Tomorrow evening gritLIT, Hamilton's Readers & Writers Festival, will kick off four days of literary events in the Hammer. Local writers and authors from across Canada will gather together with readers for readings, discussions, workshops and other bookish fun. For event details and a full schedule, please visit the gritLIT website.
Today, Open Book is chatting with gritLIT's Artistic Director Jennifer Gillies. Jennifer tells us about some exciting festival highlights, gritLIT's partnerships with other Hamilton-based arts organizations and the joy of "shining a light on a wide array of authors."
Open Book:
Could you tell us about some of the highlights for this year’s festival?
Jennifer Gillies:
There are many! We open with a wonderful event called The Life Bohemian featuring Heather O’Neill and Elyse Friedman – readings, live music and prizes for the best Bohemian outfit, so the audience should come dressed to impress. On Friday night, we have two powerhouse readings: The True North features tales of Arctic exploration from Kathleen Winter and James Raffan, and Homes and Native Lands centres on stories about the importance of roots and ancestry from Richard Wagamese, Krista Foss and Tasneem Jamal.
Our Saturday, programming includes a discussion about the end of capitalism with Richard Swift, two stunning memoirs about secrets that can destroy families by Alison Pick and Alison Wearing and an event themed around literary tales of terror with Russell Wangersky, Claire Cameron and Andrew Pyper, whom many reviewers tout as Canada’s answer to Stephen King.
We close out our author programming on Sunday afternoon with an amazing mystery event. Not only will audience members hear readings from two masters of the craft, David Rotenberg and Ian Hamilton, but they will also be visited by some famous literary detectives and have a chance to identify them and win great book prizes.
Add in award-winning poets, a gritLIT anthology launch party and short stories from some of the best-of-the-best, and we truly feel like we have something for everyone.
OB:
How did you come to be involved with the gritLIT Festival?
JG:
I started as a volunteer when the festival began in 2004. That was followed by two years on the committee, three years as chair of the committee, and finally, as gritLIT expanded and became a year-round endeavor, I was hired on as Artistic Director.
OB:
What can you tell us about Hamilton’s literary scene? How does it influence the festival’s programming?
JG:
Hamilton’s arts community is booming, and every year, more artists, actors, musicians and writers seem to make their home in the Hammer. There is a wonderful, co-operative, supportive vibe among Hamilton artists, and this has let us develop some great partner relationships with other literary organizations. We co-host events at each festival with the Hamilton Poetry Centre and with LitLive. We also make it part of our programming mandate to include artists from other disciplines in the festival, like the musicians involved in The Life Bohemian and the actors playing our famous detectives at the Men of International Mystery event.
The wealth of writing talent in Hamilton allows us to program local authors every year and offer them some much-deserved support and exposure. And every year we are approached by new organizations interested in working with the festival to promote arts in the city. This year, we are thrilled to team up with Steel City Stories and add a new event to the weekend schedule. They will be joining us on Sunday night to officially close the festival with an event featuring some of the city’s best storytellers, who will recount – in the oral storytelling tradition – their own tales inspired by the word or theme Epilogue.
OB:
gritLIT offers writing workshops as part of the festival experience. How does this kind of interactive programming change the festival dynamic?
JG:
One of the lovely things we often hear from festival-goers is how much they enjoy gritLIT’s friendly, welcoming atmosphere. We pride ourselves on being able to offer the same quality programming as most of the big, nationally-recognized festivals but in a more intimate (and often more affordable) setting. The workshops and the literary salon definitely add to this vibe, allowing booklovers and writers of all levels to talk one-on-one about books, publishing and writing with some of the best literary minds in the country. The end result is that attendees feel a much more personal connection with the festival.
OB:
What do you most hope writers and readers will get out of this year’s festival?
JG:
First and foremost, we want our audiences to enjoy interacting with some of Canada’s most talented writers. It’s great to give local booklovers and writers an opportunity to hear from literary icons like Richard Wagamese, Kathleen Winter and Andrew Pyper and see for themselves why these authors are revered. One of my favourite parts of festival weekend, though, is getting to sit in the audience during readings from a new or emerging writer and hear people comment about how they had not heard about this writer before, but they loved the reading and would buy the book. The great joy of putting together a festival like this is having the chance to shine a spotlight on a wide array of authors. There is a wealth of literary talent in this area and in this country that is there for the discovering. My hope is that the readers and writers in our audience this year get to have that moment of discovery – and that it leaves them wanting more.
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