The Forest of Reading Festival is a 4-hour event where attendees participate in award ceremonies, workshops by nominees, get autographs from their favourite authors and spend the day being entertained and around other book lovers.

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Here is what is happening:

May 14th  

• Ceremonies & Workshop Schedule
• Workshop Descriptions
• Autographing Schedule
• Map of Venue

*all schedules are subject until April 15th.

10:30-11:30 am EST – Silver Birch Express Ceremony

12:00-1:00 pm EST – Silver Birch Fiction Ceremony

*See which nominees are coming to the Festival.

Host: Ainara Alleyne is a 14-year-old elementary student from Hamilton, Ontario. Ainara curates the Instagram page @ainarasbookshelf, where she highlights books for young people whose authors and main characters are Black, Indigenous, people of colour, differently abled and other underrepresented communities. She believes that by experiencing other cultures and perspectives through books, we can not only acknowledge our differences but understand and embrace them. Ainara was Hamilton Public Library’s first Junior Librarian in residence and speaks to student teachers at various Universities and pedagogy symposiums, and has been featured in the New York Times, CBC, CTV and numerous podcasts. Her middle book review TV show, also called Ainara’s Bookshelf, which she created, co-wrote and produced, airs on TVOkids and is currently available on YouTube.

May 15th 

• Ceremonies & Workshop Schedule
• Workshop Descriptions
• Autographing Schedule
• Map of Venue

*all schedules are subject until April 15th.

10:30-11:30 am EST – Red Maple Award Ceremony

12:00-1:00 pm EST – White Pine Award Ceremony

**See which nominees are coming to the Festival.

Host: Ali Hassan is a Stand-up Comic, Actor and CBC personality.  Ali is the host of the CBC Radio show Laugh Out Loud, and Canada Reads – the literary battle of Canadian books.  He is a recurring guest star in the TV shows Sort Of and Run The Burbs. He is currently touring his stage show ‘Does This Taste Funny?’ across Canada.  His comedic memoir ‘Is There Bacon in Heaven?’ is out with Simon & Schuster. @standupali

May 16 – Digital Ceremony Release date

All ceremonies will be released at 12pm

• Blue Spruce Award
• Silver Birch Express Award
• Silver Birch Fiction Award
• Yellow Cedar Award
• Red Maple Award
• White Pine Award

All digital award ceremonies are included as part of the registration. No extra fees required