The Fraser Valley Writers Festival will take place at the University of the Fraser Valley’s Abbotsford campus on November 4th. The festival will include workshops, panels and keynote addresses from ten acclaimed BC writers. As a free festival, open to all, the Fraser Valley Writers Festival is often a new reader or writer’s first experience of a literary event. We asked four authors attending the festival to share their stories of the first times they attended a literary festival, and what it meant to them.
Darrel J. McLeod
Victoria Festival of Authors (2018)
My first festival was the weekend the big change began—a paradigm shift in my life. I was there as a published author—a completely new face, an unknown quantity—but the way I was being treated, the exposure it afforded me, was incongruous with this lack of notoriety. I kept thinking there was some mistake… first as I gave a noon hour reading on a Friday, in a beautiful courtyard just outside of the Victoria Public Library to a brown bag lunch crowd, then during a Saturday afternoon reading where, a bundle of nerves, I read from my first memoir, Mamaskatch: A Cree Coming of Age, and partook in an intense discussion with amazing authors, Vivek Shrya and Chelene Knight, and finally at the Sunday night event in a large amphitheatre, I was gobsmacked when I realized I would be speaking alongside two of my literary heroes, Esi Edugyan and Sarah Selecky. I would meet and get to speak with Eden Robinson! And on it went… at the conclusion of the Sunday event, Esi Edugyan said she loved my reading and would like to keep in touch—we exchanged contact information; and Sarah Selecky asked if I would be interested in teaching in her program, in which I’d been a student just two years earlier. After I caught my breath, I said yes (and indeed I did, two years later). How could I have known that weekend that these developments, and those that would follow, would change my life forever… that Christmas and birthdays would become anticlimactic.
Darrel J. McLeod is the author of A Season in Chezgh’un (Douglas & McIntyre, 2023). He will be delivering a keynote address at the Fraser Valley Writers Festival at 7 PM on November 4th.
Frances Peck
LitFest New West (2015)
I’ve spent my life working with words and getting paid for it. Sweet, right? Except the work part always came first. I took on projects for money, not necessarily satisfaction. My creative self sank into some musty cellar and basically lay there, languishing, unattended.
As a professional wordsmith, I went to lots of conferences on editing and plain language, but zero literary festivals. Festivals were for real writers, I figured. Writers who had things like process and craft, and actual publications.
In midlife, my creative voice quit mewling from the cellar and started to bellow. For God’s sake let me out, it said, or I’m leaving forever. So I spent 2012 drafting a novel, 2013 revising it, and 2014 amassing rejections. By 2015 I was a mess, yoyoing daily between euphoria (I wrote a novel! I have an agent!) and despair (no one wants my stupid novel).
That spring, while teaching editing at Douglas College, I heard about LitFest New West, a one-day event in New Westminster. I pitched an editing-related workshop and it was accepted. I showed up at my first literary festival as a professional, ready to work. And I left that festival feeling like a real writer at last. One Saturday was what it took. One Saturday in a throng of people who lived for writing, who scribbled privately and desperately, who’d been rejected as often as I had. It wasn’t work. It was a celebration. It was a community. And now I was part of it.Frances Peck is the author of Uncontrolled Flight (NeWest Press, 2023). She will be discussing the book at the Fraser Valley Writers Festival at 4:45 PM on November 4th.
Tara Sidhoo Fraser
Willamette Writers Conference, Oregon (2019)
Before attending my first literary festival, my friend had sent me a podcast on affirming signs from the universe. So when I received an email from this festival (I’m still uncertain as to why I was on the recipient list), I took it as a sign and registered for their Suspense Class with Hallie Ephron.
I stayed up the night before, drinking coffee and writing a 500-word prose, which was to be presented to our Suspense class. I felt so unprepared and nervous. The next morning, in class, everyone took a moment to introduce themselves. Almost all were published authors and had experience surrounding the craft of writing. As I listened to one after the other present their beautiful resumes, I thought, “you’ve made a big mistake” because my resume was different. I had been writing since I can remember but privately. At this time, I had never published. I was merely writing because I had to.
When it came time to read our prose out to the rest of the class, I waited. I watched each writer comfortably present their work, receive comments and critiques from instructor Hallie Ephron as well as their peers. I also noticed that what I had written was different. It didn’t sound like anyone’s suspense prose. I had missed important marks stylistically. “You’ve made a mistake,” I thought again.
I read my prose to the class, I chose to sit down directly afterwards as I was feeling ashamed and like an imposter but everyone was so kind! After class, Hallie and I talked, she told me that I should keep writing, that I had something special. The rest of the festival was glorious, everyone attending was warm and somewhat of an awkward soul, which felt so relatable to me. I was in an environment of people I understood.
Afterwards, I caught the Amtrak to Seattle. I can remember staring out the window, my mind now excited by the public world of writing. For me, the lit fest added fuel and love to my creative fire, which is necessary for all artists.Tara Sidhoo Fraser is the author of When My Ghost Sings (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2023). She will be discussing the book at the Fraser Valley Writers Festival at 4:45 PM on November 4th.
Brandon Reid
Fraser Valley Writers Festival (2023)
“I was flabbergasted when I got the call to participate in this upcoming Fraser Valley Writers Festival. I’ve never been to a literary festival, to be honest. I considered volunteering for the Vancouver Writers Fest, years ago, to get my foot in the door by building connections, but I felt I was putting the cart before the horse; now that my novel is soon to be released, I feel I am worthy of attending a festival as a writer.
I finally get to enjoy the fruits of my labour, after working on the novel for two-and-a-half years. I began writing Beautiful Beautiful in the middle of the pandemic, just having finished teaching my first elementary-school class. Everything I did, since then, was to maintain my body and spirit to complete my novel, but now that it’s finished, I’m having fun promoting, discussing, and allowing readers to appreciate the work few had seen.
At the FVWF, I look forward to meeting fellow writers, who likely have similar experiences to mine, as writing is a solitary craft. That doesn’t mean you can’t belong to a community—quite the opposite. A community of passionate writers fosters inspiration, brings out the best in each member, and garners some much needed empathy, that we’re not truly alone, in our work, but all striving together to create unique, inspiring short-stories, essays, poems, and literature. I look forward to finally having this sense of community, of readers and writers, come November 4th.”
Brandon Reid is the author of Beautiful Beautiful (Nightwood Editions, 2023). He will be discussing the book at the Fraser Valley Writers Festival at 3 PM on November 4th.
For more information about the Fraser Valley Writers’ Festival, please visit: fvwritersfestival.com