Eden Mills welcomes large crowds for annual Writers’ Festival

Gary Barwin shared snippets of his book of short stories, Scandal at the Alphorn, while Shani Mootoo, centre, and Faith Arkorful listened attentively. Barwin’s novel Yiddish for Pirates won the Leacock Medal for Humour and the Canadian Jewish Literary Award. Photos by Robin George

From left, journalists Deborah Dundas, Carol Off and Tanya Talaga. A rooster crowed in the background while Dundas interviewed Off and Talaga about their new nonfiction books, At a Loss for Words: Conversation in an Age of Rage and The Knowing.

A crowd gathered by the cottage to hear from Diana Beresford-Kroeger about “The Soul and Science of Forests.”

Fergus author Kasandra Coleman brought colouring pages, stickers, buttons, mugs, bags, water bottles and coffee cups along with her children’s books. She read portions of a book with the resounding message “You are who you’re meant to be.”

Six-year-old Zara Marshall, right, sold key chains she made with resin during the Eden Mills Writers Festival on Sept. 8, with help from her neighbour Lily Robinson.

Niko McRae, left, and Ellis Flemming made dandelion crowns with SJ Okemow, author of Âmî Osâwâpikones, or Dear Dandelion.

Cheryl Isaacs read from her horror novel The Unfinished, which features a pond that “shouldn’t be there” and a young protagonist’s reluctant reconnection with her Indigenous culture.

From left, Premee Mohamed (We Speak Through the Mountains), Randy Boyagada (Little Sanctuary) and Cheryl Isaacs (The Unfinished) read portions of their “disquietining works of fiction where young protagonizts are faced with tough choices in their quests to survive against all odds.”

Fiore Guido, owner of Elora’s Magic Pebble Books, sold Wellington County History books during the Eden Mills Writers’ Festival on Sept. 8.

Hundreds of people gathered in the “Meadow” at the Eden Mills Writers’ Festival on Sept. 8 to hear the Toronto Star’s Deborah Dundas interview Carol Off and Tanya Talaga about their new books.