The 2011 Festival
Mark your calendars for the third annual Cabot Trail Writers' Festival, scheduled for September 30 through October 2, 2011.
This year's festival brings lots of variety in writing and presentation styles, and we know that our guest authors and their offerings will engage and delight.
We will once again feature three talented authors, and some exciting musicians. As in previous years, we haven't had to go very far to find some fascinating guests. This festival is not focussed on Atlantic Canada, but we do seem to fill the bill pretty quickly from close to home!
Opening Gala
Our Friday night Gala features five new pieces from spoken-word
artist and 2010 Poet Laureate of Halifax
Shauntay Grant.
The festival has commissioned these new works; they will reflect
Shauntay's impressions of the large-scale iron pieces of sculptor
Gordon Kennedy. The
evening will feature Shauntay's premiere performance of her new
works, in the presence of the sculptures that inspired them. Don't
plan on getting a lot of sitting done!
Our host for the evening is committed arts educator Eric Favaro. We present this year's Gala at the Gaelic College in St. Ann's, just down the road from North River. We hope you'll stay after the performance to chat with Shauntay and Gordon, sample the included nibbles, and enjoy the location. The cash bar will be open, and our guest authors' books will be available for sale and signing.
Saturday Sessions
During the day, the festival offers writing workshops conducted by our guest authors, Shauntay Grant, poet, novelist, and 2010 Scotiabank Giller Prize winner Johanna Skibsrud; and 2010 Giller and Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize nominee Alexander MacLeod. The breadth and scope of these sessions will excite writers of all skill levels, and across the genres. There may even be something here for performers…
Saturday Evening Readings
This year, we have a busy Saturday night lined up. To make it more relaxing for those who also attend our Saturday Sessions, we will host dinner for festival-goers and our guest artists before we begin the evening's activities. Everyone who attends the Sessions and the evening schedule is invited—and dinner's included in your Saturday Day Pass ticket purchase.
Our evening programme includes readings from Johanna Skibsrud and Alexander MacLeod. As always, our Readers' Market will have guest authors' books on hand for buying and signing after the readings.
For the rest of the evening, we'll open up the cash bar, and invite you to groove to the tunes of The Synchronics, a quartet of talented Nova Scotia jazz musicians that includes local son Alec Frith — how could we not include a local son?
Sunday Panel
On Sunday, we present a panel discussion. This year's panel includes authors Johanna Skibsrud and Alexander MacLeod, editor Kate Kennedy of Nimbus Publishing/Vagrant Press, and publisher Mike R. Hunter of CBU Press. Journalist and avid reader Wendy Martin will moderate what is sure to be a wide-ranging discussion of the various relationships among writers, their editors, and the people who select and publish their work.
Closing out this year's festival, we offer Brunch for everyone who attends the Panel, and we think that will be a lot of people! During Brunch, dynamic singer/songwriter (and, yes, local son) Angelo Spinazzola will make things even more interesting.
Special Events
This year, the festival will stage two events targetted to future readers and writers. One of our stated goals is to further the literary arts via education, and "you're never too young" to start learning!
Shauntay at School
Expanding on last year's first foray into workshops for youth, we will this year present a workshop for students in grades 10 through 12, from schools along the Cabot Trail. Up to 20 lucky students will spend two hours with Shauntay Grant at South Haven, Cape Breton, and will have lunch with the artist before returning to their respective schools.
Storyteller on Board
We really don't think there's any age at which one cannot read or create. That's why we're delighted to be able to offer a special event for the really young! Our Victoria County Bookmobile has been a popular attendee at each of our previous festivals. This time, it will carry a special guest. Ken Chisholm, new and first-ever storyteller-in-residence of the Cape Breton Regional Library, will delight our youngest residents with, well, stories!
