Last Updated on March 20, 2025 by YGK News Staff
After announcing its closure in early 2025 due to financial struggles the Kingston WritersFest is aiming for a revival for Fall 2025. Co-founder and Artistic Director from 2009-2014, Merilyn Simonds, re-engaged with the festival after hearing the news of its closure, launching the ‘Angel Campaign’ to address its debts.
Initially facing a deficit even with a scaled-down 2024 event, (then Artistic Director Aara Macauley, has since taken a job at CFRC) Simonds says the campaign successfully rallied enough support to begin clearing its debts. Now, she says, WritersFest is looking to the future, with plans for a revitalized festival in September and potential summer reading series.
“I discovered very early on when I was working on Kingston WritersFest and developing it that we weren’t developing a festival so much as we were developing a community,” recounted Simonds. “…It’s a book lovefest, really. And as a writer, there’s no place I’d rather be.”
