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Local Guides
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EDEN MILLS 2004
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by Nathan Stark
September 9 – 15, 2004 |
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On Sunday, September 12th the Eden Mills Writers’ Festival will take place in the hamlet of Eden Mills. Readings will begin at 12:30 and continue until 6 pm at three sites. The festival has traditionally sought to showcase established authors alongside newly–published literary up and comers.
This year’s line–up of readers continues that tradition: readings will be given by Ann–Marie Macdonald, Stephen Heighton, David O’Meara and Michael Enright, to name just a few. Accompanying the authors will be a raft of developing writers, among them local poet Chris Banks, who will read from his critically acclaimed collection of poetry, Bonfires. An excited Banks is on heels of winning the CAA Jack Chalmers Award for Poetry 2004 and was recently shortlisted for The League of Canadian Poet’s Gerald Lampert Award. In a recent interview Banks commented on his collection, “My intention when I was writing this collection was for the poems to be made accessible to ordinary people without sacrificing style or other technical aspects which people, who read a great deal of poetry, look for in a poetry book. I also wanted the poems to speak honestly about my own life.
“As far as winning the Jack Chalmers Award, it was exhilarating,” he says. “I had no such expectations for my little book, but when the Chalmers was announced, I was obviously thrilled. It was good news for my publisher and for me. I went to Vancouver in late June for the CAA awards ceremony where I met Douglas Coupland and Stuart Mclean, who were among the other award recipients. He [Coupland] bought the shirt I was wearing right off my back for $900. It was a great experience.”
Chris Banks will read at the Common at 12:30 on Sunday.
A major component of the festival’s notoriety is the unique setting of the readings. While attending readings, audiences are steeped in the history of the tiny hamlet, nestled in a valley along the Eramosa River. Visitors are free to wander from venue to venue through the hamlet, taking in the charm of its historic buildings and colourful gardens. At the three open–air venues, readers and audiences are immersed in the colours of the halcyon days of late summer. A simple reading is transformed into an experience that emphasizes time, place and the cycle of the seasons.
This year’s Eden Mills festival will feature an Aboriginal area and, for the first time in the festival’s history, readings dedicated solely to French language authors. The festival also features a Publisher’s Way where booksellers and bookmakers display their wares and demonstrate their craft.
There will also be special readings sets for young adult authors and a fringe contingent.
Advance tickets are $8 for adults, $4 for students and children and are available at the Bookshelf in Guelph and Words Worth Books in Waterloo. Tickets at the gate are $10 for adults and $5 for students and children. The full schedule of readings and directions to Eden Mills is available at the Eden Mills Writers’ Festival website, www.edenmillswritersfestival.ca.
EDEN MILLS WRITERS’
FESTIVAL
Sunday, September 12
Eden Mills
www.edenmillswritersfestival.ca
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