A few weeks after the most recent Toronto Small Press Book Fair, a public battle is raging between fair organizers and disgruntled constituents – mostly in the arena of Facebook.
It began last month when author Stuart Ross, a co-founder and perennial supporter of the fair, posted some complaints about this fall’s event on his blog. Ross charges that organizers Halli Villegas and Myna Wallin did little to promote the fair – no posters, no free listings in local weeklies, no mass e-mails. He also notes that the two organizers
didn’t show up at the venue until 10:51 and 10:53 respectively, when they hastened to set up the tables for their own presses. Volunteers were already at the venue an hour earlier, putting up tables and chairs, and most of the presses were already there and waiting for the public to arrive when the doors opened at 11 a.m.
Villegas, who took over management of the fair this year with Wallin, took exception. From her note on the fair’s Facebook page:
We had over 300 flyers passed out at readings and events around town, we were featured on the Quill and Quire Omni Blog [true], the fair was announced at more then a few reading series, the fair was announced several times on CKLN on various shows. As always when you exhibitors received your forms you were asked to please spread the news to all your friends and reading public. In addition for the first time this fair we had a Facebook site. Myna did send in free listings for Now and Eye, but they were obviously missed in the shuffle at those papers.
And:
Myna and I are always happy to talk, or receive personal e-mails with suggestions that are constructive. We really don’t like being backed into corners on blogs or public forums before we have been approached privately. I suspect no one would.
If you think this sounds like it’s getting personal, well, you’re probably right. Angry wall posts have been flying on the Facebook page, and Ross says Villegas and Wallin have been censoring his comments. Now another Facebook page, “Friends of the Toronto Small Press Book Fair,” has been created, and comments are flying there, too.
And Ross has even taken his grievances to his personal Facebook page’s “status update,” which as of this writing reads, “Stuart Ross thinks the Toronto Small Press Book Fair coordinators are using the tactics of dictators and repressive regimes. Censorship, exclusion, disinformation.”
Having been to the event for many years, I can only say this.
Opinions vary on both sides and both are right to some degree whether they would admit it or not.
It’s over, no one can please everyone all of the time – so get over it.
This is a “live, learn, move on and let live” situation.
If Ross had a problem he should have taken it directly to Villegas and Wallin. Public humiliation is no way to solve problems. This back and forth on Facebook does nobody any good.
Halli Villegas and Myna Wallin are extremely talented, hard-working, passionate, kind, and generous, and they worked their tails off on the Small Press Book Fair (and have given a lot in other ways to the small-press community in Canada).
The cyber-bulling (hardly limited to the Facebook calumny) that they’ve been subjected to is unconscionable.
It should be noted that none of the innuendo directed against Stuart Ross has been substantiated in any way. Claiming someone is bullying you does not mean that they are. There needs to be specific examples cited. I have been following this discussing in all the public online forums and I have not seen any examples of the aforementioned bullying.
[...] December, Quillblog noted a spat between Toronto Small Press Book Fair organizers Myna Wallin and Halli Villegas and one of [...]