Cabot Trail Writers Festival
Location: Gaelic College, St. Ann's
Date: October 4 - October 6
2019 Festival Schedule
Opening Night with Host Mark Medley: Readings by Our Festival Authors
Friday, October 4, 2019 • 7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.
6:15 p.m.
Doors Open
Hors d'oeuvres, cash bar, bookstore
7:00 p.m.
Welcome
Acknowledgments
READINGS: Tom Ryan, Lesley Crewe, Jessica Westhead, Sara Peters, Joshua Mensch
8:20 p.m.
Break
Cash bar, bookstore, hors d'oeuvres and book signings
8:50 p.m.
READINGS: Alicia Elliott, Lynn Coady, Eleanor Wachtel, George Elliott Clarke
9:30 p.m.
Hors d'oeuvres, cash bar, bookstore, book signings and mingling with friends and authors
A Day Between the Covers: Workshops, Conversations & Music
Saturday, October 5, 2019 • 9:00 a.m. – 9:30 p.m.
9:00 – 11:15 a.m.
CLOSE READING IN POETRY: POETRY WORKSHOP with Joshua Mensch (Education Centre)
* Advance registration required *
This workshop will focus on the practice of "close reading" in poetry. An essential skill for any writer, close reading helps us see our work more clearly by forcing us to observe how—and how well—our language is working on the page. It is especially vital to a poet's work where the pressure on each word and phrase is so high. Our goal in this workshop will be to become better readers of our own work. To that end, we’ll look at how various elements that shape a poem—from its form and meter, to its syntax and rhythm, word and image choices—in turn shape the way we experience it.
Participants should submit one poem each for possible discussion (and written feedback from instructor) no later than September 20. Further submission guidelines will be provided upon registration.
9:00 – 11:15 a.m.
* SOLD OUT! * ”YIKES! I’M A WRITER??”: FICTION WORKSHOP with Lesley Crewe (Education Centre)
This is a workshop for innocent folks who think they’d like to be a writer. But do your eyes glaze over when you hear words like “plot,” “structure,” and “point of view”? Does your anxiety level rise when someone discusses, “narrative voice,” or “dramatic effect”?
Then this is the workshop for you! I like simple. I want to give you some hints about what helped me to write eleven books in fifteen years. I never meant to be a writer, and I’m an expert in absolutely nothing, but I’ve learned a thing or two on this journey. Like what to do when your characters refuse to cooperate. You kill them off.
There is nothing academic about this, just stuff that made my life easier while I was writing book after book. If you’d like to hear about it, join me, and we’ll moan about writing together.
9:30 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.
WHERE DO STORIES COME FROM? FREE WORKSHOP FOR YOUTHS Ages 12-18 with Tom Ryan (Education Centre)
* Advance registration required *
Since humans first sat around campfires discussing the day’s hunt, we’ve created and shared stories. From ancient oral traditions to online storytelling platforms, the narrative impulse is deeply embedded in our hearts, souls, and histories. In this interactive workshop, we’ll discuss how readers respond to character, motivation, setting, and plot, and how these basic elements can hook the imagination when assembled and polished in just the right way. Using powerpoint, handouts, and audience interaction, I will ultimately call on participants to help me create a brand new story on the spot. It’s an experience in which I expect to learn as much as they do!
11:30 a.m. – noon
* For registered workshop participants only *
Workshop Lunch (MacKenzie Hall)
12:15 – 1:15 p.m.
FESTIVAL BOOK CLUB with Jessica Westhead (MacKenzie Hall)
* Advance registration required *
12:15 – 1:15 p.m.
LITTLE PEOPLE TELL BIG STORIES: FREE WORKSHOP FOR KIDS Ages 7-11 with Tom Ryan (Education Centre)
* Advance registration required *
We’ll begin by discussing our favourite stories, from well-loved family gems passed down by grandparents, to popular books and films, and then begin breaking them apart to see what makes them tick. In an engaging and interactive presentation, we’ll work as a group to create a brand new story, complete with engaging characters, intriguing settings, and maybe even a plot-twist or two!
1:45 p.m.
HEARD IN THE HIGHLANDS
A stroll among the changing colours of the forest surrounding the Gaelic College, featuring literary readings by Jessie Chai, Perla MacLeod, and Louisa Esangbedo, contributors to Once Upon an Island: Traditional Tales from New Cape Bretoners, along with with songs and harp music (weather-permitting!) by Màiri Britton. Please dress for the weather and meet at the junction of Mackillop Road and the Cabot Trail, just east of the Gaelic College entrance. In case of rain, performances will take place in the Pavillion, a sheltered outdoor performance area at the rear of the Gaelic College campus.
3:30 p.m.
JUST BETWEEN US: THE INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WRITER & READER (Great Hall of the Clans)
A Conversation with Tom Ryan, Jessica Westhead & Lesley Crewe, moderated by Mark Medley on the
subject of how the private act of writing becomes the eponymously public act of publication, what role the
imagined reader plays in the mind of the writer as s/he works, how writers reach and connect with their
readers, how 21st-century technology has changed the relationship, and what if anything a writer owes the
reader once the book is complete.
5 p.m.
A CONVERSATION with Lynn Coady (Great Hall of the Clans)
6 p.m.
Supper (Great Hall of the Clans)
7 p.m.
MUSIC & PERFORMANCES with George Elliott Clarke, We’koqma’qewiskwa, Andrea Currie & Abby Mullendore (Great Hall of the Clans)
8 p.m.
Eleanor Wachtel presents THE LIVES OF WRITERS (Great Hall of the Clans)
Festival Close: Conversations, Brunch & Songs
Sunday, October 6, 2019 • 9:00 a.m. – 3 p.m.
9:00 a.m.
GÀIDHLIG, AN CÀNAN CEÒLMHÓR, BLASDA, BINN (“GAELIC, THE MUSICAL, SAVOURY, SWEET LANGUAGE”)
A Performance, Reading & Conversation in Gaelic and English with Mary Jane Lamond, Màiri Britton, Goiridh Dòmhnullach, and host Lewis MacKinnon (Great Hall of the Clans)
10:40 a.m.
Break (Great Hall of the Clans)
Bookstore; coffee, tea & treats
11 a.m.
WHAT GOOD DOES WRITING DO?: HOW BOOKS CAN CHANGE US & OUR WORLD (Great Hall of the Clans)
A Conversation with Joshua Mensch, Sara Peters & Alicia Elliott, moderated by Mark Medley, on the subject of the personal, social and political impact of literary work; the limits of that power and whether it should even be the objective of writing to do good in the world; how the panellists have been moved or disappointed by the scope of influence of books or have tried to be an influence themselves; and what mark, in the end, is made by marks on a page.
Noon
Brunch (Great Hall of the Clans)
1 p.m.
A CONVERSATION with George Elliott Clarke (Great Hall of the Clans)
2 p.m.
SONGS & STORIES with Shawnee Paul, Toney Morgan, Bradley Murphy & Mario Colosimo (Great Hall of the Clans)
You can purchase tickets online.
