Elizabeth Obermeyer

I attended Wild Writers in Waterloo at the beginning of the month, and honestly what a way to kick off cozy season.

If you’ve never been, I encourage you to put this festival on your radar for next year and maybe even check out this year’s programme to see what you missed (not to be mean about it or anything) because it was a really incredible lineup of authors.

In what was a first for me, but with any luck not a last, I booked the Friday off work so I could travel to Waterloo and also (and here is the part that felt very decadent) check into my hotel, my home for two nights. This allowed me easy walking to the festival site and ensured I didn’t miss a single thing. Getting to Waterloo by transit is easier than it was, even though the GO bus, while direct, takes a very meandering route . A milk run if there ever was one, but still not a terrible way to travel. Arriving Friday afternoon allowed me lots of time to check into the hotel, then take a bit of a wander around Uptown Waterloo before the first event of the weekend.

Friday night set the tone for wonderful things to come as the festival welcomed Canisia Lubrin and Tanya Talaga with moderator/interviewer Vinh Nguyen. This was a powerful conversation around truth (whose truths, and what truths get told) and disinformation and the lies we (as in Canada) have been told surrounding our history and that of the Indigenous People, in the case of Talaga’s book The Knowing, and of the Black diaspora, as shown in Lubrin’s Code Noir. The crowd was rapt and hung on absolutely every word, and both books should shoot to the top of your TBR list if they aren’t already there. A fabulous session.

Saturday morning started in the best possible way: meeting my friend and writing partner, Sarah, for breakfast. Then we booked it to the festival site for the first session of the day which was (for us) a panel of agents and editors speaking openly and honestly about what they are looking for, how to go about getting your work published, and more excellent tips for aspiring writers. As a small aside, I am nowhere near beginning the search for a publisher let alone an agent, but I did especially appreciate hearing from Shashi Bhat, editor at EVENT Magazine (more about her other fab session later) and Pamela Mulloy, editor of The New Quarterly, because if anything, I’m closer to being ready to submit to literary mags, so their input was super beneficial to me.

Then, just before lunch, I attended a workshop on blending fiction and nonfiction led by Helen Humphreys who has been one of my favourite writers for many years. Her books are quietly, beautifully brilliant, and she was, to me, the perfect writer to lead this workshop since so much of her work encapsulates the perfect blend of fiction and nonfiction.

I took copious notes, Helen had us do a really fun and thought-provoking exercise, and I came away with many titles to add to my TBR and/or Christmas list!

Session number three for me was Poetry as Memoir with Elizabeth Ruth (This Report is Strictly Confidential) and Zoe Whittall (No Credit River) which might be one of my favourite literary sessions of all time? If not the top, definitely within the top five, because this conversation, moderated beautifully by Tanis MacDonald, was absolutely perfect. It even says so in my notes: “So good. No notes.” Which, I know isn’t super helpful for describing the session itself, but you will have to trust me. And if you were there, you know. I was lucky enough to read an advance copy of No Credit River to review for THIS Magazine, so I already knew how lush and heartbreakingly beautiful Whittall’s memoir is, and pairing it with Ruth’s poetry memoir based on her aunt’s life (and interweaving some of her own life within) was a wonderful match. Kudos to the planning team for hitting that out of the park! And again, please do yourself a favour and pick up both these gorgeous books.

The final session of the day was another workshop, this time on revealing character with Shashi Bhat who is, herself, a master of character and who has created some of the most razor-sharp characters in the world, so this entire session felt like a gift.

And that was a wrap on the day, after which I booked it to the LCBO for a bottle of wine, then to a local grocery store for some cheese and crackers, and called it a night, grateful for my hotel room and a brain full of inspiration.

Finally, I also attended the literary brunch Sunday morning, the final event of the weekend, which was another wonderfully moderated and timely conversation with Helen Humphreys (Followed by The Lark), David Huebert (Oil People) and Carol Off (At a Loss for Words: Conversations in the Age of Rage) not to mention a delicious brunch and more tea than I probably needed, but there you have it.

Thank you to the organizers of Wild Writers, to all the volunteers and the speakers for their time and generosity. Thank you to my writing group friends Kelly and Sarah for the fun all day Saturday.

There is SO much more to say but I’ll stop here. See you all next year.