Open House Book Festival

The Globe and Mail Open House Festival took place a couple of weekends ago (May 8-10). The festival included four readings by 16 authors, and four discussions between leading authors of the day talking about the big issues.
This event raised more than $65,000 for PEN Canada and Frontier College. Most of the readings and discussions were sold out, some of them in advance.

A globe and Mail article I read some time ago said that they would be putting together a digital archive of the festival and making it available on the Globe's website. I did view it two weeks ago, they had one author available and said more would be added in the coming weeks and I decided to put this topic aside until they were all available. Sadly, the Globe has abandoned plans for the Videos and the page is no longer available. (So has all news stories about how the event went - which I find odd!)
However, I did find a few bits still posted on the internet, so will provide those links.


You can go here and see the site and a video promoting the event and you can go here to read some commentary published on May 15th in the Globe about it.

The most important news that it will indeed be held again next year. Mark your calendars: April 30 - May 2nd 2010!

I am a supporter of PEN Canada. This is an independent, not for profit organization working on behalf of writers who have been forced into silence for speaking the truth. They lobby governments both in Canada and internationally to petition for the release of persecuted writers and conduct public awareness campaigns to promote freedom of speech. They assist authors who have been exiled and have been instrumental in bringing to Canada a number of writers who were unable to write in their home countries.

They have a number of fund raising projects each year. One project which they have undertaken a few times in the past is to publish a book of short essays or stories on a theme - with these essays and stories being contributed gratis by major authors in order to raise funds. I own two of such books and they are gems: One is a travelogue the other is a series of essays and stories on "the writing life". I both treasure them and also very interested in supporting the PEN cause through purchase of these books. p.s. I also have the PEN T-Shirt, "I read banned books" which acquired at the "Word on The Street" book festival last fall.

To read more about PEN Canada, their projects and the writers they support go here.
To read more about Frontier College and their literacy programs go here.