“A cross between Woodstock and the Algonquin Round Table,” is what Michael Redhill called it. Dorothy Parker grinding out an electric cover of “The Star Spangled Banner”? Well, not quite. Rather, Redhill, the literary curator for Luminato 2013, was describing A Literary Picnic, the annual festival’s celebration of storytelling, creativity, and the written word.
On Saturday, June 22, 60 authors will hold very casual court in Trinity Bellwoods Park, reading from their works, discussing their writing processes, signing autographs, and reclining on blankets for one-on-one chats with fans. The Toronto Public Library Bookmobile will be nearby for anyone looking to borrow a tome or two, and picnic-goers are invited to swap books with each other at a designated table. A fleet of local food trucks will be on hand for those whose arms are too full of books to carry a packed lunch.
As Redhill’s “Woodstock Round Table” line suggests, A Literary Picnic is a mash-up of tastes. The free admission and communal feel may be hippie-friendly, but this bookish sit-in has a pedigree that would please even the most straight-laced literature snob. Redhill and his team have booked a roster of highly acclaimed authors from an array of literary forms and genres: Believer Book Award–winner Tamara Faith Berger; Jessica Westhead, one of CBC Books’s top 10 female writers of 2012; Griffin Poetry Prize–shortlisted Priscila Uppal; Globe and Mail Books Editor Jared Bland; and dozens more writers of novels, short stories, poetry, and non-fiction.
Evan Munday, author of the Silver Birch-nominated Dead Kid Detective Agency, will be at the picnic to preview Dial M for Morna, the second installment of his mystery-fantasy series for young readers. But Munday, who is also a publicist at Coach House Books literary press, is equally excited to see the other headliners at the picnic. “I hope I’m able to catch them all,” he said, reeling off the names of several of his favourite attending authors.
A Literary Picnic represents the breaking of new ground for Toronto’s literary community. “This is the very first time an event like this has ever been mounted in Toronto,” Redhill said. In addition to marking the start of a new program, the afternoon’s theme, “Beginnings,” is a nod to Luminato’s June 20 citizenship ceremony, featuring a talk by Institute for Canadian Citizenship Executive Director and CEO Gillian Smith. And, more relevant to the authors at the picnic, it’s an acknowledgement of the challenge that every artist faces when starting a new project, a self-directed question that Redhill summarizes as, “How to start?”