Alice Munro Festival to disband, remaining funds will be donated

BY SHAWN LOUGHLIN

The Alice Munro Festival of the Short Story, which has encouraged local writers and brought to Huron County some of the country’s literary giants, such as Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje and Emma Donoghue, to name a few, is no more as organizers have unanimously decided to shutter the festival.

 

The announcement was made via the festival’s Facebook page late last week. Organizers have declined to comment beyond what was posted, even when reached by the CBC and others. The post reads, “The Alice Munro Festival of the Short Story has unanimously decided to bring the festival to a close in 2025.

 

“The committee would like to share their sincere appreciation to the community, volunteers and funders for their many years of support and to the authors who continued to bring exceptional programming to the event. The remaining funds will be donated to community charities supporting women and youth.

 

“The festival website will continue to host the archive of authors and short stories for an undetermined amount of time....”
This comes after the bombshell op-ed piece penned by Andrea Skinner in the Toronto Star last summer that detailed sexual assault at the hands of her stepfather Gerald Fremlin when she was nine years old and into her teens. The piece also detailed Skinner telling Munro of the abuse and Munro deciding to stay with him, despite these revelations.

 

Munro died at the age of 92 in May of last year, leading to an outpouring of tributes to the celebrated short story author who called Huron County home and who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2013.