7. Keeping It Short - The FOLD
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Home Festival & Events The Festival of Literary Diversity FOLD 2022 7. Keeping It Short

7. Keeping It Short

Virtual Event

Description

In this panel, authors Jack Wang, Kim Fu and Norma Dunning discuss the makings of a phenomenal short story. From character development to dialogue, discover the creative craft involved in writing a short story and details that go into publishing a collection.

Date: May 2, 2022
Time: 8:00 pm – 9:15 pm ET

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How to Register

Guests can choose from three types of passes for FOLD 2022:

  • Virtual Events Only Passes ($35)
  • Virtual Plus In-Person Events Passes ($45)
  • In-Person Only Passes ($15)

GET YOUR FESTIVAL PASS HERE

Secondary school educators can choose a special Educator pass (with the same virtual and in-person options), which allow them to create a Student Access Login which their students can use to log on to individual devices.

Bundle passes are available for groups of five educators who wish to reduce the price of their pass by buying in bulk.

School discounts and board discounts are available by request until early April.

GET YOUR EDUCATOR PASS HERE

On a Budget? Check out our Patron Pass program.

Featured Speaker(s)

Photo of author Jack Wang--a middle-aged Chinese-Canadian man with short dark hair, wearing a dark blue button-up t-shirt. He stands against a brick wall and looks off to his left.
Jack Wang
Bio
A photo of a young Asian-Canadian woman with an asymetrical haircut, silhouetted against a café window.
Kim Fu
Bio
A middle-aged Indigenous woman with long dark hair, wearing a plaid red scarf and a black top. She holds a copy of the short story collection TAINNA in her hands.
Norma Dunning
Bio
A black and white photo of an Indian-Canadian woman with long dark hair and bangs. She wears a dark top over a white tank top and is smiling softly.
Sharon Bala
Bio
Photo of author Jack Wang--a middle-aged Chinese-Canadian man with short dark hair, wearing a dark blue button-up t-shirt. He stands against a brick wall and looks off to his left.

Jack Wang

Jack Wang is the author of We Two Alone (House of Anansi Press, HarperVia), winner of the 2020 Danuta Gleed Literary Award from the Writers’ Union of Canada for best debut collection in English. His fiction has been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize and longlisted for the Journey Prize. He has received funding from the Canada Council for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts and held the 2014-15 David T. K. Wong Creative Writing Fellowship at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England. He teaches writing at Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York.

A photo of a young Asian-Canadian woman with an asymetrical haircut, silhouetted against a café window.

Kim Fu

Kim Fu is a Canadian-born writer living in Seattle, Washington. Fu’s most recent book, the short story collection Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century, received starred reviews from Quill & Quire, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and Foreword. Her novel The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award and the OLA Evergreen Award, and her novel For Today I Am a Boy won the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction and was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award. Fu’s writing has appeared in Granta, the Atlantic, the New York Times, Hazlitt, and enRoute.

A middle-aged Indigenous woman with long dark hair, wearing a plaid red scarf and a black top. She holds a copy of the short story collection TAINNA in her hands.

Norma Dunning

Norma Dunning is an Inuk writer, professor and grandmother. Her book, Tainna (the unseen ones) received the Governor General’s award for literary fiction in English 2021. Her short story collection, Annie Muktuk and Other Stories (University of Alberta Press, 2017), received the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, the Howard O’Hagan Award for Short Story and the Bronze for short stories in the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards. She is also the author of Eskimo Pie (Bookland Press, 2020), a collection of poetry and an Alberta bestseller. Her second collection of poetry, Akia (the other side) is releasing in July of 2022. Norma Dunning lives in Edmonton, Alberta.

A black and white photo of an Indian-Canadian woman with long dark hair and bangs. She wears a dark top over a white tank top and is smiling softly.

Sharon Bala

Sharon Bala is the author of The Boat People, which won a couple of awards, was short listed for a few others, is available in five languages, and was a best-seller. She won The Journey Prize in 2017.

The FOLD is a remarkable and wonderful event for authors and attendees alike. What an amazing community, dedicated to the vital need for inclusive stories and the critical role they play in building a better world.

Soraya Chemaly, author of Rage Becomes Her

Field Guide to the North American Teenager is my first novel and FOLD was my first Canadian literary festival. While American and Canadian culture overlap quite a bit, especially when it comes to bookshelves, Canadian literature is unique and I was very heartened by to be embraced by that community I consider home despite residing in the US. It was a homecoming I didn’t know I needed!

Ben Philippe, author of Field Guide to the North American Teenager

The Festival of Literary Diversity was an absolute joy–the organizers thought of *everything* and by anticipating authors’ needs, they freed us to focus on connecting with the audience and each other. There was no pretension, no posturing–just very genuine conversations with invested writers and engaged readers.

Zetta Elliott, author of Dragons in a Bag

I have been to a lot of writers festivals and the FOLD is definitely near the top of the list of those I want to be invited back to.

Harold Johnson, author of the memoirs Clifford and Firewater

Being part of such a clearly diverse, inclusive and mutually respectful group was thrilling and inspiring: a glimpse of a better world.

Kathy Page, author of Dear Evelyn, winner of the 2018 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize

Wherever I go in Canada and find another writer of colour, we eventually end up gushing about how great the FOLD is, how by normalizing diversity it liberates us to talk to audiences about craft. It’s hard to imagine the literary landscape returning to a prehistoric pre-FOLD era.

Ian Williams, Author of the Giller Prize-winning novel Reproduction

FOLD is a festival experience unlike any other I’ve had. The FOLD team strive to create a space that’s welcoming and engaging, while allowing for curiosity, ingenuity and the fostering of real community – and they succeed, every year.

Alicia Elliott, author of A Mind Spread Out On The Ground

The FOLD is one of the most important literary events on this continent. By focusing on diverse voices and giving authors space to share their stories and speak their truths, it is revolutionizing the writing and storytelling realm as we know it.

Waubgeshig Rice, author of Moon Of The Crusted Snow

Being part of the FOLD community has provided me with a strong sense of belonging. Sharing diverse stories and listening to different voices that broaden my understanding of the world has impacted me as a person and motivated me as a writer.

Ann Y.K. Choi, author of Kay’s Lucky Coin Variety

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