One of the authors of a memoir featured at the festival, Tamara Jong. The book is called Worldly Girls and took 12 years to complete. (Photo credit: Deepa Rajagopalan)
The Wild Writers Literary Festival, running on Nov. 7-9, will be held at the Balsillie School of International Affairs in Uptown Waterloo. Festival organizers invite acclaimed Canadian writers from coast to coast to participate in this three-day literary celebration. The festival offers a variety of opportunities for writers to connect with like-minded peers and share their perspectives through a mix of panels, discussions, and writing workshops.
Eleni Zaptes, festival organizer and UW alumna who graduated in 2017, shared that the goal of the festival is to help connect and cultivate a space for authors to share and for readers to meet, engage, and experience a celebration of knowledge and writing, “meet their favourite Canadian authors, discover new authors, and have access to professional development in the literary arts space.” Unlike most major festivals, which are often held in Toronto, the Wild Writers Literary Festival has taken place in Waterloo since its inception in 2012. Zaptes explained that the location was selected due to a sense that “Southwestern Ontario was being underserved”. Zaptes shared that around 250-275 people attended the event and the festival started in 2011 making this year the 14th year of its festivities. Writers for the festival are chosen through a programming committee, it is competitive and they sift through which Canadian artists have published and how it fits in their creative space and look to feature those involved in The New Quarterly and small independent Canadian presses.. All in all, the festival provides an opportunity to meet your favorite authors, as well as discover new emerging authors and their contributions in the writing world.
Author Vinh Nguyen, who works at Renison and the prestigious literary magazine, The New Quarterly, will be in attendance as a non-fiction writer. Nguyen is also the author of Lived Refuge, published in 2023, and his newest memoir The Migrant Rain Falls In Reverse, published this year, which will be featured at the festival. The Migrant Rain Falls In Reverse was written in around eight months, which is quite a quick turnaround considering many of his other books take closer to a year or more. He wanted the memoir to be published in April 2025, which is the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War.
Author Vinh Nguyen will be in attendance as a non-fiction writer. He wrote Living Refuge and the memoir The Migrant Rain Falls In Reverse. (Photo credit: Nam Phi Dang)
He expressed his message of the book and its impactful anti-war standpoint, which frames the tone and language throughout the memoir as he explores “the effects of war, the aftermath of war, how war imprints itself to the lives of people who have to continue to live in its aftermath.” The narrative structure is split into what’s remembered, what happened, and what might have been, which is crucial as a speculative memoir. The speculative point of view helps readers grasp the thought process behind what might have been hoped for as opposed to the reality of what occurred. Like many other authors writing about personal events, Nguyen feared how his book would be perceived. “I think I was more worried about how family members would read it,” Nguyen said, as it’s important to encapsulate and represent accurately and how others want to see themselves. “I really hope the book finds the reader that it needs to find.”
The title The Migrant Falls in Reverse originates from a line from Chinese American poet Li-Young Lee. “I wanted a title that made people pause,” Nguyen said. This quote was important as it connects with his culture and also
He has attended the literary festival since 2018, mentioning that his main goal of the upcoming festival is to connect with others and relate and share thoughts with one another. All together, Nguyen, who will be featured and discussing his book on Nov. 28, is encouraging others to come and interact with the writing community to gain new insights and perspectives.
Another memoir being featured at the festival is Wordly Girls by Tamara Jong, who has work appearing in magazines including The New Quarterly. Her book is presented in an essay-style format with 14 different stories that took over 12 years to compile. Although she doesn’t fully do non-fiction, she decided to venture into the genre after taking a course on non-fiction writing at the University of Guelph. Her inspiration for this book is a desire for connection and for those who have been through similar situations or relate, with a focus on mixed ancestry and religious perspectives from the idea of her growing up as a Jehovah’s Witness.
Jong also likes to use her voice to convey more emotionally resonant truths: “Sometimes you have to pretend to be someone else in order to find your own voice.” Her biggest sense of self-actualization comes from seeing people borrow and buy her book, knowing that there are those who listen to her perspectives. Jong felt worried for how she was going to be perceived by society, especially those who don’t know her backstory. She is sometimes questioned in ways that feel uncomfortable, specifically when she is asked about her long involvement with the religion, or when others misinterpret her portrayal of her family and religion, which are topics often characterized as taboo.
“I have to be honest, this is part of my story,” Jong stated. The title Wordly Girls was originally called “14 stories” as a placeholder, but was later changed as Worldly Girls, in the context of being a Jehovah’s Witness, is seen as negative and something that is connected to the secular world. Whereas the significance of “girls” is due to her explaining the dynamic between family and mothers and daughters.
Jong has previously attended the festival as a reader and is glad to now be a featured author at the event. Her main objective at the festival is to connect and relate to others. As religion can sometimes be a sensitive topic, Jong is glad to have the opportunity to meet with other writers and understand new perspectives.
Overall, the festival assists at engaging both readers and writers for the immersive experience, to connect, share, and celebrate the impact and meaningfulness of language. Through both writers’ stories, one can see how the impact of memoirs and writing can leave a lasting impact on readers, and how the festival works to connect Canadian writers and show appreciation for literary sectors.
