Each year, gritLIT closes the festival by inviting guest authors to share a never-before-read piece of writing with their audience. This year, the Drafts & Drafts panel event will feature readings by Hamilton authors as they share an exclusive glimpse into a work in progress and discuss their city, their inspirations, and what's next for them.
This event will feature Dundurn Press author Brent van Staalduinen (Nothing but Life), as well as Gary Barwin, Jane Christmas, Denise Davy, Krista Foss, Dallas Hunt, Amanda Leduc, and Pasha Malla. The panel will be co-hosted by gritLIT Artistic Director Jennifer Gillies and gritLIT Board Member Anuja Varghese.
About the book:
During a sweltering summer, Dills must come to terms with a horrific crime and the parent he loves who committed it.
Dills and his mom have returned home to Hamilton, her hometown, hoping to leave the horrors of Windsor behind. But it's impossible to escape the echoes of tragedy, and trouble always follows trouble.
When Dills hurts a new classmate, it comes out in court that he was in the Windsor High library when the shooter came in. But he won't talk about what he saw, what he still sees whenever he closes his eyes. He can't. He definitely can't tell anyone that the Windsor Shooter is his stepfather, Jesse, that Jesse can speak into his mind from hundreds of kilometres away, and that Dills still loves him even though he committed an unspeakable crime.