The first Cabot Trail Writers Festival was held in 2009, but its creation was inspired by something that took place a couple of years earlier, when Africadian poet George Elliott Clarke accepted an invitation to read to a tiny rural book in North River, Cape Breton.

Word of mouth spread eagerly and widely, and when Clarke arrived to the island he found himself reading to a room packed wall to wall with attentive, grateful listeners. In that response and enthusiasm, the festival founders recognized the need and opportunity for programming that would bring books and authors from across the country into the room (and into conversation) with the readers (and writers) of this island.

And so the Cabot Trail Writers Festival was born directly out of the community, spontaneously and organically, out of the way that Cape Breton showed up for literature that one night in North River.

Honouring those origins, with our programming we strive to foster the communities of readers and writers in Unama’ki/Cape Breton, facilitate their two-way participation in a wider literary culture and conversation, and cultivate an inclusive, engaging, inspiring & accessible festival in an intimate rural setting that celebrates literature’s unique ability to connect us:

- WHERE readers connect with writers (and with one another),

- WHERE the diverse communities of Cape Breton, of Canada & of Turtle Island connect together,

- & WHERE culture connects with place. We invite writers from around the island & across the country, from a multiplicity of cultural/ racialized backgrounds and lived experiences, working in all genres and at all career stages, and partner with our island’s Mi’kmaw, Acadian & Gaelic communities to create opportunities to share their literary culture in their language.

With the books and voices and conversations we host, we expose our audiences to the myriad joys of reading—in a warm and festive atmosphere, among music and food and friendly faces—but amidst this safe & welcoming space we also expose them to literature’s singular power to widen our perspective on the world, even when it’s challenging or uncomfortable.

Our festival’s structure—sequential programming, held in a remote location, that typically retains almost half the audience for the full weekend, and where authors usually stay for the entire festival and attend even events they aren’t part of—has the effect of creating a community out of a sustained shared experience. Mindful of that community, we plan our festival as more than a series of events: as an unfolding conversation that takes place over the course of a few days, and continues from year to year, building on the learning we have all done together, about words; about the breadth of voices and experiences to be read, heard and honoured; and about the world we share together.

Beyond the festival weekend, we also foster the next generation of writers through author school visits and our Raise Our Voices youth mentorship program; we honour the legacy of one of our island's great writers and celebrate the writers who follow in his foot steps by administering the Alistair MacLeod Award for Short Fiction; and we coordinate a wide range of other activities designed to inspire, engage and build community among writers and readers across the island, year-round.