Guelph writers read their work at the Eden Mills Writers’ Festival
The Eden Mills Writers’ Festival took place on Sept. 7, offering hundreds of visitors a variety of sessions to attend.
One of the first sessions, “Emerge! New and Emerging Writers to Watch” began at 10:30 a.m. in The Mill. Six Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing (MFA) students from the University of Guelph program read a piece of their work.
Between the students, there was a variety of creative non-fiction, fiction and poetry, offering all listeners something of interest.
A crowd of approximately 50 people of all ages attended the session and were engaged in the readings.
Presenting a non-fiction piece, MFA student Unice Liem shared that “when I say social issues, I think a lot of it is because I am a trans, neurodivergent, queer person. I think that is the lens I’m putting on politics around that.”
In their thesis, Liem’s writing explores themes around the pressures that society puts on women to become mothers and wives, and the challenge of either not wanting children or not being able to have them.
“The issue of family is very important because we grew up with a picture of that as heteronormative. That is kind of outdated in many ways.”
Liem added that “it’s interesting to explore what it means for queer people, what it means to make a family.”
“I think the older you get the more you see how different family can be, but the concept of family is so universal, so I like that it’s a universal concept that has so many different ways of being.”
Liem hopes to reach a lot of people with their writing.
“The core of my audience is queer and trans people, but I do hope that someone who reads, for example, the non-fiction piece that I read today about my top surgery, I hope that it furthers the understanding for people who are interested and open-minded and want to learn more.”
Liem added that they want to provide representation for gender identities similar to their own because they have only more recently seen it talked about in the media.
Another MFA student, Jackie George, focuses on fiction writing in the form of short stories.
“In my short stories, they’re mostly dealing with themes of belonging,” George shared in an interview with The Ontarion after the reading.
“I’ve been writing for a really long time, so it’s hard to pinpoint exactly when that started. Ever since I was a kid, I read a lot of books and so I think one day I decided I had my own stories I wanted to share, so I just started writing.”
She shared that she hasn’t yet written long form content, but that she hopes the MFA will help her venture to that style of writing.
“Right now I’m working on a lot of short stories. For my thesis, I’m hoping to write a fantasy novel, so I’ll be branching out into new territory, which is exciting and nerve wracking. But right now, a lot of short stories.”
Her long term goal is to become a professor of creative writing, and she hopes to get published along the way.
She concluded that attending the “Emerge!” session was a “super nice first public reading appearance.”
“It was really great, it was a small crowd so I was not too nervous and looking out into the audience, everyone was engaged and smiling and very invested, so a very welcoming crowd,” she said.