AfterWords Literary Festival hopes to get Halifax talking about books

This October will be the first time in over a decade that Halifax has been home to a literary festival.

The AfterWords Literary Festival is the brainchild of author Stephanie Domet and her good friend Ryan Turner.

“Over the last decade we've constantly said to each other, 'Why doesn't somebody organize a literary festival in this town?',” Domet tells NEWS 95.7's The Todd Veinotte Show.

The city previously hosted the Halifax International Writers Festival, but it hadn't happened since 2008.

Last year, the small South Shore town of Lunenburg got its own literary festival, which only made Domet and Turner more driven.

“It was bananas to us that little Lunenburg had a festival and still there was nothing in Halifax,” says Domet.

Finally, after Domet left CBC in 2015, the duo started working to create a literary festival — the kind that they'd want to attend themselves.

The festival's name comes from the kind of “critical mass” Domet felt when leaving a film festival.

“Where it feels like everybody is going to see movies and they're talking about them afterward,” she explains.

The opening night of AfterWords takes place Thursday, October 3 at Cafe Lara. It also happens to be the same night renowned Canadian author Margaret Atwood is in town for an event at the Halifax Central Library.

“Margaret Atwood is coming, but not to our festival,” laughs Domet. “You should go see her if you can, she'll be done by 8:00.”

At 8:30 p.m. the event at Cafe Lara begins, showcasing emerging local novelists, poets and short story writers.

Other events throughout the multi-day festival, from October 2 to 6, include panels at the Spatz Theatre and a silent reading event at Good Robot Brewing.

“We didn't want to make a festival that was just that one-way street of reader reads to audience,” Domet explains. “We're more interested in the ideas. What pushes a writer to the page?”

Domet talks most excitedly about the Bookish Brunch event happening on Sunday, October 6 at the Agricola Street Brasserie.

“This is really my dream,” she says. “We're going to eat some eggs benedict, drink some coffee, and have some pastries, and have a couple amazing writers read to us then for 10 or 15 minutes each.”

Other events are happening at the Bus Stop Theatre and the University of King's College. Domet says all locations are wheelchair accessible, just one of the things the organizers have tried to do to make AfterWords accessible to everyone.

“Everyone is welcome at AfterWords,” she says. “Anyone who wants to come to AfterWords and participate in any way, we want them to come.”

Domet encourages everyone to come to the festival, share their ideas, and learn.

“Even if you've never heard of this writer — and if you're a Canadian writer most people never will have heard of you — those writers will still have things to say that are going to resonate with you, and make you think.”

For more information visit the AfterWords Literary Festival website.