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Campbell River's Words on the Water Festival looks for SD72's continued support

Words on Water Festival looks for school district's continued support
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Author Jess Housty will be attending Campbell River's Words on the Water Festival. Photo courtesy Jess Housty

Words on the Water Festival met with School District Board 72 (SD72) on Jan. 14 to discuss the festival and secure the district's continued support. 

"Around B.C., we are starting to find cultural events are under pressure. MusicFest has gone on forever, for example, in Courtenay. [It] will not be running this year, and the board of education is no stranger to this concept, but tight budgets are a concern for everyone," said acting chair Richard Franklin.

"Later this year, our group will be working on a concerted fundraising campaign to build ongoing corporate sponsorship of this amazing annual event, but the school district has also been an important part of the festival, and it has contributed over the years, and we thank you for your ongoing support." 

Franklin also asked the school board to sponsor two students of the board's choosing to attend the full event, which will run from March. 7 to 8. Admission to the event is $100 for the full event. 

Eight award-winning Canadian authors front the event, where they will lead discussions on their work and answer audience questions. 

The festival focuses on promoting Canadian literacy and arts.

"I would not be surprised to hear and to learn that there are students in our senior grades who might be future authors who might benefit from the experience of interacting with award-winning Canadian authors," said Franklin, a former educator within the district. "Writing gives people a voice and the opportunity to explore and refine their thinking. While I've seen things written by artificial intelligence, nothing will ever replace good, honest human communication. The ability to write something original to create a book-length novel or a poem of great beauty and impact is an amazing skill... Those who can do this are rare treasures in our society."

The festival has worked with the school district for 20 years in creating and fostering the Student Outreach Program. Many authors who have attended the festival in the past have gone to local schools for presentations and workshops. 

Author, historian and archaeologist Karolyn Smardz Frost, spoke to students last year about the Underground Railroad and the first black settlers in Toronto. 

Ahmad Danny Ramadan, a Syrian-Canadian novelist, public speaker and LGBTQ-refugee activist, did a reading at Timberline's theatre in 2019. He spoke about escaping Syria and his life as a writer in Vancouver. 

This year's lineup features Shashi Bhat, Michael Christie, Celia Haig-Brown, Ian Ferguson, Jess Housty, Scott Alexander Howard, Susan Musgrave, and Adam Shoalts. 

Bhat's Death by a Thousand Cuts was longlisted for the 2024 Giller Prize. Her 2021 novel The Most Precious Substance on Earth was a finalist for the Governor General's Award for English-language fiction.  Bhat has won the Writer's Trust/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize.

Christie's debut novel If I Fall, If I Die was also on the longlist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, but for 2015. His debut story collection The Beggar's Garden was nominated in 2011. His second novel, Greenwood, was gain nominated in 2019. 

Haig-Brown wrote Resistance and Renewal: Surviving the Indian Residential School, which won the Regional BC Book Prize in 1988. It was republished in 2022 as Tsqelmucwilc: The Kamloops Indian Residential School, Resistance, and a Reckoning. Haig-Brown is involved in filmmaking. 

In addition to being an author, Ferguson is also a playwright, producer and director. He teamed up with his brother, Will, to co-write the Miranda Abbott series, starting with I Only Read Murder. Ferguson was also the 2004 recipient of the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour for his memoir, Village of Small Houses: A Memoir of Sorts. 

Housty released their debut poetry collection, Crushed Wild Mint, in 2023. Housty is also a grassroots activist based in Bella Bella. Crushed Wild Mint won the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize and the Bill Douthie Booksellers' Choice Award. Housty was invited by the festival into SD72's schools as part of the event.

Howard's debut novel, The Other Valley, was published last year. Howard has a PhD in philosophy from the University of Toronto and was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard. The Other Valley was a nominee for the Goodreads Choice Award for Science Fiction. 

Musgrave has dabbled in poetry, novels, non-fiction, food writing, editing and children's books. She has been nominated several times for the Governor General's Award and was shortlisted for the 2023 Griffin Poetry Prize. 

Shoalts is a professional adventurer who has written non-fiction books, all of which have been national bestsellers. Most of them detail his adventures, such as Beyond the Tree: A Journey Alone Across Canada's Arctic, which is about his 4,000-kilometre canoe trip across the Arctic. 

The festival will be on March 7 and 8 at the Maritime Heritage Centre. Doors open at 6:45 p.m. on March 7. Tickets can be purchased online at wordsonthewater.ca. The schedule is also on the website. 

 



Brendan Jure

About the Author: Brendan Jure

I am an Irish-Canadian journalist who joined the Campbell River Mirror in December, 2023. Before joining the Campbell River Mirror
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