The Festival’s opening ceremony will take place on Friday, April 17 at 11 am at Moncton City Hall and everyone is welcome. Senator Andrée Champagne will attend the launch and speak on behalf of the federal government, Department of Heritage.

Antonine Maillet

Later that evening, 10 years of the Frye Festival will be celebrated with acclaimed Canadian and Acadian authors John Ralston Saul and Antonine Maillet. These two pillars of literature will engage in a bilingual dialogue on Canada seen through the eyes of Acadia and vice versa. The evening starts at 8 pm at the Jeanne-de-Valois Auditorium on the U de M campus and will be followed by a reception.

Setting the stage for New Brunswick’s emerging writers
Every year, many great writers appear on the New Brunswick literary scene. On Monday April 20, Pat Leech, Riel Nason, Anne Levesque, Lison Beaulieu, and Paul Bossé will take the stage at Le Caveau for Prelude featuring emerging NB writers. Accompanied by experienced authors Gerard Beirne, from Ireland, and Acadian poet Serge Patrice Thibodeau, they will present some of their latest work.  The evening begins at 8 pm.

Miriam Toews

Great authors, inspiring events, wonderful discoveries
The Frye Festival always welcomes renowned authors from all over Canada and around the world and this year is no exception with Jane Urquhart (The Stone Carvers), Miriam Toews (The Flying Troutmans), and Wayne Johnston (The Custodian of Paradise). All three will be on stage for The Best of Canadian Lit, Friday, April 24 at the Empress Theater, 8 pm. The event will be hosted by The Globe and Mail’s book editor, Martin Levin.

Miriam Toews will take part in the roundtable Life as Material on Thursday, April 23 at noon at Moncton City Hall and she and Wayne Johnston will read at the Saturday Brunch and Books on April 25 at Kramer’s Corner, 9:30 am. Miriam Toews is also featured in the Frye Jam lineup. Fans are invited to take part in a book club with Jane Urquhart at the Moncton Public Library on Thursday, April 23 at 2 pm. She will also participate in the roundtable How “Real” is your Fiction? on Friday, April 24 at noon along with Wayne Johnston at Moncton City Hall.

Robert J. Sawyer

John Ralston Saul will present A Fair Country: Telling Truths about Canada, his latest book on Saturday, April 18, at noon, at Moncton City Hall. On Sunday, April 19, Neil Smith, one of Canada’s up-and-coming authors will discuss his book Bang Crunch for the Community Read event to be held at 3 pm in the Capitol Theater Lobby. Entrance is free!

Sci-Fi fans will not want to miss a presentation by Canada’s dean of Science-Fiction writing, Robert J. Sawyer. He will be at the Moncton Press Club on Saturday, April 25 at 2 pm. He just released the first book of a new World Wide Web trilogy: Wake.

Still have your teenage diary lying around, or perhaps some poetry written when you were sixteen? On Wednesday, April 22, the public and authors are invited to share any cringe-worthy, humorous or inspiring writing from their youth during the Réveille evening. The fun starts at 7 pm at the Moncton Press Club.

Gerard Beirne

Spend an evening with some great authors on Friday, April 24 for the Mostly Fiction event. Joel Thomas Hynes (Right Away Monday), Gerard Beirne (The Eskimo in the Net), Jean Barbe (Le travail de l’huître), and Marie Cadieux (Enfance et autres fissures) will offer readings at the bar Le Caveau starting at 4:30 pm.

A magical evening mixing music and readings by some of Canada’s prominent authors, the Soirée Frye will feature Don McKay, Jane Urquhart, Serge Patrice Thibodeau, and Alain M. Bergeron. Musical guests are David Miles and Joseph Edgar. The Soirée Frye will take place Thursday, April 23 at the Capitol Theatre at 8 pm and will be followed by a reception to meet the authors.

The Frye Festival celebrates well into the night with Night Howl events hosted by Moncton poet Paul Bossé. Thursday, April 23 and Friday, April 24, everyone is invited to Le Caveau starting at 10:30 pm – come to listen or pick up a mike to share your thoughts!

Wayne Johnston

On Saturday, April 25, the Frye Jam offers a mix of readings and music by some of the region’s best musicians in a more informal setting. Hosted by Les Païens, the event will take place from 10 pm to last call at the bar Le Caveau. Featured musical guests are: Oumou Soumaré, John Jerome and the Great 88, and Carey Beck.

The Antonine Maillet-Northrop Frye lecture will be presented by Monique LaRue (2002 Governor General’s Award) on Saturday, April 25 at noon at Moncton City Hall. The lecture is titled “Between Two Books: The Writer’s Time”.

Frye Festival Youth events
On Wednesday, April 22, the creative talent of the regions’ youth will be in the spotlight at Café Underground, featuring performances by high school students of their own poetry and prose. The evening will take place at the Empress Theater at 7 pm. Lisa LeBlanc, a young and promising singer songwriter from Rosaireville, will be the musical guest. Entrance is free.

Kids and their parents are invited to KidsFest on Saturday, April 25 at the Moncton Public Library. The morning will feature readings by authors, word games, writing workshops, theatre presentations, contests, Poetry Party Hats, a book swap, birthday cake and much more!. The first 500 kids will receive a free book. Entrance is free and the fun is guaranteed!

Jane Urquhart

Promoting the importance of reading and writing in schools across the province is one of the key elements of the Frye Festival’s School/Youth Program which will feature 140 schools visits this year alone (70 in French and 70 in English). Guest authors will visit schools all over south-eastern New Brunswick, Kent County, and the Acadian Peninsula.

Tickets for the 2009 Frye Festival can be purchased through the Greater Moncton ticket network at ticket.moncton.ca or by calling (506) 857-4100. For all the latest details on the Festival and its 10th edition visit www.frye.ca.

Canada’s only bilingual, international literary festival will take place in Moncton from Friday April 17 to Sunday April 26.

Writing for Film

Tony Sekulich

Saint John, New Brunswick born Tony Sekulich will be giving the Writing for Film Workshop “Story and the Art of Pitching” on Friday April 24 from 9am to 4pm. The workshop is designed to give participants insight into the craft of turning a great story idea into a winning pitch.

“It is not enough to simply come up with a good story, but you must also know how to communicate that story in as little as one sentence or as much as a two hour conversation,” explains Sekulich who considers the art of pitching a story a tool that all aspiring and professional screenwriters must have in their repertoire.

Participants will have the opportunity to pitch a screenplay idea in front of the group. The workshop will take place at the Aberdeen Cultural Centre and the cost is $35. Space is limited!

Tony Sekulich has been a professional screenwriter, story editor, and producer for more than 15 years. In 2003, he adapted Stevie Cameron’s best-selling book Blue Trust into a feature film script. That same year, Tony wrote for the critically acclaimed CTV series Robson Arms. In 2007 Tony’s feature film script The Rivals was sold to Grana Productions and in the fall of 2007 his feature script Sharkjumping was recognized as a top screenplay at the 2007 Austin Film Festival screenplay competition.

Poetry, Science Fiction and more!

Workshops will begin on Thursday April 23 with a Poetry Workshop hosted by Quebec poet Monique Deland, from 9:30 to 11:30am.

On Friday, April 24 from 9:30 to 11:30am, New Brunswick author Sheree Fitch will lead participants into “Write Now,” a workshop for adults who’ve always wanted to write but can’t find time or confidence, for those who do write but don’t make the time and sometimes lose heart, or for word lovers ready to put pen to paper. Sheree has been teaching writing for over 20 years and has a few surprises to jump start everybody’s creativity.

Jo-Anne Elder will be hosting a Creative Writing Workshop (in French) on Friday April 24 from 9:30 to 11:30am (in replacement of Monique LaRue).

Later that afternoon, Irish writer Gerard Beirne will offer a Poetry Workshop from 2 to 4pm. Beirne is currently Writer-in-Residence at UNB and his novel The Eskimo in the Net was short-listed for The Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award 2004.

All these workshops will be taking place at the Moncton Public Library.

Science fiction lovers will have the unique opportunity to meet and learn from one of Canada’s best Sci-Fi writers, Robert J. Sawyer, on Saturday April 25 from 9:30 to 11:30am at Mad City Comics (363 Mountain Road).

“Science Fiction is often called ‘the literature of ideas,’ but where do those ideas come from? How do you turn a grandly cosmic vision into an intimately human story? What is the relationship between theme and plot? And how do you take the classic elements of science fiction – time travel, starships, alien beings, artificial intelligence, alternate worlds – and do something fresh with them, when so many other writers have already mined the same topics?” These are some of the topics Sawyer wishes to explore during the workshop. The author’s highly anticipated new novel Wake, a World Wide Web intrigue, will hit shelves in Canada mid-April.

The same day, Quebec novelist Lise Tremblay will be hosting a Creative Writing Workshop (in French) at the Dieppe Public Library from 9:30 to 11:30am.

Writing Workshops for Children

Kids 8-12 years old are invited to take part in a Writing Workshop with Sheree Fitch on Saturday April, 25 at the Moncton Public Library from 10 to 11am. The workshop will take place during the KidsFest event.

French illustrator of children’s books Jean-Claude Bauer will be on hand to offer a comic book writing workshop in French for kids 8-10 years old.
Entrance for children’s workshops is free.

Tickets for the Frye Festival workshops can be purchased at www.tickets.moncton.ca or by calling (506) 857-4100. Unless otherwise noted, workshops are $10.

For more information on the Frye Festival’s 10th edition go to www.frye.ca.