Winterset in Summer Literary Festival 9–11 August 2013

Last weekend was my first experience of Winterset, where I’d been invited to participate in the New Voices panel. Three days of readings, discussions, and parties on the Eastport Peninsula and everything was great, but for me two sessions stood out.

Lisa Moore and (Booker-winning Irish author) Anne Enright read on the Friday night, two writers at the top of their game, with performances so well-paced, so shaped and built and spectacularly good that I kept feeling the urge to turn to the people around me and say, Isn’t this remarkable?

The following evening we heard from the writers whose work had been shortlisted for the BMO Winterset Award. Andy Jones read from the book that won, Jack and Mary in the Land of Thieves (Running the Goat Books & Broadsides, 2012). The reading was brilliant and hilarious. It’s a funny, crazy, beautiful tale that features Jack, Mary, and an albino mynah bird named Baxter. The illustrations are spectacular.

Andy said about his writing that it asks a question for readers, and the question is: Am I crazy or are you like this too?… Let’s hope we’re all like that too.

You can watch a short video about the book here.

Here’s Andy at Winterset with his publisher, Marnie Parsons of Running the Goat Books.