gritLIT opens a new chapter
Launch party at Theatre Aquarius marks an exciting new page for Hamilton's literary festival.
It was a chilly evening, but the vibe was warm Tuesday as gritLIT, Hamilton’s premiere literary festival, celebrated the launch of its April 2025 event in the lobby of Theatre Aquarius. Hosted by Lishai Peel, City of Hamilton’s poet-in-place, the launch was a sure sign that Hamilton readers have much to look forward to with the arrival of spring and the literary festival.
Now under the leadership of new artistic director Jessica Rose, gritLIT has been celebrating excellence in the literary arts, with a spotlight on diversity and culture in Hamilton, since its founding in 2004. But what hasn’t changed is the wide diversity in the festival lineup, and the quality of the guests who will come to Hamilton in a few short weeks.
The festival kicks off April 9 at the Playhouse Cinema with author, and Academy Award nominee, Emma Donahue in celebration of her new book The Paris Express. The festival continues at Homewood Suites by Hilton in downtown Hamilton with digital programming on April 23, a headline event on April 24, and three days of readings, panels, and interactive events including eight new writing workshops, the popular Flash Fiction Contest and the launch of Devouring Tomorrow, an anthology of speculative fiction about the future of food in celebration of Earth Day.
Photo: Stephen Near
Among the nearly 30 guest appearances, featured authors will include Margaret Nowaczyk (Marrow Memory), Amanda Leduc (Wild Life), Daniel Coleman (Yardwork: A Biography of an Urban Place), Maxie Dara (A Grim Reaper's Guide to Catching a Killer) and Pasha Malla (All You Can Kill), as well as poet Liz Worth and children's book author Nicola Winstanley (Mel and Mo's Marvelous Balancing Act).
In addition, this year will see the debut of the Festival Field Trips. “We’re encouraging people to enjoy a little bit of Hamilton while they're with us,” Rose told launch attendees. “So we're doing a story time at the Hamilton Farmers’ Market. And we're doing our first ever writing workshop at the Art Gallery of Hamilton with Gary Barwin called If a Picture is Worth a Thousand Words, Let’s Write Them.”
Another popular event is the spotlight series. “Every year we invite an author to shed light on some emerging authors they're really excited about,” says Rose. “In the past we've had Margaret Atwood, Lawrence Hill, and Gary Barwin. This year, we're excited to have fantasy writer Sarah Raughley, whose new book is called The Queen’s Spade. This year, Sarah has picked two authors who she'll sit down with: Maya Ameyaw and Sadi Muktadir.”
Aside from the poetry of Peel, guests at the launch were treated to a reading by author Sarah O’Connor, whose short story Peach Baby won the annual gritLIT short story contest. O’Connor’s plays have been seen onstage at several festivals, including HamilTEN Festival, Mind Play Theatre Festival, and Neruda Art’s She Creates Festival. O’Connor will be featured at gritLIT alongside those short-listed for the short story contest.
Rose is excited to introduce many new features to this year’s festival, drawn from a host of surveys done in the past year. “A lot of people had great feedback about gritLIT and all the things they really like about the festival,” says Rose. As a result, this year will build on the tradition for the gritLIT to bring “the best contemporary Canadian writers to Hamilton to engage with local book lovers, to inspire and to be inspired by Hamilton authors, to promote a love of reading in young audiences and to celebrate the exchange of diverse ideas, experiences and viewpoints.”
The full schedule for gritLIT will be released March 1 when all tickets will be on sale. Weekend passes are now on sale at an early bird rate of $75, which will increase to $100 on March 1.
They can be purchased here. Tickets for Emma Donahue are on sale now here.
