Mission and History
The Frye Festival is Canada’s only bilingual international literary festival and the largest literary event in Atlantic Canada.
THE WORDS: The Frye Festival offers the best of local, Canadian and international authors, including children’s authors, graphic novelists, storytellers, poets, playwrights, spoken-word artists and more.
THE INSPIRATION: The Festival was created to commemorate Northrop Frye, a man who rose from humble roots to attain the stature of world-renowned thinker. Northrop Frye spent his formative years in Moncton, NB, honing the ideas that he would spend the rest of his life developing, namely his deep commitment to an informed and civil society.
THE MISSION: To foster the discovery and enjoyment of reading and writing by bringing together authors with audiences of all ages, creating an annual bilingual celebration of words.
THE AUTHORS: Nearly 400 award-winning authors from every continent have participated in the Festival, including: Richard Ford, Harvey Pekar, Antonine Maillet, Bernhard Schlink, Alistair MacLeod, Nancy Huston, Dany Laferrière, Alexandre Jardin, Kathy Reichs, Patrick Chamoiseau, Linden MacIntyre and Yann Martel.
THE SETTING: Workshops, book clubs, dialogues, readings, debates and lectures take place all day and night in schools, cafés, restaurants, bars, theatres, shopping malls and libraries.
THE AUDIENCE: 15,000-17,000 participants yearly. The Festival’s School-Youth program impacts more than 10,000 students a year.
SCHOOL-YOUTH PROGRAM: Authors meet with students in their classrooms and auditoriums, inspiring them to see the power and fun of words. Additionally, there are events for students from Kindergarten to Grade 12 in which they perform their own creations. This successful program has been a vital part of the Festival since its inception and has always been presented free of charge to provincial schools.
THE REPUTATION: The Frye Festival won the 2005 Lieutenant-Governor’s Dialogue Award, the 2008 Event of the Year Award at the Soirée des Éloizes and the 2009 Arts Organization of the Year by the New Brunswick Foundation for the Arts.
THE ORGANIZATION: Managed by two employees and supported by a team of passionate Board members, this non-profit organization (862316213RR0001) is driven by the support of over 125 volunteers, some of whom have been involved since 1999.
THE HISTORY: The Frye Festival was established in September 1999 with the first Festival taking place in April 2000. Originally incorporated under the name Festival littéraire international Northrop Frye International Literary Festival, the name was changed in 2006 to the Frye Festival Frye.
