Josh Lambier is a PhD candidate at Western University in the Department of English & Writing Studies, the Founding Director of the Public Humanities at the university and the Artistic Director of Wordsfest. For more information on Wordsfest, and to look at the schedule of events for the upcoming weekend, go to http://wordsfest.ca/.
AJ: Tell me a bit about your role with Wordsfest.
JL: I do the artistic direction of the festival, which means picking the line up of authors based on consultation with the community groups that we are linked to. I also do a bit of the advertising and all the logistics that go into that as well. It is fun to construct a line up that, in some ways, testifies to the incredible amount of writing talent that we have in the Southwestern community, which is our mandate. We also bring in authors from around Canada, and occasionally international ones, to create more infusion of ideas in our city and community.
AJ: Are there any authors that you are particularly excited about seeing this year?
JL: Absolutely! Of interest to your group of readers is people like Emma Donoghue, who was nominated for an Oscar for her adaptation of her own novel, Room. She will be fantastic, and is coming up on Saturday afternoon. Other panels that are really exciting are Teva Harrison, who is in conversation with Mariko Tamaki. Teva Harrison has breast cancer, she took her experiences with cancer and turned it into a graphic novel, which is an illustration of her experience, as her illness experience is still ongoing for her. Mariko is very interesting as well, she is a graphic novelist and artist, who does work for young adults. She has just signed on to do something comic related for Supergirl, which will be very empowering for young women. Our Writer in Residence this year, Margaret Christakos, is in conversation with Laurie D. Graham, they are both very strong and wonderful representatives of female poets, in terms of the Canadian literature scene.
AJ: You are one of the founders of Wordsfest. What was your idea behind the festival?
JL: If you look through the history of Southwestern Ontario, we have some internationally recognized figures, such as Alice Munro, who just won a Nobel prize a couple of years ago for literature. She completed her undergrad at Western, and did a lot of her writing about Ontario. Other figures include big names like James Rainey, who is a playwright who came from London Ontario, artists like Jack Chambers, and economists like John Kenneth Galbraith, who used to advise the American government on massive issues like the Vietnam War. Despite the fact that they are all from Southwestern Ontario, we have never had a festival that celebrates our history, the current authors and the future generation of writers. We wanted to create a festival that does justice to the incredible talent in this community.
AJ: What makes you unique from other festivals of the same sort?
JL: Definitely the Southwestern focus. Although there are other festivals in Southwest Ontario, we are trying to bring focus to London. We’ve had people who do this individually, but having a community wide celebration is what really sets us apart. Our events are quite unique too, we have something called Poetry Live, which is a Saturday night event. Anyone can come to Poetry Live, whether you’re a writer or reader; it brings three groups together for one time a year, we have Open Mic Poetry, London Poetry Slam and Poetry London, who are three very social groups that all operate in London, Ontario year round, but rarely have the opportunity to meet. One thing that sets not only our festival apart, but our city apart, is our active literary scene, that I don’t think a lot of Western and Fanshawe students get to see on an ongoing basis.
AJ: For a student who has never been to, or heard of, Wordsfest, what would you say is the one, ‘can’t miss’ event?
JL: That’s a hard one, but I would have to say it would be the Opening Reception, however it is the only event that has a ticket price of $15 for students. What is great about this event is that it sets the tone for the rest of the festival. André Alexis, who is our feature interview, won the Giller Prize for 15 Dogs, and there are four other authors in conversation with him. If you want to see one event that sets the tone and shows you what to expect on Saturday and Sunday, it is that opening reception. Its a gala format, and it brings the community together.
AJ: How do students who want to get involved go about doing that?
JL: Our volunteer team is a lot of Western students, but we still need volunteers. We have another cool event called Guerrilla Poetry, which is for people who just want to read poetry on Saturday at 12pm. People can go to our website, find the tab for Guerrilla Poetry, and email us saying that they want to participate. Guerrilla Poetry lets you read poetry on Dundas St. to unsuspecting people as they pass by, who wouldn’t necessarily hear poetry at any other point in time. If you didn’t get us this year, we are always looking for volunteers for next year