Sep 11, 2025
Laura Secord Homestead, Queenston
Coast to Coast: Canada’s Survivalist Women
Coast to Coast Literary Series
Beginning September 11, discover extraordinary Canadian authors, their unique perspectives and published works with the eighth annual Coast to Coast Literary Speaker Series.
This year’s Coast to Coast Literary Series will be hosted inside the Queenston Chapel at Laura Secord Homestead, in Queenston, Ontario. With dates from September to December, each session includes light refreshments and hors d’oeuvres, with Niagara wines available for purchase by the glass prior to each event.
Tickets are $15 per event or $50 for the entire series (plus taxes and fees).
The Authors
Once again, the Niagara Parks Coast to Coast speaker series features the stories of four incredible Canadian women. All sessions are 7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Elyse Friedman
The Opportunist•September 11
Yvonne Van Lankveld
The Park Street Secrets• October 16
Sue Hincenbergs
The Retirement Plan• November 13
Jeanette Lynes
The Paper Birds•December 11
Elyse Friedman
The Opportunist
September 11, 2025, 7:00 p.m.
Elyse Friedman is a critically acclaimed author, screenwriter, poet and playwright. Her work has been shortlisted for the Trillium Book Award, the Toronto Book Award, the ReLit Award and the Tom Hendry Award. Her short story “The Soother” won the gold National Magazine Award for Fiction, and her poetry book Know Your Monkey won a ForeWord Book of the Year award. Her screenplay Better Now won the TIFF-CBC Films Screenwriter Award Jury Prize in 2019; her screenplay The Relationship Experiment won the TIFF-CBC Films Screenwriter Award in 2020. Elyse Friedman lives in Toronto.
Yvonne Van Lankveld
The Park Street Secrets
October 16, 2025, 7:00 p.m.
Yvonne Van Lankveld’s love of words began early in childhood. Her first career as a Registered Nurse was supported by two diplomas from Mohawk College, followed by a Bachelor’s degree in Community Health Sciences from Brock University. Although her writing skills earned her acclaim in many clinical settings and professional nursing journals, she never lost her desire to write fiction. She has authored three contemporary fiction novels about human adversity and is writing her fourth, about four mothers and the people attached to them, whether they like each other or not.
Yvonne is a past member of the Canadian Authors Association and a four-time reviewer for the Whistler Independent Book Awards. She facilitates programs for aspiring writers, including a writers’ group at her local library, and is lucky enough to interview best-selling authors as part of the Lincoln Pelham Public Library’s Books on the Bench events. In 2024, she was honoured with the Lincoln Pelham Public Library’s Volunteer Peer Award.
Sue Hincenbergs
The Retirement Plan
November 13, 2025, 7:00 p.m.
Sue Hincenbergs is a former television producer who has worked on multiple award-winning programs. She lives in Toronto with her (very much alive) husband, her scruffy, middle-aged rescue dog, Kramer, and the rooms full of the stuff her three sons left behind when they moved out. The porch light is always on in case one comes by for a visit. The Retirement Plan is her first novel.
Jeanette Lynes
The Paper Birds
December 11, 2025, 7:00 p.m.
Jeanette Lynes is the author of the bestselling novel The Apothecary’s Garden, a finalist for a High Plains Book Award and two Saskatchewan Book Awards. Her second novel, The Small Things That End the World, won the Fiction Prize at the Saskatchewan Book Awards. Her first novel, The Factory Voice, was longlisted for the Giller Prize and a ReLit Award. She has also written seven books of poetry. Her forthcoming non-fiction book Apron Apocalypse: Lyric Essays received the John V. Hicks Long Manuscript Award. A settler, Jeanette Lynes grew up on the traditional territory of the People of the Three Fires: the Ojibway, Odawa, and Potawatomi Nations of Anishinabek peoples. Since 2011 she has directed the MFA in Writing at the University of Saskatchewan on Treaty 6 Territory and the Homeland of the Métis.
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