More Word on the Water Info to whet the Appetite.

A letter from Rick Brignall:

Writer Rick Brignall

Hi Joan,
Just sending along a rundown of the Saturday, October 22 daytime program for the Word on the Water lit fest in Kenora. Most of this info is also found on our website, www.wordonthewater.ca
 People looking for Kenora accommodations can visit our sponsor, www.stayinkenora.com. From the website you can
choose from many of the hotels/motels in the area.

To see the Saturday Daytime program

And this is just Sunday! Word on the Water floats to a new high!

Word on the Water Literary festival is going to be spectacular!!  I am amazed at the Sunday(October 23)  set-up.  The festival offers a great opportunity to get one- on-one feed-back from professional writers.  I have been to many writing conferences, but this is the first one I have seen with so many workshops of this kind.  Unbelievable!  It is worth driving to Kenora for this alone. These workshops require that you submit work in advance so note the instructions carefully.

For full list of all events and registration information, see the Word on the Water web site at  www.wordonthewater.ca,

Critique Sessions – $50 each session, no limit on number of sessions

Saturday One-on-One Sessions with Karen Dudley
Participants are asked to submit an up to 3,000-word sample of their work (double spaced, please) by 15 October. If the sample is part of a larger work, please include a page or two explaining the premise of the project. Karen will offer a critique and have a 20-minute one-on-one session with each participant on Oct. 22. Limited to 3 participants.

Sunday 9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. One-on-One Sessions with Dennis CooleyPoets are invited to submit three or four poems totaling no more than 10 pages in length for Dennis Cooley to critique. The poets will then meet for a twenty-minute one-on-one session with Cooley, during which he will offer constructive criticism and ideas that will help the poets involved to take their work to the next level. Limited to six participants.

A Letter From Kenora's Literary Festival, Word on The Water

What is Word on the Water?

It is a weekend long literary festival that attracts like-minded people from across Northwestern Ontario and Manitoba. The weekend includes book readings, author panel discussions, workshops, youth activities, and a book fair. The weekend starts with a Friday night First Nations Gala called Writing in Four Directions and it will star members of the Aboriginal Writers Collective of Winnipeg. Saturday daytime will feature two streams of programming with over a dozen local and regional authors. Saturday evening is the Saturday Night Page Turner event with award-winning authors Armin Wiebe and Wayne Tefs. Sunday will be a day of workshops for professional, emerging, and aspiring authors.

A general outline of the weekend.

Friday, October 21 – First Nations Writing Event – Writing in Four Directions – 7pm – 9pm. This evening event will feature members of the Aboriginal Writers Collective of Winnipeg, participants to be named later.

Saturday, October 22 – Daytime Programming – 10 am – 5pm
The daytime programming will feature two streams of events. In the Minis Hall (larger room) will feature six sessions of panel discussions during the day, along with a book-fair. The Reading Room will feature author readings separated into six sessions.

Participating authors include Mike Aiken, Jon Thompson, Richard Brignall, Rebecca Hofer, Helen Kubisewsky, Craig Russell, Dennis Cooley, Susan Rocan, Rae Bridgeman, Helen Norrie, Karen Dudley, David Annandale, and Aboriginal Writers Collective members.
Saturday, October 22 – Saturday Night Page Turner with Armin Wiebe and Wayne Tefs – 7pm – 9pm.

Sunday, October 23 – Sunday Workshops – Still deciding on the program for this day. We are having fiction, self-publishing, magazine, poetry, and creative non-fiction workshops

Registration information will be up soon on our website, www.wordonthewater.ca. You can also visit Word on the Water on Facebook for more information as the event approaches.

Go west for a writers' festival.

No Sleeping Giant writers' festival in Thunder Bay this year, alas, but all is not lost.  In Kenora, just a northern hop and skip away, the 2011 Word on the Water Literary Festival takes place October 21, 22, 23,

A great festival with a facebook page at  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Word-on-the-Water/153711018002556

A little farther down the road, Winnipeg hosts a week long lit bash called Thin Air from September 19 to 24.  Di Brandt and Miriam Toews and dozens of others read, teach and hang out.  Check out the web site at http://www.thinairwinnipeg.ca/

Miriam Toews