All events are held at the Homewood Suites by Hilton (40 Bay Street South) with the exception of Peter Mansbridge at the Playhouse Cinema (177 Sherman Avenue North)
A Festival For Readers
A Festival For Writers
A Festival For Hamilton
Welcome to gritLIT 2024
Readings, Panels and Interviews offer a view into the minds of some of the most interesting writers working in Canada today. Attendees will have a chance to interact with authors via chat and/or Q&A in these events. In-Person events take place at the Homewood Suites By Hilton (40 Bay Street South) except for Peter Mansbridge: How Canada Works, which will take place at the Playhouse Cinema (77 Sherman Avenue North).
Special Events (Limited Enrollment) give attendees an opportunity to interact with fellow book lovers in fun, immersive ways.
Writing Workshops (Limited Enrollment) offer a chance to learn the tricks of the trade from some of the best authors in the country. Writing Workshops are 75–90 minutes long.
Festival Schedule
Wednesday, April 17 | Thursday, April 18 | Friday, April 19 | Saturday, April 20 | Sunday, April 21
Wednesday, April 17
7:00 p.m. | Special event (virtual)
Over the past two decades, gritLIT has been privileged to welcome more than four hundred of Canada’s best established and emerging authors to the festival. Join members of our program advisory team as they look back at some of the highlights of the past twenty years and offer insider tips about how to get the most out of this weekend’s 20th Anniversary Festival.
Co-hosted by Ann Y.K. Choi and Jamie Tennant.
8:30 p.m. | Mainstage Event (virtual)
gritLIT has helped nurture many exciting new Canadian authors, including 2022 BMO Winterset Award winner Shelly Kawaja, who was inspired to write her debut novel after winning the gritLIT Short Story Contest in 2020. Join author and contest judge Neil Smith and gritLIT’s 2024 Short Story Contest winners as they discuss their winning entries and share tips for other aspiring – and potentially award-winning – Canadian writers.
Peter Mansbridge: How Canada Works SOLD OUT
7:00 p.m. | Interview
Drawing on his thirty years experience as anchor of The National, CBC’s flagship nightly newscast, Peter Mansbridge shares his latest book, How Canada Works: The People Who Make Our Nation Thrive. Mansbridge will sit down with Elamin Abdelmahmoud about his collection of personal stories about the everyday jobs that keep our nation running – and some of the inspiring people who perform them.
Note: this event takes place at the Playhouse Cinema, 177 Sherman Ave. N, Hamilton.
Thursday, April 18
Friday, April 19
Lunch with the Readers’ Advisory
Divas & Dudes
1:00 p.m. | Interactive Event
The mission of the Readers’ Advisory Divas & Dudes is to spread the word about all the hidden gems on publishing lists: the debut authors, the books publishers to be very excited about, the quiet bestsellers. Join two of the Divas & Dudes for lunch and get an exclusive sneak peek at their picks for the best reads for summer 2024.
3:00 p.m. | Mainstage Event
Want to get cozy and hear a local author read their book aloud? Join author Madison Farkas in a reading of her book The Three Tree, presented in partnership with EarlyON as part of gritLIT on Friday, April 19th! In The Three Tree, the residents of a peaceful town love nothing more than to count to five. But when the Evil, Mean, Mad Magician sneaks into their town and steals their magical number three, someone must journey to his castle in the clouds to rescue it. A little girl will decide of she is the strongest, bravest, smartest person in the land. Then she'll have to prove it – to her people and to herself. This event is FREE and appropriate for kids aged 0-6.
7:00 p.m. | Mainstage Event
Many Hamiltonians know Tom Wilson for his three Juno Awards, his bands Junkhouse, Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, Lee Harvey Osmond, and his multiple gold records. In 2018, gritLIT was proud to welcome Tom Wilson the author when he joined us to share his recently published memoir, Beautiful Scars. Now that memoir has been adapted into a musical. Wilson sits down with Theatre Aquarius Artistic Director Mary Francis Moore to discuss his story, adapting a book for the stage, and what audiences can expect from the upcoming world premiere musical.
8:30 p.m. | Mainstage Event
Celebrate the 20th anniversary of Hamilton’s Readers & Writers Festival with an event showcasing five phenomenal Hamilton writers. Featuring Lishai Peel, Hamilton's first Poet in Place, Gary Barwin (Imagining, Imagining), Dannabang Kuwabong (Sargasso Sea Scrolls), David Neil Lee (The Great Outer Dark), and George Matuvi (The War As I Saw It).
Hosted by Megan Divecha.
10:00 p.m. | Interactive event
gritLIT’s Next Chapter Team invites you to join them for a special, late-night mixer suitable for all book lovers. Share some of your favourite bookish memories, participate in a collaborative storytelling activity, or swap a book at our gritLIT little free library! Enjoy a gritLIT cocktail from the bar with some complimentary snacks as you chat with other readers about your favourite books from the festival.
This is a free event organized by the Next Chapter Committee.
Saturday, April 20
11:00 a.m. | Mainstage Event
It is said that fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth. Join authors Alicia Elliott (And Then She Fell) and Jessica Westhead (Avalanche) as they share their powerful stories and discuss how fiction can be a weapon in the fight against social inequity.
12:30 p.m. | Mainstage Event
In the first scenes of Reuniting with Strangers, five-year-old Monolith destroys his mother’s home. The Raw Light of Morning begins when fourteen-year-old Laurel commits an act of violence that alters the course of her life. Jennilee Austria-Bonifacio and Shelly Kawaja share two stunning debut novels about the long-reaching and sometimes surprising consequences of childhood traumas, both on the victims and on everyone around them.
Moderated by Ann Y.K. Choi.
2:00 p.m. | Mainstage Event
Using Louis XVI’s Code Noir and the stories of indentured labourers in Trinidad, poets and novelists Canisia Lubrin and Shani Mootoo have created thought-provoking new works that examine issues of origin, resistance, and community. Join them and moderator Kai Cheng Thom for a compelling conversation about breaking free from the past and finding the courage to resist when faced with unthinkable injustices.
3:30 p.m. | Mainstage Event
What happens when we fail to live up to expectations … or even to understand what those expectations may be? Vincent Anioke (Perfect Little Angels) and Jessica Westhead (Avalanche) help their characters examine this question and many more in their compelling short story collections. Hosted by Carleigh Baker, author of Last Woman, "a blistering collection of short fiction."
gritLIT 2024 Flash Fiction Writing Contest
5:30 p.m. | Interactive Event
gritLIT challenges Hamilton’s new or emerging authors to put their speed writing skills to the test! You will be given a prompt and one or two required elements. Can you incorporate them into a 500-word-or-less story in one hour? The winning story will be chosen by Kerry Clare and the author will receive a $50 gift certificate from Epic Books and have their story published on the gritLIT website.
7:00 p.m. | Mainstage Event
New books by Casey Plett (On Community) and Matthew R. Morris (Black Boys Like Me: Confrontations with Race, Identity, and Belonging) offer insights about finding your place inside a system that was designed to keep some out. Join the authors for an honest conversation about culture, identity, inclusion, and how we can learn to define – or redefine – what makes a community.
Moderated by Renata Hall.
8:30 p.m. | Mainstage Event
Alice feels like an imposter in her wealthy Toronto neighbourhood even before terrifying events begin to happen. In her own shiny new Toronto condo, Dawn is haunted by uncanny occurrences and messages from her dead mother. Adriana Chartrand (An Ordinary Violence) and Alicia Elliott (And Then She Fell) share new novels filled with danger and suspense as their characters try to navigate the intersection of their real lives and the mythical, spiritual realm.
Moderated by January Rogers.
Sunday, April 21
10:00 a.m. | Interactive Event
14-year-old Ainara Alleyne’s passion for books led her to hosting her own TV show, Ainara’s Bookshelf, on TVO. In this Q&A event, Emily Sattler from the Telling Tales Festival talks with Alleyne about a few books that every young – and young at heart – adult should be reading.
This is a free event.
10:00 a.m. | Interactive Event
In 2020, Shelly Kawaja won the gritLIT Short Story Contest, which she says gave her the confidence to fully commit to her writing career. In 2022, Kawaja’s The Raw Light of Morning, won the $12,500 BMO Winterset Award. Book club leader Wendy O’Brien will lead the author in an in-depth discussion about her award-winning debut novel. You are encouraged to read the book in advance and join in the conversation, but sitting back with a coffee and pastry to listen is okay too!
11:00 a.m. | Interview
Each year, gritLIT asks an award-winning established Canadian author to help us shine a light on a few new or emerging writers whose work deserves national recognition. Join 2024 Spotlight Series Curator Gary Barwin as he presents novelist Geoffrey D. Morrison (Falling Hour) and poets Conyer Clayton (But the sun, and the ships, and the fish, and the waves) and Ayomide Bayowa (Gills) to our Hamilton audience.
12:30 p.m. | Mainstage Event
Paige Maylott’s My Body Is Distant uses the intersection of virtual and IRL identities to explore true identity. In Falling Back in Love with Being Human, Kai Cheng Thom writes a series of love letters to explore the concept of acceptance and being accepted, flaws and all. Casey Plett sits down with the authors to discuss what it means to love ourselves and others truly and fully, with all our flawed and sacred parts.
2:00 p.m. | Mainstage Event
Just ahead of summer, gritLIT presents two fantastic beach reads! With heartfelt humour, swanky resorts, shipwrecks, seaside weddings, and sneaking suspicions, let authors Robin Lefler (Not How I Pictured It) and Leanne Toshiko Simpson (Never Been Better) immerse you in their tropical tales.
Moderated by Amy Jones.
3:30 p.m. | Mainstage Event
gritLIT closes out the 20th Anniversary Festival with a special all-Hamilton edition of Drafts and Drafts. Brent van Staalduinen sits down with Hamilton authors Amy Jones (Pebble and Dove), Anuja Varghese (Chrysalis), and Nathan Whitlock (Lump) for a beer, a chat about their most recent books, and an exclusive sneak peek at their works-in-progress.
Workshops
PLEASE NOTE: gritLIT 2023 Full Festival Passes do not include writing workshops. Pass holders must register separately for these events.
Saturday, April 20
11:00 a.m. | Writing Workshop
It’s often said that scenes are the building blocks of fiction. But what is a scene? How do they work? When should we use them? In this workshop, author Amy Jones will discuss the importance of the scene in fiction and learn how to use scenes to help readers connect to our characters and bring them into the emotional heart of the story. Come prepared to write!
Saturday, April 20
12:30 p.m. | Writing Workshop
Touching on Mary Karr’s techniques in The Art of Memoir, author Paige Maylott shows how to capture moments to create vivid and authentic scenes in works of creative non-fiction. Participants will learn how to stage a scene and then start the process of transferring their own vibrant memories onto the page. Please come to the workshop with one or two moments in mind that you would like to explore.
Saturday, April 20
Financing a Writing Career (in-person)
Financing a Writing Career (virtual)
2:00 p.m. | Writing Workshop (in-person and virtual)
If writing is your passion, but it doesn’t pay the bills – how the heck do you financially sustain a creative writing practice? In this 90-minute workshop, working writers, parents, and arts professionals, Anuja Varghese and Lishai Peel will discuss practical ways to support yourself as a writer. With over a decade of experience in the arts and culture sector, Anuja and Lishai will share their professional experiences and offer insights, tips and strategies for fellow freelancers and writers. From applying for grants and prizes, to pitching workshops and other skill-sharing activities, to balancing work in other fields, all while actually finishing your manuscript – tune in for an honest discussion on how to finance your passion and find the funds to keep pushing your pen forward!
Saturday, April 20
3:30 p.m. | Writing Workshop
Isn’t writing fiction an act of reimagining reality – so the world as we know it becomes an imaginative world, a world of things the way they might be? In writing his Hamilton-set Midnight Games trilogy, David Neil Lee blended the everyday with the fantastic to reimagine his hometown in an infinite number of ways. This workshop challenges participants to think about fiction writing as the transformation of the known into something unknown, new, and exciting.
Sunday, April 21
To Scream or Not to Scream: Handling Big Emotions in Storytelling
11:00 a.m. | Writing Workshop
Heartache, disease, new love, death. Our characters often have to navigate life-altering moments right there on the page. As writers, how do we carefully convey the weight of their emotional responses? How do we sidestep clichés, choose revealing prose, and ground the overwhelming feelings of the moment in the truth of our characters? Through prose excerpts, instruction, group discussions, and writing exercises, this highly interactive workshop led by Vincent Anioke will explore various techniques for handling woes, thrills, and joys in ways that feel truthful and engaging.
Sunday, April 21
Social Media for Writers (in-person)
Social Media for Writers (virtual)
12:30 p.m. | Writing Workshop (in-person and virtual)
Writing is a competitive field, and now more than ever, writers need to know how to build a presence online. Author Jennilee Austria-Bonifacio looks at social media as a tool for writers and discusses creating an authentic voice online, how to use design programs, tips and tricks for different platforms, and strategies for using social media in an intentional way to learn about a subject and connect with new readers. Participants will have the opportunity to create their own sample posts.
Sunday, April 21
2:00 p.m. | Writing Workshop
What poetic opportunities do we miss out on when we get stuck in writing the “truth” of an experience? In this interactive workshop, poet Conyer Clayton looks at overlaps between figurative language and purposeful un-truths, between the speculative and realism, and helps participants learn how to go beyond facts to uncover the true core of the story they want to share.