Back in 2006, writer Tracey Lapham (they/them) became the youngest-ever person to participate in the Muskoka Novel Marathon, at the age of 13.
Little did Tracey know that 18 years in the future, their son James Whitehill would set the record even lower – age 11 – in a parent-child team-up at the 2024 Muskoka Novel Marathon from July 11 to 14.
Founded in 2002, the Marathon has continued unbroken ever since, even through the pandemic which saw four Marathons (2020-2023) conducted entirely online using Zoom. The Marathon is a combination three-day intensive writing retreat, contest and fundraiser for YMCA literacy education in Muskoka. It has raised more than $240,000 in its history, and more than one writer has gone on to publish one or more works started as Marathon projects, one (Amy Stuart) penning an international bestseller.
This year, 22 writers participated in person at the Port Sydney Community Hall in Port Sydney and another nine on Zoom. They have raised $12,508 so far. The final total along with Best Novel winners will be announced on Sept. 21.
James – or Jamie, to his Marathon friends – was happy to be there. “It was great,” he says. “The community sense is great. It feels really at home and everyone’s so kind. It’s really nice to get a chance to write whatever I want, to talk to people, get feedback.” He wrote 20 pages and entered the contest, vying against some adult professional writers. If he wins, his manuscript will be shown to a publisher as part of the prize.
At the Marathon, Tracey and Jamie sat side by side to write and, he says, “We were writing interconnected stories. We’re planning to write a book together.” Parent and child have similar taste in literature, he explains. “We like to read together, so why not write together?”
Says proud parent Tracey, “With James being here, it feels so real, because of when I was 13. It’s full circle. I see myself in him, but he’s his own person too. It’s cool, the ways he’s the same as me and it’s cool how we’re different. He’s come out his shell a lot, just in the past three days.”
What would Tracey have thought if they had known in 2006 what would transpire in 2024?
“I definitely never thought I’d be seeing the next generation at the Muskoka Novel Marathon. It would have never occurred to me that this cool event would become part of a legacy!”
Both have definite plans to come back next year.