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Festival of Words Going Virtual for First Time in History
July in Moose Jaw tends to be a busy month, especially with the Festival of Words taking over the downtown core for its huge display of literary excitement.
Festival of Words attendees are always treated to the opportunity to purchase any of the books written by the featured artists filling the sched ule of the literary event. This year will be a bit different, however, as the Festival takes the entirety of its events online for the first time ever — an interesting precursor to the 25th anniversary of the Festival of Words set to take place in 2021. The Festival of Words is adjusting its entire schedule from its usual in-person workshops, discussion panels, and interviews with Canadian authors to a new online format, which will be spread out over a week from July 13-19. Despite the change in venue, the Festival of Words is still offering the same unique, intimate interactions with guest authors that festival-goers expect from the much-anticipated literary gathering. Participating authors will be taking part largely by video, where participants will still have the chance to pick their brains, hear their stories, and discuss their works like any other year. It’s a new venture for the Festival of Words committee, but one they are excited to debut as it’s also the first year they have decided to make all of the online events entirely free to take part.
Megan Latham (L) and Heather Pawsey (R) were the key voices of Lorna Crozier and Leslie Uyeda’s performative piece A Dialogue Be tween Mother & Daughter, which debuted at the 2019 Festival of Words.
Participants are asked to take some time to register for each individual event through their website after June 1 and to consider donating what would have been the cost of their Festival pass to help prepare for 2021’s anniversary festival. As a charity organization focused on literature, the Festival of Words uses the annual festival to help spur on some of the other projects the organization heads around Saskatchewan. This includes the Festival’s Writers in Schools program, connecting rural schools with writers to talk about their craft with students, as well as the Battle of the Books program offered in the Holy Trinity Catholic School Division in Moose Jaw. The Festival of Words is also hoping to bring back some of its other local events later in the year, including the monthly Performer’s Café open mic nights and the fall return of the Cineview Series of indie films. Avid attendees of the Festival’s Book Club are also continuing on with virtual discussions about the chosen book of the month.
Graphic novelist Jillian Tamaki led the Kids Ink workshop at the 2019 Festival of Words, fostering a whole new wave of potential cartoonists in Moose Jaw. For a full schedule of events for the 2020 virtual Festival of Words or more information about the organization, visit festivalofwords.com or contact the office at (306)-691-0557. To stay updated with the Festival of Words, follow them on Facebook.
306.692.2040
