The festival’s third day is in the books, with a roundtable discussion this afternoon on the future of local literary industry and a screening of Sweetland this evening. We have our big weekend slate coming up tomorrow and Sunday. As so often happens with these extended events (conferences and chess tournaments come to mind for me!), it feels like we’re temporarily living in another world. It’s certainly a rare pleasure to feel so consistently surrounded, day in and day out, by other people who love reading, writing, and talking about both. And it’s all happening right here at home in Happy Valley-Goose Bay!

I’ve had so many brief but inspiring conversations with people before, during, and after our festival events, each one a glimpse through a window into somebody else’s literary life. To turn a saying on its head, these glimpses prove to me that in a community where so many endeavours and delights are private ones, the sum of the parts is often far greater than the visible whole.

I’m not much of a photographer, and my phone isn’t much of a camera, but here is a portion of the crowd at Sweetland. I snapped the shot immediately after the house lights came on, as the last of the credits rolled.