Words in the Burbs with Christina Myers and Lynn Easton

Words in the Burbs is a new reading series that aims to “celebrate and grow our community of writers living east of Vancouver. All genres. All levels. We love our friends in the Big Smoke, it’s just time to listen and share some great work right here where we live! We welcome all writers – even those who live in Vancouver!” What can you tell me about the founders of this series?

Lynn Easton and Christina Myers, left to right.

We joke that we’re the twinsies – our birthdays are the same day and we both came from a community journalism background. Even though we both spent years working as reporters and editors, and even worked with many of the same people, we didn’t cross paths until we ended up in the same cohort in The Writer’s Studio in 2015. We have both published in a number of anthologies, won or been shortlisted in literary and journalism awards, and have various projects in the works. We’re also both mothers to two kids – though at different ages and stages.

Organizing a reading series is a lot of work. A new series benefits readers and writers alike, but what’s in it for you?

We both find ourselves very inspired by hearing other people read – the diversity of backgrounds, experiences, writing styles, genres. And selfishly, we’re both motivated by the notion of creating something ourselves, and making a community around that. The feedback from people has been exactly what we hoped: that it’s inclusive and comfortable and relaxed.

Why did you choose Western Sky Books as a venue?

Reading in progress.

Lynn knew about Western Sky Books and pitched it as a possible location when we were still developing the concept. Originally, we had envisioned a roaming series in which we’d go throughout the region, east of the city, but Western Sky proved such a wonderful partner in this venture that we have made it our home so far. And the notion that it helps support, in some small way, an independent bookstore, is such a bonus, because they’re really a source of support for new and emerging and local writers. Plus, it’s just a fun, cozy space.

The reading I attended was thick with Simon Fraser TWS alumni. Was that typical? or was it due to the featured reader, Janie Chang?

We often do have a fair number of TWS folks in the audience or the playbill but really it’s quite a mixed group most of the time. Because we came from TWS, our first circle of network and community is often TWS alumni but it’s been diverse right from the start. Community is a very important concept to us, and there are lots of writers who need and want that community but may not come from specific programs so it’s really an open door.

What have you learned about the people who attend your readings? Are people coming in from the eastern communities? Did you snag a few from Vancouver?

It’s really widespread – from Vancouver to Mission and Chilliwack. Some of the audience comes because they’ve been there before and enjoyed it, some come along to support a friend who is on the playbill. We hope that the audience is a mix of people who are themselves writers but also people who may not write themselves but enjoy listening.

What are your plans for the future direction of the series?

More of the same! Right now this is 100% volunteer and we’d love to explore grant possibilities so that we can offer honorariums to our readers. We’re really grateful that our readers have been willing to lend their time and energy to be part of this so far.

What are some of your favourite reading series in the greater Vancouver area?

Both of us have attended the TWS reading series at Cottage Bistro a ton and it was probably one of the first places both of us did public literary readings. Swoon was a fun series, but the organizers have both moved away. The Growing Room festival has been a great addition with so many different readings and events, and the Vancouver Public Library hosts great things. But not being able to attend Vancouver events was part of our motivation in creating this – we live in Surrey and Maple Ridge, have families, work, commitments and so on that makes it hard to get to into the city so in fact our inability to attend a lot of events was a piece of the creation of this.

Inside the City of Vancouver, tons of readings. Outside, not so much. Why? You’d think that the price of housing would be enough to drive emerging artists and writers out of the city and into the eastern territories. Do you think that is currently happening? Could Mission be the next artistic hot spot?

There are definitely tons of writers living outside Vancouver. And in fact, there’s tons of events outside Vancouver already – Surrey Muse, Southbank, reading events associated with Fraser Valley University, along with many, many writing groups like the Golden Ears Writers and Tri-Cities writing communities. They are often hyper local and so may not have a lot of awareness outside their communities but they exist already and are doing great work. Mission is a hotspot for arts across the boards – music, theatre, writing. These things exist and will hopefully just continue to grow.

You have opted for no open mic. Do you consider open mics to be unruly and difficult to control?

We’ve discussed it and it may yet be thrown into the ring. We don’t mind unruly and difficult to control! They can add a lot of spontaneity and diversity to an event. So, yes, they’re part of the thought process – maybe in future we’ll commit, say, one spot at every reading and anyone who wants to read can put their name in a hat. It’s wide open still.

What criteria do you use to screen applicants for the series?

We put out a call and keep a running tally of people who are interested so that when it’s time to organize we have people to reach out to. So what’s the criteria. Well, are they writing? Are they enthusiastic? There’s no cut-off in terms of experience or publishing history – we wanted this to be open in terms of genre and background. So far we’ve had writers at every stage from brand new to multi published. We want that, very much.