See this group of people? That’s us, your
Elora Writers Festival organizing committee, hard at work preparing for
Festival 2018 – and that includes our annual writing contest (deadline in
March), and our fourth annual literary escape from winter, Books & Beer (in
February).
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| Working hard! Or perhaps Francis and Jean are arguing while Dave and Roxanne enjoy the show? In any case, we are a fun, hard-working committee, and we love supporting authors and their work! (Photo taken at The Red Door Café) |
We invite you into our planning session!
Come on in and sit down. There’s a lot going on, but in brief, let us share
with you ten things you need to know:
1. Festival 2018 will take place on Sunday,
May 6, 1-4 p.m. in Aboyne Hall at the Wellington County Museum & Archives.
Tickets ($25) are available online from the Fergus Grand Theatre here: http://bit.ly/2Ia4Rd6 Or drop in at the theatre box office, 244 St. Andrew St. W. in Fergus. You can also reserve by calling Festival headquarters (aka Roxanne Beale) at 519-831-4391, or email elorawritersfestival@gmail.com.
2. Our Festival 2018 authors are
award-winners, award-nominees, multi-talented and literary-genre-bending, and
you get to hang out with them during the afternoon. There will be books, there
will be snacks, there will be beer from our wonderful sponsor, Wellington
Brewery, and there will be these five fantastic authors, too… (read on).
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| The room is ready for our five Festival 2018 authors (l-r): Kathy Stinson, Drew Hayden Taylor, Kate Blair, Linden MacIntyre and Michelle Winters |
3. Kathy Stinson writes books for kids of
all ages. One of her standout picture books is The Man With the Violin, which tells the story of classical
violinist Joshua Bell’s subway experiment, in which he played his violin at a
busy Washington, D.C., subway station and the crowds mostly passed him by –
except for the children, who wanted to stop and listen.
4. Drew Hayden Taylor used his background
growing up in the Curve Lake First Nation to become an award-winning
playwright, author, columnist, film maker and lecturer. His most recent
collection, Take Us To Your Chief, is (in his words) “a collection of
archetypal science-fiction stories reinvented with a contemporary First Nations
outlook”. Yup. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg…
5. Kate Blair writes for Young Adult
readers, and calls herself a “speculative fiction geek, ex-pat, ex-clown and
ex-museum curator.” She grew up on a tiny island in the UK and moved to Canada
in 2008. Her latest novel is Tangled
Planet. She’s on Twitter as @curledupkate and recently tweeted this about a
visit “home”:
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| You're a real Canadian now, Kate. #talkingabouttheweather |
6. Linden MacIntyre is a past Giller-prize
winner, a veteran broadcast journalist with a pile of Gemini awards, and a
returnee to our festival, this time with his latest novel, The Only Café, in
which he draws on his journalistic background to tell the story of a man trying
to find out what led to the death of his father.
7. Michelle Winters is a multi-talented
artist – a painter as well as a writer – and her novel, I Am a Truck, was on the short list for the 2017 Giller Prize.
Originally from Saint John, New Brunswick, she now lives in Toronto, where she
works as a translator. Check out some of her paintings, here: Michelle Winters, Paintings
8. Terry Fallis was our featured author at
the fourth annual Books & Beer, held on Tuesday, February 27, 7-9 p.m.,
at The Red Door Café, a warm and welcoming space at the back of The Fountainhead
Health Store in Fergus overlooking the Grand River. What can we say about
Terry? He was awesome! Here's a look back at a memorable evening - and thanks, Terry, for supporting our festival! Books & Beer IV: Books, Beer - and Laughs!
9. Festival 2018 is a wonderful event, of
course, but one of the highlights of the day is the announcement and
presentation of awards to winners of our annual writing contest. The March 2nd
deadline has come and gone, and the judges are busy choosing this year's winners.
10. One final thought: Festival 2018 is
going to be fantastic. It always is. Plan to be there!
Questions? Looking for more information?
Please feel free to email us at elorawritersfestival@gmail.com
