Festival of Words releases details of 25th-Anniversary event this July

For 25 years, the Festival of Words has welcomed authors and literature enthusiasts to a weekend of events, readings and workshops that celebrate Canadian literature — and this year’s event is set to continue the tradition. For the second year in a row, the Festival of Words will be taking place virtually instead of in person, with a full slate of big literary names ready to talk shop.

The 2021 festival is set for July 15-18, with a full schedule of panels, readings and workshops that make the Festival of Words famous. Organizers have fifteen separate events on the calendar over the weekend. The Saskatchewan Festival of Words has finalized its schedule of events for this year’s event and the team is excited to share what they have planned for the 25th anniversary of the popular literary festival. The 2021 Festival of Words will be another virtual event, confirmed interim director Amanda Farnel, but the organizing team has some exciting new features this year that will help boost excitement. For starters, the 2021 Festival will be taking place on its own individual website, with live events streaming by video. Each live event will begin by showing off its “venue” — with a video tour of a Moose Jaw venue to give viewers a more visceral feel of what attending an in-person festival is like.

There will be other additional features on the website for festival patrons to enjoy, like open chat and video messaging boards where guests can interact with one another and story highlights from past festivals to celebrate the event’s history. More features, like an online trivia section and bookstore, and additional content like prerecorded panels with Festival guests and walking tours of local attractions like Crescent Park will also be available.

Farnel also said that the festival is working to offer a chance for local guests to view the Festival in person, with a live-stream viewing option for sessions available at the Mae Wilson Theatre for a limited audience, provided public health orders allow. Festival passes are available on a pay-what-you-can model this year, as organizers wanted the event to stay as accessible as possible while still providing support for future events. The official schedule, available in full online, is packed with 15 events over the span of July 1518, including author readings, panels, and workshops for guests to attend. Farnel said there’s plenty of great things to attend, including panels on subverting genres, fantasy writing, and the ins and outs of publicity marketing. The popular Kids Ink Workshop is back, run by hometown YA author Melanie MacFarlane, and the Great Big Book Club will be discussing Jael Richardson’s new dystopian release, Gutter Child. The annual Festival concert will be taking place on the Saturday night of the schedule, with the performers yet to be announced. Farnel said the show will look a lot like last year, with a livestream happening online and a select number of in-person tickets available to guests in Moose Jaw. All of the reading sessions have been put together based on a theme this year, bringing together authors with similar genres or topics, as the sessions will be more like a moderated Q&A discussion. Farnel also highlighted the incredible lineup of guest authors this year, which includes fantasy author C.L Polk who was recently featured on Canada Reads, author Dorothy Ellen Palmer who is currently writing one of the newest Sherlock Holmes books and Saskatchewan’s Youth Poet Laureate Peace Akintade. Moose Jaw will also have some hometown representation with authors Melanie MacFarlane and Angie Abdou, who originally hail from the Friendly City, in attendance. Registration for the Festival of Words will open on June 1, with further announcements about the event still yet to come. Full details about the 2021 Saskatchewan Festival of Words can be found online at festivalofwords.com/schedule.