2022 STARFest Director's Message

I was one of those kids who repeatedly got caught reading under the covers with a flashlight at midnight. Once I realized that you could discover whole new worlds, meet amazing people, and experience mind-blowing heights and crushing lows within the pages of a book, I was hooked.

As an adult, I still stay up too late reading, and I’ll read anything (ask me about my shark book obsession). As a librarian, I love helping people discover new titles, new authors and new themes to explore. I get excited that there are so many pathways into a book, so many ways to love the words and the stories. Any book can be a good book for the right person.

STARFest is a "Readers" Festival: this is what I love most about it. We ask you, the readers, about the books you love and the authors you want to meet. This year we’re bringing back some familiar favourites and inviting well-known names to our festival. Those events are always exciting for me, but I get a real thrill about discovering a new author for myself, and for our audiences. We have amazing fresh new voices at this year’s festival and I urge STARFest fans to read these debut novels, and meet the authors. You can always say “I was there for their first book!”

Listening to the author talk about their book adds so much more to the reading of it, whether you’re reading the book for the first time or again with a new perspective. STARFest events are intimate and enlightening and FUN! As a reader, I look forward to it every year, and I invite you, a fellow reader, to join me this fall.

Michelle Steinhusen, STARFest Director