beach walks with her wonderful photos! Samantha lives on her traditional home area of the Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ First Nation on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. Her photos will take us through Tla-o-qui-aht traditional territory.

Hear Nanaimo poet Kamal Parmar's remarkable account of putting her mother's struggle with Alzheimers into poetry with her new book from Silver Bow Publishing, Still Waters. She volunteers with non-profit organizations such as Osteoporosis Canada and Alzheimer's Society of Canada. She is passionate about personalized medicine as a value-based tool for long-term healthy living, as lifestyle changes are the most precious gift we can give ourselves in order to lead healthy long lives.

Newfoundland resident (and transplanted West Coast girl), our Facebook Amazing Strong Inspired editor Sharon Sanford tells us how a heart transplant turned her life around.

Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean and Two If By Sea, talks about a writing career that has been highlighted by being the first book EVER chosen by the Oprah Book Club, and getting your best-seller made into a movie!

Join Ellen Everard who joins us from the beautiful Barkley Sound for a happy dose of Laughter Yoga, and remember - your body can't tell the difference between a fake laugh and deep-seated joy, so 'fake it 'til you make it' for your health's sake!

Our Poet Laureate du Jour is Sally Quon! Sally is getting recognition in literary journals. Living on the traditional and unceded territory of the Syilx people in the Okanagan Valley, Sally spends her time blogging her back-country adventures and reading poetry to the cat. She has been published in Chicken Soup for the Soul – The Forgiveness Fix and was a finalist for the 2020 Vallum Chapbook Award. She is an Associate Member of the League of Canadian Poets. Her bucket list is entirely about bears. and she's going to lift us up with a dab of poetic positivity!

Writer and artist Coranne Creswell will bring a 2-Minute Book Review! (Get out your egg-timer. She can do it!

In the Cheering Section, Facebook group editor Jan Vert Meeks shares milestones and triumphs large and small from the Amazing Strong Inspired Facebook group! Get out those snaps and claps, and get ready to get inspired!

Special guest panelists, , laughter yoga, door prizes! and a moment to celebrate the week's achievements, even if that's just getting a decent night's sleep! We cheer for everyone who identifies as an amazing, strong, inspired woman!

Sign up here on Eventbrite and a Zoom link will be emailed to you three days before the event, and a reminder the day of!

"If we are all birds on different birch trees in the forest, we can still connect, tree to tree!"

Host Cynthia Sharp is the author of Rainforest in Russet (Silver Bow, 2019), How to Write Poetry, and the Marcy of the Stars middle grade books. She lives in Vancouver, where she is a tutor, event producer, and writing coach, and she is working on her MFA in screenwriting.

Host Jacqueline Carmichael is the author of Heard Amid the Guns: True Stories from the Western Front 1914-1918 (Heritage House November 2020), Tweets from the Trenches, and My Read-Aloud Tales of Social Distancing. She is the founder of Amazing Strong Inspired.

Huzzah!!!!

Everyone who joins us will be eligible for the grand prize drawing on Feb. 1 of a sterling silver-and-diamond accent tennis bracelet. We will announce our next Quarterly Grand Prize also!

Women's Yakfest is the brainchild of Amazing Strong Inspired, a multi-media project that is the brainchild of author Jacqueline Carmichael. A longtime journalist, publisher and event producer, she started the Amazing Strong Inspired project as a book project 13 years ago when she was interviewing (you guessed it) amazing, strong, inspired women for publications like The Dallas Morning News, Smart Business, The Edmonton Sun, and Entrepreneur Magazine.