SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The 2008 Northwords Writers' Festival came to a close last Saturday with the De Beers Canada Reading Gala at NACC.

Featured authors Richard Van Camp, Anita Daher, Michael Crummey, Lesley Choyce, Bernice Morgan, Annelies Pool andJennifer Storm read from their works to cap off the three days of the festival.

Running from June 12 to 14, this was the third annual Northwords Festival, and according to Van Camp, this year's president of the board, it was a great year.

"I think it was a complete success. We packed the Ski Club, we packed Javaroma, and we did great at the NACC. I'm just so proud of everybody," he said.

Authors from Yellowknife, the North and right across Canada attended Northwords, participating in the readings, storytelling, open mics, one-on-one mentorships, panel discussions and workshops.

Van Camp has been participating in the festival every year since it began and has no plans to stop now.

"I'll be back, absolutely. I need the Northwords Literary Festival. I come here to get inspired, I come here to help writers get published, I do everything I can, and it's three days for Northerners," he said.

With regard to inspiration from the other authors, Van Camp said that, for him, the festival serves principally to encourage him to continue doing what he is doing.

"I'm really proud to finally be writing a Fort Smith novel, I have a collection of short stories ready to go, and I'm really always humbled by the support the writing community has when we have a big event like this, because there's so much talent in the Northwest Territories."

Van Camp said the number one issue writers face in the North is accessibility to agents, editors and publishing houses.

"That's what Northwords is about - if we can help you, we will do our very best to help you get published in whatever way possible.

The number one thing we need from writers is for them to finish their projects. We use our influence to the best of our ability to help writers up here get published," he said.

According to Van Camp, Northwords is working towards operating throughout the year.

"We had the Elizabeth Hay event that was sponsored by Northwords, and what we want to do is increase awareness and start bringing up more authors throughout the year to do fundraising, to get into the high schools, cause there's a lot of writers in high schools in Yellowknife that are fantastic, and in the communities as well. There's a lot of talent out there," said Van Camp, adding that it doesn't matter whether it's manga, comic books or movies that youth are interested in.

"We are here for writers, and the storytellers as well. We're very proud of that," he said.

"That's it till next year."