Only 1 day left!

In our most recent newsletter, we asked: "Where will you go first when you get to The Word On The Street's 20th festival this weekend?"

If you're looking for any suggestions, consider some of the responses we received...

"I am looking forward to the Cooks N’ Books stage...
(To see some of my favourite cook book authors in action!)"

"The first place I'll head for is the CBC Stage for Stuart McLean and his fabulous storytelling."

"After looking at the program and the exhibitor listing I decided to just go there and let the children's spirit fly to wherever/whatever draws their attention to. "

"#1 Festival To-Do Item: Tiptoe Through the Titles Quiz Show at the CBC Stage"

"I'm going to 2X4 To The Forehead to pick up next year's 365 Reasons Not To Be Bored calendar, because that's what this year's calendar told me to do on Sunday."

"My #1 Festival To-Do Item is heading over to renew or extend subscriptions to my favourite magazines because the deals are incredible."

"1. Network...
2. Enjoy and Experience LOTS of Exposure to the Literary works showcased at the Festival
3. Network some more."

It's Time to Party!

Here's a glimpse of our 20th Festival Kick-Off Party held earlier today. Only five days remain until The Word On The Street's 20th festival in Toronto hits Queen's Park.

Thank you to everyone who came out to celebrate!

Porkbelly Futures opens the party with a few crowd favourites.

John Bemrose reads an excerpt from his latest novel, The Last Woman.

Festival posters from the past 20 years add a bit of flare and a colourful look at the history of The Word On The Street.

Zoe Whittall reads from her latest, Holding Still for as Long as Possible.

Kagan Mcleod paints a commemorative piece in honour of the 20th festival while overlooking the performances and readings below.

A little snacking and chatting in One King West's beautiful Austin Gallery.

~Aimee.

The Word On The Street is Going, Going, GREEN!

As one of Toronto's signature festivals, we've strived to be a leader in all things environmental, which is no easy task. Let's face it, the book industry produces millions upon millions of carbon emissions each year and for a festival all about books and magazines, the onus is great.

Good Morning America highlighted these concerns in a recent show. Follow the link below to learn more about the ways industry practices are changing in order to cut back on total carbon emissions.

Green Books: Read Books That Are Better for the Environment - ABC News

So what is The Word on The Street doing differently? This year, with the help of our sponsors, The Word On The Street will be 'closing the loop' in the paper production cycle. Both the Festival Program Guide and KidStreet Activity Guide are the most eco-friendly programs ever produced by The Word On The Street. Each publication is made of 100% post-consumer paper provided by Cascades Fine Papers, printed with vegetable-based inks by Webcom and collected onsite for recycling purposes by METRO Waste. All-in-all, valuable energy is saved and greenhouse gases are significantly reduced with each stage of development. So not only do the guides looks fantastic but they're environmentally responsible too!

Download our 2009 Festival Program and KidStreet Activity Guide

~ Aimee.

Sony Unveils the Future of Reading

Exciting news from Sony - yesterday morning the new Reader Touch Edition and Reader Pocket Edition were unveiled at Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum with re-vamped features, styles and colours (navy blue and rose for the adventurous types, black and silver for those who prefer the classic look).

Apart from getting to test drive both models, I learned a few interesting items of note:

The Toronto Public Library lets e-reader owners with a library card borrow e-books for up to 21 days (the same length allotted for regular books). Check it out at http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/ebk_index.jsp

Keep in mind that there are over 500,000 public domain titles available for download on Google. So, essentially, you buy an e- reader and get a library of half a million titles. I have a feeling my financial adviser would call that a healthy investment.

The Sony Reader Touch also comes with a built-in Oxford American Dictionary. Now when you come across 'fugacious' while reading on the streetcar, all you have to do is double click the word and the definition will appear at the bottom of the screen (adj. fleeting; transitory).

Scope it out and do some research of your own - or better yet, stop by the Sony Reader Lounge on Sunday, September 27 to find out exactly what they're like. You just might fall for the pink one, too.

~ Aimee

A walk down memory lane...or should we say Queen St.?

Rummaging through photo albums from past festivals is one of the best tasks required to prepare for The Word On The Street's 20th festival. Although it meant I had to enter the dreaded storage space with floor to ceiling boxes, signs and desk chairs, I finally got a chance to flip through the pages of our photo albums. Similar to finding old photos at home, I had to do a few double-takes when I noticed familiar faces. See who you can pick out from the crowd in a selection of my favourites included below...

No wonder the festival had to move to Queen's Park - Queen St. looks a bit crowded.

A new activity launched in 1993 had festival visitors Golfing "FORE!" Literacy.

Court jesters at the 1991 festival provide merriment and balloons.

David Suzuki at the 1991 festival.

Robert Munsch meeting a few of his biggest fans.

~ Aimee

Make Like Brangelina and Adopt....An Author That Is!

We are super thrilled to launch our annual Adopt an Author campaign! It's our 20th festival and we are hosting our most exciting line-up of some of the best authors in Canada to mark this milestone year.

You can be an important part of our vibrant one-day literary festival by participating in the Adopt an Author campaign. It's easy, inexpensive and makes a great gift! All you have to do is make a $100 contribution and “adopt” one of our featured authors for the day. You’ll be able to select from a comprehensive list or you can let us select an author for you.

With top authors like Bonnie Burnard, Kenneth Oppel, Nino Ricci, Jane Urquhart, Elizabeth May, Leon Rooke, John Bemrose, Emma Donoghue, Barbara Reid and Charles Pachter confirmed to grace our stages , the only difficult part is choosing how many to adopt!

In addition, the benefits are great. With your $100 contribution you will receive:

• A tax receipt for your charitable donation
• A copy of your author’s book
• Your name announced at your author’s reading
• A personalized adoption certificate
• Acknowledgment on The Word On The Street Toronto’s website
• A chance to be a part of Canada’s largest one-day literary festival!

Check out our website for more information or to "adopt" an author today www.thewordonthestreet.ca

Cheers,

Kristina

P.S. It's exactly 2 months until festival day!!!

Celebrating 20 festivals: setting a feast of Canada’s best fall titles in a time of (sponsorship) famine

Usually an anniversary of any kind is a time for celebration. But as the world settled into a recession, it became apparent here at The Word On The Street Toronto that we would have to be very creative this year to ensure that our 20^th festival celebration would proceed as planned. As a non-profit that, over the last twenty years, has enjoyed exponential growth in programming, exhibitors and attendance, we’ve learned to build successful and long-term alliances with government funders at all levels, programming partners, media partners and sponsors. We’ve learned to thrive and meet our needs by creating a patchwork of support, drawing on resources from the private and public sectors and the generous volunteer time of our boards over the years and the many volunteers who help out on the day of the festival and throughout the year.

We are proud of our sponsors who have been there from the very beginning: Citytv and the Toronto Star helped us build the face of The Word On The Street when we launched our first festival in 1990 on Queen Street West. Publishers like McClelland & Stewart, organizations like PEN Canada and magazines like THIS Magazine and Toronto Life have been on the street with us every year, meeting festival-goers and sharing our passion for books, writers and discussing provocative ideas. Well-known authors like Margaret Atwood, Paul Quarrington and Nino Ricci took part in the festival at least five times each over the last 20 years while our stages hosted such well-known personalities as The Barenaked Ladies, Knowlton Nash, Dennis Lee and Robert Munsch. We’ve celebrated the City of Toronto Book Awards for many years with our partner the City of Toronto. Award-winning authors have read from their works while newly published authors have found success after their debut at The Word On The Street.

So all of this is a round-about way of saying that thanks to 19 years of hard work and relationship building, The Word On The Street's 20th festival is promising to be bigger and better than before. Return often to this blog for future announcements about festival headliners, family fun and the exciting opportunities you’ll find on September 27 at Queen’s Park to meet the publishers, authors, illustrators and sponsoring companies who make this the biggest yearly celebration of the written word in Canada. And, as it has been for the last 19 years, ADMISSION IS FREE!

Best,

Cindy

The Word On The Street Canada to launch Margaret Atwood’s new novel!

We are excited to announce that this September, The Word On The Street Canada will launch Margaret Atwood’s highly anticipated new novel, The Year of the Flood!

This will be Canada’s first live coast to coast book launch using LongPen technology and we will broadcast Atwood in person from The Word On The Street Toronto on Sunday, September 27, 2009 at Queen's Park to The Word On The Street festivals in Vancouver and Halifax.

This interactive video broadcast will allow festival participants to engage in a Q&A session with Atwood who will also sign books for fans in Vancouver and Halifax using the LongPen. This amazing technology will allow Atwood to talk with each fan via private video chat and to transmit a genuine, personalized autograph instantly to the interior pages of their copy of the book.

We approached Atwood to participate in a national launch to connect The Word On The Street festivals in a milestone year. The Word On The Street Toronto is holding its 20th festival with Vancouver and Halifax each marking their 15th.

Atwood’s participation in The Word On The Street festivals will begin with a live reading in Kitchener on Saturday, September 26 at the Kitchener Public Library, prior to The Word On The Street festivals on September 27.

"Ever since the first festival in 1990, I look forward to being involved with The Word On The Street. This year, with the LongPen, I can attend festivals in Toronto, Vancouver and Halifax ‐ all on the same day ‐ with my new novel, The Year of the Flood," said Margaret Atwood.

We are so looking forward to this and seeing you at The Word On The Street this September!

~Kristina

Despite illness, Quarrington steps up to the plate – you can too!

Sports references seem appropriate when talking about one of Canada’s best-loved writers, Paul Quarrington. His memorable, larger than life characters are bigger than the pages they inhabit and burst from the confines of the small or big screens. Just like their creator.

When The Word On The Street Toronto asked Paul earlier this year to become Honorary Chair of our 20th Festival Patrons’ Council, we couldn’t have predicted that he would also be facing the personal challenge of a devastating cancer diagnosis. But even in the face of illness, his dedication to the success of the festival brought Paul to our office to sign (and add personal notes to) a letter he authored urging donors to give generously to support this year’s 20th Word On The Street festival. As an artist who is inextricably bound to our festival, with at least six reading appearances not to mention his support of booths managed by organizations such as PEN and various writers’ organizations, Paul Quarrington believes in The Word On The Street’s mandate to bring authors and the public together as well as promote and develop literacy.

As Paul wrote in his letter: “The Word on the Street has meant a lot to me over the years: as a place to take the kids, a place to celebrate my friends and colleagues, a place to play and participate. I know The Word On The Street has meant a lot to you, too, which is why I'm writing. I'm asking people like you − who care about the written word, about literacy, and about Canadian writers − to make a special financial gift in support of this year’s 20th festival. Any and all gifts will be sincerely appreciated, but a gift of $1,000 or more will be earn the donor a position on the 20th Festival Patrons’ Council, a tax receipt, and a host of other benefits, including attendance at a wonderful, exclusive thank you party to be held in October at the Gladstone Hotel, an official sponsor of The Word On The Street.”

There are a lot of great benefits for those who join Paul in becoming a member of the 20th Festival Patrons’ Council. Not the least of which will be to celebrate another successful Word On The Street with him at a thank you party in October. Contact us at toronto@thewordonthestreet.ca for more information.

Take Part in Our 20th Festival!

Mark your calendars for Sunday, September 27th, 2009! The Word On The Street Book and Magazine festival will once again take over Queen's Park to welcome book and magazine publishers, authors, artists, songwriters and the citizens of Toronto and the GTA to our biggest festival yet. Since The Word On The Street is hosting its 20th festival this year, we want to share the celebration with the community that has helped us build the one day festival into the biggest book event in Canada.

Of course no anniversary is complete without a trip back through time to highlight memories of past festivals. The Word On The Street would like to invite past festival guests and visitors to play a key role in the celebration.

So here's the lowdown:

The Word On The Street Toronto is looking for sincere, short, unique messages that illuminate the varied experiences of festival attendees over the last 20 years. Submissions should be 200 words or less and the deadline for acceptance is Friday, May 29, 2009. If we use your submission we may require a head shot to accompany it. Please email your submission in a Word file or in the body of your email to toronto@thewordonthestreet.ca and include your contact information. Anonymous submissions will not be considered. We will contact those whose reminiscence is being used to confirm their participation. We thank everyone who sends us something, however it will be impossible to acknowledge every submission or use every submission.

Get Lit!

2009 is certainly a year of celebrations all around Toronto. This year The Word On The Street will be celebrating its 20th festival with exciting programming and new activities in the works. Not only is it a special year for our festival, but the city of Toronto is of course celebrating its 175th birthday and the Toronto Arts Council is honouring its 35th year of giving.

In celebration of the TAC's 35th anniversary, a new program has recently been launched as part of their Lit City- Toronto Stories, Toronto Settings initiative. Get Lit! is a unique inter-disciplinary opportunity for artists to explore the ways text and spoken word can be presented in various media and to discover the boundary-less forms of story-telling. All residents from across Toronto are invited to submit a creative work inspired by the city and its art-inspiring citizens.

For more information visit: http://www.torontoarts.org/GetLit.pdf.

The submissions will be accepted until May 4 and will be featured at a special exhibition from May 23 – 24 at the Toronto Arts Council Foundation (141 Bathurst St.). Be sure to check it out or better yet…tell a story!