Some of the top figures in Canadian fiction are coming to the area next week to take part in the annual Elora Writers Festival.
Former CBC journalist and award-winning author Linden MacIntyre and renowned Indigenous author, playwright and filmmaker Drew Hayden Taylor will take part in the 24th festival at Aboyne Hall.
They’ll be joined by local children’s author Kathy Stinson, young adult author Kate Blair and debut novelist Michelle Winters.
The afternoon of readings also includes an opportunity to meet the authors informally, book signings, and question-and-answer session. Between readings, the winners of the festival’s writing contest will be announced and presented with prizes.
Held for years at the end of May, this year the Writers Festival moves to a new date earlier in the month – May 6. The festival will begin at 1pm at Aboyne Hall at the Wellington County Museum and Archives.
The new date brings the festival in conjunction with the final day of the three-day annual book sale run by the Elora Festival, bringing together two events highlighting books, writing, and Canadian authors.
The Writers Festival aims to raise awareness of literacy and reading, as well as encourage local and Canadian authors.
Linden MacIntyre, co-host of the CBC’s the Fifth Estate for 24 years and winner of 10 Gemini awards for journalism, is an award-winning author of a memoir, Causeway: A Passage from Innocence, and three loosely connected novels, all bestsellers, including the Giller Prize winner The Bishop’s Man.
Originally from the Curve Lake First Nations in Ontario, Drew Hayden Taylor has written about the world from an aboriginal perspective for more than 20 years, as a playwright, columnist, filmmaker and lecturer. His 2010 novel, Motorcycles and Sweetgrass was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award for Fiction, and his latest fiction work is a science fiction collection, Take Us to Your Chief and Other Stories.
Michelle Williams had short stories published in several Canadian literary magazines before writing her debut novel, I Am A Truck, which was shortlisted for the 2017 Giller Prize.
Kate Blair’s first novel, Transferral, was nominated for three young adult awards, as well as being optioned for filming and translated into French. Her second novel, Tangled Planet, was released in Canada last fall and is expected to be published in the U.S. this spring
Rockwood-based author Kathy Stinson has written more than 30 books for young people of a variety of ages in a range of genres following her debut, Red is Best, which has gone on to become a classic children’s book. She leads writing workshops and was recently writer-in-residence at the Wellington County Library.
Tickets to the Elora Writers Festival are $25 and available in advance only through the Fergus Grand Theatre box office, 519-787-1981 or online at fergusgrandtheatre.ca.
Tickets are also available at the door.
For more information see www.elorawritersfestival.blogspot.com.
