The Festival of Words welcomed the public to their Holiday Open House on Nov. 29, sharing treats, cider and a sneak peek at the upcoming lineup for the 2020 summer festival.
Sarah Simison, executive director, was excited to share a few of the big names already on the roster for July, including fiction author and Governor General Award-winner Joan Thomas, Giller Prize-winning poet Ian Williams, as well as author and former host of Daily Planet Jay Ingram.
“This year, we also traveled to Toronto for a week and met with all the publishers in Toronto and they pitched us on authors and books,” said Simison.
Also making an appearance will be short-fiction writer Alicia Elliott, Giller Prize finalist Marina Endicott, poet and novelist Steven Price, two-spirit poet and novelist Joshua Whitehead, and author Lindsay Wong, whose memoir was featured on CBC’s Canada Reads.
The Festival of Words is also featuring writers from here in Saskatchewan — such as award-winning Regina poet Bruce Rice, northern Saskatchewan author Harold Johnson, young adult fiction writer Kristine Scarrow, and poet Bernadette Wagner.
Simison even shared the musical guests to be featured for this year’s concert on the Saturday night of the Festival.
“We just booked the Andino Suns, [who are] a Saskatchewan band and they have members in Moose Jaw,” said Simison. “We're pretty excited to have some local guys. They have Latin-inspired music and they've won a Western Canadian Music Award.”
The Festival is heading into its 24th year and has blossomed into a highly lauded celebration of literature and Canadian authors, poets, and more.
In the past few years, Festival organizers have been working hard to broaden the collection of voices spotlighted at the festival, reaching out to artists in more mediums with different perspectives.
“We have a very large focus on diversity and inclusion,” said Simison. “We don't usually have the same people back year after year, so our lineup is super exciting.”
The Festival of Words always has more than enough interest from writers wanting to attend, which means organizers have a huge task in narrowing down the names to just 25 authors.
“We work from a very large database of anywhere between 150 and 200 authors usually,” said Simison. “We've been reading furiously and trying to decide who to invite, but we've been really successful so far.”
The Festival of Words will return to Moose Jaw this summer, from July 16-19, with an official lineup to be released closer to the date.
In the meantime, the Festival of Words will continue hosting it's monthly Performer’s Cafe, on the last Tuesday of every month at Mitsu Sweet Cafe, as well as another round of the Cineview series beginning in January — movies to be announced soon.
To keep up with the Festival’s various events and updates, follow their Facebook page or check their website.
