Call for Presenters
Presenters: Find all Programming email notices here
Established in 2011 as an annual 3-day literary festival celebrating the written word, When Words Collide has quickly grown into one of the largest festivals in Canada for readers and writers, reaching our registration cap of 750 attendees the past several years. One of the many things that makes When Words Collide popular as well as unique is our program, featuring ~200 experts participating in over 250 program hours of discussions, presentation/workshops, and agent/editor pitch sessions.
When Words Collide is an annual not-for-profit, volunteer-run festival devoted to the written word. Each year the festival honours 4 or 5 authors and 1 editor or literary agent, called festival guests, for their achievements in the publishing industry. In line with our volunteer model of operation, we cover expenses for our festival guests, but do not provide a speakers fee. Like our organizers, festival guests volunteer their time and talents as part of the literary community.
We also encourage professionals attending the festival to participate in our program, speaking on topics of interest to the literary community. Called presenters, typically ~200 attending professionals volunteer to participate in our program each year, sharing their knowledge of literature, industry experience, and topical expertise to educate and delight their audience. Click to see our program in development and growing list of presenters.
Our program runs from 1 PM Friday to 5 PM Sunday. If you are attending When Words Collide and are not currently on our presenter mailing list and wish to volunteer to participate in our program, please let us know by completing our Presenter Registration Form (.doc, .rtf), and returning it to by email. If your word processor has trouble viewing the form, the simplified RTF form may be used instead. Once processed, you will be included in future program correspondence.
Presenter Opportunities include:
- Discussion Panels - 4 speakers discuss a set topic, offering different points of view, backgrounds and experiences, and take questions from the audience.
- Presentations/workshops - A single speaker or team presents a topic.
- Book Socials - Publishers host 50-minute social events around new and upcoming titles or other activities in the literary world.
- Pitch Sessions - An editor takes 5 or 10 minute pitches from writers with manuscripts.
- Blue Pencil Café - An editor spends 12 minutes offering feedback on manuscript first pages.
- information on how our not-for-profit, volunteer-run festival is structured can be found in our FAQ.
Note for Attending Authors
Whether you are presenting or not, attending authors with published titles have opportunities to make them available to other attendees and the general public.
- The Merchants Corner - Check with our on-site book stores and publishers to see if their carry your titles. Let them know you will be promoting your titles at the festival and will be available for autographs. If they do not carry your titles, IFWA (the Imaginative Fiction Writers Association) hosts a Shared Author Table where you can make your titles available.
- Autograph Session - On Saturday evening we have space for 100+ authors to sign books. Let us know if you would like one of those spots.
- Saturday Night Rapid Readings - Read a scene from one of your published works.