18. SUBMISSIONS AND SELECTIONS - The FOLD
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Home Festival & Events The Festival of Literary Diversity Schedule 18. SUBMISSIONS AND SELECTIONS

18. SUBMISSIONS AND SELECTIONS

Virtual Event

Description

In this workshop-panel mashup, three publishing professionals dive into the difficult process of selecting work for a collective publication while tackling important tips and tricks that all writers should know when it comes to making submissions. Moderated by Natasha Ramoutar.

Date: May 2, 2023
Time: 4:00pm – 5:00pm ET

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How to Register

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The 2023 festival will run from April 30 – May 7. Dedicated virtual programming on our innovative, online platform will run April 30 – May 3, while in-person events — many of which will also be live-streamed and available on-demand for virtual audiences — will run May 4-7.

A Virtual Festival Pass gives guests access to more than 20 virtual events which can be viewed from the website or through our festival app designed for mobile devices. In addition to festival events, virtual passes provide users with direct access to more than a dozen vendors in our festival exhibitor hall. Guests who purchase a virtual pass can also participate in trivia times, roundtable discussions and our new festival after-parties, which will follow all of our evening events.

An In-Person Festival Pass gives users access to all of our virtual events as well as our standard in-person events in Brampton, Ontario on Saturday, May 6.

This year, the festival includes three in-person Specialty Events – the Dine N’ Draw on May 4, the Literary Cabaret on May 5 and our Historical Fiction High Tea on May 7. Tickets for these events are not covered with our passes and are only available until April 30.

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On a Budget? Check out our Patron Pass program.

Featured Speaker(s)

A white non-binary individual with short blonde hair, wearing a striped shirt, dark sunglasses and white coveralls. They are outside and it is bright and sunny.
Kerry C. Byrne
Bio
An Asian woman with shoulder-length dark hair, smiling against a black background.
Anita Chong
Bio
A Filipino-Canadian woman with long dark hair. She is sitting on wooden steps indoors and wears two prosthetic legs.
Therese Estacion
Bio
A young Guyanese-Canadian woman with long dark hair, wearing a dark floral print shirt and looking out of a window.
Natasha Ramoutar
Bio
A white non-binary individual with short blonde hair, wearing a striped shirt, dark sunglasses and white coveralls. They are outside and it is bright and sunny.

Kerry C. Byrne

Kerry C. Byrne an autistic, queer and nonbinary editor/community organizer/writer/cat lover living in Toronto, ON. They are the Co-Founder and Publisher of Augur Magazine, as well as the Co-Director of AugurCon, a two-day Canadian speculative literature event. As a writer, their fiction and poetry can be found or is forthcoming in Solarpunk Magazine, Fantasy Magazine, THIS Magazine, and others. Otherwise, they can be found rifling through the depths of their D&D world, Illaran. Find them on Twitter as @kercoby.

An Asian woman with shoulder-length dark hair, smiling against a black background.

Anita Chong

Anita Chong is Executive Editor at McClelland & Stewart, where she edits literary fiction and memoir, and champions writers from traditionally underrepresented communities. Books she has edited include Souvankham Thammavongsa’s How to Pronounce Knife, Tsering Yangzom Lama’s We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies, Sharon Bala’s The Boat People, Reema Patel’s Such Big Dreams, Michael Christie’s Greenwood, and, most recently, Jen Sookfong Lee’s Superfan: How Pop Culture Broke My Heart and Janika Oza’s A History of Burning. Anita is also the manager of the Writers’ Trust McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize for emerging Canadian writers.

A Filipino-Canadian woman with long dark hair. She is sitting on wooden steps indoors and wears two prosthetic legs.

Therese Estacion

Therese Estacion is part of the Visayan diaspora community. She is an elementary school teacher and is currently studying to be a psychotherapist. Therese is also a bilateral below knee and partial hands amputee. She has been a guest editor and judge for Poetry in Voice. Her first book, Phantompains, was published by Book*Hug, and was a finalist for the CLMP Firecracker Awards and the 2021 Indies Foreward Review. She lives in Toronto/Tkaronto.

A young Guyanese-Canadian woman with long dark hair, wearing a dark floral print shirt and looking out of a window.

Natasha Ramoutar

Natasha Ramoutar is a writer of Indo-Guyanese descent from Scarborough. Her debut poetry collection Bittersweet was published in 2020 by Mawenzi House.

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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