THE GOOD PLACE
Reading Outside the Lines
Saskatchewan’s largest literary festival has something for every kind of reader.
By Sarah Laing
(Top) Award-winning writer and performer Kai Cheng Thom leads a storytelling session in the park. (Above) Amanda Farnel has managed the Saskatchewan Festival of Words for over three years. | PHOTOS: COURTESY OF THE SASKATCHEWAN FESTIVAL OF WORDS
THE SASKATCHEWAN FESTIVAL OF WORDS, established in 1996, is the province’s largest celebration of its kind. While this literary non-profit hosts events all year long — including poetry open mic nights and the Writers in Schools program, which brings authors into local classrooms — its flagship moment is the festival, scheduled for July 17–20 this year.
“[It’s] four days of fun,” says Amanda Farnel, operations manager of the Moose Jaw-based event. “It’s a very personal festival, because unlike other festivals, we don’t have that divide between author or presenter and the audience.” In fact, because the authors participate for the full four days, it’s not uncommon to see them sitting in the audience at other events or going to lunch with other attendees.
“We see all of these friendships being formed,” says Farnel, who also points out that they deliberately hold all the events within a four-block radius in the downtown area. “It creates this cool environment — wherever you’re walking, you see people with books or talking about books. It’s so refreshing to see that love of books expand throughout the city.”
“So many people say, ‘I’m not a reader.’ But if you read magazines or scripts or consume audiobooks, then you’re a reader.”
The 2025 lineup includes poet Rosanna Deerchild, famous hockey dad and self-help author Karl Subban, and the newly named Parliamentary Poet Laureate of Canada, Chimwemwe Undi.
As a celebration of “all forms of the written word,” says Famel, the program champions diversity on many levels, from the backgrounds of the authors (including where they’re from in Canada) to the type of literature featured.
“We do comic books, we do non-fiction, we do literary fiction. Our festival is about writing in general, so we also have a script component, which is just as important to the writing landscape. We have a concert because music writing is important, too.”
For Famel, the highlight is the spoken word poetry night that takes place on the Friday of the festival. “You never really know what’s going to happen,” she says. One of her favourite memories is the time when a hip-hop and spoken word artist happened to get chatting to an older woman who was also a festival attendee and was playing her harp in the park. He invited her onstage to perform with him.
That incident also speaks to the overall ambience of the Saskatchewan Festival of Words. “We’re very conscious of not trying to create this high-brow environment,” says Farnel. “So many people say, ‘I’m not a reader.’ But if you read magazines or scripts or consume audiobooks, then you’re a reader.” CAA
Do you know of a good place? We want to celebrate community organizations that strive to make life better for all. E-mail us your nominations to share their stories.