Kingston writer's festival closes the book after 16 years
Festival was facing 'insurmountable' financial challenges, board of directors says
After 16 years of inviting some of Canada's best-known authors to share their stories with audiences, a popular Kingston, Ont., writer's festival has decided it has reached its final chapter.
The Kingston WritersFest was facing "insurmountable financial challenges" that required the "termination of our staff positions in order to avoid making the situation worse," the non-profit's board of directors said in a statement last week announcing the festival's end.
"Like many arts organizations, we faced significant challenges following the pandemic including decreased attendance, increased operational costs, and reduced revenues from both private and public sources," the statement said.
"Despite implementing various measures to try and address these challenges, we ultimately could not establish a sustainable financial foundation to continue operations."
'A lot of disappointment'
Over the years, acclaimed authors like Margaret Atwood, Lawrence Hill, Emma Donoghue and Adam Gopnik have all attended Kingston WritersFest.
Last year's festival included dozens of events held in venues across the city, from author-led discussions on topics like identity and queerness to literary-themed trivia at a local brewery and open mic nights for new writers.
"Obviously [there's been] a lot of disappointment. This is a really special festival for a lot of people," said Aara Macauley, the festival's now-former artistic director.
One particular disappointment, Macauley told CBC Radio's All In A Day, was that the board decided to shut the festival down without any public outreach.
Staff had been working hard to come up with a business plan for 2025, she added.
"We have an amazing community here in Kingston [and] a lot of incredible supporters. They weren't given an opportunity to help save the festival," Macauley said.
The festival always tried to showcase Kingston's "vibrant" local writing scene, with hundreds of established and emerging authors calling the eastern Ontario city home, Macauley said.
It was also incredibly intimate, Macauley added, offering book lovers a chance to see prominent authors in small venues that fit only a few hundred people.
"We'd faced cash flow issues like this before and made it through. So that's I think where my disappointment comes from," she said.
Despite the festival's decision, Macauley said she remains hopeful it won't mean the outright end of literary-themed events in the city.
"I think that we have an incredible audience and appetite for literary arts in Kingston," she said. "So if there's some way, even on a smaller scale ... to bring events to Kingston on occasion, I would really love to explore that possibility."