This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend the 2013 Winterset in Summer literary festival in Eastport, Newfoundland. I was invited to read from my novel Braco as part of the New Voices panel with Grant Loveys (Our Gleaming Bones Unrobed) and Claire Wilkshire (Maxine). Bert Riggs did an amazing job hosting our event, following up our readings with questions. For a first time novelist, it was a fabulous experience.
The festival has been on the go for thirteen years and is a showcase of new and established writers, musicians and film makers who hail from Newfoundland as well as other parts of Canada and the world. This year, Lisa Moore was asked if there was one person she’d like to interview, who would it be. She decided to shoot for the moon and asked for Man Booker Prize winner, Anne Enright from Ireland. Listening to them read was a treat.
Jean-Claude Roy had an entertaining talk with Adele Poynter about his book Fluctuat nec Mergitur, which contains more than 800 paintings from every community in Newfoundland. The event included a slide show of his paintings with a commentary by Jean-Claude that often had the audience in stitches. At the end of the presentation, Adele asked Jean-Claude to do a reading, so he picked up the massive book, walked over to the podium and opened up to a random page and read: “Bonavista.” Then he turned the page and said “Trinity Bight,” then turned the page again and said “Fogo.” By then, the audience was laughing too loud to hear him.
Saturday night was the highlight event with the BMO Winterset Award nominees and winner. Russell Wangersky read from Whirl Away, Greg Malone read from Don’t Tell the Newfoundlanders and Andy Jones read from his BMO Winterset Award winning Jack and Mary in the Land of Thieves. The event was hosted by Seamus O’Regan and not unexpectedly, Malone got quite a few questions from the audience. Interestingly enough, Malone noted that he had had people tell him that they had read from his book over the graves of parents who were certain that the vote was rigged in 1949.
On Sunday, Kevin Major showed us the opening few minutes of the film based on his award winning book Hold Fast. Rosemary House made the film and together they gave us an interesting look into the process of a book being made into a film from the perspective of the author and the film maker. The film opens with a funeral scene which showed the community’s residents leaving the church, all dressed in black. I thought it was a great example of ‘less is more.’ Visually, we didn’t need to see anything more to know what was going on. Then Rosemary commented on the scene afterwards saying that the book has the graveside scene complete with coffins being lowered into the ground. The problem was, they couldn’t afford the scene as it was written. It would have meant hiring a lot of extras, finding two coffins, digging a big hole in the ground and sourcing the mechanism to lower the coffins into the hole. They opted for the minimalist approach and I think it worked wonderfully on the screen. They also spoke of the trouble they had finding a boy to play Michael. They even resorted to Open Line on VOCM with no luck. They were on the verge of going to Ireland to source a young actor when they came across Avery Ash near the end of their search in Newfoundland. A perfect fit for the part! I’m looking forward to the film.
The Winterset in Summer committee has to be applauded for putting together such a well organized event. They had two receptions with wine and food. The Legion offered a fish dinner and the community centre finished the weekend with a dinner where we all had one last opportunity to talk to other authors or sign books for the attendees.
What I really liked was how easy it was to get settled in. I had a map sent to me to show me the way to the Beaches Heritage Centre where I registered and was shown to my lodgings, Mike’s B&B in Eastport. Winterset had booked all the rooms at the B&B and as the first to arrive, I was given the opportunity to pick my own room. Try that at a Ramada!
Staying at Mike’s B&B really reminded me of why Newfoundlanders are known for our hospitality. Early Saturday morning, Mike got a call from a motorcyclist who had been on the road since getting off the ferry late Friday night. He was tired and it was about to rain. He was desperate for a room. Mike said they had a spare room upstairs and let him have the bed for as long as he needed it. The motorcyclist slept for a few hours and offered to pay but Mike said it was fine. He’d rather the guy be safe.
Mike’s B&B….Hospitality with a double capital “H”! Well done, LA
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Claire Wilkshire also posted re her Winterset Experience … my post is still partially drafted. 🙂 It was an amazing event – wonderful to meet so many people and be introduced to new (as well as familiar) authors and their works.