The Festival of Words has announced the official launch date of the 2020 festival season, and while it’s a few months away still, there are a few things the literary organization has going on to fill the calendar until then.
This year’s Festival of Words will take place on July 16-19, with the official beginning of the season opening on April 30 with a launch party from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
“It's kind of a come-and-go thing, we have treats and coffee and tea,” said Amanda Farnel, operations co-ordinator at Festival of Words. “It's kind of the start of our festival season.”
The launch party open house will reveal the schedule of literary guests and workshops that will fill the four-day festival this year, as well as announce the availability of tickets and passes.
Already, the Festival has confirmed a few impressive names that will be making an appearance this year, including Canada Reads 2019 feature author Lindsay Wong and this year’s Giller Prize winner Ian Williams, as well as former host of Daily Planet Jay Ingram.
“(Jay Ingram) has got a series of kids' books called The Science of Why and he's basically written them based off of questions that kids have come up to ask him,” said Farnel. “We're still confirming the last bit of the lineup, but we've got some really great people coming.”
Between now and April, the Festival of Words will also be keeping Moose Jaw busy with a few noteworthy events to satiate the need for literature and art.
The winter Cineview series has begun, with five new films straight from the Toronto International Film Festival showing one night a month until May. Upcoming on Feb. 5 is a showing of Parasite, the South Korean film that made history winning a Golden Globe award just last month.
The Performer’s Cafe open mic night at Mitsu Cafe will also continue on the last Thursday of each month, featuring the works of local artists, writers, and poets alongside a headlining performer from the prairie arts scene.
On Jan. 30, Regina-based rapper Big Mo will take the stage and on Feb. 27 poet Imogen Rennie will be featured. The new upcoming schedule of headlining artists will also be announced at the February open mic night, listing the artists scheduled to appear from now until September.
The Festival of Words monthly book club will continue, meeting at the Moose Jaw Public Library once a month at 2:30 p.m. January’s chosen novel was Five Wives by Joan Thomas, which will be discussed on Jan. 30.
“The great thing about our book clubs is that they're really a precursor to the Festival,” said Farnel. “We bring a lot of books that are by people who are actually coming to the Festival.”
February’s novel will be Geography of Blood by Candace Savage, which is part of a province wide program called One Book, One Province.
In March, the club will discuss Reproduction by Giller Prize winner Ian Williams who is attending this year’s Festival, and in April, Cry Wolf by Harold Johnson will be featured — another past Festival attendee.
The Festival of Words has also announced the details of this year’s LitCon writing conference, which will take place on Mar. 21. LitCon is a day-long conference focusing on genre writing and publishing tactics, with workshops and presentations for writers,
“Rather than the bigger publishers, this is more focused on genre writers, like mystery and fantasy and sci-fi writers,” said Farnel.
More information about any of the upcoming events or programs from Festival of Words are available on their website.
