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Dunedin Literary Festival – Words in the Woods this weekend

September 12, 2019   ·   0 Comments

Written By CONSTANCE SCRAFIELD

The fourth annual Words in the Woods, the Dunedin Literary Festival, is on this weekend, Saturday, September 14 in the village of Dunedin, near Creemore.

Rina Barone, founder of the festival, said this year’s is the Dunedin festival’s fourth year. “It started with just a couple of friends with similar interest. I run the book store in Creemore, the Curiosity House Book Store. My husband and I have had the store for five years on Halloween. “

She said, “We decided, we just always thought that Dunedin, with its beautiful little park on the banks of the Noisy River, would be perfect for a one day festival in the woods here. We could have a few readings by authors, we thought people might like the idea. “

With a touch of surprise in her voice, “This year is our biggest. We have over 20 authors from every Canadian power house.”

Indeed, there are several well-known authors, including Bianca Marais, Joanna Goodman, Oakland Ross and Diana Beresford-Kroeger 

“We all try to push and promote and get books into readers hands,” she made it logical. “Promote new authors, with mid level reading. Different genres and get readers together with the authors.”

One such author, Jessica Westhead, talked about her new book, “My book, Worry, is a story of Ruth and her young daughter, Ferne.”

This is her first time with Words in the Woods, she began to tell us, “They are staying at a remote cottage, surrounded with woods, with friends and soon after they arrive , they meet the strange neighbour and he latches on to the group and he makes Ruth worry even more that she usually does. It’s adult fiction, suspense, family drama as well.

“It’s about Ruth and her best friend, as well, and their difficult relationships. I suppose Ruth is the way she is because it took her a long time to have a baby. Now, she’s obsessed with her child’s safety.”

Worry is Ms. Westhead’s fourth book and her second novel.

“The first two were short stories. Short stories are my first love. I’m a writer at heart – themes and events that come to characters. I read a lot of thrillers and I really wanted to write a book about every day worries and fears and make that into a thriller. 

“I’ve always been a worrier, ‘what if.’ You have to push that down as a parent. I wanted to write about that; if you can create that feeling.

“I went to Trent University, where I majored in English, with a creative writing course . They were taught by visiting writers. The school invited me back as a writer to read to students there.”

In 1988, Ms. Westhead moved to Toronto and joined a writers’ circle, meeting with many writers in the Toronto community, over 20 years. So, she is excited about her own writing.

Her daughter’s school expects its students to read every day. 

Said Ms. Westhead, “Reading fiction, we need to read more – all of us – reading fiction should be enjoyable; it shouldn’t be like work. I don’t want to set it up for my daughter as a punishment.”

One of her personal worries is about technology and the amount of every person’s time it consumes.

“I’m hopeful, “ said she, impressed with the irony, “that people are starting to realize there are apps to say you’re spending too much time on your phone. You need to interact with your babies, your children.”

Ms Barone commented of Worry, “Jessica’s book has just come out this week and its getting a ton of attention. 

Happily, she reported, “The festival’s been growing very organically. The first year, a lot of our friends knew authors and said, ‘they’ll want to come.’ Even to this day, it’s our community that helps put this festival on, run it, whatever can we do. They are our champions and cheer leaders. It’s really great.”

She reflected, “It’s like people are thirsty for this. They want this; they want to read a great book and talk to the author about it, what prompted them to make decisions. “Authors like talking to readers and other authors. We hear a lot of good things. The word magical gets dropped a lot. The way that it comes, there’s no admission. There is a night time keynote event, which is sold out in the park in a tent. It’s a ticketed event and it sold out immediately. We didn’t get the OAC funding, so, we just have the one – ticketed event and keep the day time free. There’s food, coffee and beer. There are kids activities, an author’s tent and panels throughout the day.

“We always get emails form the authors thanking us and ready to return in some capacity.

Gratified by the success of a community run event, Ms. Barone said, “Ii’s been really wonderful.”

For directions and information about the festival and the village of Dunedin,  go to www.wordsinthewoods.com

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