The Eden Mills Writers’ Festival will be bringing back its popular online book club events this winter with a series of three discussions.
Each book club event will showcase a recent release through a conversation between the book’s author and a host. The series will kick off with a discussion with novelist Iain Reid on Reid’s recent book We Spread. This will be followed by the Governor General’s Award-winning writer Dr. Norma Dunning sharing the experience between her non-fiction book Kinauvit and the real Inuit history it is based on. Concluding the series will be an interview with debut author Kai Thomas, whose novel In the Upper Country deals with the history of Black communities in 19th-century Ontario.
Last year’s virtual events attracted more than 20,000 viewers, inspiring the festival to continue them even after resumption of the in-person festival, which typically brings many booklovers to the Guelph area in the fall. The Guelph Public Library will be hosting book club discussion groups after each event.
The festival is also partnering with booksellers across Canada to make the three chosen book easy to purchase, including Guelph’s The Bookshelf. Book club events like this can be a major part of a book’s promotional push, alongside tools such as social media and poster printing.
The Eden Mills Writers Festival’s book club events will take place online on February 15, March 1, and March 22.
