Connecting with community through the arts

Books available at the Grenfell Campus Bookstore

It was an autumn weekend of free readings, workshops, music and wilderness, open to all outdoor and literary enthusiasts!

Last October, Grenfell Campus collaborated with Marble Mountain to bring the inaugural Marble Mountain Literary Festival to western Newfoundland. The festival showcased celebrated Canadian authors and cultural luminaries - a fantastic opportunity for the community to learn more about the literary landscape locally and nationally.

The festival opened with a keynote by Tessa McWatt, a Governor General-nominated author, on Rupture, Belonging and Longing: The Journey to Home, in conversation with poet and screenwriter Ian Iqbal Rashid. McWatt, author of seven novels and two books for young people, and an accomplished librettist, was born in Guyana, raised in Canada, and now lives in London.

"What does it mean to find our way home in a world of rupture? As Newfoundland and Labrador celebrates its Come Home Year 2022, I look forward to exploring questions of home, identity and belonging together," said McWatt.

Ian Iqbal Rashid, an internationally renowned poet and film and tv maker, also gave a featured talk on The Uncertain Self: Forging Identity in Poetry, Film and Television. Rashid, an executive producer and writer on the critically acclaimed CBC and HBO Max sitcom "Sort Of," was born in Tanzania, grew up in Toronto, and has recently relocated from the UK to western Newfoundland.

Community learning

In conjunction with the festival's events at Marble Mountain, the Grenfell Art Gallery hosted a workshop with author Tessa McWatt entitled Life Writing: Writing Home - Ourselves, Our Environments. Participants explored how we can use writing to articulate our sense of self, how we understand the ways we connect to our environment, and how we remember and pass on our memories. This workshop is part of Making Space, a program of creative events organized by the School of Fine Arts, Grenfell Campus, Memorial University. It was presented with support through SiteLines, a partnership between Research and Graduate Studies at OCAD University and the Canada Council for the Arts supporting black, indigenous, and people of colour (BIPOC) artists.

Behind the scenes, graduate students from Grenfell's brand-new Master of Applied Literary Arts (MALA), the first program of its kind in Canada that combines academic studies with professional skills development, helped to organize and run the festival. This provided invaluable hands-on training and opportunities to learn from and mingle with some of Canada's top literary and cultural stars.

"I am grateful for the incredible energy and hard work our Master of Applied Literary Arts students are providing to help get this new event off the ground," said Dr. Adam Beardsworth, associate professor in English at Grenfell Campus, and a lead organizer of the festival. "We also thank our many sponsors and our partner Marble Mountain for their support in bringing our vision to reality, and enabling us to offer the festival's events at no cost to participants."

In addition, the Grenfell Campus Bookstore had works for sale from the festival's local and visiting authors.

Grenfell Campus thanks the festival's partners and sponsors: Marble Mountain; Come Home Year 2022; Writers' Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador (WANL); MusicNL; the Grenfell Art Gallery; and Bishop's Tavern.