A hub of Kingston’s arts and literary culture, Kingston WritersFest has reached its final chapter.
The 16-year-old festival which brought literature, new and old, to the City of Kingston officially closed after their Fall 2024 season due to financial difficulties following the COVID-19 pandemic. The decision was made public on Jan. 2 in a news release.
First launching in 2006 with help from the Kingston Frontenac Public Library and Kingston Literacy, the Kingston WritersFest was professionalized in 2009. The festival, which took place every fall, featured yearly lineups of writers to spark conversations within the literary arts. The five-day festival featured programming for writers and readers alike, and included readings, performances, onstage conversations, in addition to Writers Retreat workshops held by award-winning and critically acclaimed authors.
In a statement to CBC, the festival’s board of directors said the decision to close the doors was a result of “insurmountable financial challenges.” This led the board terminating the festival team, composed of nine staff and two community liaisons in addition to volunteers.
“Like many arts organizations, we faced significant challenges following the [COVID-19] pandemic including decreased attendance, increased operational costs, and reduced revenues from both private and public sources,” the statement said.
Queen’s Law alumna and author Marianne K. Miller, JD ’80, has years of experience at WritersFest—and, as a result, acquired a book deal in 2017 for her 2024 debut novel We Were the Bullfighters.
READ MORE: Marianne K. Miller sits down with ‘The Journal’ to discuss Hemingway and her own writing career
“I feel I owe [WritersFest] a huge debt. I’m thinking of other writers who are out there who won’t have it, and it makes me very sad,” Miller said in an interview with The Journal.
The workshops Miller attended at WritersFest were key in her journey as an author.
“From every workshop, I’ve picked up something,” she said, noting a workshop led by Andrew Piper that helped her move forward with We Were the Bullfighters. “I think a lot of writers talk about how important it is to read, and what’s important about that is it gets your brain working,” Miller added.
When asked about the financial challenges behind the festival’s closure, Miller mentioned the pandemic’s potential contribution to attendance numbers and an email sent out to authors in November that mentioned the festival’s financial insecurity. She went on to address a broader trend of festivals closing, citing nation-wide financial challenges.
“I don’t think it’s because Canada doesn’t the arts, but I think Canada is finding it difficult to the arts at this time,” Miller said, explaining uncertainty with regards to tariff threats from the United States and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s recent resignation.
“There were so many lovely events that I’m really sorry won’t happen again,” she said.
Emmy-nominated writer Elan Mastai, ArtSci ’97, who presented his novel All Our Wrongs Today at the 2017 WritersFest emphasized the importance of fostering connections at festivals like WritersFest, especially for authors, in what can be a solitary career.
“Many of the close relationships I’ve developed with other authors started because we met at a book festival,” Mastai said.
He further elaborated on the loss of WritersFest in contributing to increased disconnect in the writing community. “It’s like one more crack in the foundation that our community is built on at a time when it’s so easy for all of us to be so detached,” Mastai shared.
When asked about the festival’s closure, Mastai remarked “it kind of came out of nowhere.”
Like Miller and Mastai, Carol Off, an author at the 2024 Kingston WritersFest and eight-year for The Big Idea—a live conversation that discusses current political events—is saddened and shocked to see the festival’s closure.
“I am gutted and gobsmacked that the Kingston WritersFest is shutting down. It was a jewel in the crown of Canada’s author festival and one that everyone looked forward to,” Off said in a statement to The Journal.
Off highlighted the community of authors that marked the event, detailing an intimate gathering of authors during the 2024 festival. “I’ll never forget an evening listening to author Michael Rowe talk about the world, while we sipped Canadian wine. This is what happens at the best events. And Kingston was up there,” she reminisced.
“I knew there were some hard years and that COVID-19 was a big blow to revenues. But I’m really shocked that the board would shut [the festival] down just when, it seemed to me, the festival was turning a corner,” Off shared.
“I can only say a big thank you to all the people who kept that festival going for all these years,” Off said. “I hope the city appreciates what it’s lost.”
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