The third annual Riverside Reading Festival took place in downtown Paris on Saturday, June 28, 2025.
The festival is an extension of the monthly Riverside Reading Series (RRS), which was started by Alison Fishburn, a Paris-based writer, back in 2022.
To celebrate the first year anniversary of RRS, Fishburn put on a day-long Summer Writers Festival back in 2023, and this year, she’s teamed up with Big Cityyy Arts to bring a theatrical element into the mix.
“It was really just this progression of doing something month-to-month and then making it into something bigger with publishers present,” said Fishburn. “It’s really grassroots and really sort of scrappy, but it’s just wonderful to have these really amazing writers and the support from indie publishers here.”
To kick off this year’s event, residents headed over to the County of Brant Public Library’s Paris Branch to join Patrice Rose, Artistic Director of Town Hall Kids in Waterford, for a storytelling workshop.
The one-hour workshop, titled “Imagination Train! Let’s be storytellers together!” featured a magical journey where each “train stop” included interactive games that unveiled the key elements needed to create a story.
Over in Big Cityyy Studios on Grand River Street, several southwestern Ontario-based authors joined Fishburn to read excerpts from their books, and participate in question and answer sessions.
Those present included: Suzanne Craig-Whytock, author of Dark Nocturnes; Fareh Malik, author of Streams that Lead Somewhere; Jaclyn Desforges, author of Danger Flower; Zane Koss, author of Country Music; and James Cairns, author of In Crisis, On Crisis.
Several guests had the opportunity to ask each author questions, as well as to purchase signed copies of their books.
While guests popped in and out of the reading sessions, several members from Paris Performers’ Theatre were stationed throughout the downtown reading books from Canadian authors including Robert Munsch’s Paper Bag Princess, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, and Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: Volume 2.
Towards the end of the festival, one final workshop, titled “How to write like a human: Literary Artistry in the Age of AI,” took place back at the library with Desforges.
Guests spent the hour using prompts to practice writing “freely, dreamily, and humanly.”
“We’re so lucky to have so many amazing writers within driving distance of our town, and because Paris supports its writers, and Canadian writers in general, this festival is really about bringing those writers and the community into the same space,” said Fishburn. “I said this earlier, but it’s all about the community, it’s about literary conversations, and it’s about culture. Writers need opportunities to present their work and so when starting the reading series, a lot of it was about creating this space where writers of all levels could have a platform to present their work, especially the young people who don’t have any accolades behind them. Making those local connections and creating the spaces that you want to exist permanently, is really at the forefront of our minds here.”
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
