Eleanor Catton joins Four Canadian Literary Festivals this September

FOR RELEASE: July 17, 2014

Kingston, ON: Today Kingston WritersFest (www.kingstonwritersfest.ca), Ottawa International Writers Festival (www.writersfestival.org), Winnipeg International Writers Festival (www.thinairwinnipeg.ca), and Blue Metropolis Montreal International Literary Festival (www.bluemetropolis.org) announced a joint venture to bring Man Booker Prize and Governor General’s Award winner Eleanor Catton to Canada for a four-festival Canadian tour that reaches into Manitoba, eastern Ontario, and Quebec. This is a unique partnering among Festivals, initiated by Barbara Bell, the Artistic Director for Kingston WritersFest, and marks a major venture for Canadian Literary Festivals.

Catton’s The Luminaries won the Man Booker Prize making Eleanor, at 28, the youngest winner in the award’s history. The Luminaries also won the Governor General’s Award for Fiction and is currently long-listed for the 2014 Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction. Eleanor’s debut novel, The Rehearsal, won the Amazon.ca First Novel Award, the Betty Trask Award, and the NZ Society of Authors’ Best First Book Award, and was a finalist for the Guardian First Book Award, the Prix Femina Étranger, and the Dylan Thomas Writers Prize.

Eleanor holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and an MA in fiction writing from the International Institute of Modern Letters. She was born in London, Ontario, in 1985 and currently lives in Auckland, New Zealand.

Now in its sixth year, Kingston WritersFest has confirmed itself as a prime Kingston cultural event and one of the top Canadian literary festivals. Our audiences visit from as far away as Vancouver, North Carolina, Vermont, and the UK, as well as Quebec and Ontario, and our authors come from around the world and down the block. Kingston WritersFest will host Eleanor Catton in two events: on September 24, Eleanor Catton, in conversation an onstage conversation with Eleanor Catton and Canadian Giller novelist Elizabeth Hay and on September 25, Canada Made Me a discussion with Canadian-born authors Kate Pullinger (UK), Clive Thompson (US), David Bezmozgis (US), and Eleanor Catton (NZ) on what Canada has – or hasn’t – meant to their lives as writers. Moderated by Jared Bland, Books Editor, Globe & Mail.

Founded in 1997, The Ottawa International Writers Festival holds Spring and Fall Editions each year. It celebrates the world’s best writing from home and abroad with a diverse program that presents interactions with leaders in the worlds of science, history, poetry, politics, economics, fiction, biography, music and more. Eleanor will be participating in a reading and on-stage conversation in Ottawa on September 20th and is the guest of honour at a Literary Luncheon on September 21st with all proceeds supporting OIWF’s children’s literacy programs.

The Winnipeg International Writers Festival’s eight-day literary festival, THINAIR, takes place annually in Winnipeg, Manitoba, each September. THIN AIR 2014, our eighteenth festival, kicks off September 19 with Opening Night with Eleanor Catton, a reading followed by an on-stage conversation with Festival Director Charlene Diehl.

Blue Metropolis Montreal International Literary Festival is one of Canada’s biggest literary festivals, a six-day multilingual (with events in French, English and six other languages) festival held each spring in Montreal. Blue Met will host Eleanor Catton in two stand-alone events: September 21, Eleanor Catton, in conversation an onstage interview about her work and career and September 22, Resilience Through Writing a discussion with adolescents about finding a voice to write in order to survive adolescence/difficult times.

MEDIA:

For accreditation to Kingston WritersFest, to arrange an interview or for more information, please contact Kat Evans at Kingston WritersFest. Tel: 613-214-3457. E-mail: publicist@kingstonwritersfest.ca

For accreditation to Ottawa International Writers Festival, to arrange an interview or for more information, please contact Sean Wilson, the Festival’s Artistic Director. Tel: 613-562-3844. E-mail: sean@writersfestival.org

For accreditation to Winnipeg International Writers Festival, to arrange an interview or for more information, please contact Bruce Symaka, THIN AIR Publicist. Tel: 204-781-3482. Email: publicist@thinairwinnipeg.ca

For accreditation to Blue Metropolis, to arrange an interview or for more information, please contact Lisanne Gamelin at Blue Met. Tel: 514-932-1112 x33. E-mail: lisanne.gamelin@bluemetropolis.org