Summer gets official in the coming days, but the literary summer season is already heating up. Here is your definitive guide to Canadian literary festivals from coast to coast, so now you can plan a road trip around one of them! See you there?
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The Niagara Literary Arts Festival runs with events throughout June at locations in the Niagara Region of Ontario. Children's festival WordPlay takes over Tatamagouche, NS, on June 18 in the morning, with kids' book authors Lisa Dalrymple, Kate Inglis, and Nancy Wilcox-Richards. The Elephant Mountain Literary Festival is promising a banner year for 2016, with participants including J.B. McKinnon, Caroline Adderson, Grant Lawrence, Bill Richardson, and Jill Barber. The festival runs July 6–9 in Nelson, BC.
Read By the Sea is back in River John, NS, on July 9 with Jennifer Robson, James Laxer, Susan Paddon, and Kim Thúy. And The Saskatchewan Festival of Words celebrates its 20th anniversary this year July 14–17; confirmed presenters include Angie Abdou, Giles Blunt, Sharon Butala, Farzana Doctor, Connie Gault, Susan Juby, Tracey Lindberg, Nino Ricci, Robert J. Sawyer, and Anakana Schofield.
Lakefield, ON, celebrates its literary heritage (which includes Margaret Lawrence, Susanna Moodie AND Catherine Parr-Traill) with another year of The Lakefield Literary Festival (July 15–17). The star lineup includes Rosemary Sullivan, Alissa York, Cordelia Strube, Amy Jones, Pamela Mordecai, and others, with children's programming as well. This year for the first time, the Lakefield Literary Festival is also offering Master Classes for writers with Alissa York (fiction), Rosemary Sullivan (biography), John Boyko (non-fiction), and Jan Andrews (writing for children). The Leacock Summer Festival is back in Orillia, ON, this summer July 19–24, with Lynne Kutsukake, Gary Barwin, Betsy Struthers, Rosemary Sullivan, Iain Reid, and more.
August 11–14, the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts takes place in Sechelt, BC. Some events are already sold out, but many are still available for Alissa York, Zarqa Nawaz, Theresa Kishkan, Anakana Schofield, Guy Gavriel Kay, Caroline Woodward, Marina Endicott, Lorna Crozier, George Elliott Clarke, Carol Daniels, Karim Alrawi, and many more. There are spaces left, too, (but they're going fast!) for When Words Collide 2016 in Calgary, AB (August 12–14), with Marty Chan, Julie E. Czerneda, Ian Hamilton, Robert Runté, and Eve Silver.
That same weekend (August 12–14), Winterset in Summer takes place in Eastport, NL, kicking off with a trio of Giller Prize winners—Lynn Coady, Will Ferguson, and Elizabeth Hay—and including other events featuring other authors including David Macfarlane, Shannon Webb-Campbell, and Margaret MacMillan. And don't leave Newfoundland yet, because Writers at Woody Point runs at Woody Point, Bonne Bay, NL, from August 16 to 21, with Lawrence Hill, Guy Vanderhaeghe, Heather O'Neill, Donna Morrissey, Ed Riche, Megan Coles, Patrick Warner, and Madeleine Thien.
The dates are set for this year's The Eden Mills Writers' Festival, which runs September 16–18 in Eden Mills, ON, (near Guelph), lineup still to be announced. (And did you know that the Eden Mills Festival bought a church last year that has since become their new headquarters!?!) And don't miss the Telling Tales Festival in Rockton, ON (near Hamilton) on September 18, featuring authors, storytellers and illustrators for children and their families, including Scott Chantler, Jon-Erik Lappano, Andrew Larsen, Lindsay Mattick, Ruth Ohi, Kenneth Oppel, Barbara Reid, Bill Slavin, Kevin Sylvester, Jeremy Tankard, Vikki VanSickle, and many more.
The Word on the Street Festival rocks the nation this year on September 17 in Halifax, NS; September 18 in Saskatoon, SK; September 24 in Lethbridge, AB; and on September 25 in Toronto, ON. From September 21 to 25, events take place at venues throughout the city for Word Vancouver.
The Kingston Writers Festival runs September 23–October 1 in Kingston, ON, with Gail Anderson-Dargatz, Samuel Archibald, Peter Behrens, Ashley-Elizabeth Best, Gail Bowen, Ian Brown, Cherie Dimaline, Emma Donoghue, Katherine Govier, Nadia Hohn, Helen Humphreys, Maureen Jennings, Tracey Lindberg, Lisa Moore, Iain Reid, Diane Schoemplerlen, Madeleine Thien, Richard B. Wright, and so so many more. The Thin Air Winnipeg International Writers' Festival returns for another year, full lineup still to be announced after a busy spring of literary events.
Events for Wordfest, in Calgary, AB, run all year round, but the festival itself takes place October 7–17, including its Wordfest Youth events for young readers. Not too far away, Litfest—the only non-fiction literary festival in Canada—returns to Edmonton from October 13 to 23. And just a bit westward, The Whistler Writers Festival is on from October 13 to 16, following another fantastic season.
The Knowlton Literary Festival (whose Honorary Patron is none other than Louise Penny!) touches down October 14–16 in Brome Lake in Quebec's Eastern Townships. Confirmed authors so far include Michael Crummey, John Farrow, Sharon Jennings, Michael Winter, and more. The free family festival, Celebrating Stories, is coming back to Milton, ON, on October 16, with presenters Lindsay Mattick, Susanne Del Rizzo, Hilary Leung, and David Bruins.
Vancouver Writers Fest is set for October 18–23, with programming to be announced in August. The Ottawa Writers Festival runs October 20–25. Not to be outdone, Toronto's International Festival of Authors will take place from October 20th to the 30th. From October 29 to November 6, the Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival puts readers up where they belong, in Banff, AB.
The Words Aloud Festival celebrates spoken word in Durham, ON, (near Owen Sound) from November 3–6, with artists including Brian Henderson, Hugh MacDonald, Evelyn Lau, Sue Goyette, Michael Crummey, Joseph Naytowhow, and others. Bookfest Windsor runs November 4–6 this year in Windsor, ON. And the Wild Writers Festival returns to Waterloo, ON, also November 4–6. It's going to be fantastic.
Have we missed anything? Email *editor at 49thShelf dot com* to have your event added to the schedule.