The Cabot Trail Writers Festival is produced by the Cabot Trail Writers Festival Society, a registered Nova Scotia non-profit society. Our Joint Stock Registry number is 3253532.
Volunteer Board of Directors:
Monika Dutt (President)
Robert Burbach (Treasurer)
Alicia Peres (Secretary)
Tom Ryan
Anne Lèvesque
AnnMarie MacKinnon
Suzi Oram-Aylward
Executive & Artistic Director: Rebecca Silver Slayter
Operations Manager: Kimberly Tilsley
Event Manager: Mary Ann Wilson
Volunteer Coordinator: Isabelle Tanner
The festival was inspired by an idea from Gary Walsh and Jeannette Mac Donald, who saw how their friends and neighbours were drawn to a reading they proposed to the St. Ann’s Bay Book Club, which was staged in a local community hall. For our first two years, the festival operated as a committee of the St. Ann’s Bay Development Association (SABDA), a registered non-profit community association whose goals include community and economic development. The relationship gave us the time we needed to find our way, and we appreciate the opportunity. In the years since, new members have joined our board, some former members have retired, and we have relocated the festival base to the Gaelic College to accommodate our ever-growing audience and programming—and yet, even as we grow and evolve, what remains unchanged is the warmth, intimacy and vitality of this community-based festival.
OUR VISION
To cultivate a highly regarded festival in an intimate rural setting that celebrates literature’s unique ability to connect us—where readers connect with writers (and with one another), where the diverse communities of Cape Breton and of Canada connect together, and where culture connects with place.
OUR MISSION
To foster and promote the communities of readers and writers in Cape Breton, facilitating their two-way participation in a national literary culture and conversation.
OUR GOALS
To advance education, literacy, and the public’s appreciation of the arts in the following ways:
to conceive, devise, create, and present an annual celebration of writing, reading, storytelling and the literary arts, as well as adjunct events with the same aims presented throughout the year.
to further the enjoyment and practice of writing through exposure, celebration, and education, by the means of an annual festival, other events featuring writing or learning opportunities, and direct commissioning of new works.
OUR LOCATION
The Cabot Trail is one of the most famous roads in the world, and deservedly so. It wends its way through forests and hills, up mountains and along the Atlantic coast, across wind-swept plains and over rushing rivers, along-side an inland sea and around calm salt-water inlets. In fall, the full glory of autumn leaves and the mild climate of Cape Breton make this place simply irresistible. And we haven’t even mentioned the welcoming people, their ancient cultures, the glorious local farm-fresh food, the soft sea air…
We couldn’t have designed a better spot to trade tales and hatch plots. We hope to share our good fortune with many of you, this year and in years to come.