The AfterWords Literary Festival was co-founded by Ryan Turner and Stephanie Domet, and in 2019 we celebrated our first festival, bringing writers from across Canada, the United States, and abroad to Halifax for four days of readings, conversations, workshops, and celebratory events. Since then, we have expanded to offering an annual virtual professional development event for writers, The Winter Writing Weekend, hosting annual events to celebrate Nova Scotia’s Heritage Day honoree, and launching the annual AfterWords Youth Mentorship program, pairing two Nova Scotia youth with two professional writers for a six-week virtual mentorship. We are also producing a four-part podcast about Truth and Reconciliation, a conversation with Mi’kmaw writers about what a Modern Mi’kma’ki might look like. In 2023, our fifth fall festival hosted more than fifty writers and moderators over eight days at venues across Halifax, Dartmouth, and beyond.
Previous festival participants include New York Times bestselling authors Roxane Gay and Kim Stanley Robinson and Booker-nominated novelist Avni Doshi, along with Lawrence Hill, Katherena Vermette, Souvankham Thammavongsa, Sheila Heti, Jody Wilson-Raybould, David Bergen, Mona Awad, and Emma Donogue. We’ve also welcomed children’s authors like Sydney Smith, Jack Wong, Lauren Soloy, Briana Corr Scott, Sal Sawler, Fabien Melanson, Denis Boucher, and many more.
Facebook: www.
Instagram: www.
Twitter: twitter.com/AfterwordsF
Website: www.
