As the Elora Writers’ Festival turns the page on its 20th year, one of the women who started it all will return, this time to the podium to read from her first novel, coming full circle from a fan of literature to an emerging voice within it.
The festival began with the youthful energy of two university students from the Fergus-Elora area.
Ailsa Kay and Amy Appleford were friends who shared a passion for literature and were inspired by the notable success and village charm of the Eden Mills Writers’ Festival.
“We wanted to start the festival because we believed strongly that Canadian literature is world-class literature, with its own particular range of voice and form, but that there needed to be more events where people could experience Canadian talent,” said Appleford.
Like the setting in Eden Mills, the waters and picturesque landscape of Elora seemed to be a fitting scene for a small cultural festival.
“Elora is an extraordinary place, with an amazing history of artists of all kinds congregating there. And also people who love the arts and want to live a beautiful life,” said Appleford. “I think it is the water; all that good sulphur nourishes the creative spark.”
The pair set to work, plotting their next steps.
“We didn’t think it would be too hard,” Kay says, recalling the naive enthusiasm she shared with her friend, neither of whom had any experience planning a festival.
To begin, they sought the advice of Leon Rooke, founder of the Eden Mills festival and an author with many awards to his credit.
Kay credits his willingness to give advice on the process of coordinating an event like his and sharing information about grant resources as being instrumental in the launch of the first Words by the Water festival, which would later become the Elora Writers’ Festival.
“Leon Rooke was great. He was really friendly,” Kay says, recalling how naive she and Appleford were to the process. “He must have laughed because I was pretty awestruck and young. Of course, we asked him to read the first year of the festival.”
The organizers knew what they wanted their festival to be, and throughout the early years they stayed true to their focus.
“We hoped to put together programs that mixed known names with new writers, and more established literary forms, such as the novel or the short story, with more experimental ones, such as the spoken word,” said Appleford.
“We hoped this mix would appeal to folks who were Can-Lit aficionados and also people who were just discovering our nation’s awesome talent pool for the first time.”
Kay added, “In that first year it was really important to have writers at different stages of their career. We wanted to help writers just starting out.”
Booking authors turned out easier than the pair anticipated. They put the call out and the response was wonderful, something present-day organizers credit to the reputation of the festival year after year.
“Amy and I read as many lit journals as we could,” Kay said. “The writers were really happy to have the opportunity to read. I’ve never had a problem with any of the writers. They were all easy going, funny and sweet.”
Taking part in the first year was Elora writer Michael Hale, who read from his unpublished story, The Spiral Variations.
“It was very meaningful to me to read from that work. It had a lot to do with dealing with my little sister’s death when I was 10 years old,” Hale said.
Sharing the bill was author Tom King of Guelph and short story writer Deborah Meldazy of Elora.
“It was an interesting mix of authors,” Hale said.
He added he appreciated the organizers’ vision for the festival, and also their respect in offering a monetary subsidy for the authors as valuing their work, advice they credit to Rooke.
“What Amy and Ailsa were trying to do was make it more equalitarian … they had fringe, new writers, unpublished writers and poets,” Hale said. “It was exciting, that structure. It’s a shame that it was let go, but it was an incredible amount of work to organize.”
Early on, Kay and Appleford divided the duties. Kay focused on grant applications and sources for funding, while Appleford sourced appropriate venues and thought of fundraising opportunities to make the event a reality.
Over the years the writers’ festival took place at various venues throughout the village, from the Elora Mill’s rear outdoor area, to a private backyard, a pub on Mill Street West, the downstairs bar of the Dalby House known as The Cellar, and the Gorge Cinema, which Kay said was “a great space for the readings,” noting the seating and stage set-up worked well.
The atmosphere was important to keep that sense of intimacy in the festival, but also an authentic experience of the village itself. It worked.
“The authors enjoyed the public, but they also got to see each other,” said Kay, noting it was an experience to see the camaraderie of the authors connecting at the various venues, like seeing Russell Smith and Susan Swan talking, reuniting as friends.
Recalling some of the authors that inspired her, Kay admits Canadian author Gil Adamson was a highlight, and poet Michael Crummey.
“That was a big deal,” she recalled.
“Everyone was amazing and generous to come out to this small town to do the event,” said Appleford.
Kay looks back on those early years fondly, calling the event “amateurish,” but acknowledging that was part of the festival’s charm. Writers were invited back to a dinner at the home of either Kay or Appleford’s parents, then later the Desert Rose Café.
“Amy and I were so terrified to even talk to the writers,” Kay says, laughing. “We couldn’t mingle at all the first year, out of fear.”
Fortunately, that subsided with experience.
Friends became volunteer drivers, waiters, ticket-takers and whatever was needed.
When asked if this was a grassroots momentum, Appleford replied, “Well, if grassroots means lots of wonderful people volunteering their time and energy, then we were definitely grassroots. We definitely couldn’t have done it without the support of the Elora community, both businesses and private individuals.”
Appleford and Kay closed their chapter with the festival after several successful years, but the Elora Writers’ Festival continues under the auspices of the Elora Arts Council and a volunteer committee specific to the event.
While some changes were made and new venues used, including the Drew House, the Wellington County Museum, Station Square and this year’s addition of the Elora Centre for the Arts, the focus on bringing well known and emerging voices in Canadian literature to audiences here has not wavered.
In fact it has come full circle. Michael Hale returned to read from his first novel once again at the festival in 1999, and has since become one of the volunteer members of the festival’s board.
Appleford is now an assistant professor of English at Boston University, teaching and writing about medieval literature and culture.
“I salute all the organizers and volunteers who gave their time and energy the past two decades to make the festival a real fixture in the Ontario arts scene,” said Appleford.
Kay, who recently returned to her roots in Fergus, completed her PhD in literature and now teaches at Conestoga College. She has been invited to return to the festival she helped create to read from her first critically-acclaimed novel, Under Budapest.
“I am really excited about reading at the festival, but I am a little more shy than I would be if I were reading in Toronto,” Kay admits, adding she is happy she will be surrounded by friends and family.
Her debut novel is set in Hungary, a country Kay was enamoured with after spending two sabbaticals there. The work was inspired by a headline in a Hungarian newspaper several years ago that reported a severed head was found on Gellert Hill, along the Danube.
“I read that story and thought, how did that happen? It seemed like an odd space for a murder. That’s what started it,” said Kay, who added the book was written “really fast,” and to her credit was picked up equally quick by Goose Lane Editions.
“It’s something between a mystery and a historical novel,” said Kay, explaining the plot revolves around a murder in present day that is rooted in the violence of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution against the Soviet regime.
Receiving high praise from Hungarian-born literary critic Anna Porter, was “really affirming” for Kay, who notes the book, released in April, has stirred some controversy.
In her National Post review Porter wrote: “Under Budapest is a page-turner whose author is a brilliant observer of realistic detail, an uncompromising presenter of some fascinating characters, and an interesting adapter of Hungarian slang.”
A new chapter of the festival begins as organizer turns author when Kay brings her words to the May 26 event.
“I’m excited. I can’t wait to go back,” said Kay.
Under Budapest is available at Roxanne’s Reflections in Fergus, and online at Amazon.com.
Tickets for the Elora Writers’ Festival, which takes place from 1 to 4pm on May 26 at the Elora Centre for the Arts, are available online at www.roxannesreflections.ca. Admission is $20.
For more information on the event visit www.elorawritersfestival.blogspot.ca.
