What is the Port Medway Readers’ Festival?

The Port Medway Readers’ Festival was founded by Philip Slayton and Cynthia Wine in 2002. Developed out their love of books and Port Medway and seeing that the Old Meeting House was underused and badly needed repair, they launched the Festival with a view to raising the funds to restore the building. The Festival began strongly with authors William Weintraub, Donna Morrisey and Calvin Trillin and has never looked back.

The Festival began and continues as a community effort. It is volunteer run, with friends and neighbours doing all the hard work a Festival requires.

It was designed to be welcoming to all readers and intimate. Its setting – the Old Meeting Hall – has a maximum capacity of 150 people. Authors and readers have the opportunity to comfortably ask questions, exchange views and tell stories. In the last 24 years, the festival has become a community cornerstone, selling out every date by bringing to our community authors that are international and national favourites and emerging authors who are just beginning to make their mark.

Our mandate is to showcase Canadian authors of fiction and literary non-fiction. We take pride in being self-funded through ticket sales and private donors.

Port Medway, a tiny, unspoiled, fishing village on the south shore of the province, continues to draw authors and readers who relish their time in this charming place.