39. THE HISTORICAL FICTION HIGH TEA - The FOLD
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Home Festival & Events The Festival of Literary Diversity Schedule 39. THE HISTORICAL FICTION HIGH TEA

39. THE HISTORICAL FICTION HIGH TEA

In-Person Feature Event

Description

Historical Fiction High Tea

Suzette Mayr, Janika Oza, and Sheila Murray, Moderated By Jael Richardson

The annual Sunday brunch is back! Don your Sunday best, assemble your fascinator, grab your friends, and join us for a delightful high tea with three incredible historical fiction writers. This history-making special-tea event includes fun trivia with incredible prizes. Limited availability. Be sure to reserve tickets by Sunday, April 30.

Date: May 7, 2023
Time: 12:00pm – 1:30pm ET

Location: The Rose Theatre in Brampton, ON

This is a specialty event with a ticket price of $25 CAD. It is not included with a festival pass.

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How to Register

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 young Indian Canadian woman with long dark hair, wearing a patterned beige shirt and standing against a light brown wall.
Janika Oza
Bio
A middle-aged Black woman with greying black hair pulled back from her face. She wears silver hoop earrings and bright read lipstick and stands against a grey wall.
Suzette Mayr
Bio
A senior Black woman with short curly grey hair, wearing a multi-coloured scarf.
Sheila Murray
Bio
JRichardon_SimonRemarkPhotography
Jael Richardson
Bio
A young Indian Canadian woman with long dark hair, wearing a patterned beige shirt and standing against a light brown wall.

Janika Oza

Janika Oza is the author of the novel A History Of Burning, forthcoming from McClelland & Stewart in May 2023. She is the winner of the 2022 O. Henry Prize for Short Fiction, and the 2020 Kenyon Review Short Fiction Award, and her stories and essays have appeared in publications such as The Best Small Fictions 2019 Anthology, Catapult, The Adroit Journal, and Prairie Schooner, among others. She lives in Toronto.

A middle-aged Black woman with greying black hair pulled back from her face. She wears silver hoop earrings and bright read lipstick and stands against a grey wall.

Suzette Mayr

Suzette Mayr is the author of six novels including her most recent, The Sleeping Car Porter, winner of the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Award. Her other novels have won the ReLit Award and City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize, and been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Commonwealth Prize for Best Book in the Canada-Caribbean Region, the Writers’ Guild of Alberta’s Best First Book and Best Novel Awards, and the Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBT Fiction. Mayr teaches Creative Writing at the University of Calgary.

A senior Black woman with short curly grey hair, wearing a multi-coloured scarf.

Sheila Murray

Sheila Murray’s 2022 debut novel, Finding Edward, was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award and was a longlisted nominee for Canada Reads 2023. It was listed in the Globe and Mail’s 100 best books, CBC’s best fiction, 49th Shelf’s best books and the Toronto Star’s books gift guide. Her short fiction has appeared in many Canadian literary journals. Sheila has worked as a documentary filmmaker and television sound editor. She moved to the non-profit sector in 2009, and leads a grassroots, volunteer-driven initiative that engages urban residents in adapting to local climate change impacts.

JRichardon_SimonRemarkPhotography

Jael Richardson

Jael Richardson is the author of Gutter Child, The Hockey Jersey, Because You Are, The Stone Thrower, and the founder and Executive Director of the Festival of Literary Diversity (FOLD) in Brampton, Ontario. Gutter Child was shortlisted for the Amazon First Novel Award and was a finalist for the Forest of Reading White Pine Award. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph and lives in Brampton, Ontario.

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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