Word On The Street Festival Review

Here is a review / story I submitted for my Reading and Writing Skills class.  We were asked to attend a short story panel reading and visit at least one booth at the festival…

Last Sunday Queen’s Park Circle hosted Toronto’s largest literary festival, Word On The Street, where visitors of all ages came together to celebrate literature.

The Word On The Street festival brought together representatives from Canada’s largest publishing houses, independent authors/publishers, magazines and community organizations.  The festival also had story readings and a dedicated exhibition space for children and families.

In an e-mail statement from Heather Kanabe, Festival Director of Word On The Street, she stated that approximately 218,000 people attended this year’s festival along with 269 participating vendors.

Some of the major features of the festival included the opportunity for interested readers to attend literature readings, workshops and question and answer sessions with writers.  These sessions were spread out between nine tents, each offering a full day of programming.  Some of the headlining authors this year were Joseph Boyden, Austin Clarke and Meg Tilly.

At the Great Books Marquee, short story author Peter Unwin read from his book Life Without Death and spoke about his interest in short stories.

“I like that it is short and that you can get it done in your life time,” said Unwin.  “A short story often begins with an ending … it’s a question of finding how to get to that ending.”

When asked by a member of the audience about “writer’s block”, Unwin said he hasn’t suffered from the affliction.  He stated that he doesn’t force himself to write if he feels the creativity “isn’t there”.

For those interested in non-fiction issues, many attended the Toronto Star Tent as it featured panels on municipal, provincial and federal politics.  Panelists included Toronto Star columnists Chantal Hébert, Tim Harper and Martin Regg Cohn.  At the Nothing But The Truth Tent, authors addressed the topics of their books and subjects ranged from the global food crisis to dementia.

The Wordshop Marquee provided an opportunity for attendees to learn about topics such as writing humour, pitching manuscripts and tips for writing a best seller.

In addition to the different genre tents, representatives from some of the largest and smallest publishing houses were selling various works. At the Simon and Schuster booth, the company was offering some of their newer titles, both fiction and non-fiction, on sale for $3 or $5.  “It’s good to reach out to the customers and give them a deal,” said representative Max Arambulo.  According to Arambulo, Simon and Schuster attends every year to reach out to their customers since they do not have a warehouse in Canada.

Queen’s Park Circle was closed off to vehicular traffic to allow visitors, street performers, food vendors, community organizers and literary enthusiasts to move freely.  The sound of book readings and panel sessions could be heard throughout the festival space.

Organizers are enthusiastically promoting next year’s festival, which will celebrate its 25^th anniversary.  According to organizers, the festival plans on presenting 20 journals that will offer perspectives from some of Canada’s famous authors on “the word” in Canada over the past 25 years.  The journals will be sold at auction after next year’s festival.