GritLit is the annual Hamilton literary festival. For years I didn’t go, for a number of reasons, but the most compelling one was that I was busy running Artword Artbar. Well, that’s over now, so now I can go.

I was impressed. It was consistently really interesting, the authors smart, their answers candid and to the point. I ended up buying more books than I expected. Eleven, in fact.

It got off to a bit of a rocky start with the Divas and Dudes lunch session on Friday: “sneak peeks . . . for the best reads of summer 2024”. I guess summer reads are not my thing. I thought “some books I don’t have to buy”. But I don’t go to the beach either.

The next session was Mary Francis Moore, the artistic director of Theatre Aquarius, talking with Tom Wilson about turning his book Beautiful Scars into a play. Two really intelligent people really getting into the issues.

Hamilton Writes was hosted by Megan Divecha, very personable, who started with someone not actually in the program, Lishai Peel. Their discussion was fascinating, so fascinating that Megan seemed to lose track of the time. There were four more to go: Gary Barwin, Dannabang Kuwabong, David Neil Lee and George Matuvi. Fortunately, Megan did move on, and we got to hear from all. I already knew Gary Barwin and David Lee, and their work. Dannabang Kuwabong has a book of poems, Saragasso Sea Scrolls. He explained that the Saragasso … Read the rest