Writers Fest Features Emerging and Nationally Recognized Writers in Sackville
July 15
The third annual “Writers Fest Day” will be held at Sackville’s
Festival by the Marsh on Wednesday, July 15 from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. This
year’s Writers Fest features readings by Joan Clark, Michael Crummey,
Marilyn Lerch and Kenzie Robinson at three events, including a chance to meet
the writers at a buffet dinner.
The Writers Fest starts at 5 p.m. with “Dining with Writers and
Readings” at Cranewood (the historical house/Mount Allison President’s
home across from the Town Hall) on Main St. Sackville. This event will feature
a catered buffet meal, and a chance for writers (including the four featured
writers), and people who appreciate writers, to mingle. This event will also
feature readings by Marilyn Lerch and Kenzie Robinson. Seating is very limited,
and tickets must be bought or reserved in advance. They can be purchased at
Tidewater Books in Sackville or reserved by contacting the Festival, and are
$7.50 for writers (self-identified) and $12.50 for others. “Dining with
Writers and Readings” is sponsored by Mount Allison University.
“We’re very excited to have such a great line up of writers this
year,’ said Festival by the Marsh Artistic Director Ron Kelly Spurles
“I’m especially looking forward to the dinner and the chance to
interact with the writers close up – it will be a great night.”
The author of fifteen books, Joan Clark has won both the Marian Engel Award- for
a body of adult fiction- and the Vicky Metfalfe Award -for a body of
children’s literature. Her work has been short-listed for the Governor
General’s, the Impac and Commonwealth Awards, and has twice won the Mr.
Christie, Geoffrey Bilson and Winterset Awards. In addition to more than a dozen
foreign publications, she has given readings and papers in Malaysia, China,
Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Iceland, England and Scotland, where she was
writer-in residence at Edinburgh University. Her most recent adult fiction is An
Audience of Chairs ( Knopf); Road to Bliss, a novel for younger readers will be
published by Doubleday in September of 2009. A native of Nova Scotia and New
Brunswick, for the past twenty-five years, Joan Clark has lived in
Newfoundland.
Michael Crummey has published half a dozen books, including Hard Light and
Salvage (poetry), Flesh and Blood (short stories) and two novels. His first
novel, River Thieves, was a national bestseller and was a finalist for the 2001
Giller Prize. His most recent book is The Wreckage, published in 2005. A
national bestseller, it was short-listed for the Rogers’ Writer’s Trust Fiction
Prize and long-listed for the Dublin IMPAC Literary Award. His work has
appeared in The Penguin Book of Canadian Short Stories and in The New Canon: An
Anthology of Canadian Poetry. He was the 2007 winner of the Timothy Findley
Award, given to a Canadian writer at mid-career to honour a significant body of
work. He lives in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Michael Crummey was born and raised
in Newfoundland.
After moving to Sackville, having taught high school English and Humanities in
Washington, D.C. for twenty-four years, Marilyn Lerch helped form the Sackville
Writers Group and later the Roving Poets which took poetry to the people. She
has also committed Randon Acts of Poetry and given creative writing workshops at
Springhill, Dorchester and Westmoreland Correctional Institutions. Her latest
collection of poetry, “Witness and Resist” was published by Morgaine
House in 2008. Previously, “Moon Loves Its Light” came out in 2004
and “Lambs & LLamas, Ewes & Me” in 200l.
Marilyn is serving as president of the Writers Federation of New Brunswick and
helped edit the forthcoming book, “Breaking the Word Barrier: Stories of
Adults Learning to Read” to be published by Goose Lane.
Kenzie Robinson is a young prize winning poet from Sackville who is quickly
gaining a reputation as someone to watch in the literary world.
The Festival by the Marsh Writers Fest Day is sponsored by the Canada Council
for the Arts, Mount Allison University, and Tidewater Books. More information on
Writers Fest Day, or any of the Festival by the Marsh events, can be found at
their website www.festivalbythemarsh.ca or by phoning (506) 364-2179 or
toll-free 1-866-890-6329.
