So are you co-ordinating the volunteer readers or are you just a volunteer reader yourself?
I’m just one of the volunteer readers. I’ve been doing it for two years now. It’s a lot of fun.
How did you get involved?
I think I was on Wordfest’s mailing list. I work in publishing so I get all their notices and I read a lot so getting to read and possibly influence who comes to the festival that sounded like a pretty cool thing.
And free books too?
Free books often out months in advance of their release. I’ll read a book in February or something like that and I’m telling everyone about it and they’re like “it doesn’t come out until September.” I got to read it.
Working in publishing do you get that anyway?
A little bit but not to the same extent. You know I don’t have access to Random House’s galleys or anything through my regular job. Occasionally I’ll get to read something that another publisher sends or if we’re doing an event with someone I’ll get an advance copy of something.
Does Wordfest have a minimum or do you just read as many as you want?
You can read as many as you want. They ask that you read and get back to them — I can’t remember but I think within two or three weeks — so if you have a book make sure you read it and get it back within two or three weeks so someone else can read it and they don’t just end up with one review for that book.
So it’s multiple people per book and not just relying on one person’s expertise.
For sure that’s kind of the idea you get to see what multiple people think of all the books. If any consensus emerges or if one person says they love the book and another says they hate the book that could make for an interesting author to bring just getting those reactions.
How many books did you read this year?
For the volunteer readers program?
Yeah.
I think 13.
Oh wow so you must be one of their big contributors?
I don’t know possibly.
That seems like a lot of books.
It’s a fair number.
Are you a fast reader?
I’m a fast reader. I read a lot.
I was told there were 185 books read this year?
Yeah I’m not sure how many volunteers there are. Whenever I did go in there’s a sign-out list it’s sort of like an old library — sign out what book you have and your name and the date — and there was always tons of names on the list it’s not like it’s only two people doing all the reading or anything like that.
Do you have to provide a pretty fulsome report when you’re done with the book?
A pretty short one — answer a sort of short questionnaire about it a few questions and then write 200 or 300 words on what you thought about the book or what the author was trying to do. A quick book report nothing too in-depth. It’s kind of fun — it’s short and the people that are going to read it are at Wordfest it’s not going out into the world but they can they post some of them online with your permission. But if it’s a book that you don’t really get or understand you don’t have to kind of pretend you did. You can have really honest reactions.
Did you have a favourite?
Um… yes. I forgot… I had a list of all the books I read because that was an obvious question. I really liked The Opening Sky by Joan Thomas which was the last book I read and she’s actually not coming to the festival. I read it at the very end when they’d already invited everyone but it was a fantastic book that I really liked.
That was the other thing I was going to ask — did your picks make it into the festival?
Quite a few. I didn’t go through and count how many of the 13 books I read are at the festival but quite a number of them at least six or seven of those 13 books that I read all of which I enjoyed. That’s kind of the fun part about seeing who’s coming to the festival “oh yeah I read that book and that book and that book.”
Do you feel like you can take some credit for it?
Maybe a little bit.
You’re also hosting the Readers’ Choice event on October 16 at Festival Hall. What is the event?
It’s a new event this year. I think they decided that in addition to you know using some of the reviews to help program the festival it would be nice to put together an event that’s just about what the volunteer readers really liked so it’s just as much about readers as it is the writers. So they invited four authors to take part and I had read all of them and I was very excited. I was talking to Jo [Steffens Wordfest executive director] about it and said “I read all of those ones for the readers program it looks fantastic.” And so she said “well then you should host the event.”
Are you excited about it? A little nervous?
It will be fun. I have to think about some good questions. This author [Padma Viswanathan] was just shortlisted for the Giller Prize so I was like “oh well that’s a heavy-hitting author on that panel.
A little bit intimidated by that?
Not really. I think it will be fun.
What’s your role as a host?
I get to introduce everyone and ask a few questions after each author reads about their book. And then the idea is to have a bit of a conversation at the end with all four authors. I think because it’s an event that’s just as much about readers I’d like to find out what they like to read.
You said you work in publishing. Who do you work for?
I work for Freehand Books a literary publisher in Calgary that’s an imprint of Broadview Press which is an academic publisher.
What do you do for Freehand?
I’m the managing editor. We’re a very small staff I’m the only full-time staff member so that involves a little bit of everything from scheduling to editing.
It’s always been two people at Freehand I think. Has it ever gotten bigger than that?
No. We use a lot of freelancers for editing and design and stuff like that. It wouldn’t be possible to do if it was just a one- or two-person operation. We couldn’t do it without freelancers and board members and all that.
So you must just be reading all the time.
I read a lot for everything. I haven’t got sick of it. Some people who read all day they don’t want to read the rest of their life but I just read all the time anyway so being a part of the Wordfest reader program is a good way to do something useful with what I’m doing anyway.
What’s coming up for Freehand?
We do four books a year. We just put out two books this fall one’s a memoir about adoption from Ukraine called Detachment. And the other one is a novel by a Pakistani-Canadian writer called Between Clay and Dust so that was kind of cool getting to publish a book that had originally been published in India and Pakistan and now two years later is in Canada for the first time.
That must be a first for Freehand doing something like that.
It is. It’s the first time we’ve gotten rights to publish a book that’s previously been published elsewhere.
I imagine part of the freelance thing is going through manuscripts that are submitted to you?
Yup. Deborah Willis who’s a writer in Calgary she’s our submissions co-ordinator. So she goes through all the stuff that comes in and that’s a big job.
How many manuscripts do you think in a year?
We just opened up to open submissions this year after a couple of years of just being closed so we’re still trying to figure out how many. But we’re getting in a couple a week pretty steadily. It hasn’t been overwhelming so far it’s just been a good manageable amount so far.
Do you get the full manuscript of a book most times?
I think currently we’re asking that people send us the first 50 pages so that cuts down on a little bit of paper. Still 50 pages is still a lot of paper. It’s great to work with Debbie she’s fantastic she’s been with Freehand for almost a year now.
How long have you been there?
About two years two-and-a-half.
Do you think you’ll continue to read for Wordfest?
Oh yeah I’m reading all the time anyway. It’s not like when I’m reading for Wordfest I only read Wordfest books. You know I read one of their books and some of the stuff that’s on my shelves at the same time. It’s kind of good mix. It adds some kind of randomness into my reading because you kind of go to the Wordfest office not knowing what you’re going to pick up there or what’s going to be on the shelf. So it’s a good chance to read things that I might not have picked up otherwise.
