This year the Muskoka Novel Marathon, a 72-hour writing competition that is also a fundraiser for adult literacy programs, reaches a major milestone as it achieves its 20-year anniversary.
Convener KM Wehrstein is thrilled. “Who’d have thought we’d be around 20 years later?” she says.
As to why the MNM has endured for two decades, she speculates, “I think because there are enough people — organizers, judges, sponsors, donors, volunteers but most of all writers — who think it’s a great thing and love participating. It also has to do with the amazing energy that happens when you get forty writers in one place all concentrating 100 per cent on writing.”
The YMCA of Simcoe/Muskoka Learning Services (formerly the Muskoka Literacy Council) has been the recipient of over $225,000 to support adult literacy services in the area. It is apropos that the motto of the event is, “we write so others can read”.
Martin Avery and Mel Malton are credited as the driving force behind the launch of the novel marathon in 2002.
Writing from China, where he currently lives and works, Avery modestly avers, “It was all Mel Malton.”
He explains, “My little part was to give the idea to Mel who was already connected to the Huntsville Festival of the Arts. Mel called Susan Lowe at the Muskoka Literacy Council and Rob Saunders and Kareen Burns at the Huntsville Festival of the Arts, who got us connected to the fringe aspect of the festival, and Christopher Thorpe of Muskoka Futures. All were on board immediately.”
Avery has fond memories of the people involved. “Mel, Kareen, Rob, and Christopher… I was amazed by this group. They were smart, creative, connected, positive, and happy to work together to get something going for writers, the arts, and literacy in Huntsville. I thought they could do just about anything, like run Muskoka or the world and make it a better place!” He concludes poignantly, “That was the best group I’ve ever worked with on a project. That’s still true.”
Key to the success of the first year — and to the event continuing — were the five trail-blazing writers who chose to spend 72 hours immersed in their craft. Martin Avery, Mel Malton, Christina Kilbourne, and Anne Vaughan-Evans wrote in a vacant retail space in Huntsville while Cheryl Cooper participated remotely from her home in Bracebridge.
Cooper, who has marathoned 11 times, calls it “truly one of the best experiences in my life.”
She explains, “There is something about setting aside this special time with a group of like-minded people that fosters an astounding level of productivity.” In fact, she credits the MNM with starting her on her three-times published journey.
Calling her good memories “too numerous to recount”, one memorable highlight was being awarded with ‘best manuscript’ in 2004 for the book that was later to become Come Looking for Me. Cooper calls that year life-changing. “The environment of the festival is ideal for writing a novel because the distractions of family, work, and social life are absent for those three days.” She recalls, “I was in a room with 26 other writers that year. To save time, I slept on the floor of the writing room, waking up with my back in knots. But, I’d written 75 pages!
“Many of the writers are astounded at what dedicated writing time can produce. More than once I’ve heard someone exclaim, ‘I didn’t know I had it in me!'”
Cooper has been a prodigiously successful fundraiser for the MNM and has won the Remy Award, which recognizes the writer who raises the most funds for the cause, many times. In 2002 she raised half of all the monies raised.
Organizers and participants say that the MNM is also fun — lots of fun. Former organizer and participant Paula Boon laughs, “One year Martin brought this small stuffed monkey that had elastic attached so you could slingshot it across the room. When it flew it would scream. Loudly. Basically Martin launched it whenever he felt like everyone needed some energy, levity, whatever. It was pretty hilarious and occasionally irritating, depending on where you might be in your creative process. I think the monkey returned for at least one or two years after that.”
KM Wehrstein has participated longest in the event — 16 consecutive years — and has been convener or co-convener for 12 of them. “Susan Lowe, who was president of the Muskoka Literacy Council had run the MNM single-handed for some years and wanted to give it back to writers. Paula Boon and I took over and when the literacy council folded we partnered with the Y.”
So many people have given so much to the MNM over 20 years — it’s impossible to mention them all. But the marathon has also reciprocated. Wehrstein muses, “I think, more than anything else, it let me find a solid branch of my tribe. Writers bond on mutual understanding. The novel marathon gives us a supercharged level of that for three days, and a lot of longstanding friendships come out of it. It’s satisfying to be in that, to help create it, and it’s also satisfying to fund literacy classes. The novel marathon is very powerful. We change lives — both of the writers and of the people the Y trains in literacy, numeracy, ESL, computer skills and so on. My work at and for the MNM makes me happy.”
Paula Boon agrees. “I think it’s all about community. Writing is a solitary thing, and many writers are kind of quirky people. Everyone who comes to the marathon is instantly accepted for who they are. They are welcomed into this loving, encouraging, fun tribe where they feel seen. People from this group have become friends in real life, have supported each other through grief and change, and have celebrated together at book launches. And the fact that they can have an incredibly fun, productive time while also raising huge amounts of money for adult literacy doesn’t hurt! It feels good to give back.”
Over a period of 20 years, the MNM has morphed from its pizza-ordering, sleep-on-the-floor origins to an iconic event that houses writers in style, feeds them like royalty and has a very good chance of turning out a bestseller or two all thanks to the incredible generosity of writers, sponsors, volunteers, staff, and the Huntsville community.
And very shortly they’ll do it again — via Zoom this year — using technology that could hardly be imagined in 2002.
This year’s virtual event occurs July 16-19. For more information about the Muskoka Novel Marathon, visit muskokanovelmarathon.com.
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