'It's because of the ideas': Eden Mills Writers' Festival going strong in its 36th year

The village of Eden Mills will grow a little larger on Sunday as it's set to host the 36th annual Eden Mills Writers' Festival.

Both international and local authors as well as new and well-known writers will take part in the event to tell readers about their new book and share the process of putting the words on the page to tell their story.

Theresa Ebden is the chair of the Eden Mills Writers' Festival. She recently spoke with CBC K-W's The Morning Edition host Craig Norris about Sunday's event in the village.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Audio of the interview can be found at the bottom of this article.

Craig Norris: Why do you think people keep coming back to the Eden Mills Writers' Festival?

Theresa Ebden: There's a few reasons. In this community, you don't just walk the dog — you walk down the street, you talk to all of your neighbours and they really like to get involved in things. There are four nonprofits in the village. And for me, it was getting involved, feeling like I was a part of something and also sort of connecting back to my original sort of roots as a writer. That's I think why people get involved as volunteers. And we have 120.

Why do people attend? It's because of the ideas. When in this age where we have generative AI sort of spitting things out to us when we have queries, what we really need is original ideas. The first version of the truth is reported through the news and then the ideas come through the books as they distil what people are seeing and Canadian ideas. And there are very few sort of festivals where you can go. It's open air and you can discuss ideas and we've got some great authors coming this year.

Craig Norris: Tell us about some of the authors attending this year's festival.

Theresa Ebden: I am very excited about Carol Off, former host of CBC's As It Happens. She has a book that is called At A Loss for Words. Six words in the English language that need to be reclaimed in order to sort of bring back society.

Tanya Talaga  has a book called The Knowing. You may know her from Seven Fallen Feathers which the kids read in school now. But this book is sort of the history of Canada as told through her Anishinaabe family.

We also have about six local authors. They include Pamela Molloy, Off the Tracks.  She is from Kitchener and has written a book about train journeys over time.

And we also have a wonderful book from Nicola Ross called 40 Days and 40 Hikes: Loving the Bruce Trail, One Loop at a Time. She's from Cambridge.

And Jeff Szpirglas has a book called Pages of Doom which is a children's book. It's very spooky and in time for Halloween.

Craig Norris: Part of the festival experience is author panels. How do you determine what the panel discussion is going to be?

Theresa Ebden: It's such an art form and we've been blessed over the years. It comes down to reading all the books at the beginning of the year, putting them into groups. It's much the same as putting together a radio show panel or a TV show panel. It's about the ideas and what is the conversation going to be.

The Eden Mills Writers' Festival takes place Sunday Sept. 8 in the village of Eden Mills. (Eden Mills Writers' Festival)

Craig Norris: So give us a sense of some of the topics we're going to hear.

Theresa Ebden: We have a couple of themes that we really touch on at the festival, and I would say we're very environmentally and socially conscious. We will also take a look at the writing process as well because we want the authors to talk about, you know, sort of past topics including things like what do you do when you have an unreliable protagonist? But our environmental themes in particular, Nicholas Ruddick from Guelph, the kids poems, This is a tiny, Fragile Snake. That is a big one. Social themes and then we also have a lot of non-fiction as well.

Craig Norris: I know that for a lot of festivals it's been difficult post pandemic to really bounce back. Has the festival felt that same impact?

Theresa Ebden: Absolutely! I would say it was definitely trial by fire when I came in. I think the board had done a remarkable job over the pandemic of keeping free online programming. That required staff and affected our surplus unfortunately. So that rainy day savings was used for the pandemic to keep running and keep people engaged in their homes as they, you know, still connected over literature. Then inflation came and the devastating impact it's had on people. And arts festivals that bring communities together are no different. There's tent rentals, author travel, all of the different costs that come in association with running a large not-for-profit festival.

So what we've had to do is really step up our fundraising. I'm super grateful to the Ontario Trillium Foundation because I applied for the Resilient Communities Grant and we were able to fund, for the first time ever, a dedicated halftime fundraising consultant, who's been just remarkable knocking on doors and talking about the festival.

So it's actually looking much brighter for us. That said, it's been a struggle. And this year, if you've ever wanted to come to the Eden Mills Writers' Festival, this is the year to do it. We need your support to volunteer, donate or attend.

Listen | Theresa Ebden, chair of the Eden Mills Writers' Festival: