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