The Word On The Street 2010

by JULIA CHAN


Thus begins our countdown to another year at The Word On The Street – our fifth, to be exact! We love being part of WOTS, not only because the people who run the show there are lovely to work with, but also because we love being part of the energy and vibe of the day where so many people come out to celebrate their love of books.

This year we really wanted to do something a bit out of the ordinary, something that would give our writers and our audiences a new way of connecting with each other. We’d seen from the successes of some of our past events that breaking down the “fourth wall,” so to speak, between writer and reader could be so rewarding and invigorating – and the wide open space that is Queen’s Park seemed to be begging us to take advantage of it.

An intense brainstorming session finally yielded the concept of a scavenger hunt – send people on a search, with a checklist of clues, to seek out writers for one-on-one readings, poets for original pieces of poetry, hidden boxes for literary quotations, and all manner of literary oddities.

We’ve got all kinds of writers and poets up our sleeve – you’ll be able to get readings from Marianne Apostolides, Anthony De Sa, Farzana Doctor, Michael Fraser, Kyle Greenwood, Dawn Promislow and Priscila Uppal. You can get your very own poems from Chelsea Gamble, Aisha Sasha John, Marge Lam, and Ian Malczewski. And you can join Shawn Micallef for a guided psychogeographic walk around the Queen’s Park neighbourhood.

For those of you eager to get a jump on the hunt, we’ll be posting the checklist ahead of time on our website as of September 24. For everyone else, just stop by our tent that day and pick one up.

And don’t worry – there will be plenty of prizes for your efforts. Visit our website for details.

See you there!