After five years and four entirely online Muskoka Novel Marathons, the locally famed literary hothouse and literacy fundraiser will be a physical gathering once again in 2024.
A maximum of 30 writers will occupy the Port Sydney Community Hall for 72 hours of unfettered creativity from July 11 to 14, vying for the Best Novel Award, which includes a viewing of the manuscript by a Canadian publishing house, as well as the Remington Award for the writer who raises the most money for adult literacy in Muskoka.
“We didn’t miss a single Marathon because of COVID,” says convenor KM Wehrstein, a full-time writer best known in Muskoka for the “Cottage Country Cuisine” culinary feature in Unique Muskoka magazine. “We’re just lucky that we have an event that translates well onto Zoom. The online Marathons were all on the usual weekend in mid-July. But everyone’s been wanting badly to get back in person, and now we’re very excited to be doing it.”
Wehrstein notes that the 2024 Marathon is actually a hybrid event, with online participation still welcome at the discount price set in 2020. “We didn’t want to leave out the new online friends we made from 2020 to 2023, who are as far away as Hawaii.”
Founded in 2002 by five Muskoka writers, the Marathon has raised an estimated $240,000 in total for adult literacy education. Its current beneficiary is YMCA Simcoe-Muskoka’s Huntsville-based literacy program, which is now also active in Bracebridge, Gravenhurst and Parry Sound as well as Huntsville. Over the years, Marathon funds have been used for sustaining literacy, numeracy and computer skills classes, extending hours, expanding staff, and upgrading IT equipment necessary for the program.
In recent years they have been allocated for the Y’s well-attended English as a Second Language (ESL) classes, empowering Syrian, Ukrainian and new Canadians from other nations to enter into and thus strengthen the local economy.
“Our ESL programs continue to be accessed at high volume across all three YMCA Learning Services locations,” says Ashley McGee, team leader of Learning Services at the Huntsville Y office. “Fundraisers like the Muskoka Novel Marathon allow us to continue a very robust ESL Program while additionally responding to the growing needs beyond the classes themselves.”
The YMCA is now able to offer language assessments and help prepare ESL students for their final exams.
For more information on the 2024 Muskoka Novel Marathon, click here.
Videos courtesy of YMCA Simcoe-Muskoka
