The AfterWords Literary Festival, which debuts in October 2019, is the creation of a small volunteer group of professional writers keen to bring the very best Canadian and international writers to audiences in eastern Canada. They’re primarily interested in presenting (and being in the audience for) conversations among writers about the ideas that push them forward, the experiences that formed them into writers, and what writing can tell us about how to be human. The festival’s mission is to give those writers who choose to take part the very best experience that Halifax has to offer. The festival is dedicated to presenting authors from across a wide spectrum of background and experience, with a commitment to panel parity that broadly reflects gender, race, and ability.

The festival’s inaugural iteration will take place in Halifax from Wednesday October 2 to Sunday October 6, 2019. The festival offers a mix of readings, conversations, celebratory events, public workshops, and workshops geared to professional writers, and brings together international, Canadian, and Nova Scotian writers. At this juncture our programming is focused on writing for adults—poetry and fiction primarily, non-fiction to a lesser extent.

Learn more here.