Mark your calendar for our 2025 festival on Saturday, June 28th!
SATURDAY
JUNE 29, 2024
NEW LOCATION!
County of Brant Public Library - Paris Branch
12 William Street, Paris, Ontario
Our annual literary festival is a free public event in Paris, Ontario.
It’s pretty awesome.
Join us for in-person readings by local and award-winning Canadian authors, exhibitions by local organizations, independent publishers, and more!
Free public event.
Rain or shine.
All ages welcome.
Photos by Jono & Laynie Co. 
2024 FESTIVAL SCHEDULE
MAINSTAGE (2nd Floor)
10:00am - 4:00pm
Featured readings for teens & adults.
Featured authors will be signing books immediately following their appearance on stage.
10:00am
Welcome & Opening Remarks
10:35am
Isaac Halsey
10:45am
Reegan Wilson
10:55am
Nicole Meszaros
11:05am
Hasna Isase Brito
11:15am
Kathryn Carter
11:30am
Aleria McKay
11:45am
Nicola Winstanley
12:00pm
Blair Hurley
12:15pm
Emily De Angelis
12:30pm
Antonio Michael Downing
12:45pm
Amy Jones
1:00pm
Andrew F. Sullivan
1:15pm
Eva Tihanyi
1:30pm
Cody Caetano
1:45pm
Paige Maylott
2:00pm
Sydney Hegele
2:15pm
Anuja Varghese
2:30pm
Paola Ferrante
2:45pm
Margaret Nowaczyk
3:00pm
Alicia Elliott
3:15pm
Daniel Sarah Karasik
3:30pm
Eddie Lartey
3:45pm
Spencer Gordon
CHILDREN’S AUTHORS (Lower Level)
Featured readings for children.
Featured authors will be signing books immediately following their scheduled appearance.
10:30am
Patricia Storms
11:15am
Miriam Benarroch-Altman
12:00pm
Joren Cull
1:00pm
Derek Mascarenhas
2:00pm
Nadia Devi Umadat
3:00pm
Antonio Michael Downing
10:00 - 4:00pm
COUNTY OF BRANT PUBLIC LIBRARY
Craft activities &
Storytelling with Miss Rachel
THE BRANT FAMILY LITERACY COMMITTEE
Let's Read is back! The Brant Family Literacy Committee welcomes Patricia Storms to the Riverside Reading Festival for a special reading of her book Moon Wishes.
SPONSORED BOOK GIVEAWAY
The Brant Family Literacy Committee will be giving away 50 copies of Moon Wishes at the Children’s Tent. Books will be available on a first come, first serve basis, while supplies last, to any child who attends at least one of the children’s author readings.
One (1) book per family.
EXHIBITORS
10:00 - 4:00pm
ORGANIZATIONS
Big Cityyy Arts (2nd Floor)
Chiefswood National Historic Site (Lower Level)
County of Brant Public Library
Six Nations Tourism (Lower Level)
KW Writers Alliance
INDEPENDENT PUBLISHERS
Book*hug Press (2nd Floor)
Elizabeth Tarr Horror Zines (2nd Floor)
Ojistoh Publishing
WLU Press (2nd Floor)
Wolsak & Wynn (2nd Floor)
Featured Authors
(alphabetical by first name)
Aleria McKay comes from a Haudenosaunee & Teme Augama Anishnabai mother and Michif & Dene Tha father. She was raised on Six Nations of the Grand River and is proud to call her community home. Aleria holds a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and Indigenous Studies and is currently pursuing her Bachelor of Education. A poet and playwright, her past works include And She Split The Sky in Two and Thunderstorms. Her most recent poetry collection, Sweetgrass & Cigarettes, was released in early 2023. Aleria is passionate about animals, pageants, and escape rooms.
Alicia Elliott is an award-winning Mohawk writer living in Brantford, Ontario. She has written for The Globe and Mail, CBC, Hazlitt and many others. Her essays have been nominated for numerous National Magazine Awards, winning Gold in 2017. Her short fiction was selected for publication in Best American Short Stories 2018, Best Canadian Stories 2018, and Journey Prize Stories 30. She was chosen by Tanya Talaga as the 2018 recipient of the RBC Taylor Emerging Writer Award. Her first book, A Mind Spread Out On The Ground, was a national bestseller in 2019, was chosen as a Best Book by the Globe and Mail, Quill and Quire and Chatelaine, and was shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction. Her second book, the novel And Then She Fell, was longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction, shortlisted for the Amazon First Novel Award, and shortlisted for the Indigenous Voices Award for Prose in English. It was also named a Globe and Mail and CBC Best Book of the Year.
photo by Alex Jacobs-BlumAmy Jones is the author of the novels We’re All in This Together, Every Little Piece of Me, and Pebble & Dove, and the short fiction collection What Boys Like. Originally from Halifax, she currently lives in Hamilton, Ontario.
Andrew F. Sullivan is the author of The Marigold, a novel about a city eating itself, and The Handyman Method, a novel cowritten with Nick Cutter. Sullivan is also the author of the novel WASTE and the short story collection All We Want is Everything, both named Globe & Mail Best Books of the Year. He lives in Hamilton, Ontario.
photo by Eden Boudreau
Antonio Michael Downing was born in Trinidad and was also raised in Toronto, Kitchener, and Brooklyn. He is an author and performance artist. His memoir SAGA BOY was shortlisted for the 2021 Speakers Book Award and Toronto Book Award. He was recognized by the Taylor Prize for Non-fiction as one of Canada's strongest Emerging Authors. His debut children's book STARS IN MY CROWN (Tundra Books) will be available in Summer 2024. His debut novel BLACK CHEROKEE will be released on Simon & Schuster in North America in 2025. He writes and performs music as John Orpheus.
Anuja Varghese is the Fiction Editor at the Ex-Puritan Magazine and the author of Chrysalis, winner of the 2023 Writer’s Trust Dayne Ogilvie Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction.
Blair Hurley is the author of THE DEVOTED, which was longlisted for The Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize. Her second novel, MINOR PROPHETS, was published in 2023. Her work is published in New England Review, Electric Literature, Joyland, Paris Review Daily, and elsewhere. Her story “The Telepathist” was listed as a “Distinguished Story” in Best American Short Stories 2022. She is a Pushcart Prize winner and an ASME Fiction award finalist.
Cody Caetano is a writer. His debut memoir, Half-Bads in White Regalia, came out through Penguin Canada’s Hamish Hamilton imprint and was a national bestseller. It won the 2023 Indigenous Voices Award for Best Published Prose, made the shortlist for the 2023 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction, and made the longlist for the 2023 Toronto Book Award, the 2023 Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour, and Canada Reads 2023.
Daniel Sarah Karasik (they/them) is the author of many books, including two poetry collections, Plenitude and Hungry, and the short story collection Faithful and Other Stories. Their work has been recognized with the Toronto Arts Foundation’s Emerging Artist Award, the CBC Short Story Prize, and the Canadian Jewish Playwriting Award. They organize with the network Artists for Climate & Migrant Justice and Indigenous Sovereignty (ACMJIS), among other groups, and are the founding managing editor of Midnight Sun, a magazine of socialist strategy, analysis, and culture. They live in Toronto.
Derek Mascarenhas is a graduate of the University of Toronto SCS Creative Writing Program, a finalist and runner up for the Penguin Random House of Canada Student Award for Fiction, and a nominee for the Marina Nemat Award. His linked short story collection, Coconut Dreams, was called a "stunning debut" in Quill and Quire's starred review and The Globe and Mail named it one of the best reads from Canadian small presses. Derek’s first picture book, 100 Chapatis, was praised by Kirkus Reviews as “warm and reassuring,” and his second, The Mango Monster, arrives Fall 2024. Derek is also working on a speculative novel, and a middle-grade book.
Eddie Lartey is a Hamiltonian wordsmith, poet, and spoken word artist who uses his gifts to address love, devastation, and triumph within the Black experience. Using words to create a better life for all. Through his collective, Hamilton You Poets, Lartey also conducts writing and performance workshops for a community of all ages and stages. His work has been performed on national and international stages for over a decade. His accolades include winning the Toronto International Poet Slam in 2019, winning the Human Rights Festival Poetry Slam in 2021, winning the Top 40 Under 40 award in 2022, winning Canadian Individual Poetry in 2022, and winning the Copa "Americas" de Poetry Slam in Brazil and most recently placing 5th at the World Poetry Slam.
Emily De Angelis comes from a long line of visual artists, musicians, and storytellers. She was born in Sudbury, Ontario where she lived and taught special needs students for 30 years. A graduate of the Humber School of Writing, her western and Japanese-style poems as well as short stories have been published in various anthologies. She has also curated an exhibit of ekphrastic poetry based on the work of Canadian painter Florence Carlyle. The Stones of Burren Bay is her debut YA novel. Emily now lives in Woodstock, Ontario with her husband while spending summers on Manitoulin Island.
Eva Tihanyi has published nine volumes of poetry, most recently Circle Tour (Inanna Publications, 2023) and one short story collection, Truth and Other Fictions. Her previous book, The Largeness of Rescue, garnered a Fred Cogswell Award for Excellence in Poetry, and she was nominated for a City of St. Catharines Arts Award in 2023. Her most recent project was writing the lyrics for a 14-track album, When Lightning Strikes the River, a collaboration with composer Carlie Howell who wrote the music. The album premiered at the First Ontario Performing Arts Centre in St. Catharines in November 2023. In 2020 Eva retired from teaching English at Niagara College and has just completed her first novel. She lives in the Port Dalhousie neighbourhood of St. Catharines where she spends a lot of time in her study overlooking Lake Ontario.
Hasna Isase Brito is an emerging spoken word poet and writer in Brantford, Ontario. Now a fourth-year student at Laurier University, Hasna has been a research assistant in the English Department since 2022, and currently serves as President of the English Students Association (ESA). Her writing focuses on slam poetry, creative nonfiction and short stories. She loves toying with philosophical ideas of life and death, exploring how culture impacts community and plays with societal narratives of patriarchy and gender. Hasna chooses to dive into the uncomfortable aspects of human emotion and experience. This is with the goal of normalizing difficult conversations or opposing ideologies.
Kathryn Carter grew up in Paris, Ontario. She lucked into her first summer job: reading 19th-century editions of the Paris Star as research for the second edition of The Forks of the Grand. Later, she lucked into writing three plays for the Cobblestone Festival in the early 2000’s, and she also published a micro-short story about the Gilston Farm at the bottom of the Mile Hill, where she grew up. Other than that, she obtained a PhD in English from the University of Alberta, taught at Duke University and Universität Tubingen in Germany, became a professor, a dean, and a few other things at Wilfrid Laurier University, and has published on the life writing of the 19th century, especially diaries.
Joren Cull is an author, illustrator, and animator from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Their work has appeared in many publications, including The New York Times, National Geographic, Bloomberg Businessweek, The Guardian, Reader’s Digest, and The Globe and Mail. Joren’s work has been celebrated with awards from American Illustration, Applied Arts, and The National Magazine Awards. They also received a Webby Award for best animation. Joren likes ice cream and records!
Born in Poland, Margaret Nowaczyk is a pediatric clinical geneticist and a professor at McMaster University and DeGroote School of Medicine. Her short stories and essays have appeared in Canadian, Polish and American literary magazines and anthologies. She lives in Hamilton, ON, with her husband and two sons. Visit her website at www.margaretnowaczyk.ca.
photo by Melanie Griffin PhotographyMiriam Benarroch-Altman is a photographer and mom of three with a lifelong love of children’s stories and a flare for the dramatic. She enjoys celebrating the joy and magic of childhood through children’s literature, and believes strongly that it is through stories that we teach, connect, and find a common ground so often missing between children and adults. In the moment where a parent reads to their child, and they’re both experiencing the same story, the gap is bridged, and the magic can be shared. Miriam’s favourite stories have relatable characters, teaching moments, and a fun quirkiness sure to delight children and their caregivers alike.
Nadia Devi Umadat is a Canadian social worker of Indo-Guyanese heritage. She has a Master's Degree in Social Work and a Graduate Diploma in Refugee and Migration Studies from York University. As a Youth Mental Health Counsellor, she supported newcomer and refugee families who had experiences of war, torture, crimes against humanity and genocide. Her writing is inspired by her adventures with Syrian children during their initial stages of Canadian relocation. She lives in Toronto and is a forever student and local tourist. The Most Beautiful Thing I Have Ever Seen is her debut book.
Nicola Winstanley is a writer for adults and children. She has been shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary award and is the recipient of the Alvin A. Lee Award for Published Creative Non-Fiction. Nicola’s fiction, poetry and comix have been published in The Windsor Review, Geist, the Dalhousie Review, Grain Magazine, Untethered, and Hamilton Arts and Letters, among others. She holds an MA (Hons.) from the University of Auckland, NZ, and an MFA from UBC. Nicola works at Humber College in Toronto and lives in Hamilton, Ontario.
Nicole Meszaros is a passionate storyteller, reader, and future educator. Writing what she knows and how she feels, Nicole’s work includes personal essay, poetry, and short fiction about life, love, family, and chronic illness. Nicole seeks to preserve the most precious moments in life in word, drawing on the joy and nostalgia found in a shared connection. In addition to completing her English degree at Wilfrid Laurier University, Nicole has also been focused on volunteering in her community.
Paige Maylott is a Canadian novelist and gamer who delves into alternate realities and identities. Her memoir, My Body is Distant (Sept 2023, ECW Press) explores her intersections of transition, critical illness, and vivid, dream-like digital spaces.
Paola Ferrante is a woman writer living with depression. Her short fiction collection, Her Body Among Animals (Book*hug 2023), received a starred review in Publishers Weekly, and made the CBC Books fall reading list. Her debut poetry collection, What to Wear When Surviving A Lion Attack (Mansfield Press, 2019) was shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. She has won The New Quarterly’s Peter Hinchcliffe Prize for Fiction, Room Magazine’s Fiction Prize, Grain’s Short Grain Award for Poetry, and been longlisted for The Journey Prize. Her work appears in The Journey Prize Stories 32 (McClelland & Stewart, 2020), Best Canadian Poetry 2021, (Biblioasis, 2021), After Realism: 24 Stories for the 21 st Century, Ed. André Forget (Véhicule Press, 2022), North American Review, PRISM International and elsewhere. Her lastest poetry chapbook is The Dark Unwind (knifeforkbook, 2022). She lives in Toronto, Canada, with her spouse, Mat, and their son.
photo by Rob SkujaPatricia Storms is an artist as well as an author and illustrator of over 30 children’s books and humour books, including The Pirate and the Penguin, and Never Let You Go. Her most recent authored books are Moon Wishes and Sun Wishes, illustrated by Milan Pavlovic, and The Dog’s Gardener, illustrated by Nathalie Dion, and published by Groundwood Books. She lives and works in Toronto with her husband Guy in a hundred and eight year old house overflowing with books and art.
Spencer Gordon is the author of three books: a collection of dramatic monologues, A Horse at the Window (House of Anansi Press, June 2024), the poetry collection Cruise Missile Liberals (Nightwood Editions, 2017), and the short story collection Cosmo (Coach House Books, 2012). He was co-founder and was senior editor of The Puritan (now Ex-Puritan) for over ten years. He's taught writing across Toronto at Humber College, OCAD University, the University of Toronto and George Brown College. Read more at his website, www.spencer-gordon.com.
Sydney Hegele is the author of The Pump (Invisible Publishing 2021), winner of the 2022 ReLit Literary Award for Short Fiction and a finalist for the 2022 Trillium Book Award. Their essays on life with Dissociative Identity Disorder have appeared in Catapult and Electric Literature, and have been featured by Lithub, The Poetry Foundation, and Psychology Today. Their novel Bird Suit is forthcoming with Invisible Publishing in Spring 2024, and their essay collection Bad Kids is forthcoming with Invisible in Fall 2025. They live with their husband and French Bulldog on Treaty 13 Land (Toronto, Canada).
Featured books
Browse titles from the 2024 Riverside Reading Festival.
Available to purchase from our 2024 festival bookseller:
FUNDING SUPPORT
We are grateful for funding support from the Ontario Arts Council and Government of Ontario, and The Writers’ Union Of Canada with Canada Council for the Arts.
