Authors Francesca Ekwuyasi, Ronan O’Driscoll and Morgan Murray take questions at Lunenburg Lit. Photo contributed by South Shore Public Libraries

An annual celebration of authors is returning to the South Shore.

The Lunenburg Literary Festival, or Lunenburg Lit as it has come to be known, is preparing to welcome some of the country’s top authors in their genres to Lunenburg for the seventh year in a row.

South Shore Public Libraries CEO Ashley Nunn-Smith says bringing these authors into smaller venues allows attendees to get up close and personal.

“I think the beauty of Lunenburg Lit Fest it’s quite an intimate setting. You are going to get a chance to walk up and say hello to the author, ask them to sign your book. They’re going to have a chance to have some pretty informal chit-chat. They’ll also be able to ask some questions from the audience,” said Nunn-Smith.

Lunenburg Lit was fortunate to be one of the events that continued throughout the pandemic by following protocols and cutting the number of attendees in half.

The library’s Communication and Engagement Coordinator Christina Pottie says the events held over those two years were special for the audience but especially so for the authors.

“Many of the authors, this was their only public speaking event in two years,” said Pottie. “They were just so thrilled to have that live audience and have that audience participation and just the feel that you get when you read in front of people instead of reading from a screen.”

Lunenburg Lit is back to full capacity for all events this year and is offering a full schedule over the weekend of September 22 – 24.

Author Lyndsey Ruck gives copies of her books to Bluenose Academy students Charlie Francis and Vivian Halverson at 2021 Lunenburg Lit. Photo Courtesy South Shore Public Libraries

The festival kicks off Thursday the 22 with two free events: poet and novelist Gloria Ann Wesley leads a youth event at the Heritage Bandstand to discuss her novels, Chasing Freedom and If This Is Freedom.

That’s followed by a panel at St. John’s parish hall on Thursday evening, where writers and publishers answer audience questions about first steps in literary publishing.

Friday, the Lunenburg School of the Arts will host readings from novelist and short-story writer David Bergen, poet and journalist El Jones, and multiple-genre writer Heather O’Neill.

The festival offers a full slate of events Saturday with a Literary Walking Tour of Lunenburg at midday, journalist and University of Kings instructor Trina Roache will interview writer and politician Charlie Angus in the afternoon and the festival wraps up that evening with novelist and screenplay writer Shyam Selvadurai, Newfoundland author Megan Gail Coles, and Halifax novelist Jane Doucet.

Tickets are available at all South Shore Public Libraries in person or by phone and information is available on their website.

E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson

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Melissa and Todd Labrador sit in front of the beginnings of a birch bark canoe. Photo Ed Halverson

Todd Labrador is taking his canoe building on the road.

The Queens-County based artisan and builder has set up shop at the Lunenburg School of the Arts for the next month to construct a 16-foot birch-bark lake canoe.

Labrador says part of what inspires him to build is passing on knowledge to others.

“We can build it in the privacy in the backyard and nobody gets to learn anything except whoever’s there at the time. But if we go out in public and build it in front of people and allow them to come in and ask questions and watch the process, come back every other day and see how we progress, that way we get to share with everyone, what we do. That’s important to me,” said Labrador.

He and his family harvest the materials themselves often spending days scouring the woods for pliable birch bark and digging for spruce roots.

Labrador uses many traditional techniques to build his canoes but welcomes some modern tools into his methods.

“If great-grandfather, who was born in 1874, died in 1961, if he had a nail, boy, he would use it. And I know if he had a band saw, he would’ve used that too.”

His daughter, Indigenous Guardian and artist, Melissa Labrador is helping with the build.

While their family’s roots are in the Wildcat Reservation in Queens, Melissa says they have a Lunenburg connection.

The Labrador family was known to have a home near the harbour close to where the fall hall currently sits.

“It’s really neat to be able to return to an area that our family occupied and create something here that probably hasn’t been done for a very long time,” said Melissa Labrador.

Her father has built several canoes over the past few years.

Some have gone into private collections; others have been acquired by museums or Indigenous communities.

Todd Labrador says each canoe always finds a home.

“Usually what we do is we build them. We don’t think about where they go. The joy for us is to build them,” said Labrador. “It’s my hobby, my passion and we paddle them as long as we can but eventually someone comes along and says we’d like to have that for our museum or cultural centre.”

The public is welcome to watch the Labrador family build the canoe at the Lunenburg School of the Arts Monday through Friday between 11:00am and 3:00pm.

E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson

To listen to the broadcast of this story, press play below.