London celebrates literature with a festival
The Forest City will be hosting
its first Words literary and creative
arts festival on the weekend of October
24.
The festival, which celebrates all things words – novels, non-fiction books, comic books, spoken word performances and others – will feature local, national and international writers as well as programs related to the craft of writing.
London-born writers Vincent Lam, whose short story collection Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures won the 2006 Scotiabank Giller Prize, and Diana Tamblyn, whose graphic novel From the Earth to Babylon: Gerald Bull and the Supergun was nominated for a Joe Shuster award, will be two of the local writers featured.
“It’s really exciting to have this festival in London,” said Fanshawe College professor Laurie Graham, who will also be one of the writers featured at the event. Her four-part poem sequence Settler Education was shortlisted for the 2014 CBC Poetry Prize.
Graham will be taking part of the local author’s book fair on the Saturday as well as the experimental interactive #PoetryLab reading event on the Sunday.
“I’ve never been to one of these, so I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Graham said. “But it should be interesting.”
Other writers will include Canadian philosopher Mark Kingwell, a professor at the University of Toronto, and Maltese-American cartoonist Joe Sacco, known for his comic journalism books Palestine and Safe Area Goražd.
There will also be readings, an interactive writing program for children, a poetry slam, a panel discussion on the importance of the humanities in cultural life and other programs.
The idea for the festival came about when Brian Meehan, the executive director of Museum London, and Rob Paynter, the director of communications at London city hall, started a committee that included people from the London Public Library, Western University and Poetry London.
“London is a major centre,” said Joshua Lambier, a member of the Words festival committee. “We’ve had some incredible talent come out of here … but we don’t have a forum to celebrate the authors, the talent, the creative that come from London.”
Lambier says the goal of the festival is to anticipate the emerging voices that could find a new stage in London, to create a civic engagement for people to share ideas and to bring recognized authors to the city.
He says he hopes the festival will make London a stopping point for major authors that are passing through the region.
“There will be lots of different events for people to come and engage with,” Lambier said. “We’re hoping to grow it in the future so that everybody has a chance to come in and learn something new or discover an author that you might not have known about or, in the best of all cases, maybe see an author that you’ve always enjoyed.”
For the full list of writers and programs, go to wordsfest.ca
The festival, which celebrates all things words – novels, non-fiction books, comic books, spoken word performances and others – will feature local, national and international writers as well as programs related to the craft of writing.
London-born writers Vincent Lam, whose short story collection Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures won the 2006 Scotiabank Giller Prize, and Diana Tamblyn, whose graphic novel From the Earth to Babylon: Gerald Bull and the Supergun was nominated for a Joe Shuster award, will be two of the local writers featured.
“It’s really exciting to have this festival in London,” said Fanshawe College professor Laurie Graham, who will also be one of the writers featured at the event. Her four-part poem sequence Settler Education was shortlisted for the 2014 CBC Poetry Prize.
Graham will be taking part of the local author’s book fair on the Saturday as well as the experimental interactive #PoetryLab reading event on the Sunday.
“I’ve never been to one of these, so I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Graham said. “But it should be interesting.”
Other writers will include Canadian philosopher Mark Kingwell, a professor at the University of Toronto, and Maltese-American cartoonist Joe Sacco, known for his comic journalism books Palestine and Safe Area Goražd.
There will also be readings, an interactive writing program for children, a poetry slam, a panel discussion on the importance of the humanities in cultural life and other programs.
The idea for the festival came about when Brian Meehan, the executive director of Museum London, and Rob Paynter, the director of communications at London city hall, started a committee that included people from the London Public Library, Western University and Poetry London.
“London is a major centre,” said Joshua Lambier, a member of the Words festival committee. “We’ve had some incredible talent come out of here … but we don’t have a forum to celebrate the authors, the talent, the creative that come from London.”
Lambier says the goal of the festival is to anticipate the emerging voices that could find a new stage in London, to create a civic engagement for people to share ideas and to bring recognized authors to the city.
He says he hopes the festival will make London a stopping point for major authors that are passing through the region.
“There will be lots of different events for people to come and engage with,” Lambier said. “We’re hoping to grow it in the future so that everybody has a chance to come in and learn something new or discover an author that you might not have known about or, in the best of all cases, maybe see an author that you’ve always enjoyed.”
For the full list of writers and programs, go to wordsfest.ca
