Vancouver Writers Fest 2015 Festival Guide by Vancouver Writers Fest

1 0 0 W R I T E R S , 8 9 E V E N TS , T H O U S A N D S O F R E A D E R S L I K E YO U.

15 OCTOBER 20 - 2O5R,L2D0 REIMAGINE YOUR W WRITERSFEST.BC.CA

F ro m t h e Art i st i c D i recto r & BOAR D CH AIR

Welcome to the Vancouver Writers Fest on Granville Island

Literature covers a lot of flavours and tastes. (KINDA LIKE US.)

Proud sponsor of The Vancouver Writers Fest The Public Market & Net Loft are open until 7pm, everyday. www.granvilleisland.com

Every year, planning the Festival is like embarking on a voyage of discovery. The truth is there are more great authors and more fine writing out there than any of us can possibly stay on top of. I confess I had only heard of Jeff VanderMeer (winner of the most recent Nebula Award amongst a host of other honours), but through him we plunged into the world of weird fiction, which led to other interesting writers and the creation of two events at the Festival. In planning an event to launch Freeman's, our friend John Freeman (former editor of Granta) absolutely raved about a young writer named Laura van den Berg, a name that was new to me. We are delighted to bring this brilliant new voice to the Festival. The writing of David Constantine from the UK seems to be a revelation to just about everyone on this side of the Atlantic. Mysteriously, not until this year's publication with Biblioasis had his work appeared in North America. Now we have a chance to read and hear from one of the finest short story writers alive. So regardless of your familiarity with some of the names at this year's Festival, check them out. Take a chance on an event where you haven't read or even heard of any of the authors. I guarantee you will discover writers whose work you will be reading with great pleasure for many years to come.

Hal Wake, Artistic Director

The Writers Fest is a core offering in Vancouver’s cultural life. We bring readers and writers of all ages together for must-see events that help us reimagine our lives and our worlds. Great writers from Canada and from around the world tell us their experiences here are unique. Audiences love the intimate, informal atmosphere and unparalleled conversations about books.

Our members provide the solid foundation on which we are building a national and international reputation for outstanding quality and community impact. Members enjoy sneak previews of festival events and first crack at ordering tickets. I invite you to become a member and enjoy the many benefits on offer.

Individual donors are critical to the Writers Fest’s success, transforming our artistic team’s vision into your lived experience. Help us bring that experience to new and diverse audiences by becoming a donor yourself.

In June, we bid farewell to our Executive Director Camilla Tibbs, who served the Writers Fest skillfully, loyally, and passionately for seven years. We also welcomed our new Executive Director, Nicole Nozick, who brings us a rich education, many leadership experiences, and great energy.

Sandra Jakab, Board Chair

C on t e n t s About Us 6 Festival Authors 7 Venues & Parking 8 How to Buy Tickets 9 Our Supporters 10, 14-16 Join Us! Become a Member 11 The Festival Experience 13 Festival Bookstore 13 Support the Festival 14 In Memoriam 16 Spreading the Word 17 La Joie de lire 17 Events By Genre 19 Festival at a Glance 32–33 Author Biographies 46-61

Ev e n t s s c he dul e Tuesday, October 20 Wednesday, October 21 Thursday, October 22 Friday, October 23 Saturday, October 24 Sunday, October 25

20–22 24–27 28–31 36–38 40–42 44–45

Ho w t o C hoo s e a n Ev e n t By Author : Each author bio lists (by

number) events in which that author is appearing.

By Genre: In the Event by Genre

section (pg. 19), Festival events have been categorized under 15 popular genres.

To locate a venue: refer to the map on

page 8.

If you have any questions, give us a call at 604.681.6330, or check our website at writersfest.bc.ca for updated Festival information.

/VanWritersFest @vancouverwritersfest @VanWritersFest #VWF15

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie at the 2006 Festival.

There has never been a year where I havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t learned something new. The VWF energizes my thoughts and my own writing.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 2014 audience member

An engaged audience at the 2014 Festival.

Checking out the program

An audience member asks a

All Photos by Chris Cameron

guide during the 2009 Festival.

question during the 2014 Festival.

F est i va l Au t ho rs

About Us

Founder and Lifetime Member Alma Lee

Board of Directors Chair:

Sandra Jakab Vice-Chair:

Leslie Hurtig Secretary:

Shirley Lew Treasurer:

Yaseen Al-Salam Members:

Alison Broddle Jonathan Burke Sandi Case Jane Estey Ian Gill Sally Harding Harvey McKinnon Shannon Taylor Paul Whitney

A Dram Come True Committee Chair:

Kim Thorne Members:

Mark French Alison Hart Curt Hubert Frank Leffelaar Dave Mason Shannon Taylor

PHOTO: J.HALLE LEFT TO RIGHT: Kathryn Fowler, Nicole Nozick, Sandra Millard, Hal Wake, Arielle Spence, Judith Walker, Clea Young, Ann McDonell

MISSING: Ilona Beiks, Anne Guagliardo, Michelle Harrison, James Tyler Irvine, Eduardo Ottoni, Carolina Sartor, Katja Schlueter, Heideh White

Staff

Hal Wake Executive Director: Nicole Nozick

Program Guide

Artistic Director:

Director of Marketing & Development:

Clea Young Sandra Millard

Artistic Associate: Administrator:

Ann McDonell

Arielle Spence Office Alternatives Advertising Sales: Jocelyn Wagner Education Co-ordinator: Ilona Beiks Programmer, La joie de lire: Anne Guagliardo Catering Co-ordinator: Carolina Sartor Food & Beverage Co-ordinator: Heideh White Media Relations Manager: Judith Walker Office Intern: Cristina Melo Production Manager: Eduardo Ottoni Production Co-ordinator: Katja Schlueter Operations Co-ordinator: Leanne Zacharias Volunteer Manager: Kathryn Fowler Assistant TO THE VOLUNTEER MANAGER: Michelle Harrison Website Design: Malcolm van Delst Development & Marketing Assistant: Bookkeeping Services:

Ann McDonell & Arielle Spence Hangar 18 Creative Group COVER PHOTOGRAPHY: Albert Normandin Proofreading: Courtesy of members of the Editors’ Association of Canada, BC Branch: Nancy Tinari (editorial co-ordinator), Viktoria Cseh, Karen Barry, Dee Noble, Juliann Krushen, Anastasia Koutalianos, Christine Rowlands, Meagan Kus Editors:

Festival Design:

Eco Audit

This program guide is printed by Mitchell Press on recycled paper made with 30% post-consumer waste, and bleached without the use of chlorine or chlorine compounds, resulting in measurable environmental benefits and the following savings: ·· 38 trees ·· 60,923 liters of water ·· 16 million BTUs of electricity ·· Carbon credit: 1,346 kilograms Source:

Paper Task Force

We would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to the 300+ dedicated volunteers who contribute so much to the Festival each year.

Jordan Abel Samuel Archibald Shauna Singh Baldwin Sara Blaedel Édith Bourget George Bowering David R. Boyd Brian Brett Carellin Brooks Nicole Brossard Steve Burrows Giuseppe Catozzella Michel Chikwanine Jillian Christmas John Colapinto Trevor Cole David Constantine Lorna Crozier Craig Davidson TJ Dawe Elisabeth de Mariaffi Charles Demers Patrick deWitt Farzana Doctor Marilyn Dumont Sarah Dunant Marina Endicott John Freeman Alejandro Frid Daniel Galera Roxane Gay Kallie George Ulrikka S. Gernes Camilla Gibb Shilpi Somaya Gowda Lauren Groff Darren Groth Stella Harvey

Paula Hawkins Elizabeth Hay Steven Hayward Robert Heidbreder Lawrence Hill Tony Hoagland Greg Hollingshead June Hutton Marlon James Susan Juby Hannah Kent Wab Kinew Irina Kovalyova Tanya Lloyd Kyi Patti LaBoucaneBenson JonArno Lawson Catherine Lepage Tracey Lindberg Kelly Link Elaine Lui Ian McAllister Joan McEwen Paige McKenzie Denise Mina Lucia Misch Michelle Mulder Viet Thanh Nguyen Barbara Nickel Susin Nielsen Kenneth Oppel Susan Philpott Anna Porter Beth Powning Sabrina Ramnanan Nino Ricci Bill Richardson Paul Roux

7 Sigal Samuel Anakana Schofield Owen Sheers Lori Shenher Jim Shepard Åsne Sierstad Yrsa Sigurðardóttir Bill Slavin Neil Smith Michael V. Smith Karen Solie Bradley Somer Jordan Stratford Rich Terfry Russell Thornton Sara Tilley Steve Toltz John Vaillant Laura van den Berg Jeff VanderMeer Leslie Vryenhoek Sheryda Warrener Mélanie Watt Robert Wiersema Damien Wilkins Simon Winchester Sarah Winman Ronald Wright Rachel Wyatt Gene Luen Yang Paul Yee Cybèle Young

A L L I T E R AS I A N Twenty Years of Ricepaper Magazine A wide-ranging anthology marking the twentieth anniversary of Ricepaper, the pioneering periodical devoted to Asian-Canadian writing. Come celebrate AlliterAsian

and Ricepaper at a VWF event featuring Ann Marie Fleming,

Evelyn Lau, Yasuko Thanh, Fred Wah and Rita Wong.

ars e nal pu lp pr e ss

ars e nalpu lp . com

V e n u es & Par k ing

12015_Kidsbooks ad_concept.ai

H ow to Bu y T i ckets

GRANVILLE STREET BRIDGE

Advance Ticket Sales

Map Legend

1 Granville Island

Advance ticket sales for Vancouver Writers Fest members only. September 8, 2015 : General public ticket sales.

F A L S E E K C R E C BLI PU

D MARKET COURTYAR

Tickets can be purchased online, by phone or in person. All prices include GST. Mastercard, Visa and cash (in person) accepted.

TAXI STAND JOHNSTON STREET

TRIANEGLE AR SQU

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R D E A L

PARK

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By phone: 604.629.8849

In person: The Festival box office is located on the main floor of Festival House, 1398 Cartwright Street, Granville Island.

10:00 am−4:00 pm Saturdays: (from September 12): noon−4:00 pm. Monday to Friday: Closed holidays.

MA ERMA

Online: vancouvertix.com

Box Office Hours

H IS

VancouverTix surcharges are applied to all tickets purchased online or by phone. The Festival box office charges a $1 surcharge per ticket and is open for in-person sales only.

Advance ticket sales end at 4:00 pm on the day before the event.

ARF

BUS STOP

OLYMPI #50 BUS TO ATION SKYTRAIN ST

GRANVILLE STREET BRIDGE

The Beaumont Studio Artist Society 316 5th Avenue West

DISTRICT

BROKER’

ENUE 2ND AV

The Vancouver Playhouse 600 Hamilton Street

RAILSPUR

STREET

ANDERSON

E WALK SHOR FOR E

REET IDGE ST OLD BR

OP BUS ST

St. Andrew’s-Wesley United Church 1012 Nelson Street

PARK

#50 BUS TO NCOUVER N VA DOWNTOW

Off Site Venues

LSPUR

RD PARK BASFO RON

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Public Market 2 Granville Island Stage 1585 Johnston Street 3 Improv Centre 1502 Duranleau Street 4 Waterfront Theatre 1412 Cartwright Street 5 Vancouver Writers Fest Box Office, Main Floor, Festival House, 1398 Cartwright Street 6 Studio 1398, 3rd Floor, Festival House 1398 Cartwright Street 7 Performance Works 1218 Cartwright Street 8 Festival Bookstore Rear of Performance Works 1218 Cartwright Street 9 Granville Island Hotel 1253 Johnston Street

September 1, 2015 :

LAMEY’S

AD MILL RO

TOUR BUS STOP

Parking Information Free daytime parking in most spots on Granville Island is limited to three hours between 7:00 am and 7:00 pm. Read the signs carefully: some spots are for one hour only, and many have recently changed to 20 minutes. Granville Island pay parking garages and lots charge: $3.50 hourly or $15 daily. Parking is free and unlimited in most spots (including the pay parking garages and lots) each evening from 7:00 pm until 7:00 am. The EasyPark lot just east of the entrance to Granville Island, at 990 Lamey’s Mill Road, offers all-day parking for $9, or $1.50 hourly. There is also parking on the north side of False Creek. Consider leaving your car there and coming across on False Creek Ferries or the Aquabus.

Public Transit TransLink Schedule Information

604.953.3333 between 6:30 am and 11:30 pm translink.ca

Door Sales (day of event only)

The box office at venues will open 45 minutes before the start of each event. Cash, MasterCard and Visa are accepted. Call 604.681.6330 for ticket availability information, or check online at writersfest.bc.ca. Note that many events sell out in advance.

School Group Tickets

School group tickets go on sale Monday, September 14, 2015. Please visit our website at writersfest.bc.ca for details.

General Information

• Discount of $2 offered to seniors and students

who present valid ID, people on fixed incomes and the unemployed. • Discount of $2 offered to Festival members who purchase advance tickets at the Festival box office. Please present your membership card. • Programming is subject to change without notice. Refunds will be provided only when an event is cancelled. • Latecomers may not be seated. • As a courtesy to other patrons, no babies or small children at adult Festival events. • No flash photography or audio or video recording please.

CMY

Please check tickets carefully. There will be no exchanges or refunds.

Ferries Ferries travel from various locations along the north and south shores of False Creek to Granville Island at frequent intervals. False Creek Ferries

604.684.7781 granvilleislandferries.bc.ca Aquabus

604.689.5858 theaquabus.com

All Festival venues are wheelchair accessible. please reserve in advance by calling 604.681.6330 EXT 107.

Join Us!

T h a n ks to Our Supporte r s

Title Support

Writers Fest Membership: What’s in it for you?

Festival Sponsors

Get the Festival Program Guide Delivered.

We’ll mail the Festival program guide to you, so you’ll be sure to know when Festival details are announced. Bestseller

Buy Festival Tickets First.

Members can purchase tickets before the general public.* This is the best way to ensure you get tickets for those must-see, sell-out events. Save Money.

Members get a $2 discount on each Festival ticket* and enjoy a 10% discount on purchases at several affiliated local bookstores. We also offer discounted memberships for book clubs.

limited edition

Government Support

Stay Connected.

Members are invited to our exclusive annual preview event in the early summer.

Albert Normandin Photography

Members play an important role in helping us present events for adults and outreach programs for elementary and secondary school students.

MEDIA SPONSORS

DESIGN SPONSORs

Support the Festival.

How do you sign up?

• Annual Membership: $35 • Two-year Membership: $60 • Book Club Membership: $20 per person per year

(minimum of five book club members; please call for details)

Spreading the Word Sponsor

SPECIAL EVENT SPONSOR

Belle's Book Club

Book Bags Book Club Canada House Reads Colophon Book Club Cook Book Club

East Side Story Bookclub INCITE SERIES SPONSORS

We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage. Nous reconnaissons l’appui financier du gouvernement du Canada pas l’entremise du ministère du Patrimoine canadien.

IN-KIND SPONSORS

MHT

Richmond University Women's Book Club

Serious Reader's Book Club

The Lunars Book Club The Vintage Readers

We Eat Books For Dinner Book Club

The Faking It Book Club The Happy Bookers

What’s in it for us?

Membership fees provide vital support to the Vancouver Writers Fest and help us continue to present great writers and valuable education programs. It’s also a demonstration to our public and corporate funders that we have community support. *Limit of two tickets per member per event.

T he F est i va l E x peri en ce

Explore a World of Books and Ideas on Granville Island The Vancouver Writers Fest on Granville Island offers a world of books and ideas to explore for readers of all inclinations. Join us for a wide range of readings, discussions, debates and performances—and meet an eclectic array of writers from Canada and around the world. Festival events will get you thinking, introduce you to new authors and, if your aspiration is to write, inspire your creativity. Festival events are just part of what’s on offer. We are proud to be part of the vibrant Granville Island community, and our location adds so much to our audience’s enjoyment of the Festival. Granville Island is truly a cultural oasis in the heart of Vancouver. Along with the wonderful Public Market, restaurants and cafés, there are many hidden shops, galleries and artists’ studios to discover, and the ferries are the ultimate way to get here. Experience the excitement that permeates Granville Island during the six days of the Festival—enjoy! Granville Island is managed on behalf of the Government of Canada by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).

Ann-Marie MacDonald signs book at the 2014 Festival All Photos by Chris Cameron

The Vancouver Writers Fest is a proud cultural partner of CMHC Granville Island.

Festival Bookstore The Festival Bookstore is conveniently located at the rear of Performance Works, 1218 Cartwright Street, near the Granville Island Hotel at the east end of Granville Island. Books are also sold at the venues following each event, and all featured writers are available to sign their works. The bookstore’s stock of current and backlisted titles by each Festival author makes it the ideal place to browse between events. The bookstore is operated by the Festival's official bookseller, Kidsbooks, a successful independent bookseller known throughout the province for its comprehensive selection of titles for young readers. Festival Bookstore hours: October 20 – 25

Tuesday, 4:00 pm–10:00 pm Wednesday to Saturday, 10:00 am–10:00 pm Sunday, 10:00 am–5:00 pm

See page 63 for information on the Vancouver Writers Fest's Writing Contests. A teen asks a question at the 2013 Festival.

Poetic License performs at The Literary Cabaret

T h a n ks to our Indiv idual Supp orters

Support the Festival You know the impact that books, stories and ideas have on our lives; the way they engage our imaginations, challenge our world view and make us more empathetic. That is why the Vancouver Writers Fest matters, and why your donation is critical. Your gift will help create a tolerant, civil society that is fed by new ideas and thoughtful conversations. As a non-profit charitable organization, the VWF depends on your financial support. Your donation will help us continue to bring the world’s best writers to Vancouver audiences, nurture young writers and put Vancouver on the world literary map. In addition your gift will reach children and spark their imaginations, encouraging a lifelong love of learning. As a donor to the Writers Fest you’ll support a range of exceptional free and accessible programs, including:

Benefactors ($1,000 - $10,000) Collector's Edition ($10,000) Maureen & Larry Lunn

Classic ($5,000+) Cheryl Berge & Brian Fearncombe Jonathan Burke Colin & Helen Harris Bonnie Mah

Bestseller Edition ($2,500+)

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The Reading with Writers program for Lower Mainland schools in need

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The Writer in Residence program for schools in small BC communities

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Thirty-six Spreading the Word events for schools at the Festival

Sandra Garossino Sandra Jakab & Robert Lesperance Joan McEwen & Irwin Nathanson Kip Woodward Anonymous (1)

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Discounted Festival tickets for students and seniors

Special Edition

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The free Incite reading series at Vancouver Public Library

Leave a Legacy

Your bequest to the Vancouver Writers Fest will help us continue to offer literary events with the world’s best writers as well as programs that encourage and inspire children to read and write. Bequests can be made through your will or by naming the Festival as a beneficiary of a life insurance policy or RRSPs.

Donations of Stocks

The Vancouver Writers Fest accepts donations of publicly traded securities and bequests.

Benefits for donors may include invitations to special events and receptions, and recognition in the Festival program guide and newsletter. For full details, see our website, writersfest.bc.ca/donate. For more information on making a donation or leaving a gift in your will, please call 604.681.6330 ext. 0

($1,000+) Janice & Doug Dalzell Diana Debenham Patrick Dunn Yulanda & Moh Faris Judy Gale Anne & Tony Giardini Sally Harding Zena Henriquez Richard Johnston Shirley Lew Carol McClelland Harvey McKinnon Judith Miller Ebie & Ian Pitfield Allyson Nelson Bonnie & Don Sheldon Marvin Storrow Ian & Jane Strang Shannon Taylor Kim Thorne Paul Whitney Thomas Woods in honour of William C. McConnell Anonymous (2)

Limited Edition ($500) Yaseen Al-Salam Richard & Virginia Angus Maureen Attwell Ingrid Barnes Jo Baxendale Alison Broddle Claudia Casper Jane Estey Mark French Mike Gray

Clarissa Green Elizabeth Harrison Leslie Hurtig Argiro Kotsalis Patricia Laidley Alma Lee Moshe Mastai Gerald & Sheahan McGavin Tracey McVicar Angela & George McWhirter Margaret & William New Debra Nordheimer Liesa Norman Roberta Rich Linda Robbins Mary Robertson Rob Sanders & Colleen MacMillan Bonnie Sheldon in honour of Yulanda Faris Tracy Sherlock Patricia L. Shields Donald Shumka Deborah Torrko David & Susan Van Blarcom Hal Wake Rosalie Walls Mark Wentzell Katherine Wreford

FIRST Edition ($250+) Anthony Abrahams David Allard Deb Armour Margaret Atwood John Bell Kinji Bourchier Cathleen Boyle Linda Brandt Sherry & Allan Buium MaryLynn Burke Murray Campbell Sandra Case Jennifer Conkie Susan Connor Lynn Copeland Phillip Cotterill Corinne Durston Roberta Ellis Paul Evans Craig Ferris Diana Filer Janet Fretter Crissy George Ian Gill Judith Hager Alison Hart Stephanie Hollis Bruce Howard Violet Hughes Trudy Jaskela Alexia Jones Lorey Lasley Mary MacAulay

Todd Martin John Masterson Ed Montague Tessa Nicholl Nicole & Jason Nozick Elise Partridge Kit Pearson Karla Pederson Joseph Planta Stephen Radcliffe Nancy Richler Shannon Ronne Kathryn Shoemaker Jane Slemon Camilla Tibbs Bruno Wall Ian Weir

New Edition ($100+) Cathy Abrossimoff Susan Adams Leslie Alexander Janet Allwork M. Catherine Alpaugh Tim Ambler Danielle Arcand Sarah Armstrong Elizabeth Austin Janet Austin Heather Baker Peter Battershill Gillian Beattie Larry Bisaro Lisa Blachut Russel Black Maurice & Susan Bloch Deborah Bouska Peter Brady Connie Braun Lindy Bremner Brian Brett Diane Bridges Ruth Brodie Florence Bullock James Burchill John Burgoyne Martin & Cheryl Burian Doug Burns Justin Callison Trevor Carolan Ann Carroll David Chariandy Stephen Chatman Jane Cherry Michael Cholod John Christian Thyrza Cohen David Conlin Patricia Crowe Kathleen Cummins Patricia Curtis Cynthia Davis Barbara Dawson

Charlene de Faye Mary Doherty Deb Durocher Anne Elliott Catherine Epstein Lynda Erickson Al Etmanski Susan Fielden Cynthia Flood Lily Fong Bruce Forster Jeanette Froese Glenn Gardner Nancy Garrett Gary Geddes Barbara Gelfant Ross Gentleman Mary Gianoulis William Gibson Karen Gilmore Maryke Gilmore Surya Govender Linda Graham Zoe Grams Thomas Groppi Lianne Gulka June Harrison Michael Harstone Karin Hartner Ainslie Harvey Elizabeth Hay William Hay Robert Heidbreder Holly Hendrigan Rees Hill Nicole Holas Warwick Holland Stephanie Hollis Tony Hume Tamara Hunter Tom Hunter Valerie Hunter Ryan Jaeger Katherine Johansson Diana Keng Margaret Kennedy Linda King in honour of Hugh Davidson Matthew Kirchner Dolya Konoval Mladen Korbelik Keith Kruger Melanie Last Leslie Lee Frank Leffelaar Chantal Leger Marshall Letcher Anita Leung Jim Littleford Zdravko Loborec Gloria Loree Patricia Lundh Karin Lypkie Karin Macaulay

Andy & Georgina Macdonald Wendi Mackay Linda MacKinley-Hay Fran Maclean Brian MacNeil Bill MacPherson Susan Masi Dave Mason Noni Mate David Matthews Bruce Maunder Jim & Joan Mayhew Kelsey McDermott Marlene McDonald Ann McDonell Bev McDowell Barbara-jo McIntosh Sharon McKibbon Myles McNeil Pam McPhail Victoria Mendes Peter Meredith Howard Mickelson Sandra Moe Alexandra Montgomery Susan Morabito Marlene Moretti Terri Newell Carol Newson Susin Nielsen Peggy Olive Nora Osborne Maria Pacella Mike Paddison Cathy Paperny Maggie Pappas Helen Rose Pauls Talea Pecora Elaine Peddie Doug Perry Betty Port Susan Powelson Beverley Price Nicole Racette Karen Rideout Elise Roaf Peter Roberts Sylvia Roberts Shirley Rudolph Michelle Rupp Anita Salchert Minna Schendlinger Helen Shore Veronica Singer Helen Smith Lynda Spratley Dan Steiner Barrie Sullivan Eve Szabo Adrienne Tanner Linda Thayer Deborah Thomas Fiona Tinwei Lam Rhea Tregebov

Woon Ai Tsang Carol Tulpar Penelope Turpin Shelagh Van Kempen Robert Van Nus Baz Van Riet Ellen Volden Olga Volkoff Susan & Jerry Wasserman Mike Watson Ray Weremczuk Birgit Westergaard Lynn Westwick Valerie White Gordon Wilcox Mark Winston Jay Wollenberg Patrick Woo Sabine Wood Jori Woodman Ronald Wright Rachel Wyatt Max Wyman Patricia Young Anonymous (6) Anonymous in honour of Cody Reedman & Jacqueline Kirzner to the Alma Lee Legacy Fund

bequest Beth Coleman

Volunteer Program Donors Patrick Dunn Catherine McKeehan Danelle Laidlaw Dale Flexman Anita Salchert Betti Port Elizabeth Austin Lisa Blachut Melanie Last Susan Masi Lonnie Propas & Susan Olgul-Propas Jane Slemon

The Alma Lee Legacy Fund The Festival’s endowment fund celebrates the accomplishments of Alma Lee, the Festival’s founder. Revenue from this fund provides stable funding for the Festival, helps us offer Spreading the Word programs for schools and allows us to plan for the future. Lead Donors Colin & Helen Harris Jab Sidhoo Yosef Wosk The Vancouver Sun Cynthia Woodward Development Fund

Sandra Garossino Sheahan & Gerald McGavin Rudy & Patricia North

Megan Abbott Douglas Coupland Yulanda & Moh Faris Anne & Tony Giardini Scott Griffin KMC Foundation Caroline Lawrence Bonnie Mah Joanne & David McDonald Tracey McVicar Brenda & Michael O’Keefe Ebie & Ian Pitfield Rod & Laurie Scheuerman Helen Shore Yasmeen & Andrew Strang Thomas Allen & Son Ltd. W.A.U. Nicoll Robertson Charitable Foundation Trust John Welson Jan Whitford & Michael Stevenson

Donations received between June 30, 2014 and July 9, 2015. Thank you for your generous support. We make every effort to be accurate. Please call us if you have any questions about this list, 604.681.6330.

RIENDS of the

Vancouver Public Library

BOOK DONATIONS and other media accepted throughout the year.

ON-GOING USED BOOK SALE at

book’mark, The Library Store @ Central Library

More information: friendsofthevpl.ca (604) 331- 4049 Proceeds from used book sales support special library programs and projects.

I n M em o r i a m

S pread i n g t h e Wo rd

THA NKS TO OUR DONORS

Yulanda Faris w-

On April 23, 2015, we lost one of the Festival’s true champions, a devoted and longtime member of our community. Yulanda Faris was passionate about many different art forms— music, dance and books chief among them—and her passion was contagious. Yulanda believed in the transformative nature of art, and that everyone should have the opportunity to explore and be changed by art. To make that possible, she put much of her heart, soul and determination into supporting artists and organizations as a donor, an audience member and an advocate. She was particularly supportive of young artists. We were privileged to have Yulanda serve on our Board of Directors for a time, and her many contributions to The Vancouver Writers Fest were significant and far-reaching. She will be greatly missed.

Ruth Rendell

Elise Partridge

P.D. James

David Godfrey

Jamie Reid

We pay tribute to some of the powerful literary voices we lost in 2015, including bestselling crime writers Ruth Rendell and P.D. James, both of whom appeared at the Vancouver Writers Fest. We also acknowledge the loss of three local literary figures: award-winning BC poet Elise Partridge; co-founder of House of Anansi Press David Godfrey; and North Vancouver poet and activist Jamie Reid.

Corporate Support

Foundations

A Dram Come True Donors

Ampersand Canada's Book & Gift Agency Inc.: in honour of Dot Middlemass Harbour Publishing Harvey McKinnon Associates Lesperance Mendes Lawyers Orca Book Publishers Inc. Palimpsest Press TELUS Charitable Giving Program Urban Impact Vancouver Public Library

Al Roadburg Foundation Chris Spencer Foundation F.K. Morrow Foundation The Hamber Foundation NWM Private Giving Foundation – The Stevenson-Whitford Family Fund RBC Foundation The Rix Family Foundation R.J. Nelson Family Foundation

Travel Assistance

A La Mode Bean Around the World at Point Grey Village Benton Brothers Fine Cheese Canadian Linen & Uniform Service Cats Social House Consulate of Australia in Vancouver Consulate of New Zealand in Vancouver Curry 2 U Daniel Le Chocolat Belge Duso’s Italian Foods Fraser Valley Juice & Salad Granville Island Florist Granville Island Tea Company Kaisereck Delicatessen Kin’s Farm Market La Tortilleria Laurelle's Fine Foods Lee's Donuts Mix the Bakery Muffin Granny Olde World Fudge Company Oyama Sausage Company Pacific Coastal Airlines Pane e Formaggio Planet Veg Restaurant Quality Fruit Growers Sunrise Produce Taco Shack Terra Breads The Milkman The Salmon Shop Top Ten Market Zara’s Italian Deli & Fresh Pasta

Andrea Dillon & Associates Ltd. Andy & Georgina Macdonald Authentic Wines & Spirits Benton Brothers Fine Cheese Bill Brandes Black Rock Oceanfront Resort Bruce Forster Dave Mason DB Gardening & Diane Bridges Duso's Italian Foods Dussa's Ham & Cheese Eagranie Yuh East India Carpets Fawcett Insurance Fets Whisky Kitchen Fisherman's Resort & Marina Gigi B. Granville Island Brewing Granville Island Hotel & Dockside Restaurant Granville Island Tea Company Greg Bridges House of Himwitsa Native Art Gallery & Lodge Jam Jar Kim Thorne Kingfisher Oceanside Resort & Spa Leslie Hurtig Lesperance Mendes Lorne Folick Paul Whitney Pirate Adventures Promosapien Richard & Virginia Angus Sally Harding Sandi Case Sandy Jakab & Robert Lesperance Shannon Taylor TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival Terra Breads Tinhorn Creek Top Table Group Vancouver Foodie Tours Wedgewood Hotel & Spa West Coast Whisky Society White Ocean Gallery Wishes + Luck

Arsenal Pulp Press Australia Council for the Arts and the Melbourne Writers Festival Bayard Canada Biblioasis Breakwater Books Bureau des Affaires Francophones et Francophiles Caitlin Press Coach House Books Conseil des arts du Nouveau-Brunswick Consulate General of the United States Consulate General of Italy in Vancouver & Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Toronto Cormorant Books Creative New Zealand Dundurn ECW Press Exile Editions Freehand Books Greystone Books Groundwood Books Hachette Book Group Canada HarperCollins Canada House of Anansi Press Kids Can Press NORLA Orca Books Pedlar Press Penguin Random House Publishers Group Canada Raincoast Books RésoSanté Colombie Britannique and Conseil Scolaire Francophone de la Colombie Britannique Signature Editions Red Deer Press Simon & Schuster Canada Tundra Books UBC Creative Writing

In-Kind Donors

Community Partners Chapters/Indigo DOXA Indian Summer Festival Queer Film Festival

It's about reading and writing, books and writers. It's eclectic, exciting, entertaining and thought-provoking. Spreading the Word, the Vancouver Writers Fest's schools program, offers K–12 students and teachers the rare opportunity to engage with internationally renowned writers at the Festival and in the classroom.

Photo by Chris Cameron

At the Festival

Reading with Writers

“We attended the event as a writing class looking for some tips for developing our storytelling skills. The author managed to keep our class—loaded with grade 11 boys—entertained.”

“Chris Gilpin made me look at poetry a lot differently. When he was performing, he made his poems sound cool … I would have never joined a spoken word poetry club, but his visit changed my mind.”

—Craig Ketchum, teacher at Maple Ridge Christian School

—Gaby, student, City Central Learning Centre in Surrey, BC

Writer in Residence

La Joie de lire

Festival events for schools (in English and French) are lively, engaging and thought-provoking, with plenty of opportunity for discussion and audience questions.

The Writer in Residence program inspires an entire community by sending a Festival author to a small BC town for a one-week residency. The author works intensively with students in workshops and gives readings at community centres. “A week in a school allows a poet to expose their heart and, in turn, allows others to expose theirs. There were poems from grade nine students that would not have emerged without Jillian Christmas and her heart.” —Brad Cunningham, English teacher at Reynolds Secondary in Victoria, BC

Local and visiting writers visit schools in need to talk with students about reading and writing, and engage in lively discussions about books and the writing process.

La Joie de lire est à la fois le titre et l’objectif des programmes en français du Vancouver Writers Fest qui vous offre une palette éclectique, divertissante et stimulante d’activités et de rencontres avec des auteurs canadiens et étrangers de renom. Ce programme donne aux élèves de la maternelle à la 12e année l’occasion unique d’entrer en rapport avec de grands écrivains à la fois au Festival et en classe.

E v en ts by G en re

Penguin Random House welcomes our authors to The Vancouver Writers Fest.

Events by Genre Non-Fiction 25 28 40 46 47 54 74 80

Whose Story is It? The Wild in You (1) The Wild in You (2) Buying A Better World Simon Winchester in Conversation with Gloria Macarenko Hope Springs Let Justice be Done Stories Behind the Personalities

Readings 29 62 79 85 86 89

Between the Pages: An Evening with the Scotiabank Giller Prize Finalists The Literary Cabaret The Poetry Bash The Sunday Brunch The Dhahan Prize The Afternoon Tea

Interviews

Changing the world

at a time.

9 10 46 47 50 63 66 68 87

Making Sense of Real Horror George Bowering in Conversation with Colin Browne Buying A Better World Simon Winchester in Conversation with Gloria Macarenko An Intimate Evening with Jim Shepard 1,000 Lashes An Intimate Evening with Patrick deWitt Paula Hawkins in Conversation with Elaine Lui The Interviews

Biography/Personal Experience 56 Belonging 63 1,000 Lashes 74 Let Justice be Done 75 Platforms 80 Stories Behind the Personalities 84 Laid Bare The Literary World 11 Labels and Fables 29 Between the Pages: An Evening with the Scotiabank Giller Prize Finalists 73 Elena Ferrante: a Literary Mystery 77 Freeman's

one book Visit penguinrandomhouse.ca/events for more details on all our authors on tour

Contemporary Global Issues 13 25 28 40 44 46 48 54 63 67 76

An Intimate Evening with Lawrence Hill Whose Story is It? The Wild in You (1) The Wild in You (2) Trigger Warning Buying A Better World Words for the Undocumented Hope Springs 1,000 Lashes Freedom of Expression Women in Peril

Poetry 10 28 40 45 53 60 70 79

George Bowering in Conversation with Colin Browne The Wild in You (1) The Wild in You (2) The Lighter Side Pure Poetry Poetry: What's It Good For? Up with the Birds The Poetry Bash

Graphic Novel/Comics 55

Taking the Message to a New Medium

Solo Author Events 9 10 13 46 47 50 63 64 66 68 81 83

Making Sense of Real Horror George Bowering in Conversation with Colin Browne An Intimate Evening with Lawrence Hill Buying A Better World Simon Winchester in Conversation with Gloria Macarenko An Intimate Evening with Jim Shepard 1,000 Lashes Inspired By: A Multimedia Performance An Intimate Evening with Patrick deWitt Paula Hawkins in Conversation with Elaine Lui An Intimate Evening with Jeff VanderMeer Getting Under Their Skins

Music 62 64

The Literary Cabaret Inspired By: A Multimedia Performance

Thriller/Crime 14 15 27 31 68 72 76

Icelandic Incantations Thriller Night Shock and Awful Sisters in Crime Paula Hawkins in Conversation with Elaine Lui An Unlikely Path Women in Peril

Sci Fi/Horror/Weird Fiction 11 30 81

Labels and Fables Weird Fiction An Intimate Evening with Jeff VanderMeer

Humour 45

The Lighter Side

Historical Fiction 14 Icelandic Incantations 32 Intoxicated with the Past 50 An Intimate Evening with Jim Shepard 51 The Big Idea 59 Frontier 83 Getting Under Their Skins 88 The Raw Material Voices of Europe 9 14 31 73

Making Sense of Real Horror Icelandic Incantations Sisters in Crime Elena Ferrante: a Literary Mystery

First Nations 55 Taking the Message to a New Medium 69 The Way Forward 80 Stories Behind the Personalities

TUES DAY, OCTOBER 2 0

TUESDAY, OCTO B ER 2 0

Finding Freedom Michel Chikwanine In Conversation with Kathryn Gretsinger

10–11:30 am GRANVILLE ISLAND STAGE $17 / $8.50 for student groups

As a teenage refugee to Canada, Michel Chikwanine found it hard to relate when his high school friends complained about their privileged lives. He was only five when Congolese rebel soldiers descended on an after-school soccer game, forced him and his friends into trucks and carted them off into the jungle to be trained as child soldiers. In his graphic novel, Child Soldier: When Boys and Girls are Used in War, Chikwanine retells this traumatic experience—the horrors of which didn’t end when he escaped. Now a vocal peace advocate, Chikwanine has spoken to more than 100,000 people across North America, inspiring audiences young and old to believe in their ability to create change. Suitable for grades 5–8

Wind, Wandering and Wonderment Robert Heidbreder, JonArno Lawson, Barbara Nickel

Darren Groth, Susin Nielsen

10–11:30 am

Talking Garbage Michelle Mulder

10–11:15 am

WATERFRONT THEATRE $17 / $8.50 for student groups

STUDIO 1398 $17 / $8.50 for student groups

Complicated family dynamics have always been the stuff of novels. The deep bonds and feuds that develop within this most intimate cast of characters fascinate us, not only because we recognize our own families in them, but also because the combinations and conflicts often surprise us. Darren Groth and Susin Nielsen have each penned new portraits of the modern family. Blended families, gay parents, parentless children and children with mental disabilities— these are just some of the situations from which difficulties and love grow in Are You Seeing Me? and We Are All Made of Molecules. Groth and Nielsen prove they are keenly aware of the issues facing many kids, and how families still provide the support needed to help to get children through life.

“What is garbage?” asks Michelle Mulder. Garbage is something that is no longer useful. But usefulness, she suggests, is in the eye of the beholder. For example, old jeans can be used for housing insulation, and tires can be transformed into planters and furniture. With photos and artwork, and through stories and anecdotes from her travels around the world, Mulder provides a history of garbage that reveals all sorts of alternatives to incineration, landfills and ocean dumping. She will get kids thinking and leave them inspired to spearhead initiatives of their own.

IMPROV CENTRE $17 / $8.50 for student groups

Explore a summer evening after dark. Let winds from around the world tangle your hair. Discover treasures littered on sidewalks and boulevards. These three award-winning Canadian authors will spend time with young readers highlighting the enchantment and awe of the world around us. Join Robert Heidbreder, JonArno Lawson and Barbara Nickel for an hour of storytelling that is sure to delight young minds.

Outspoken in Unison Jillian Christmas, Dia Davina, Erin Kirsh, Sonya Littlejohn, Lucia Misch, Alessandra Naccarato, RC Weslowski Host: Johnny Macrae

1–2:30 Pm GRANVILLE ISLAND STAGE $17 / $8.50 for student groups

The Writers Fest’s spoken word events are among the most popular, fastest-selling events in the entire Festival. This year we’ve added to our traditional Word! format (see Events 16 and 39) an exciting new event that is polyphonic and syncopated. The Wordplay Poets ensemble commissioned spoken word artists to work in pairs to develop two-voiced poems on the themes of being outspoken and speaking in solidarity. At times during the performances the poets will be in dialogue, other times they will be speaking in unison, occasionally they will be in dissonance. Count on lots of energy, dare-devil timing, humour and honesty.

Des albums illustrés à la bande dessinée Édith Bourget, Paul Roux

Suitable for grades 4–7

Bill Slavin, Cybèle Young

1–2:30 Pm

Paul Roux et Édith Bourget vous feront voyager dans un univers d’aventure et de rêve. Artiste effervescente Mme Bourget nous fait découvrir son album illustré Rouge Tomate dans lequel Tom sait comment transformer le quotidien en aventure. M. Roux, bédéiste talentueux, nous présentera Pas de cadeaux pour les héros! – une aventure palpitante, où se mêlent des élans d’amitié, un don de clairvoyance et un clin d’œil aux petites passions du quotidien. Pour les élèves de la troisième à la septième année.

WATERFRONT THEATRE $17 / $8.50 for student groups

The art of telling stories through illustration is a fine art indeed. Bill Slavin has won numerous awards and illustrated more than 100 books, but all for other authors. Now, Elephants Never Forget is Slavin’s first series featuring his own story and illustrations, starring an elephant with peanut allergies whose allergies are the least of his worries. Cybèle Young’s tale of a royal party gone awry uses delightful illustrations to show the world as seen through the eyes of many different creatures—sharks, snakes, goats, dragonflies, squid, and even mystery-solving sea urchins. It’s both a science lesson about how different animals see and a whimsical story of a missing shadow. Suitable for grades 2–5

Making Sense of Real Horror Asne Seierstad in Conversation with Kathryn Gretsinger

Susan Juby, Susin Nielsen Moderator: Caroline Adderson IMPROV CENTRE $17 / $8.50 for student groups

STUDIO 1398 17 $ / 8,50 $ pour les groupes d’élèves

Cet événement se déroulera exclusivement en français et donnera lieu à de nombreuses possibilités d’interaction entre les élèves et l’animatrice.

Illustrate and Imagine

High School Jinks 1–2:30 pm

13 h à 14 h 30

Suitable for grades 7–10

10–11:00 am

Suitable for grades K–3

Modern Family

6–7:15 pm WATERFRONT THEATRE $20

Åsne Seierstad is an investigative reporter whose book, The Bookseller of Kabul, has been translated into 42 languages and has sold millions of copies. Trying to make sense of non-fiction horror closer to her home, Seierstad now chronicles the terrible day in 2011 when Anders Breivik opened fire on a Norwegian youth camp and within an hour had killed 69 young people. This is the story of a political terrorist or a madman—yet it also pays close attention to his victims, how Norway’s policing system allowed a lone gunman to wreak terror for so long, and the country’s debate about Muslim immigration. It’s a story of sorrow and compassion.

Get set for some hijinks this afternoon as two high-energy authors who are no strangers to young adult readers take the stage. In Susan Juby’s novel, The Truth Commission, 16-year-old Norm (short for Normandy) walks a fine line between telling the complete truth and uncovering truths that may be better hidden. Susin Nielsen’s novel, We Are All Made of Molecules, features teens Stewart and Ashley, who are thrown together in a blended family and also thrown together to defend each other in their high school hallways. Behind the fun, these BC authors touch on tough issues that many young people grapple with daily. Suitable for grades 7–10 This event is organized in collaboration with the Canada Council for the Arts to celebrate the 2015 edition of the Governor General’s Literary Awards.

George Bowering in Conversation with Colin Browne

On Granville Island. PhotoS by Chris Cameron

6-7:15 pm STUDIO 1398 $20

Respected poet, novelist, essayist, critic, teacher, historian, editor, author of more than 70 books, one of only three Canadian writers to have won a Governor General’s Literary Award for both fiction and poetry, Canada’s first Poet Laureate, recipient of the BC Lieutenant-Governor Award for Literary Excellence, translated into six languages—George Bowering turns 80 this year. Over many decades of work, Bowering has remained true to his love of language and his passion for writing, and he’s not stopping. This year alone, he will publish three more books—one short fiction, one collection of poetry and an anthology of his Okanagan writings. We’re holding a party in his honour—and you’re invited!

Suitable for grades 8–12 and adults David Mitchell at the 2010 Festival

TUESDAY, OCTO B ER 2 0

Labels and Fables Craig Davidson, Elisabeth de Mariaffi, Kelly Link, Jeff VanderMeer Moderator: Ian Weir

6–7:15 pm IMPROV CENTRE $20

Grand Openings The Alma Lee Opening Night Event Giuseppe Catozzella, David Constantine, Denise Mina, Steve Toltz, Damien Wilkins, Sarah Winman Host: Caroline Adderson

8:30 pm WATERFRONT THEATRE $20

8:00 pm

Fabulist, fantasist, magic realist, crime writer. Are these labels helpful or hindering for writers whose works slide between genres and literary fiction? Craig Davidson skirts the issue by writing his horror stories under a pseudonym. Elisabeth de Mariaffi, longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize for her short stories, has now published a “literary thriller.” Kelly Link, an American “national treasure” according to Neil Gaiman, is a short story writer who frequents the realms of scifi and fantasy. Jeff VanderMeer has been labelled “the king of weird fiction.” The blurring of genre conventions is not new, but it begs the question: “If Kafka had been labelled a fantasy writer, would we all know about The Metamorphosis?”

An Intimate Evening with Lawrence Hill

PERFORMANCE WORKS $26

From Scotland, New Zealand, Australia, Italy and the United Kingdom, tonight’s illustrious authors set the stage for the week ahead. Italian Giuseppe Catozzella fictionalizes the true and tragic story of a young Somali athlete. British fiction master David Constantine reads from the first North American publication of his work. New Zealand lyricist, poet, playwright and novelist Damien Wilkins reads from Max Gate, titled after Thomas Hardy's Dorset home where the book is set. Gritty Glaswegian realist Denise Mina presents the fifth book in her crime series featuring detective Alex Morrow. Man Booker-shortlisted Australian Steve Toltz reads from his latest, Quicksand, and British author Sarah Winman charms with her sophomore work, A Year of Marvellous Ways. The Writers Fest brings the world to you—sit back and enjoy.

Lawrence Hill became a household name with the 2007 publication of The Book of Negroes. The novel received huge critical acclaim, won prestigious prizes and was adapted as a miniseries that aired on CBC television. Tonight, Hill presents, The Illegal, his new novel inspired by survival stories of undocumented refugees. “In Canada, the United States and around the world, millions of people have to survive with a huge question mark hanging over their lives,” says Hill. “Will they be deported? Persecuted? Executed? What do their lives look like while they are hiding in rich nations and trying, against all odds, to get on with their lives?” In today’s global climate, these are relevant questions that Hill addresses with empathy and grace.

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Icelandic Incantations Hannah Kent, Yrsa Sigurðardóttir Moderator: Anne Giardini

Thriller Night Sara Blaedel, Elisabeth de Mariaffi, Owen Sheers, Robert J. Wiersema

8:30 pm

STUDIO 1398 $20

IMPROV CENTRE $20

Join us for a night in Iceland—through the eyes of a native and a newcomer. Hannah Kent’s debut novel, set in 1829, is based on the true story of the last woman executed in Iceland. It’s been translated into 20 languages, shortlisted for the Bailey’s Women’s Prize and longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Those “delicate incantations of an inhospitable place” also play large in the work of celebrated Icelandic author Yrsa Sigurðardóttir. All of her adult novels have been European bestsellers and are translated into more than 30 languages. Amid all those hours of darkness, “what we have to offer,” she says, “are crimes that result from the evil in ordinary people.”

As Michael Jackson sang, “It's close to midnight and something evil’s lurking....” This ‘Thriller Night’ starts a little earlier but is filled with an equal variety of chills. In Denmark, Sara Blaedel has been voted “most popular author” three times for her crime novels. Literary writer Elisabeth de Mariaffi's novel grew out of her own experience coming of age in the climate of fear generated by Scarborough rapist Paul Bernardo in the late 1980s. Owen Sheers’ highly-crafted novel of suspense is driven by subtle ideas and little knots of panic, and a causal web leading to a sudden shocking “accident.” In Robert J. Wiersema’s genre-bending novel, Black Feathers, a community of street-dwellers is rocked by night terrors and the spectre of a serial killer. This event is sponsored by Harper Collins Canada Ltd.

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Word! (1) Jillian Christmas, TJ Dawe, Lucia Misch Host: Chris Gilpin

The Haunting of Sunshine Girl Paige McKenzie in Conversation with Susin Nielsen

10–11:30 am

GRANVILLE ISLAND STAGE $17 / $8.50 for student groups

PERFORMANCE WORKS $17 / $8.50 for student groups

By grade five, Jillian Christmas knew she wanted to be a poet. Now she’s living her dream, performing and winning slam titles as well as facilitating spoken word workshops for youth. “Give [young poets] a platform to speak their stories and they’ll blow your mind with fresh ideas,” she says. Vancouver-based playwright, director and performer TJ Dawe is guaranteed to shake things up with his moving, often hilarious, personal monologues. Dawe says, “No matter how rehearsed or how much time I’ve spent crafting the script, there’s no substitution for an audience.” Joining them is 2010/11 Vancouver Slam Team member Lucia Misch, who began writing and performing at 15. The energy in the room will be palpable, fuel for performers and audience alike.

Almost five years ago, Paige McKenzie, then 16 years old, uploaded a short video to YouTube and a mockumentary series—The Haunting of Sunshine Girl—was born. With more than 150,000,000 views, the show takes 80 hours a week to produce and has become McKenzie’s full-time job. McKenzie says, “In the web series not much is told about Sunshine’s life before she moved into the haunted house or why her house is haunted.” Now, with her book of the same title, McKenzie is able to tell “a bigger, more behindthe-scenes story.” Join this modern-day storyteller as she dishes on the amazing evolution of Sunshine Girl.

(This event is repeated at Thursday at 1pm at the Granville Island Stage.)

DNA Detective Tanya Lloyd Kyi

10–11:15 am

Cybèle Young

10–11:15 am STUDIO 1398 $17 / $8.50 for student groups

In Cybèle Young’s book, Some Things I’ve Lost, ordinary household objects that often get misplaced or lost—wallets, keys, glasses—are transformed into exquisite sculptures. A Governor General’s award-winning illustrator, Young looks beyond the everyday item to what it could become if it were cut and reformed, patched and repurposed. A satchel could morph into a wood bug and then into a porcupine. A watch could become a cluster of budding flowers and then be rearranged to form a bottom-dwelling fish. The power of the imagination is on full display as Young invites children to consider the possibility of change and delight in new perspectives. Suitable for grades 3–6

Zeros and Ones Jordan Stratford, Gene Luen Yang Moderator: France Perras

1–2:30 pm

WATERFRONT THEATRE $17 / $8.50 for student groups

Want to find out why humans are more like flies or mice than we’d like to admit? How about how to clone a sheep? In her book DNA Detective, Tanya Lloyd Kyi, award-winning author of 16 books for young people, unravels the mystery of our genetic blueprint. She explains the basics of genetics and reveals the entertaining and fascinating stories of the researchers who discovered pieces of the DNA puzzle. From genetically engineered pets to a dating app that helps Icelanders avoid marrying their cousins, Lloyd Kyi’s DNA tales will surprise and delight young readers. Suitable for grades 5–8

Suitable for grades 7–10

WATERFRONT THEATRE $17 / $8.50 for student groups

Blending fact with fiction, these authors will sweep you up in their mysteries while lacing their stories with intriguing puzzles and computer programming. Going back in time to 1826, Jordan Stratford introduces you to the first book of his Wollstonecraft Detective Agency series. This series stars real-life historical figures Lady Ada Lovelace, the first computer programmer, and Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein, who as children solve the case of the missing moonstone. Graphic novel superstar and high school computer programming teacher Gene Luen Yang presents his first book of a new series starring Hopper and her friend. Their growing prowess with computer coding helps solve the mysteries that abound in Stately Academy. Suitable for grades 4–7

Suitable for grades 8–12 and adults. Warning: Content in this event may not be suitable for all classes.

From Ordinary to Extraordinary

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21

W E D NES DAY, OCTOB ER 2 1

Deux Auteures Hors Pair Édith Bourget, Mélanie Watt

10 h à 11 h

IMPROV CENTRE 17 $ / 8,50 $ POUR LES GROUPES D’ÉLÈVES Venez rencontrer deux auteures-illustratrices de renom: Édith Bourget et Mélanie Watt. Les albums de Mme Watt débordent d’humour, d’ironie et de charme, et laissent place à l’interprétation et à la réflexion. Mme Watt viendra nous raconter quelques aventures de son petit rongeur préféré connu sous le nom de Frisson l’écureuil et nous présentera également son tout nouveau livre, La mouche dans l’aspirateur. Son dernier bijou raconte les aventures d’une mouche qui entre dans une maison par une porte entrouverte... Mme Bourget rêve de paix et souhaite que ses mots et ses tableaux contribuent à alléger des cœurs, à ouvrir des yeux, et à donner envie de protéger la vie. Tutti-Frutti est le surnom donné à la petite Lili qui aime tellement les fruits qu’elle pourrait finir par se transformer en salade de fruits! C’est finalement ce qui se produira un jour… dans un mauvais rêve. Pour les élèves de la maternelle à la troisième année. Cet événement se déroulera exclusivement en français et donnera lieu à de nombreuses possibilités d’interaction entre les élèves et l’animatrice.

Against All Odds Michel Chikwanine, Tanya Lloyd Kyi Moderator: Shannon Ozirny

1–2:30 pm PERFORMANCE WORKS $17 / $8.50 for student groups

When Michel Chikwanine was five, he was

kidnapped by Congolese rebel soldiers who hauled him into the jungle to be trained as a child soldier. Chikwanine has seen death and violence close-up yet his success as a speaker and his belief in the possibility for change make him remarkable. Tanya Lloyd Kyi’s When the Worst Happens tells intense, true stories of survival—such as those of 17-year-old Juliane, who lived through a plane crash in the jungle, or 12-year-old Bala, whose boat capsized off the Australian coast. Join these writers for a riveting discussion about why people act the way they do in the worst imaginable circumstances and what we can learn about surviving and thriving. Suitable for grades 5–8 Sarah Waters and Bill Richardson at the 2009 Festival Photo by Chris Cameron

L’angoisse servie sur la planche à dessin

Catherine Lepage

13 h à 14 h 15 STUDIO 1398 17 $ / 8,50 $ POUR LES GROUPES D’ÉLÈVES

Catherine Lepage signe avec Fines tranches d’angoisse une bande dessinée pleine d’humour qui met le doigt sur les maux du siècle : la dépression et l’angoisse. Ce livre superbement illustré est un joyau de concision et d’autodérision qui impressionne autant par la douleur émanant du propos que par la beauté et la jovialité des mots et des illustrations. Mme Lepage nous montrera les chemins qu’emprunte l’angoisse, la recette pour l’entretenir et les quatre phrases pour s’en sortir. Pour les élèves de la huitième à la douzième année. Cet événement se déroulera exclusivement en français et donnera lieu à de nombreuses possibilités d’interaction entre les élèves et l’animatrice.

Seasoned Storytellers JonArno Lawson, Barbara Nickel, Mélanie Watt

1–2:00 pm IMPROV CENTRE $17 / $8.50 for student groups

JonArno Lawson is a three-time winner of the Lion and the Unicorn Award for Excellence in North American Children’s Poetry. He’s here this afternoon to share his new wordless picture book, Sidewalk Flowers, an “ode to the importance of small things, small people and small gestures.” Winner of the Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize, Barbara Nickel presents A Boy Asked the Wind, a spectacular evocation of winds around the world. Mélanie Watt of Scaredy Squirrel superstardom reveals her new stand-alone book, Bug in a Vacuum. Children will be on the edge of their seats, keen to soak up these seasoned storytellers’ every word. Suitable for grades K–3

Whose Story Is It? John Colapinto, Åsne Seierstad Moderator: Kathryn Gretsinger

Strange Bedfellows Steve Toltz, Leslie Vryenhoek, Sarah Winman Moderator: Aislinn Hunter

6-7:15 pm

PERFORMANCE WORKS $20

WATERFRONT THEATRE $20

Is the disinterested reporter really possible? And whose story are non-fiction writers actually telling? Two writers tackle this timely and thorny issue. New Yorker staff writer John Colapinto, author of As Nature Made Him, fell afoul of family sensitivities and secrets that made the writing of the book extraordinarily difficult. When Åsne Seierstad published The Bookseller of Kabul, the highest selling non-fiction book in Norwegian history, it was denounced as inaccurate and invasive by its main characters and led to an eightyear legal battle that eventually cleared Seierstad’s name. Seierstad says, “You have to stand by your choices and your angle because that is journalism.” Join these thoughtful, professional journalists for a discussion about the difficulties, satisfaction and surprises that come with seeing a story through.

“A friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same.” Good fiction often introduces readers to friends who are interdependent, independent, get along, grow apart—and with whom we are sorry to part at the end of the book. Steve Toltz’s novel is a saga of friendship and misadventure between Australian brothersin-arms who deadpan their way through disaster after disaster. Leslie Vryenhoek writes about the uneven allegiance between two friends who are burdened with emotional debt and pay a high price for their loyalty. Sarah Winman imagines friendship between an old Cornwall woman coming to the end of her life and a young soldier who sees little point in going on with his. Join us in exploring some of the rewards and complications of friendship.

The Wild in You (1) Lorna Crozier, Ian McAllister

6–7:15 pm

IMPROV THEATRE $20

Along British Columbia’s coast between Vancouver Island and Alaska lies the Great Bear Rainforest. It’s only two short flights from Vancouver but, as the Governor General’s Literary Award-winning poet Lorna Crozier discovered in 2013, it’s “as far from ordinary life as you can get.” Nature photographer Ian McAllister lives in the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest. In The Wild in You, these two collaborate to offer readers an opportunity to see up close what makes this remote area worth preserving for future generations. You’ll want to close your eyes to visualize the poems, but open them wide to be awed by the photographs that show a place where the unique and the magnificent can survive. (This event is repeated on Thursday at 1pm at Performance Works)

WE D NES DAY, OCTOBER 2 1

W E D NES DAY, OCTO B ER 2 1

Between the Pages: An Evening with The Scotiabank Giller Prize Finalists

Shock and Awful Samuel Archibald, Craig Davidson, Yrsa Sigurðardóttir Moderator: Robert J. Wiersema

6–7:15 pm

8:30 pm

AUTHORS TO BE ANNOUNCED Host: Bill Richardson

PERFORMANCE WORKS $20

8:00 pm

Normally, “weird” is an insult, but not for these authors. “Weird fiction,” says Robert J. Wiersema, “isn’t so much a genre in itself as a stripping away and blurring of conventions to create something entirely new.” Jeff VanderMeer describes weird fiction this way: “Just as in real life, things don’t always quite add up… and in that space we discover some of the most powerful evocations of what it means to be human or inhuman.” In Kelly Link’s short stories, it’s perfectly fine to encounter two lovers who reunite after death in a nudist camp. Their deep human sentiment is true, even if all else is fecund imagination. Neil Smith’s debut novel delves into the minds of 13-year-olds in an afterlife. Come tour worlds slightly askew, guided by some of their creators.

VANCOUVER PLAYHOUSE $26

The longlist will be announced in mid-September, and the shortlist in early October. But the first public event that will bring all the shortlisted Scotiabank Giller Prize finalists together will happen tonight. This is a chance to meet the finalists for the richest literary prize in Canada, which has a history of changing a writer's life and career forever. One of these authors will be the winner on November 10. Join the finalists and the ever-entertaining Bill Richardson—and check writersfest.bc.ca on October 5 for the announcement of the line-up.

Trevor Cole, TJ Dawe, Susan Juby, Rachel Wyatt and more Host: Maria Turner

Sarah Dunant, June Hutton, Ronald Wright Moderator: Annabel Lyon

Studio 1398 $20

Three of Europe’s most celebrated and significant crime writers talk about unlikely detectives, criminals and crafting a great crime novel. Detective Louise Rick is known in 23 countries and her creator, Sara Blaedel, was voted Denmark’s most popular novelist for the fourth time in 2014. Even as a child this “queen of crime” found peace with crime novels. Detective Inspector Alex Morrow, the creation of Glasgow’s Denise Mina, knows first-hand the social evils that create criminals, having encountered some of the worst through five novels so far. Mina is praised by Ian Rankin as “the most exciting crime writer to have emerged in Britain for years.” At the summit of Nordic crime writing is Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, whose Thora Gudmundsdottir crime novels have been translated into 30 languages.

This Really Happened

Intoxicated with the Past

8:30 pm

WATERFRONT THEATRE $20

Horror fiction has not usually been taken seriously as literature, but that appears to be changing as authors who work in other genres turn their hands to horror. Samuel Archibald lectures on fiction and horror movies at the University of Quebec, and his latest stories feature wild beasts and ritual mutilation. Giller Prize-nominated Craig Davidson has also published three horror novels, which Stephen King raved “scared the hell out of me.” Iceland’s Yrsa Sigurðardóttir writes crime and children’s fiction, but her stand-alone horror novels are reviewed as “stomach-churning” and “genuinely bone-chilling.” What is the writer’s attraction to horror? What is the reader’s fascination with horror? We might keep the lights on for this event...

Kelly Link, Neil Smith, Jeff VanderMeer, Robert J. Wiersema Moderator: Peter Darbyshire

Sara Blaedel, Denise Mina, Yrsa Sigurðardóttir Moderator: Lonnie Propas

8:30 pm

STUDIO 1398 $20

Weird Fiction

Sisters in Crime

Three writers sip a heady brew of history tonight and are keen to share a glass with you. After spending a summer in Florence in 2000, Sarah Dunant “became intoxicated with what happened there 500 years ago.” She has now written four novels set in the turbulent Renaissance, culminating in her take of that most infamous of real families, the Borgias, in Blood and Beauty. June Hutton taps the truth for her story, blending fact and fiction in the 1920s Pacific Northwest tale of Morris Cohen and Dr. Sun Yat-Sen—part otherworldly Western, part historical tale. Ronald Wright returns to his intense interest in 16th century Peru in The Gold Eaters, featuring conquistadors plundering the gold of Peru, overthrown Inca leaders and a young boy who straddles these worlds—all based on real historical events.

BETWEEN THE PAGES

AN EVENING WITH THE SCOTIABANK 2015 GILLER PRIZE FINALISTS VANCOUVER PLAYHOUSE OCTOBER 21, 2015

8:30 pm IMPROV THEATRE $20

This Really Happened is a live storytelling evening when writers tell true stories, without notes, in front of a live audience. Although This Really Happened events have taken place at literary festivals from Montreal to Calgary, this year marks the first time in Vancouver. After telling her story in 2013 in Calgary, Lisa Moore wrote: “Many thanks for including me in this because it was thrilling and pushed me out of my comfort zone (way the hell out!!).” On the theme of “Secrets and Lies,” This Really Happened presents some of this year’s Festival writers as they step outside of their own comfort zones to confess their deep secrets, embarrassing white lies or bold-faced whoppers out loud. This event is presented in partnership with Carte Blanche.

Think AUTHOR Choose from four part-time creative writing options in Vancouver, Surrey and online: The Writer’s Studio Application deadline October 31 The Southbank Writer’s Program Specialized courses Manuscript consultations

sfu.ca/creative-writing SCOTIABANKGILLERPRIZE.CA

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 2 2

THURS DAY, OCTO B ER 2 2

On the Case Kenneth Oppel, Jordan Stratford Moderator: Shannon Ozirny

10–11:30 am GRANVILLE ISLAND STAGE $17 / $8.50 for student groups

This morning, keep your ears open for hints and intimations—and your mind “on the case.” Best known for his trilogy of Silverwing, Sunwing and Firewing, Kenneth Oppel turns his imagination to something more menacing in The Nest. Oppel’s mystery is an internal one as Steve, an anxious boy with a sick baby brother, becomes convinced that angels have come to his family’s aid. As he struggles to unravel the truth about these “angels,” he also uncovers his deepest insecurities and darkest fears. The first book in Jordan Stratford’s Wollstonecraft Detective Agency mystery series, The Case of the Missing Moonstone, features Ada Lovelace and Mary Shelley, real historical figures who, as he imagines them, form a “secret constabulary” in 1826 London to catch clever criminals.

High Wattage Mélanie Watt

10 – 11:15am

Drawn to the Story Patti LaBoucane-Benson, Gene Luen Yang

10–11:30 am

PERFORMANCE WORKS $17 / $8.50 for student groups

GRANVILLE ISLAND STAGE $17 / $8.50 for student groups

An unsuspecting bug flies through an open door and into a house. So begins bestselling creative genius Mélanie Watt’s new book, Bug in a Vacuum. This bug’s life changes forever when it’s sucked (you guessed it) into the void of a vacuum bag, where it moves through the five stages of grief—denial, bargaining, anger, despair and eventually acceptance—as it comes to terms with its fate. Will there be light at the end of the tunnel? Will there be dust bunnies in the void? We’ve all wondered what happens to that critter we’ve accidentally or intentionally sucked up as we’ve cleaned up. Join Watt for a poignant look at one such bug’s travails.

The graphic novel has come a long way, providing visceral images to go along with stories. Patti LaBoucane-Benson’s debut graphic novel sets down the realities of life in Canadian inner cities and is based on 20 years of work and research on healing and reconciliation with gang-affiliated or jailed Aboriginal men. Author of the first graphic novel to have been a finalist for the National Book Award, Gene Luen Yang takes the graphic novel form to the foreign world of China in 1898 with two integrated stories of young people caught in the real history of China. Suitable for grades 10–12

Suitable for grades 2–4

The Wild in You (2) Lorna Crozier, Ian McAllister

1 – 2:30pm

The Nest Kenneth Oppel

1–2:15 pm

Paul Yee

1–2:15 pm

PERFORMANCE WORKS $17 / $8.50 for student groups

WATERFRONT THEATRE $17 / $8.50 for student groups

STUDIO 1398 $17 / $8.50 for student groups

Kenneth Oppel always thought wasps’ nests looked vaguely womb-like. “Why couldn’t [one] give birth to a baby?” In Oppel’s The Nest, Steve worries a lot. He worries about his sick newborn baby brother, about his parents who are struggling to cope and even about the wasps’ nest hanging in the eaves. When a wasp queen enters his dreams, promising to grow a healthy baby to replace his ailing brother, Steve thinks his prayers have been answered. Join Oppel as he talks about his latest “eerie masterpiece,” a book that explores disability and diversity, fears and dreams, and what ultimately makes a family.

A great introduction to any culture or country is through its food. Meals bring people together as they share stories over steaming plates and dishes. Congee, green onion pancakes, watercress soup, dan dan mian, crisp tofu, fish with black bean sauce… In celebrated author Paul Yee’s new book, Chinese Fairy Tale Feasts: A Literary Cookbook, Yee weaves together the tales and characters of historical China with classical Chinese recipes and vibrant folk art. Learn about China’s culinary traditions from a master storyteller. You’ll leave with your mind burbling with Yee’s quirky renditions of ancient fables, and maybe you’ll inspired to pull your apron on, pick your favourite basic recipe and help out in the kitchen at home.

Suitable for grades 4–7

Suitable for grades 8–12 and adults

This event is sponsored by Kidsbooks.

Fairy Tale Feasts

Suitable for grades 3–7

Suitable for grades 5–8

L’heure est à la bande dessinée Paul Roux

10 h à 11 h 15

STUDIO 1398 17 $ / 8,50 $ POUR LES GROUPES D’ÉLÈVES

Paul Roux est l’auteur du petit roman humoristique Le détestable cousin, qui raconte l’histoire d’Ernest qui en a assez d’être toujours puni à la place de son cousin! Mathis est un expert en mauvais coups. Il est même considéré comme un ange, alors que c’est un petit démon. Comment faire pour piéger cet imposteur et révéler son vrai visage? Pour les élèves de la troisième à la septième année. Cet événement se déroulera exclusivement en français et donnera lieu à de nombreuses possibilités d’interaction entre les élèves et l’animatrice.

Animals at Large Kallie George, Bill Slavin Moderator: France Perras

10–11:30 am IMPROV CENTRE $17 / $8.50 for student groups

Word! (2) Jillian Christmas, TJ Dawe, Lucia Misch Host: Chris Gilpin

1–2:30 pm GRANVILLE ISLAND STAGE $17 / $8.50 for student groups

The animal kingdom has always loomed large in children’s imaginations—and in books, too. Vancouver-based author Kallie George and celebrated children’s illustrator Bill Slavin have written new books that feature animals at their lively hearts. Clover’s Luck is the first in George’s Magical Animal Adoption Agency series in which a young girl stumbles upon a mysterious cottage in the woods, home to all kinds of orphaned creatures: fairy horses, unicorns and a fiery young dragon. Slavin’s Big Star Otto is the final book in his graphic novel trilogy featuring the misadventures of Otto, the peanut-allergic elephant, and his pals Georgie the chimp and Crackers the parrot. This morning you’ll meet many furry, heartwarming characters you won’t soon forget.

By grade five, Jillian Christmas knew she wanted to be a poet. Now she’s living her dream, performing and winning slam titles as well as facilitating spoken word workshops for youth. “Give [young poets] a platform to speak their stories and they’ll blow your mind with fresh ideas,” she says. Vancouver-based playwright, director and performer TJ Dawe is guaranteed to shake things up with his moving, often hilarious, personal monologues. Dawe says, “No matter how rehearsed or how much time I’ve spent crafting the script, there’s no substitution for an audience.” Joining them is 2010/11 Vancouver Slam poetry team member Lucia Misch, who began writing and performing at 15. The energy in the room will be palpable, fuel for performers and audience alike.

Suitable for grades 2–5

Suitable for grades 8–12 and adults. Warning: Content in this event may not be suitable for all classes.

award-winning author

Tanya Lloyd Kyi F PO : A d

n ew

In her latest book, DNA Detective, Lloyd Kyi challenges kids to solve a mystery using DNA evidence. With its clear, simple language, fascinating stories and humorous illustrations, this book is ideal for introducing young readers to important scientific ideas. Ages 11–14

(This event is repeated on Wednesday at 10am at the Granville Island Stage)

annick press | www.annickpress.com | available from your favourite bookseller

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 2 2

THURS DAY, OCTOB ER 2 2

On craque pour Mélanie Watt! 13 h à 14 h 15 IMPROV CENTRE 17 $ / 8,50 $ POUR LES GROUPES D’ÉLÈVES

Tout au long de son parcours, Mélanie Watt a inventé une foule de personnages, aussi colorés les uns que les autres et est célèbre pour avoir mis en vedette Frisson l’écureuil et Chester. Qu’elle aborde le thème de l’amitié, de l’égocentrisme ou de la vente sous pression, ses albums débordent d’humour, d’ironie et de charme, et laissent place à l’interprétation et à la réflexion. Dans tous ses livres, elle s’inspire de son enfance pour créer et avoue qu’il y a un peu d’elle-même dans chacun de ses personnages. Mme Watt viendra nous dévoiler son tout nouveau livre, La Mouche dans l’aspirateur, histoire émouvante remplie de suspens et d’humour. Pour les élèves de la troisième à la septième année.

Cet événement se déroulera exclusivement en français et donnera lieu à de nombreuses possibilités d’interaction entre les élèves et l’animatrice.

Trigger Warning John Colapinto, Tracey Lindberg, Anakana Schofield Moderator: Ian Weir

Simon Winchester in Conversation with Gloria Macarenko at the Chan Centre

6–7:15 pm

Words

in Motion

Fri Mar 18 & Sat Mar 19 2016 / 7:30pm

Writer/choreographer partners Carmen Aguirre & Olivia C. Davies, Aislinn Hunter & Anusha Fernando and Nancy Lee & Paraskevas Terezakis bring three very different visions to the marriage of words and movement.

PERFORMANCE WORKS $20

At colleges and universities assigned reading that may cause discomfort comes with a trigger warning. Off campus how should a writer prepare the reader for material that may cause offence or should they at all? John Colapinto’s Undone was rejected by 41 publishers in the US and every publisher in Europe before being released in Canada. Written with an unexpectedly jaunty tone, it deals with pseudo-incest that unravels a man. Tracey Lindberg’s Birdie is a witty Cree woman who’s recovering from a past of sexual abuse and mental illness. Anakana Schofield’s Martin John is a darkly comic and uncomfortable novel that goes inside the head of a sex offender. We read to be immersed in other lives, and to better understand life’s really tough situations. Join the conversation with three writers who tackle the tough stuff for the good of us all.

The Lighter Side Charles Demers, Susan Juby, Bill Richardson Moderator: Jen Sookfong Lee

6–7:15 pm WATERFRONT THEATRE $20

Charles Demers, often featured on CBC Radio’s The Debaters, presents The Horrors: An A to Z of Funny Thoughts on Awful Things. Demers won’t let tact or sensibility deter him from pushing humour to its hysterical limit. When Susan Juby published her Woefield books for adults, she was nominated for the Leacock Medal for Humour. In The Republic of Dirt, Juby returns to Woefield farm and its collection of misfits and misadventures. Festival favourite Bill Richardson has written some dozen books and won the Leacock Medal for Humour. His latest is a collection of “poems of the late middle ages,” heralded as “illustrated retirement rhymes for the hoary-headed.” Tonight, we go off the script. This event is sponsored by the VWF volunteers.

8:00 pm St. Andrew's-Wesley United Church $26

Telus Studio Theatre chancentre.com/beyondwords

Buying a Better World Anna Porter in Conversation with Kirk LaPointe

6–7:15 pm

STUDIO 1398 $20

The 85-year-old billionaire philanthropist, George Soros, came to public attention when he broke the Bank of England by short-selling the pound. After that, Soros set out to influence the course of history based on the premise that by spending enough money and intervening at the right moment, an individual can buy a better world. In Buying a Better World, former Canadian book publisher and the award-winning author of four non-fiction books Anna Porter looks at the success and failure of this hard-headed man she first encountered 20 years ago. Intrigued by Soros’ idea of private social activism, Porter tallies the cost of his one-man crusade at about $12 billion so far. Has he achieved what he was seeking?

Samuel Archibald, Elizabeth Hay, Sigal Samuel, Leslie Vryenhoek Moderator: Merilyn Simonds

Words for the Undocumented Giuseppe Catozzella, Stella Harvey, Lawrence Hill, John Vaillant Moderator: Timothy Taylor

8:30 pm

Festival favourite and author of more than 20 books, many of them non-fiction bestsellers, Simon Winchester has now turned his attention to the Pacific and its role in the modern world. Following Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories, Winchester focuses his insatiable curiosity on the ocean that defines our tomorrow as China and the West Coast of North America forge the future. In Pacific, he takes us from the Bering Strait to Cape Horn, the Yangtze River to the Panama Canal. He observes the fall of a dictator in Manila, visits Aboriginals in Queensland and is jailed in Tierra del Fuego. Awarded the Order of the British Empire for his services to journalism and literature, Winchester’s experience is vast and his storytelling is second to none.

Stories from Our Home and Native Land

8:30 pm WATERFRONT THEATRE $20

From Ontario, Quebec and Newfoundland come four distinct voices. Samuel Archibald places his short stories, featuring wild beasts and haunted houses, in his hometown of Arvida, a company town in Quebec’s North. Scotiabank Giller Prize-winning author Elizabeth Hay sets her new novel, His Whole Life, in the mid-1990s when Quebec is on the verge of leaving Canada. The Mile End area of Montreal, where ultra-orthodox Jews bump up against arty young hipsters, is the setting for Sigal Samuel’s debut tale of a dysfunctional Montreal family. Character, not setting, is the driver for Newfoundland author Leslie Vryenhoek, whose debut novel, Ledger of the Open Hand, is a sad, funny tale of friendship. Come and hear talented Canadian voices, without the rustling of prairie grasses or the creaking of ice floes.

PERFORMANCE WORKS $20

Each of the world’s estimated 60 million undocumented refugees has a story—stories of desperation, hope and, with luck, a better life. Italy’s Giuseppe Catozzella fictionalizes the life of a Somali Olympic athlete who drowns while trying to reach Italy. Stella Harvey places her novel in Greece, a country that is a common conduit for refugees seeking safety and stability. Lawrence Hill, author of The Illegal, says, “In Canada, the United States and around the world, millions of people have to survive with a huge question mark over their lives. Will they be deported? Persecuted? Executed?” In John Valliant’s The Jaguar’s Children, illegal Mexican migrants crossing into the US find themselves in harrowing circumstances. This event is dedicated to the memory of Yulanda Faris.

An Intimate Evening with Jim Shepard In Conversation with John Freeman

An Exploration of Books & Ideas Mind-altering, metamorphic, twice-monthly. Free readings, interviews and discussions with authors who will change how you see the world.

7:30 pm every other Wednesday Alice MacKay Room • VPL Central Library

8:30 pm STUDIO 1398 $26

Jim Shepard is one of the best writers you’ve never heard of. Self-described as “semi-obscure,” he’s been a tenured professor at Williams College in the United States for 32 years. He’s also the author of six previous novels, four collections of stories and a National Book Award finalist. Says Richard Ford, “His writerly eye is acute. His instinct around a sentence is virtuosic and masterful.” Joshua Ferris says Shepard is “one of the US’s finest writers, full of wit, humanity and fearless curiosity.” His new novel, The Book of Aron, is breathtaking, a fearless entry into the Holocaust and the children whose lives were caught up in it, reviewed by The Toronto Star as a “stark masterpiece ... [that] ranks with the best literature.” After this evening’s event, you’ll want to share your discovery.

The Festival doesn’t end in October. Join us for readings, discussions and interviews with your favourite authors, January through May at VPL. writersfest.bc.ca/events/incite "Excellent presentation. Insightful, wise, with a dose of humour. Worthwhile question period. Bravo!" – Colin M. SPONSORED BY:

Supported by the Vancouver Public Library and the R.J. Nelson Family Foundation

T i c kets : 6 04 .6 2 9.8 8 4 9 o r Van co u vert i x .co m

Fest i va l at a G l anCe

20 Wednesday

Tuesday EVENT #1 10-11:30 am Granville Island Stage

Finding Freedom

Michel Chikwanine EVENT #2 10-11:30 am Waterfront Theatre

Modern Family Darren Groth, Susin Nielsen EVENT #3 10-11:15 am Studio 1398

Talking Garbage

Michelle Mulder EVENT #4 10-11:00 am Improv Centre

Wind, Wandering and Wonderment Robert Heidbreder, JonArno Lawson, Barbara Nickel

EVENT #5 1-2:30 pm Granville Island Stage

Outspoken in Unison

Jillian Christmas, Dia Davina, Erin Kirsh, Sonya Littlejohn, Lucia Misch, Alessandra Naccarato, RC Weslowski EVENT #6 1-2:30 pm Waterfront Theatre

Illustrate and Imagine

EVENT #9 6-7:15 pm Waterfront Theatre

EVENT #16 10-11:30 am Granville Island Stage

Åsne Seierstad

Jillian Christmas, TJ Dawe, Lucia Misch

EVENT #10 6-7:15 pm Studio 1398

EVENT #17 10-11:30 am Performance Works

Making Sense of Real Horror

George Bowering in Conversation with Colin Browne EVENT #11 6-7:15 pm Improv Centre

Labels and Fables

Craig Davidson, Elisabeth de Mariaffi, Kelly Link, Jeff VanderMeer EVENT #12 8:00 pm Performance Works

Grand Openings

Giuseppe Catozzella, David Constantine, Denise Mina, Steve Toltz, Damien Wilkins, Sarah Winman EVENT #13 8:30 pm Waterfront Theatre

An Intimate Evening with Lawrence Hill EVENT #14 8:30 pm Studio 1398

Icelandic Incantations

Bill Slavin, Cybèle Young Hannah Kent, Yrsa Sigurðardóttir EVENT #7 1-2:30 pm Studio 1398

EVENT #15 8:30 pm Improv Centre

Des albums illustrés à la bande dessinée Thriller Night Édith Bourget, Paul Roux

EVENT #8 1-2:30 pm Improv Centre

High School Jinks

Susan Juby, Susin Nielsen

Sara Blaedel, Elisabeth de Mariaffi, Owen Sheers, Robert J. Wiersema

Word! (1)

The Haunting of Sunshine Girl

21 EVENT #25 6-7:15 pm Performance Works

Whose Story Is It?

John Colapinto, Åsne Seierstad EVENT #26 6-7:15 pm Waterfront Theatre

Strange Bedfellows

EVENT #34 10-11:30 am Granville Island Stage

On the Case

Kenneth Oppel, Jordan Stratford EVENT #35 10-11:15 am Performance Works

Paige McKenzie

Steve Toltz, Leslie Vryenhoek, Sarah Winman

EVENT #18 10-11:15 am Waterfront Theatre

EVENT #27 6-7:15 pm Studio 1398

EVENT #36 10-11:30 am Waterfront Theatre

Tanya Lloyd Kyi

Samuel Archibald, Craig Davidson, Yrsa Sigurðardóttir

Patti LaBoucane-Benson, Gene Luen Yang

DNA Detective EVENT #19 10-11:15 am Studio 1398

From Ordinary to Extraordinary Cybèle Young

EVENT #20 10 -11:00 AM Improv Centre

Deux auteures hors pair

Édith Bourget, Mélanie Watt EVENT #21 1-2:30 pm Performance Works

Against All Odds

Michel Chikwanine, Tanya Lloyd Kyi EVENT #22 1-2:30 pm Waterfront Theatre

Zeros and Ones

Jordan Stratford, Gene Luen Yang EVENT #23 1-2:15 pm Studio 1398

L’angoisse servie sur la planche à dessin Catherine Lepage EVENT #24 1-2:00 pm Improv Centre

Seasoned Storytellers

JonArno Lawson, Barbara Nickel, Mélanie Watt

Shock and Awful

EVENT #28 6-7:15 pm Improv Centre

The Wild in You (1)

Lorna Crozier, Ian McAllister EVENT #29 8:00 pm The Vancouver Playhouse

Between the Pages: An Evening with the Scotiabank Giller Prize Finalists EVENT #30 8:30 pm Performance Works

Weird Fiction

Kelly Link, Neil Smith, Jeff VanderMeer, Robert J. Wiersema EVENT #31 8:30 pm Waterfront Theatre

Sisters in Crime

Sara Blaedel, Denise Mina, Yrsa Sigurðardóttir EVENT #32 8:30 pm Studio 1398

Intoxicated with the Past

Sarah Dunant, June Hutton, Ronald Wright EVENT #33 8:30 pm Improv Centre

This Really Happened

Trevor Cole, TJ Dawe, Susan Juby, Rachel Wyatt and more

Thursday

High Wattage Mélanie Watt

Drawn to the Story

EVENT #37 10 -11:15 am Studio 1398

L’heure est à la bande dessinée Paul Roux

EVENT #38 10-11:30 am Improv Centre

Animals at Large

Kallie George, Bill Slavin EVENT #39 1-2:30 pm Granville Island Stage

Word! (2)

Jillian Christmas, TJ Dawe, Lucia Misch EVENT #40 1-2:30 pm Performance Works

The Wild in You (2)

Lorna Crozier, Ian McAllister

EVENT #41 1-2:15 pm Waterfront Theatre

The Nest

Kenneth Oppel EVENT #42 1-2:15 pm Studio 1398

Fairy Tale Feasts Paul Yee

EVENT #43 1-2:15 pm Improv Centre

On craque pour Mélanie Watt! EVENT #44 6-7:15 pm Performance Works

Trigger Warning

John Colapinto, Tracey Lindberg, Anakana Schofield EVENT #45 6-7:15 pm Waterfront Theatre

The Lighter Side Charles Demers, Susan Juby, Bill Richardson EVENT #46 6-7:15 pm Studio 1398

Buying a Better World Anna Porter

EVENT #47 8:00 pm St. Andrew's-Wesley United Church

EVENT #67 10:30 am Granville Island Stage

EVENT #75 2:00 pm Improv Centre

EVENT #82 10:30 am Waterfront Theatre

Viet Thanh Nguyen, Beth Powning, Jim Shepard, Ronald Wright

June Hutton, Sara Tilley, Paul Yee

Shauna Singh Baldwin, Roxane Gay, Lawrence Hill, Nino Ricci

Elaine Lui, Paige McKenzie

Carellin Brooks, Trevor Cole, Farzana Doctor, Sabrina Ramnanan

The Big Idea

EVENT #52 10-11:30 am Performance Works

True to Form

David Constantine, Steven Hayward, Greg Hollingshead, Irina Kovalyova EVENT #53 10-11:30 am Waterfront Theatre

Pure Poetry

Samuel Archibald, Elizabeth Hay, Sigal Samuel, Leslie Vryenhoek EVENT #50 8:30 pm Studio 1398

An Intimate Evening with Jim Shepard

Frontier

EVENT #60 6-7:15 pm Waterfront Theatre

Hope Springs

David R. Boyd, Alejandro Frid

Taking the Message to a New Medium

EVENT #56 1-2:30 pm Granville Island Stage

Belonging

Brian Brett, Charles Demers, Camilla Gibb, Michael V. Smith EVENT #57 1-2:30 pm Waterfront Theatre

Page and Stage

Marina Endicott, Owen Sheers, Damien Wilkins, Rachel Wyatt EVENT #58 1-2:30 pm Studio 1398

AlliterAsian: Celebrating 20 Years of Ricepaper Magazine

Ann Marie Fleming, Evelyn Lau, Yasuko Thanh, Fred Wah, Rita Wong

Freedom of Expression

Platforms

EVENT #76 5:00 pm Performance Works

Poetry: What’s It Good For?

EVENT #68 10:30 am Performance Works

Paula Hawkins in Conversation with Elaine Lui

Elisabeth de Mariaffi, Roxane Gay, Paula Hawkins, Susan Philpott

EVENT #61 6-7:15 pm Studio 1398

EVENT #69 10:30 am Waterfront Theatre

EVENT #77 5:00 pm Waterfront Theatre

Nino Ricci, Anakana Schofield, John Vaillant

Marilyn Dumont, Wab Kinew, Tracey Lindberg

John Freeman, Daniel Galera, Laura van den Berg

David Constantine, Tony Hoagland, Karen Solie

Mind Games

EVENT #62 Jordan Abel, Nicole Brossard, 8:00 pm Marilyn Dumont, Ulrikka S. Gernes, Owen Sheers, Performance Works The Literary Cabaret Sheryda Warrener Daniel Galera, EVENT #54 Elizabeth Hay, Marlon James, 10-11:30 am Sabrina Ramnanan, Rich Terfry, Studio 1398 John Vaillant

Patti LaBoucane-Benson, Tracey Lindberg

Stories from Our Home and Native Land

Sunday

EVENT #59 1-2:30 pm Improv Centre

EVENT #48 8:30 pm Performance Works

EVENT #49 8:30 pm Waterfront Theatre

EVENT #51 10-11:30 am Granville Island Stage

EVENT #55 10-11:30 am Improv Centre

Giuseppe Catozzella, Stella Harvey, Lawrence Hill, John Vaillant

23 Saturday

Friday

Simon Winchester in Conversation with Gloria Macarenko

Words for the Undocumented

EVENT #63 8:00 pm St. Andrew's-Wesley United Church

1,000 Lashes Ensaf Haidar

EVENT #64 8:00 pm The Beaumont

Inspired By: A Multimedia Performance Sara Tilley

EVENT #65 8:30 pm Waterfront Theatre

Writing Country

Roxane Gay, Shilpi Somaya Gowda, Marlon James, Viet Thanh Nguyen EVENT #66 8:30 pm Studio 1398

An Intimate Evening with Patrick deWitt

The Way Forward

Women in Peril

Freeman’s

EVENT #70 10:30 am Studio 1398

EVENT #78 5:00 pm Studio 1398

Brian Brett, Steve Burrows, Lorna Crozier

It’s Complicated

EVENT #83 10:30 am Studio 1398

Getting Under Their Skins Sarah Dunant

EVENT #84 10:30 am Improv Centre

Laid Bare

Camilla Gibb, Elaine Lui, Michael V. Smith EVENT #85 11:00 am Performance Works

The Sunday Brunch

It’s Treacherous Territory

Farzana Doctor, Lauren Groff, Greg Hollingshead

Shilpi Somaya Gowda, Lauren Groff, Steven Hayward, Nino Ricci, Sigal Samuel, Neil Smith

EVENT #71 10:30 am Improv Centre

EVENT #79 8:00 pm Performance Works

EVENT #86 1:30 pm Waterfront Theatre

Patrick deWitt, Bradley Somer, Damien Wilkins

Nicole Brossard, Marilyn Dumont, Ulrikka S. Gernes, Tony Hoagland, Karen Solie, Russell Thornton

EVENT #87 1:30 pm Studio 1398

Up With the Birds

Dwelling (on) Place

EVENT #72 2:00 pm Performance Works

An Unlikely Path

Steve Burrows, Paula Hawkins, Susan Philpott, Yrsa Sigurðardóttir EVENT #73 2:00 pm Waterfront Theatre

Elena Ferrante: A Literary Mystery

John Freeman, Lauren Groff, Elizabeth Hay EVENT #74 2:00 pm Studio 1398

Let Justice Be Done

Joan McEwen, Lori Shenher

The Poetry Bash

EVENT #80 8:00 pm Waterfront Theatre

Stories Behind the Personalities Wab Kinew, Rich Terfry EVENT #81 8:00 pm Studio 1398

An Intimate Evening with Jeff VanderMeer

The Dhahan Prize

The Interviews

Brian Brett, John Colapinto, Irina Kovalyova EVENT #88 1:30 pm Improv Centre

The Raw Material

Hannah Kent, Beth Powning, Sara Tilley EVENT #89 3:30 pm Performance Works

The Afternoon Tea

Trevor Cole, Marina Endicott, Hannah Kent, Bill Richardson, Bradley Somer, Laura van den Berg

He ad e r l eft

Margaret Atwood and Teens at the 2013 Festival

At the Festival Bookstore

Emily SchulTz at the 2012 Festival

Always inspirational and always a way to connect on a deeper level to the books.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 2014 audience member Teens take in Word! at the 2014 Festival Photos by Chris Cameron

A young girl asks a question during the 2013 Festival

FRIDAY, OC TOB E R 23

The Big Idea Viet Thanh Nguyen, Beth Powning, Jim Shepard, Ronald Wright Moderator: Merilyn Simonds

True to Form David Constantine, Steven Hayward, Greg Hollingshead, Irina Kovalyova Moderator: John Freeman

10–11:30 am

GRANVILLE ISLAND STAGE $17

PERFORMANCE WORKS $17

Tackling the huge moments in history takes guts. Four novelists who have chosen to focus on a time and place when the world was in flux gather to discuss the challenges, and rewards, of wrestling with big ideas. Viet Thanh Nguyen’s meditation on war and loyalty features a double agent during the fall of Saigon in The Sympathizer. Beth Powning’s reflection on religious intolerance in A Measure of Light focuses on a 17th-century Puritan who martyred herself for the fledgling Quaker movement. Jim Shepard’s novel The Book of Aron, set during the Holocaust, looks straight into the face of the unspeakable. In The Gold Eaters, Ronald Wright sets his young hero in the middle of 16th-century Peru, where the acts of gold-plundering Spanish explorers reverberate to this day. These are capacious books from big thinkers that help us to better understand our own world.

Hope Springs David R. Boyd, Alejandro Frid Moderator: Charlie Smith

10–11:30 am STUDIO 1398 $17

Is a greener future possible? Environmental lawyer and co-chair of Vancouver’s Greenest City 2020 Action Plan team, Dr. David R. Boyd is optimistic about our environmental challenges. He chronicles the successes: bald eagles and gray whales pulled back from the precipice of extinction, new parks, salvation of the ozone layer and increased use of renewable energy. Meanwhile, although ecologist Dr. Alejandro Frid is haunted by the irrevocable changes that humans are forcing on the earth—loss of ancient forests, demise of large predators and shifts in circulation patterns of the atmosphere—his search for optimism began with the birth of his daughter, whom he does not want to inherit a doomed world. Is their optimism warranted?

F RIDAY, OCTO BER 2 3

Jordan Abel, Nicole Brossard, Marilyn Dumont, Ulrikka S. Gernes, Owen Sheers, Sheryda Warrener Host: Chris Gilpin

Patti LaBoucane-Benson, Tracey Lindberg Moderator: Paul Grant

10 – 11:30am IMPROV CENTRE $17

Tracey Lindberg is professor of law at the University of Ottawa and Athabasca University. She’s also the author of Birdie, about a smart, funny, sardonic Cree woman recovering from past wounds. Although glowingly reviewed, Birdie has another purpose. “It’s really difficult to dismiss or dehumanize indigenous peoples if it’s a person,” Lindberg says. She wants her readers to put faces to what might otherwise be categories or topics. Patti LaBoucane-Benson, who works in native counselling, has also chosen approachable fiction to put a face to a topic. Her graphic novel, The Outside Circle, spotlights two Aboriginal brothers surrounded by poverty, drugs and gangs making positive changes in their lives. Join these two accomplished experts on Aboriginal issues as they discuss the reasons for turning to fiction as a way to take their message to a wider audience.

Poetry is everywhere, if you just listen hard enough. Nisga’a poet Jordan Abel uses a process called erasure to create his conceptual writing. Governor General’s Literary Award winner Nicole Brossard favours modernism and the avant-garde. Métis poet Marilyn Dumont uses free verse and metre to recreate Riel’s Red River Resistance period. Denmark’s Ulrikka S. Gernes finds effect by zooming in and out of places and states of mind. Wales’ Owen Sheers calls himself an instinctive writer. “I do a lot of it on the ear.” Vancouver’s Sheryda Warrener often uses fine art and photographs as ways into poetry. Treat yourself to words from these fine poets, so varied in style and voice, and leave more receptive to the poetry all around you.

Brian Brett, Charles Demers, Camilla Gibb, Michael V. Smith Moderator: Andreas Schroeder

Marina Endicott, Owen Sheers, Damien Wilkins, Rachel Wyatt Moderator: Jerry Wasserman

WATERFRONT THEATRE $17

Belonging

Page and Stage 1–2:30 pm

10–11:30 am

This morning we celebrate the short story. The United Kingdom’s David Constantine’s writing career spans 30 years but he has never—until now— been published in North America. Says A.S. Byatt, “What is startling is the quality of his writing. Every sentence is both unpredictable and exactly what it should be.” The long-awaited collection from Steven Hayward “… shows the surprising ways he can do funny strange and funny ha-ha within the space of a few pages.” Greg Hollingshead makes a masterful return to the short story 20 years after he published Roaring Girl¸ for which he received the Governor General’s Literary Award. And a debut collection from Irina Kovalyova is hailed as “… immediate, bold and original. No wasted words. Zero flab.” High praise for a writer who has a PhD in microbiology and immunology and has a “day job” teaching molecular biology at Simon Fraser University!

Taking the Message to a New Medium

Pure Poetry

1–2:30 pm GRANVILLE ISLAND STAGE $17

“All sorrows can be borne if you put them into a story or tell a story about them,” said Isak Dinesen. Canadian poet and novelist Brian Brett describes his painful experience of being “othered” as a boy whose body did not naturally produce sex hormones. He was assaulted because of his delicate features, and wandered lost and sexless through adolescence before finally being treated with testosterone. Charles Demers presents his story of belonging with a comedic touch. In This Is Happy, Camilla Gibb lays bare the grief that besieged her as the happiness of a longed-for family shattered. Michael V. Smith, whose drag persona is Miss Cookie LaWhore, writes about his dangerous childhood, challenging gender norms and definitions of masculinity. From these now successful authors and performers come four memoirs about overcoming obstacles and finding your place when you feel you don’t belong.

June Hutton, Sara Tilley, Paul Yee Moderator: Jen Sookfong Lee

Ann Marie Fleming, Evelyn Lau, Yasuko Thanh, Fred Wah, Rita Wong Host: Margaret Gallagher

1–2:30 pm

Marina Endicott was formerly a dramaturge at the Saskatchewan Playwright’s Centre and The Banff Centre. That theatrical background shows through much of her work, including her latest, Close to Hugh, described as a “four-door farce,” itself a theatrical term. Owen Sheers calls himself a “poet who writes in other forms,” including scripts, screenplays, plays and a verse drama which won the Wales Book of the Year. Damien Wilkins, who’s written both plays and for television, started to write his historical novel Max Gate as a play, morphing it over three years into a novel. Rachel Wyatt, award-winning author of novels, short fiction, stage and radio plays, has had more than a hundred radio plays produced. How does theatrical writing—character, scene staging, dialogue— help or hinder novel writing? What’s the interplay between stage and page?

Frontier

AlliterAsian: Celebrating 20 Years of Ricepaper Magazine

STUDIO 1398 $17

Many of today’s acclaimed Asian-Canadian writers first appeared in the pages of Ricepaper magazine, which celebrates 20 years of publication this year. In a climate that sees many literary magazines foundering, it’s a happy occasion to pay homage to one that has nurtured so many important voices over the years and continues to thrive. To mark this occasion, Arsenal Pulp Press has released AlliterAsian, a celebratory anthology filled with exclusive interviews, writing and excerpts of works-in-progress. Join established and emerging contributors Ann Marie Fleming, Evelyn Lau, Yasuko Thanh, Fred Wah and Rita Wong for readings and a lively discussion about Ricepaper’s place, what it’s meant for their careers and what it means for the next generation of Asian-Canadian writers.

Poetry: What’s It Good For? David Constantine, Tony Hoagland, Karen Solie Moderator: Aislinn Hunter

1–2:30 PM

6–7:15 pm

IMPROV CENTRE $17

WATERFRONT THEATRE $20

The birth of the Canadian West is the stuff of legends— gold panners, railroad builders, fortunes won and lost. In Two Gun & Sun, June Hutton blends fiction with fact based on Morris Cohen, Dr. Sun Yat-Sen and a lone woman determined to resurrect a newspaper in a filthy frontier mining town in 1922. Writer and theatre artist Sara Tilley moves the clock backward to 1906 with Duke, a fictionalized memoir channeling the voice of her great-grandfather, sent to Alaska at the end of the Klondike Gold Rush. Paul Yee’s A Superior Man, his first work of fiction for adults, dives into a time when Chinese labourers built the railway. It’s also a time full of gambling, contraband and the bawdy world of Chinese “bachelors” living without restraint.

American poet Tony Hoagland bemoans that “the teaching of poetry languishes.” His collection, Twenty Poems That Could Save America and Other Essays, presses for a serious conversation about the role of poetry. “Poetry is our common treasure-house, and we need its vitality, its respect for the subconscious .... We need the emotional training sessions poetry conducts us through.” British poet and short story writer David Constantine has a similar argument. “Fiction and poetry continually remind us that we do not (are not permitted to, don’t try hard enough to) live as connectedly, wholly, humanely as we might.” Joining in this conversation is Griffin Poetry Prize-winner Karen Solie, a Canadian poet with an international reputation who has influenced a generation of young poets. Does poetry matter? You bet it does!

Literary agents Non-fiction book publishing experts Self-publishing consultants Passionate Writers Fest supporters

s t r at e g i c p u b l i s h i n g www.pagetwostrategies.com

FRIDAY, OC TOB E R 23

Mind Games Nino Ricci, Anakana Schofield, John Vaillant Moderator: Denise Ryan

6–7:15 pm STUDIO 1398 $20

The Literary Cabaret Daniel Galera, Elizabeth Hay, Marlon James, Sabrina Ramnanan, Rich Terfry, John Vaillant Host: Sal Ferreras

PERFORMANCE WORKS $35

Even if you’re a “Lit Cab” regular, you might not know that Sal Ferreras and his chameleonic band Poetic License has only half an hour on the Friday afternoon of the cabaret to rehearse with each of the authors. What happens during those 30 minutes can only be described as alchemy. Later that evening, those same six authors take the spotlight to “perform” alongside the band, with music that fits each reading like a warm glove over a guiding hand. Audiences are guaranteed a sensory spectacle they won’t soon forget. Don’t miss out on the fun—get your tickets early because they will go quickly.

This event is sponsored by The Vancouver Sun.

Inspired By: A Multimedia Performance Sara Tilley Host: Shazia Hafiz Ramji

8:00 pm

Writing Country Roxane Gay, Shilpi Somaya Gowda, Marlon James, Viet Thanh Nguyen Moderator: Jared Bland

Ensaf Haidar in Conversation with Stephen Quinn

8:00 pm

St. Andrew's-Wesley United Church $20

8:00 pm

Visual art can suggest a mental state; music can swirl with emotion. But only literature can lay bare the inner workings of the mind. In Nino Ricci’s novel Sleep, a man’s brain has begun to misfire; his sense of reality is slipping out of reach. In Martin John, Anakana Schofield illuminates the dark recesses in the mind of a sexual predator preoccupied with words that start with ‘P.’ John Vaillant’s novel The Jaguar’s Children gets inside the head of an undocumented Mexican immigrant experiencing extreme pressure and stress. Join these creative and skillful authors as they talk about mapping the sometimes strange and striking ways the mind makes sense of the world.

1,000 Lashes

8:30 pm

The Beaumont Studios Artist Society $12

WATERFRONT THEATRE $20

Sara Tilley’s novel, Duke, had its genesis when she discovered a trove of family journals, logbooks, letters and ledgers dating back to 1880s. Even more remarkable than her discovery was what she did with this raw material. Using a mask technique she learned while studying to be a clown, she made a papier mâche mask of her great-grandfather, whose story she was turning into fiction, and wore the mask to find his voice. Tilley describes her unique approach to writing and reads from Duke, while surrounded by works of art produced by the Open Book Art Collective. The artists in the Vancouver-based collective have created paintings and sculptures inspired by reading her novel. Clowns? Music? Expect the unexpected!

Four authors whose fiction is firmly fixed in place and culture talk about depicting the soul of a country while also exploring universal concerns. Though none of their stories could take place in any other country, these portraits of Haiti, Vietnam, India and Jamaica are no travelogues. Rooted in the personal and encompassing the political, they take you into the backstreets, the slums, the rural Indian countryside and the storm of shellfire. Roxane Gay describes Haiti as “a country of startling contrasts—so much beauty, so much brutality.” Marlon James says, “I wanted a picture of Jamaica that isn’t in books.” Travel the world tonight in the company of authors who skillfully lead the way.

Saudi blogger Raif Badawi was arrested in 2012 and sentenced to 10 years in prison, a US $250,000 fine and 1,000 lashes for “insulting Islam through electronic channels.” With the full support of his wife, Ensaf Haidar, some of his writings are now published for the first time in English. 1000 Lashes: Because I Say What I Think proclaims the equality of all religions and warns against religious extremism. Badawi received the first 50 lashes in January of this year, which jeopardized his health and outraged people around the world. In June, Saudi Arabia’s Supreme Court upheld the sentence, leaving no further avenues for appeal except intervention by Saudi King Salman. Join Haidar this evening as she talks about her husband’s fight for freedom of expression.

An Intimate Evening with Patrick deWitt

8:30 pm STUDIO 1398 $26

After the resounding success of The Sisters Brothers, for which he was recognized with a slew of awards, Patrick deWitt is back with Undermajordomo Minor. It’s as far from the Wild West and the assassins Eli and Charlie Sisters as you can get, but with the familiar deWittian flare for dark comedy. Undermajordomo Minor was inspired by the European fables deWitt had been reading to his son when he started work on the new book. “They’re appealing to me,” says deWitt, “because a lot of them are really perverse, negative and harsh, but they often have an uplifting message as well.” Prepare to be won over again by deWitt, whose new tale is an ink-black comedy starring a compulsive liar, the loveless and aimless Lucien Minor.

SAT URDAY, OC TOB E R 24

Freedom of Expression Shauna Singh Baldwin, Roxane Gay, Lawrence Hill, Nino Ricci Moderator TBA

Paula Hawkins in Conversation with Elaine Lui

10:30 AM

GRANVILLE ISLAND STAGE $20

PERFORMANCE WORKS $26

The 2015 murder of 12 employees of France’s Charlie Hebdo magazine shocked the world. In May, a masked gang hacked a blogger to death in Bangladesh. In Saudi Arabia, Raif Badawi was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for writing he posted on his blog. The current threat to freedom of expression is not without controversy. Discussion over what is permissible speech in a free society is vigorous and contentious. Should all speech be defended in a free and democratic society? Are there reasonable limits to freedom of expression? What defines hate speech? How can we protect those who face assassination or physical injury for expressing their opinions? These are tough questions for this morning’s panel of thoughtful, respected international writers.

Paula Hawkins, author of the runaway bestseller The Girl on the Train, was once on the verge of failure. Before finding success with her addictive thriller, Hawkins, working under a pseudonym, produced four commissioned books of romantic fiction that never felt like her real voice. Hawkins says: “The books kept getting darker and more miserable …. I realized I do tragedy better than comedy.” Hawkins talks this morning with celebrity gossip blogger and author Elaine Lui about being spurred to get The Girl on the Train right or find a new career. And about how she feels now, with upwards of two million copies sold worldwide, to write under her own name and be one of the best in a new generation of “domestic noir” novelists.

Brian Brett, Steve Burrows, Lorna Crozier Moderator: Wayne Grady

10:30 AM STUDIO 1398 $20

Relationships between humans and birds are centuries old, and run the gamut from fear (think Hitchcock) to imitation (think Icarus). Brian Brett had a relationship with the irreverent Tuco for more than 40 years. His African Grey parrot lived in his writing room and was “an endless source of inspiration,” he says, happy to ask “Whaddya know?” and announce “Party time!” Accomplished international birder Steve Burrows has written two “birder murder” mysteries starring Domenic Jejeune, an expert Canadian birder who happens to be Chief Inspector with a small English constabulary. Lorna Crozier is the author of 15 books, including the poetry collections Crow’s Black Joy, Inventing the Hawk and Bones in Their Wings. Get set for a morning of—dare we say it?—fowl play!

Patrick deWitt, Bradley Somer, Damien Wilkins Moderator: Annabel Lyon

Marilyn Dumont, Wab Kinew, Tracey Lindberg

This event is sponsored by Vancity.

Steve Burrows, Paula Hawkins, Susan Philpott, Yrsa Sigurðardóttir Moderator: Lonnie Propas

10:30 AM

2:00 pm

IMPROV CENTRE $20

PERFORMANCE WORKS $20

Tending to his new post as undermajordomo at Castle Von Aux, the protagonist of Patrick deWitt’s novel discovers the place harbours dark secrets. “There was something about the ballroom,” says one of his characters, “that had always bothered her.” Bradley Somer sets his novel, Fishbowl, in an unremarkable apartment building where, in the span of 30 minutes, a goldfish tumbling from a balcony on the 27th floor is privy to stories of love, new life, death and ugly truths about the residents on the other side of the walls. Max Gate, the house that novelist Thomas Hardy built, is also the title of Damien Wilkins’ novel. “The house was really about secrets and disguises and that provided a rich, emotional world,” says Wilkins. If only these walls could talk!

WATERFRONT THEATRE $20

Early in her career, the Italian novelist writing as “Elena Ferrante” said in a letter to her editor: “I believe that books, once they’re written, have no need of their authors. If they have something to say, they will sooner or later find readers; if not, they won’t.” Ferrante has found those readers despite eschewing the kinds of promotion associated with books and writers; she doesn’t make public appearances and, until this year, declined in-person and telephone interviews. Regardless, she’s been called the most important Italian writer of her generation. Seven of her novels are now available in English. Join Ferrante’s North American publisher Michael Reynolds, critic John Freeman and Ferrante devotees Elizabeth Hay and Lauren Groff in discussion and appreciation of her work, and give yourself over to #ferrantefever.

Meet four authors whose paths to becoming successful crime writers are as full of twists as their novels. Steve Burrows was a travel writer and editor of the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society Magazine before he took up writing “birder murder mysteries.” Paula Hawkins had been a financial journalist and written four romance novels before she threw herself into writing the #1 New York Times bestseller of 2015, The Girl on the Train. Susan Philpott was a social worker assisting people living with serious mental illnesses before she created her thriller Blown Red. Yrsa Sigurðardóttir works as a civil engineer and writes children’s fiction. She’s also an international bestselling author whose crime novels have been translated into more than 30 languages. This event is sponsored by Tangerine Bank.

2:00 pm

How can we make amends, heal our past with Canada’s Aboriginal peoples and see a path forward that is hopeful? One way is by continuing to listen to some of the thoughtful, eloquent voices who can articulate the experiences of Aboriginal generations past and present. Marilyn Dumont, Métis author of The Pemmican Eaters, is an award-winning poet as well as a faculty member at Athabasca University and the University of Alberta. Dr. Tracey Lindberg, author of Birdie, is a Harvard grad, professor of law and citizen of Kelly Lake Cree Nation in Alberta. Wab Kinew, host of CBC’s Canada Reads, is also the associate vice-president at the University of Winnipeg, author of The Reason You Walk and the son of an Anishinaabe chief.

An Unlikely Path

Elena Ferrante: a literary mystery John Freeman, Lauren Groff, Elizabeth Hay Moderator: Michael Reynolds

WATERFRONT THEATRE $20

This event is sponsored by Penguin Random House.

Dwelling (on) Place

The Way Forward 10:30 AM

10:30 AM

Up with the Birds

SAT URDAY, OCTO BER 24

Photo by Chris Cameron

Let Justice Be Done Joan McEwen, Lori Shenher Moderator: Sandy Garossino

Platforms Paige McKenzie, Elaine Lui Moderator: Angie Abdou

2:00 pm

STUDIO 1398 $20

IMPROV CENTRE $20

Ivan Henry spent 27 years behind bars for rape, declaring his innocence and fighting to have his case reviewed before he was granted an acquittal. In her non-fiction account lawyer Joan McEwen lays out how the case against Henry was prejudiced, showing in chilling detail how this can happen, even in Canada. Lori Shenher was the first detective assigned to Vancouver’s Missing and Murdered Women Investigation. Her new book argues there was a “massive police failure” that left women “vulnerable to a serial killer nearly three years after [Shenher] first received a tip that Pickton could be responsible.” We like to think justice is fair and functioning at the highest level, but get set for in-depth analyses and insights into the frailties of systems we’re meant to trust.

Elaine Lui’s blog, LaineyGossip.com, has grown into an empire; she appears on two daily national television shows; a million readers a month click on her site; and she recently wrote her first book, a debut memoir about her mother, who often features in her blog. Paige McKenzie uploaded a 68-second video to YouTube in 2010, when she was 16. That video turned into a phenomenal web series, The Haunting of Sunshine Girl, which has more than 150,000,000 views. Now McKenzie’s penned the first of a three-book series of the same title. In the changing literary world, publishing is just one of so many new ways to get the word out.

SAT URDAY, OCTOB E R 24

Women in Peril Elisabeth de Mariaffi, Roxane Gay, Paula Hawkins, Susan Philpott Moderator: Angie Abdou

John Freeman, Daniel Galera, Laura van den Berg Moderator: Jared Bland

Four novelists tackle the issue of violence against women: kidnapping, rape, fear and abuse— and find ways to reveal women’s strength and resilience within these stories. Elisabeth de Mariaffi set her novel in the late 1980s, when Paul Bernardo terrorized women in Ontario. “It was important to me that the book also do the work of elegy,” says de Mariaffi, speaking about the real victims of rape and murder. Roxane Gay tackles kidnapping and gang rape, and the long journey back to wholeness. Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train includes threats and judgments made on women as well as domestic violence. And in Susan Philpott’s thriller, two women run from a dangerous, relentless man. There is no simple solution to the problem of violence against women, but these novelists use fiction to put the issue on the table.

8:00 pm PERFORMANCE WORKS $26

The Poetry Bash is an occasion to revel in the thoughtfully arranged words of some of the finest poets writing today. Author of more than 30 books, Quebec’s Nicole Brossard reads from her latest, Ardour. Métis poet Marilyn Dumont’s The Pemmican Eaters revisits “the shadow side of Canada’s story.” Denmark’s Ulrikka S. Gernes made her first appearance at the Festival in 2001; she’s back with Frayed Opus for String & Wind Instruments. One of America’s most provocative poets, Tony Hoagland brings us Application for Release from the Dream. Griffin Poetry Prize winner Karen Solie reads from her fifth collection. And Russell Thornton transports us to the Mediterranean with The Hundred Lives. Comic, inventive, erudite and energetic, tonight’s lineup will satisfy your poetic cravings.

The Poetry Bash is supported by a generous donation from Maureen and Larry Lunn.

It’s Treacherous Territory Farzana Doctor, Lauren Groff, Greg Hollingshead Moderator: Sirish Rao

5:00 pm

WATERFRONT THEATRE $20

PERFORMANCE WORKS $20

Nicole Brossard, Marilyn Dumont, Ulrikka S. Gernes, Tony Hoagland, Karen Solie, Russell Thornton Host: Brad Cran

Freeman’s 5:00 PM

5:00 PM

The Poetry Bash

STUDIO 1398 $20

Critic, author, editor and Festival favourite John Freeman lives and breathes books and writers. The former president of the National Book Critics Circle, editor of the UK-based Granta and author of How to Read a Novelist has a new project. Freeman’s is a biannual magazine of unpublished fiction, non-fiction and poetry built around a theme. The inaugural issue showcases “The Best New Writing on Arrival,” and Freeman, along with two of the authors featured, Daniel Galera and Laura van den Berg, will launch it in Vancouver tonight. Freeman says the magazine’s ideal readers are “people who are curious, crazed for fiction, morally engaged, disturbed by the status quo, and who want a reliable guide for the best writers alive.” Sounds like you, right?

Writing about sex can be treacherous. Describe too much and you’re up there on the “Erotica” shelf. Describe too little and you’re labelled repressed. Describe it badly and you’re open to ridicule—and possibly the dubious fame of earning the Literary Review Bad Sex in Fiction award. Farzana Doctor’s character works at a Mexican all-inclusive resort where her pastime of choice is the swingers’ scene. Lauren Groff’s Fate and Furies is a portrait of a modern marriage that begins with two lovers on their knees in the sand “reduced to mouths and hands.” Greg Hollingshead’s collection of short stories includes strippers and wild nights of adultery. Three brave authors who have waded into these hazardous waters converse, tongue in cheek, about writing sex.

Rockwood Centre | Sechelt

August 11 -14 2016

www.writersfestival.ca

Stories Behind the Personalities

Wab Kinew, Rich Terfry Moderator: Jerry Wasserman

8:00 pm WATERFRONT THEATRE $20

Until now, CBC personalities Wab Kinew and Rich Terfry have been known mostly for their activism, their music and for coaxing stories from others. But both men have lived unusual lives and tonight they reveal the experiences and people that inspired them to write their memoirs. After his father was diagnosed with terminal cancer, Kinew wrote The Reason You Walk, in part a reconciliation with the “accomplished but distant Aboriginal man who’d raised him.” Terfry’s Wicked and Weird revisits his roots growing up poor in Nova Scotia and follows his path out of poverty with a “killer pitching arm” and a passion for music. Terfry’s alter ego is hip hop artist Buck 65. Kinew and Terfry talk about writing the personal and sharing it with the world. This event is sponsored by Simon Fraser University Library Services.

An Intimate Evening with Jeff VanderMeer 8:00 pm

STUDIO 1398 $26

For more than a decade Jeff VanderMeer has been a favourite among aficionados of Weird Fiction, but with his Southern Reach trilogy, his work has found its way into the mainstream and onto bestseller lists. The books, broadly categorized as “eco-sci-fi,” chronicle the 30-year effort by a secret agency known as the Southern Reach to explore a “mysterious, deadly, and unaccountable wilderness called Area X.” While the landscape— lush and teeming with life—of Area X is based on VanderMeer’s experience hiking the coast of northern Florida, the idea that triggered the trilogy grew out of a nightmare. Upon waking, he wrote 10 single-spaced pages that became the opening to his first book. Tonight, enter into Area X if you dare.

The Early Edition With Rick Cluff

Weekdays 5 to 8:30am

@CBCEarlyEdition

S u n day, OC TOB E R 2 5

It’s Complicated Carellin Brooks, Trevor Cole, Farzana Doctor, Sabrina Ramnanan Moderator: Angie Abdou

10:30 AM WATERFRONT THEATRE $20

In the words of Bob Marley: "Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just got to find the ones worth suffering for." Relationships are never easy or without complications, perhaps that’s why they make for great fiction. Mourning her recent disastrous breakup, the narrator of Carellin Brooks’ One Hundred Days of Rain is rebuilding her life from the bottom up over an endless Vancouver winter. Winner of the Leacock Medal for Humour Trevor Cole takes an innovative comic approach to the brain-versus-heart debate, creating a character trying to revive his marriage. Farzana Doctor has created a character whose pastime is the swingers’ scene; an attempt to avoid relationships altogether. The debut novel by Sabrina Ramnanan, Nothing Like Love, is an exuberant romp through the pitfalls of the misaligned and lovelorn.

The Sunday Brunch Shilpi Somaya Gowda, Lauren Groff, Steven Hayward, Nino Ricci, Sigal Samuel, Neil Smith Host: Bill Richardson

11:00 AM Doors open at 10:30 AM PERFORMANCE WORKS $35

The Sunday Brunch is a hallmark of the Festival, one of the first events to sell out, and for very good reason: mimosas, croissants and coffee, not to mention readings by six fine authors whose work you may or may not have encountered, but who will leave you wanting more. Come with a friend, or make a new one, and raise a glass of bubbly to the exceptional lineup of literati set to take the stage. Unfortunately, we are unable to accommodate specific dietary restrictions.

S u n day, OCTO BER 2 5 Getting Under Their Skins Sarah Dunant

10:30 AM

Laid Bare Camilla Gibb, Elaine Lui, Michael V. Smith

10:30 AM

STUDIO 1398 $20

IMPROV $20

In this sumptuously illustrated lecture, Sarah Dunant, international bestselling author of historical fiction about the Italian renaissance, shares the secrets of her trade. To recreate the past as a living, breathing place Dunant has visited churches, archives, museums and art galleries all over Italy. Today she shares the story of her discoveries; how the decoding of old paintings alongside the work of the most modern historians helped her to penetrate hidden worlds inside the Renaissance, finding wonder and drama in ordinary lives and exploring the complexities of politics and religion along with emotion, the senses and the heady appetites of body and soul.

As Isak Dinesen said, “To be a person is to have a story to tell.” Yet that story is not always easy to tell. “Writing about oneself requires brutal honesty and self-assessment,” says Camilla Gibb. Her memoir, This Is Happy, reveals her intense grief as well as tangled moments of sadness and joy, alienation and belonging. In Elaine Lui's Listen to the Squawking Chicken: a Memoir (Sort of ), she contemplates her mother's unique parenting style in all its awesomeness and imperfection, and how it has affected the person Lui is today. And Michael V. Smith writes with intimacy and vulnerability in his memoir, My Body Is Yours, about his struggle to create his own definition of masculinity. Three brave stories from three brave authors.

Wherever you’re writing from... Eleven Genres Of Study | On-Campus or Online | Flexible, Comprehensive, Challenging Write and learn in Vancouver. Or participate in a vibrant online community from wherever you live. UBC offers world-class creative writing programs at the non-credit, BFA and MFA level, both at our Vancouver campus and by Distance Education from anywhere in the world. Join us.

www.creativewriting.ubc.ca The Dhahan Prize Hosts: Ajmer Rode and Andreas Schroeder 2015 Prize finalists

The Interviews Brian Brett, John Colapinto, Irina Kovalyova HOST: Marsha Lederman

1:30 pm

WATERFRONT THEATRE Free

STUDIO 1398 $20

The Dhahan Prize was founded in 2013 to call greater attention to the wealth of literary works produced in Punjabi around the world. This afternoon we present readings in Punjabi and English by the writers shortlisted for the 2015 edition of this prestigious prize. Written in a language that is as diverse and changing as its culture, Punjabi literature describes the social, cultural and political lives of Punjabi speakers, not only in South Asia but around the world, and expresses the unique cultural ethos of this global community. Join us in celebrating the wealth of Punjabi storytelling and literature, and hear from the contenders for the 2015 Dhahan Prize.

The Globe and Mail’s Marsha Lederman gets at the stories behind the books this afternoon. Novelist and poet Brian Brett talks of his decades-long relationship with Tuco, an irreverent African Grey parrot, as well as his painful experience as a young androgyne. John Colapinto, novelist and staff writer at The New Yorker, shares the backstory of Undone, his novel rejected as too controversial by 41 publishers in the United States and every publisher in Europe before finding a home in Canada. Short-story writer Irina Kovalyova, also a molecular biologist and biochemist at Simon Fraser University, reveals the chemistry between the scientific and storytelling sides of her brain. Join Lederman as she skillfully guides the conversation, asking all of your questions as well as ones you didn’t know you had.

Call 604-374-3274 or email contact@dhahanprize.com to reserve your seat.

The Raw Material Hannah Kent, Beth Powning, Sara Tilley MODERATOR: Roberta Rich

1:30 pm IMPROV CENTRE $20

When writing her novel set in 1829 Iceland, Hannah Kent spent six weeks holed up in Iceland’s national archives, museums and libraries, and visited the sites of the murder and execution that are the subject of Burial Rites. Beth Powning transported herself back to 17th-century England and America. “I visualize a scene in its entirety. I imagine myself, in a visceral way, to be there; I see, smell, hear.” Sara Tilley discovered a mass of family documents—letters, logbooks, journals, ledgers—which became raw material for Duke. While research is great fun, and absolutely critical in getting the history “right,” the three authors talk about the balance between history and imagination in the historical novel. Says Powning, “Too much research can kill the novel.”

The Afternoon Tea Trevor Cole, Marina Endicott, Hannah Kent, Bill Richardson, Bradley Somer, Laura van den Berg Host: Paul Grant

Faculty Alison Acheson Deborah Campbell Kevin Chong Maggie de Vries Charles Demers Steven Galloway

3:30 pm Doors open at 3:00 PM PERFORMANCE WORKS $35

Raise your pinkies for our final event of the Festival this year—an Afternoon Tea replete with scones and Devonshire cream. And, of course, stories! Stories funny and sad, poems from the irrepressible Bill Richardson, a story that pits the brain against the heart from Trevor Cole, from a goldfish’s perspective by Bradley Somer, from Iceland in 1830 by Australian Hannah Kent, a post-apocalyptic story from Laura van den Berg and a story about self-discovery from Marina Endicott. Finish the 2015 Vancouver Writers Fest in grand style, in the company of enthusiastic readers and eloquent writers. What a perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, we are unable to accommodate specific dietary restrictions.

Sara Graefe Wayne Grady Nancy Lee Annabel Lyon Keith Maillard Maureen Medved Susan Musgrave

Andreas Schroeder Linda Svendsen Timothy Taylor Peggy Thompson Rhea Tregebov John Vigna Bryan Wade

AU T H OR B IO GRAPHIES Jordan Abel

GEORGE BOWERING

BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENT 53

BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENT 10

Jordan Abel is a Nisga’a writer who lives in Vancouver. He holds a BA from the University of Alberta and an MFA from the University of British Columbia. His debut poetry collection, The Place of Scraps, was awarded the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. Abel is an editor for Poetry Is Dead magazine and the former poetry editor for PRISM international. His new poetry collection is Un/inhabited. @jordoisdead, jordanabel.ca

SAMUEL ARCHIBALD QUEBEC. EVENTS 27, 49

Samuel Archibald is an author and academic. His first short story collection, Arvida, was a bestseller in Quebec and recently translated into English. Arvida is an unforgettable portrait of Archibald’s hometown in Quebec and is filled with stories of wild beasts and young girls, attempted murder and ritual mutilation, haunted houses and road trips heading nowhere. Archibald teaches courses on contemporary popular culture at the University of Quebec in Montreal. @ArvidaMan SHAUNA SINGH BALDWIN UNITED STATES, EVENT 67

Shauna Singh Baldwin is the author of English Lessons and Other Stories, which was translated into 11 languages, and awarded the 2000 Commonwealth Writer’s Prize for Best Book, Canada/ Caribbean region, and the novels What The Body Remembers, The Tiger Claw—which was nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and has been optioned for a film—and The Selector of Souls. Her short fiction, poetry, and essays have been published in literary magazines in the U.S.A., Canada, and India. ShaunaSinghBaldwin.com, @SSinghBaldwin Sara Blaedel DENMARK, EVENTS 15, 31

Dubbed the “Queen of Crime” in Denmark, Sara Blaedel is one of that country’s most successful crime writers and the author of seven bestselling novels featuring police detective Louise Rick. Her novels are published in 17 countries and appear in 15 languages, and the rights for the Louise Rick series have been optioned for film. Her new novel is The Forgotten Girls. She lives north of Copenhagen with her family.

@sarablaedel, sarablaedel.hbgusa.com

ÉDITH BOURGET NEW BRUNSWICK, EVENTS 7, 20 NOUVEAU-BRUNSWICK, ÉVÉNEMENTS 7 ET 20

Artiste effervescente, Édith Bourget écrit, peint, voyage. Elle rêve de paix et souhaite que ses mots et ses tableaux contribuent à alléger des cœurs. Depuis plusieurs années, Mme Bourget se consacre à l’écriture, et à la création d’expositions multidisciplinaires amalgamant tableaux, poèmes, performance et installation. Elle voyage beaucoup et participe de façon régulière à des festivals et des tournées, autant au Canada qu’à l’étranger. Édith Bourget writes, paints and travels. She dreams of peace and hope that her words and her paintings will help to lighten the hearts. Bourget travels a lot and regularly participates in festivals and tours, both in Canada and abroad. She constantly challenges herself and loves to discover new places which allows her to better understand the world she lives in.

AU T HOR BIO G RAP H I ES

George Bowering is a distinguished Canadian novelist, poet, editor, professor, historian and tireless supporter of fellow writers. Bowering has authored more than a hundred books and chapbooks, including works of poetry, fiction, autobiography, biography and fiction for young readers. His novel Burning Water won the Governor General’s Award, and his memoir, Pinboy, was shortlisted for the BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction. His latest titles are 10 Women, a collection of short fiction; Writing the Okanagan, a collection of his writings about the Okanagan Valley; and the poetry collection The World, I Guess. @Bowering DAVID R. BOYD BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENT 54

Dr. David R. Boyd is an environmental lawyer, professor and advocate for the recognition of the right to live in a healthy environment. Boyd is the award-winning author of seven books and more than one hundred articles. His new book, The Optimistic Environmentalist, “provides an antidote to environmental despair” by highlighting the successes of the environmental movement. He co-chairs Vancouver’s Greenest City initiative with Mayor Gregor Robertson. @EnvirOptimist, davidrichardboyd.com

STEVE BURROWS ONTARIO, EVENTS 70, 72

Steve Burrows has pursued his birdwatching hobby on five continents and is the author of A Siege of Bitterns and A Pitying of Doves, which follow the adventures of Domenic Jejeune, a detective whose extensive knowledge of birds comes in handy when investigating the murder of an ecological activist and the theft of a pair of turtle doves. Burrows is a former editor of the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society Magazine and a contributing field editor for Asian Geographic. @birddetective GIUSEPPE CATOZZELLA ITALY, EVENTS 12, 48

Giuseppe Catozzella has published four plays; two collections of short stories, The Life Cycle of Fish and Fuego; and the novels Explants and Hive. His new novel, Don’t Tell Me You’re Afraid, addresses the plight of refugees in the Mediterranean through the eyes of Samia Yusuf Omar, a young Somalian athlete who embarks on a perilous journey to Italy in order to escape the violence in Somalia and train for the 2012 Olympics. giuseppecatozzella.it, @gcatozzella

Giuseppe Catozzella's appearance is made possible by the Consulate General of Italy in Vancouver and Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Toronto. MICHEL CHIKWANINE

BRIAN BRETT BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENTS 56, 70, 87

Brian Brett is the former chair of the Writers’ Union of Canada and was a journalist for four decades, but is best known as a novelist, poet and memoirist. His works include Trauma Farm: A Rebel History of Rural Life (winner of the Writers’ Trust Annual Award for Best Canadian Non-Fiction Book) and Uproar’s Your Only Music, which Ronald Wright called, “The most exciting Canadian book I’ve read all year.” Brett’s new memoir is Tuco: The Parrot, the Others, and a Scattershot World. CARELLIN BROOKS BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENT 82

Carellin Brooks is a Rhodes Scholar and the author of fresh hell: motherhood in pieces, Every Inch a Woman and Wreck Beach. Her new novel is One Hundred Days of Rain. Brooks co-edited the anthologies Carnal Nation and Bad Jobs. She is the winner of the Books in Canada Student Writing Award for poetry, the Cassell/Pink Paper Lesbian Writing Award for non-fiction and the Institute for Contemporary Arts New Blood Award for prose. @carellinb, carellinbrooks.com NICOLE BROSSARD QUEBEC, EVENTS 53, 79

Nicole Brossard is a poet, novelist and essayist who has published more than 30 books, including These Our Mothers, Lovhers, Mauve Desert and Baroque at Dawn. Her new poetry collection is Ardour. She co-founded La Barre du Jour and La Nouvelle Barre du Jour, two important literary journals in Quebec. Brossard has won two Governor General’s Literary Awards for Poetry, as well as le Prix Athanase-David and the Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prize. @NicBrossard

AppeaRing aT This yeAr’S vwf:

ONTARIO, EVENTS 1, 21

Michel Chikwanine, a former child soldier, was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo and grew up amid the terror of the Great War of Africa. He is now an accomplished motivational speaker, addressing audiences across North America. He leaves people with a new perspective on life, a sense of hope through social responsibility, and a desire for change. His book is Child Soldier: When Boys and Girls Are Used in War.

MicheLle mUlder

Author of Trash Talk

@michelchikwan

JILLIAN CHRISTMAS BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENTS 5, 16, 39

Jillian Christmas is the Artistic Director of the Verses Festival of Words. She is an enthusiastic organizer and activist in the Canadian arts community and strives to encourage the use of anti-oppression initiatives in spoken word. She has participated in, developed, and executed programs in partnership with Toronto Poetry Project, Wordplay, Brendan McLeod’s Travelling Slam and the Cultch, and facilitated spoken word workshops for youth and adults across the country. @Haiklue JOHN COLAPINTO UNITED STATES, EVENTS 25, 44, 87

John Colapinto is an award-winning journalist who has written for Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Esquire, Mademoiselle and Us Weekly. During his time as a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, he wrote the landmark National Magazine Award–winning article that was the basis for his book As Nature Made Him. He is also the author of the novels About the Author and Undone, his newest work. He lives in New York City. @JohnColapinto

DarreN grotH

Author of Are You Seeing Me?

AU T H OR B IO GRAPHIES

AU T HOR BIO G RAP H I ES

TREVOR COLE

ELISABETH DE MARIAFFI

SARAH DUNANT

ONTARIO, EVENTS 33, 82, 89

NEWFOUNDLAND & Labrador, EVENTS 11, 15, 76

UNITED KINGDOM. EVENTS 32, 83

Trevor Cole burst onto the literary scene in 2004 with Norman Bray in the Performance of His Life which was lauded by a number of Canadian and international awards committees. Since then, Cole has written Practical Jean, The Fearsome Particles and, his latest novel, Hope Makes Love, which tells the tale of Zep Baker, a major league baseball player, and his unexpected partnership with Hope, a neuroscientist who offers to help Zep revive his marriage. @trevor_cole, trevorcole.com DAVID CONSTANTINE UNITED KINGDOM, EVENTS 12, 52, 60

David Constantine is an award-winning short story writer, poet and translator. His collections of poetry include The Pelt of Wasps, Something for the Ghosts (shortlisted for the Whitbread Poetry Prize), Nine Fathom Deep and The Elder. He is the author of one novel, Davies, and has published four collections of short stories, including Tea at the Midland and Other Stories, the winner of the 2013 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. In Another Country: Selected Stories spans Constantine’s 30-year career and marks the first publication of his work in North America. LORNA CROZIER BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENTS 28, 40, 70

Lorna Crozier has received numerous awards—including the Governor General’s Literary Award—for her 15 books of poetry which include The Blue Hour of the Day, What the Living Won’t Let Go, Everything Arrives at the Light and Inventing the Hawk. She is also the author of the memoir Small Beneath the Sky and the editor of several anthologies. Her new books are a poetry collection, The Wrong Cat, and a collaborative work with nature photographer and conservationist Ian McAllister titled The Wild in You. lornacrozier.ca CRAIG DAVIDSON ONTARIO, EVENTS 11, 27

Craig Davidson is the author of the short story collection Rust and Bone and the novels The Fighter and Cataract City, which was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. Davidson is also the mind behind Nick Cutter, a pseudonym under which he has published three bone-chilling works of horror fiction, The Troop, The Deep, and The Acolyte, his latest book. @TheNickCutter, craigdavidson.net

Elisabeth de Mariaffi is the Scotiabank Giller Prize-nominated author of one book of short stories, How To Get Along With Women, and a novel, The Devil You Know, which has received rave reviews and been optioned for TV by New Metric Media. De Mariaffi now makes her home in St. John’s with poet George Murray, their combined four children and a border collie. @ElisabethdeM, elisabethdemariaffi.com CHARLES DEMERS BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENTS 45, 56

Charles Demers is an author, stand-up comedian and adjunct professor of creative writing at the University of British Columbia. His collection of essays, Vancouver Special, was shortlisted for the Hubert Evans BC Book Prize for Non-Fiction. He is also the author of a novel, The Prescription Errors. His new book is The Horrors: An A to Z of Funny Thoughts on Awful Things. He has performed for national television and radio audiences and at the Just For Laughs Festival. He is one of the most frequently returning stars of CBC Radio’s smash-hit comedy show The Debaters. Demers lives in Vancouver. @charliedemers PATRICK DEWITT UNITED STATES/CANADA, EVENTS 66, 71

Patrick deWitt is an internationally-acclaimed novelist and screenwriter. His first novel, Ablutions, was named a New York Times Editors’ Choice. Only two years later, his sophomore novel, The Sisters Brothers, won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, a Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction and the Leacock Medal for Humour. His highly-anticipated new novel, Undermajordomo Minor is slated for simultaneous publication in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. FARZANA DOCTOR ONTARIO, EVENTS 78, 82

Farzana Doctor is a Toronto-based author of two novels, Stealing Nasreen and Six Metres of Pavement, which won a Lambda Literary Award and was shortlisted for a Toronto Book Award. She was named one of CBC Books’ “Ten Canadian Women Writers You Need to Read Now” and was the recipient of the Writers’ Trust of Canada’s Dayne Ogilvie Grant. She curates the Brockton Writers Series. Her third novel is All Inclusive. @farzanadoctor, farzanadoctor.com

TJ DAWE

MARILYN DUMONT

BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENTS 16, 33, 39

ALBERTA, EVENTS 53, 69, 79

TJ Dawe is a multi-talented writer and performer who has been lighting up Canadian stages ever since he first toured the Canadian Fringe circuit as a university student. His plays have been performed and published across North America and he is well known for his solo shows, including Tired Cliches, Totem Figures and Medicine. In 2010, the Canadian Theatre Review called Dawe, “Canada’s most prolific writer of autobiographical monologues.” @TJ_Dawe, tjdawe.ca

Marilyn Dumont has won provincial and national awards for her poetry, including the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award presented by the League of Canadian Poets and the Stephan G. Stephansson Award from the Writers’ Guild of Alberta. She has been the writerin-residence at five Canadian universities and the Edmonton Public Library, as well as an advisor in the Aboriginal Emerging Writers Program at the Banff Centre. Her latest collection is The Pemmican Eaters, which explores the Riel Resistance period. @DumontMarilynd

Sarah Dunant is the author of the international bestseller The Birth of Venus, which has received major worldwide acclaim, In the Company of the Courtesan, Sacred Hearts and the Hannah Wolfe crime series. In Dunant’s latest work, Blood and Beauty, she turns her attention to the infamous Borgia family. Dunant teaches renaissance studies at Washington University in St. Louis, and lectures on creative writing for The Faber Academy and Oxford Brooks University. sarahdunant.com, @sarahdunant MARINA ENDICOTT ALBERTA/ONTARIO, EVENTS 57, 89

Marina Endicott began her career as an actor and director before publishing her first novel, Open Arms, which was shortlisted for the Amazon.ca First Novel Award. Her second novel, Good to a Fault, was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and a CBC Radio’s Canada Reads book, and won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book. The Little Shadows, longlisted for the 2011 Giller Prize, was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction. Her new novel is Close to Hugh. @marinaendicott, marinaendicott.com SAL FERRERAS BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENT 62

Sal Ferreras is a percussionist, producer and event organizer who works in many facets of the Canadian music scene. He is a member of the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame and has had his very own star on Granville Street entertainment district since 2002. He was awarded the City of Vancouver Mayor’s Arts Award in Music in 2010. He has a Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from UBC and is Provost and Vice President Academic of Kwantlen Polytechnic University. Sal has directed the Literary Cabaret since 1989, and he and his all-star band, Poetic License, consider it one of the highlights of their musical year. JOHN FREEMAN UNITED STATES, EVENTS 73, 77

John Freeman is an award-winning writer and book critic who has written for numerous publications including The New York Times Book Review, the Los Angeles Times, The Guardian and The Wall Street Journal. He is the author of The Tyranny of E-mail, How to Read a Novelist and the editor of Tales of Two Cities: The Best and Worst of Times in Today’s New York. His latest project is Freeman’s, an anthology-style publication born of a partnership between Grove/Atlantic and the New School. @FreemanReads ALEJANDRO FRID BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENT 54

Dr. Alejandro Frid is an ecologist and activist whose research ranges from conflicts between industrial development and terrestrial wildlife to the plight of endangered species and the effects of overfishing on marine predators. Through his work with Indigenous communities along BC’s coast, Frid has explored the intersections of science, modern Indigenous cultures and climate activism. His first book, A World for My Daughter, combines the voices of a scientist and a concerned parent to lead readers to imagine their own role in preserving our planet. alejandrofridecology.weebly.com

AU T H OR B IO GRAPHIES DANIEL GALERA BRAZIL, EVENTS 62, 77

Daniel Galera is a Brazilian writer and translator who has published four novels, Until the Day the Dog Died, Horse Hands, Mountain Range and Blood-Drenched Beard, to great acclaim. The latter was awarded the 2013 São Paulo Literature Prize. He has translated the work of Zadie Smith, John Cheever and David Mitchell into Portuguese. In 2013, Granta named Galera one of the best young Brazilian novelists. @ranchocarne ROXANE GAY UNITED STATES, EVENTS 65, 67, 76

Roxane Gay is a Haitian-American writer, professor, editor, blogger and commentator whose writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Best American Mystery Stories 2014, Best American Stories 2012, The New York Times Book Review, Time, and many others. She is the co-editor of PANK and the author of Ayiti, a short story collection, and Bad Feminist, an essay collection. Her first novel, An Untamed State, delves into the issues of sexual violence, race and privilege through the eyes of a Haitian-American woman who is kidnapped by a group of men. @rgay, roxanegay.com KALLIE GEORGE

the

SFU library is

turning

At the heart of the University, the SFU Library is dedicated to providing acess to collections, services and facilities of the highest possible quality in support of the learning, research and community engagement goals of Simon Fraser University.

BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENT 38

Kallie George is an author, editor, speaker and instructor of creative writing workshops. She has a master’s degree in children’s literature from the University of British Columbia. George’s first book Clover’s Luck— the opener of the enchanting Magical Adoption Agency series—features Clover, an unlucky girl who discovers a magical cottage in the woods which is home to fairy horses, unicorns and a fiery dragon. kalliegeorge.com

Shilpi Somaya Gowda's first novel, The Secret Daughter, was an international bestseller. In 1991, she spent a summer as a volunteer at an Indian orphanage, which seeded the idea for the book. Her new novel, The Golden Son, moves between India and the United States and tells the story of two childhood friends whose lives, despite distance, are inextricably combined. @ShilpiGowda, shilpigowda.com LAUREN GROFF UNITED STATES, EVENTS 73, 78, 85

Lauren Groff is the author of the novel The Monsters of Templeton, shortlisted for the Orange Prize for New Writers; Delicate Edible Birds, a collection of stories; and Arcadia, a New York Times Notable Book, winner of the Medici Book Club Prize and finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Her third novel Fates and Furies explores a marriage over the course of 24 years. She lives in Gainesville, Florida. @legroff, laurengroff.com DARREN GROTH BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENT 2

Darren Groth is an internationally-published author, native of Australia and adopted son of Canada. His work has been shortlisted in the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards, the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards, the CBCA Book of the Year and the Text Prize of Australia. His novel Kindling, published in 2013 for Kindle by Exciting Press, was hailed as a “five star stunner” by Australian Publisher & Bookseller. His new YA novel is Are You Seeing Me? @darrengroth, darrengroth.com ENSAF HAIDAR

ULRIKKA S. GERNES

8888 University Dr Burnaby, BC

Ulrikka S. Gernes’ first poetry collection, Natsværmer (Moth), was published when she was 18 years old. Since then, she has published an additional 10 collections. She is also the author of two books for children, many short stories and songs, and various contributions to literary anthologies, art catalogues, magazines, newspapers and Danish national radio. A Sudden Sky: Selected Poems, translated into English by Per Brask and Patrick Friesen, was published by Brick Books. Frayed Opus for String & Wind Instruments is the second translation of Gernes’ work published by Brick Books.

Ensaf Haidar is the wife of Raif Muhammad Badawi, a Saudi Arabian writer, who in 2008 founded the online forum Free Saudi Liberals, a website on politics and religion in Saudi Arabia. He has been imprisoned since 2012 and was publicly punished for expressing his opinions with 50 lashes on the 9th January 2015. Haidar has been tirelessly campaigning for her husband’s freedom since 2013. Haidar and her three children have lived in Sherbrooke, Quebec since 2013 when they were granted political asylum by Canada. @miss9afi STELLA HARVEY BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENT 48

Ulkrikka S. Gernes' appearance is made possible by the Danish Arts Foundation. CAMILLA GIBB

Camilla Gibb’s first novel, Mouthing the Words, won the City of Toronto Book Award. Her second novel, The Petty Details of So-and-so’s Life, was selected by The Globe and Mail as one of the best books of the year. Gibb’s third bestselling novel, Sweetness in the Belly, was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. Gibb lives in Toronto, where she serves as vicepresident of PEN Canada and writer-in-residence at the University of Toronto. Her new book is a memoir called This Is Happy. @camilla_gibb, camillagibb.ca

SHILPI SOMAYA GOWDA ONTARIO/UNITED STATES, EVENTS 65, 85

QUEBEC/SAUDI ARABI. EVENT 63

DENMARK, EVENTS 53, 79

ONTARIO, EVENTS 56, 84

AU T HOR BIO G RAP H I ES

Help us shape the next 50 years By donating to SFU library, you can help shape the next 50 years of SFU’s success, and make a powerful difference to young people and our communities.

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Stella Harvey’s short stories have appeared in the Literary Leanings Anthology, The New Orphic Review, Emerge Magazine and The Dalhousie Review. Harvey’s non-fiction has appeared in Pique Newsmagazine, the Question and The Globe and Mail. She founded the Whistler Writers Group, also known as the Vicious Circle, which each year produces the Whistler Writers Festival under her direction. Her first novel Nicolai’s Daughters, came out in 2012, and her second, The Brink of Freedom, is forthcoming. stellaharvey.com

AU T HOR BIO G RAP H I ES PAULA HAWKINS UNITED KINGDOM, EVENTS 68, 72, 76

Paula Hawkins worked as a journalist for 15 years before turning to fiction. Under the penname Amy Silver, Hawkins began writing lighthearted romance novels, but, she was dissatisfied with the genre and, over time, her stories grew darker as she inched closer to a novel that she herself would want to read. That novel was The Girl on the Train, a heart-pounding thriller which resulted in a bidding war amongst publishers and became an instant bestseller. @PaulaHWrites, paulahawkinsbooks.com ELIZABETH HAY ONTARIO, EVENTS 49, 62, 73

Elizabeth Hay is the author of the Canadian bestselling novel Alone in the Classroom and the Scotiabank Giller Prize-winning novel Late Nights On Air. She has also written three other award-winning works of fiction: A Student of Weather, Garbo Laughs and Small Change. Her new novel is His Whole Life. Formerly a radio broadcaster, she spent a number of years in Mexico and New York City before returning to Canada. elizabethhay.com STEVEN HAYWARD UNITED STATES/CANADA, EVENTS 52, 85

presents

AN EVENING WITH

Ian Rankin

November 16, 2015 7.30 pm St. Andrew's Wesley (Burrard and Nelson)

Tickets on sale mid-September Check cuffedfestival.com for ticket information

Steven Hayward is a novelist and short story writer. Born in Toronto, he now teaches in the English Department at Colorado College in Colorado Springs. A frequent contributor to The Globe and Mail and the Literary Review of Canada, Hayward’s first novel, The Secret Mitzvah of Lucio Burke, won Italy’s prestigious Grinzane Cavour Prize and his most recent novel, Don’t Be Afraid, is a Canadian national bestseller. His new book is a collection of stories, To Dance the Beginning of the World. @haywardsteven, stevenhayward.com ROBERT HEIDBREDER BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENT 4

Robert Heidbreder is an award-winning children’s poet and author. His many books include I Wished for a Unicorn and Drumheller Dinosaur Dance. His newest book is Song for a Summer Night. Heidbreder spent 30 years as a primary school teacher and won the Prime Minister’s Award for Teaching Excellence. He lives in Vancouver and continues to do many school and festival presentations. robertheidbreder.com LAWRENCE HILL ONTARIO, EVENTS 13, 48, 67

Lawrence Hill is the author of nine books. His novel The Book of Negroes won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book, and both CBC Radio’s Canada Reads and Radio-Canada’s Combat des livres. Hill's non-fiction book, Blood, formed the basis of his 2013 Massey Lectures. With director Clement Virgo, he co-wrote a six-part television miniseries based on The Book of Negroes, which aired on CBC Television. His fourth novel is The Illegal. lawrencehill.com

TONY HOAGLAND UNITED STATES, EVENTS 60, 79

Tony Hoagland’s books of poetry include Sweet Ruin, which was chosen for the Brittingham Prize in Poetry and won the Zacharis Award from Emerson College; Donkey Gospel, winner of the James Laughlin Award; What Narcissism Means to Me, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; Hard Rain and Unincorporated Persons in the Late Honda Dynasty. He has also published a collection of essays about poetry, Real Sofistakashun. His latest works are Application for Release from the Dream, a book of poetry, and Twenty Poems that Could Save America, a collection of essays. @tonyhoags_LPS Tony Hoagland’s appearance is made possible by a generous donation to the Alma Lee Legacy Fund by Dr. Yosef Wosk. GREG HOLLINGSHEAD ONTARIO, EVENTS 52, 78

Greg Hollingshead has published three novels and four story collections the most recent titled, Act Normal. His third story collection, The Roaring Girl, won the Governor General’s Award. His novel The Healer won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. He is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Alberta and director of the Writing Studio at the Banff Centre. He served as chair of the Writers’ Union of Canada and was awarded the Order of Canada. greghollingshead.com JUNE HUTTON BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENTS 32, 59

June Hutton was a Northern reporter, then an inner-city teacher, before writing her first novel, Underground. Called “taut and lean, elegant and poetic” by The Globe and Mail, it was shortlisted for the OLA Evergreen Award. Her new novel is Two Gun & Sun. An instructor for Simon Fraser University’s Writer’s Studio Online and the University of British Columbia’s Writing Centre, Hutton lives in Vancouver. @HjhuttonJune, junehutton.com MARLON JAMES UNITED STATES/JAMAICA, EVENTS 62, 65

Marlon James is the author of John Crow’s Devil, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize as well as the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and a New York Times Editors’ Choice. The Book of Night Women, James’ second novel, won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Minnesota Book Award, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and an NAACP Image Award. In his third novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings, James explores multiple genres: the political thriller, the oral biography and the classic whodunit. @MarlonJames5 SUSAN JUBY BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENTS 8, 33, 45

Susan Juby is the author of the critically-acclaimed Another Kind of Cowboy, as well as the bestselling Alice series: Alice, I Think, Miss Smithers and Alice MacLeod, Realist at Last. Her latest books are Republic of Dirt—the sequel to The Woefield Poultry Collective and her first novel for adults—and the young adult novel The Truth Commission. Juby holds a master’s degree in publishing. She lives on Vancouver Island. @thejuby, susanjuby.com

kate cayley

sara tilley

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Duke, a novel “ A ground-breaking achievement.” – joan sullivan

How You Were Born short fiction — winner — 2015 Trillium Book Award GUTSY & GORGEOUS

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See Paul a Michael in person at the VWF!

“The work of a firstrank storyteller.”

Literary works by writers from across Canada, since 1996

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AU T H OR B IO GRAPHIES

Michael V. Smith

MY BODY IS YOURS

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“An affecting work of self-analysis.” —The Globe and Mail

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AU T H OR B IO GRAPHIES

AU T HOR BIO G RAP H I ES

HANNAH KENT

JONARNO LAWSON

ELAINE LUI

AUSTRALIA, EVENTS 14, 88, 89

ONTARIO, EVENTS 4, 24

ONTARIO, EVENTS 68, 75, 84

Hannah Kent's debut novel, Burial Rites, has been translated into more than 20 languages and was shortlisted for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction and The Guardian First Book Award. It won the ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year, the Indie Awards Debut Fiction Book of the Year and the Victorian Premier’s People’s Choice Award, and was longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Kent is also the co-founder and publishing director of the Australian literary journal Kill Your Darlings. @HannahFKent, hannahkentauthor.com Hannah Kent's appearance is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisary body, and the Melbourne Writers Festival. WAB KINEW MANITOBA, EVENTS 69, 80

Wab Kinew was named by Postmedia News as one of “nine Aboriginal movers and shakers you should know.” He is the associate vice-president for Indigenous Relations at the University of Winnipeg and a correspondent with Al Jazeera America. Kinew successfully defended Joseph Boyden’s The Orenda on CBC Radio’s Canada Reads and hosted the acclaimed documentary series 8th Fire. Kinew is also an honourary witness for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. His memoir The Reason You Walk tells the story of reconciliation with his father. @WabKinew, wabkinew.ca

IRINA KOVALYOVA BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENTS 52, 87

Irina Kovalyova has a master’s degree in chemistry from Brown University, a doctoral degree in microbiology from Queen’s University and an MFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia. She is a senior lecturer in the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at Simon Fraser University. Kovalyova interned for NASA and worked for two years as a forensic analyst in New York City. Specimen is her first collection of stories. TANYA LLOYD KYI BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENTS 18, 21

When Tanya Lloyd Kyi enrolled in the creative writing program at the University of Victoria, she fully intended to specialize in poetry, but quickly elected to specialize in non-fiction instead. Since then she’s written more than 15 books for middle grade and young adult readers. The most recent, DNA Detective, teaches young readers about the science behind genes and tests their knowledge with an engaging challenge at the end of each chapter: helping a young detective solve a major crime based on a real-world case. @tanyakyi, tanyalloydkyi.com PATTI LABOUCANE-BENSON ALBERTA, EVENTS 36, 55

Patti LaBoucane-Benson is Métis and the director of research, training and communication at Native Counselling Services of Alberta. She has a PhD in human ecology focusing on Aboriginal family resilience. LaBoucane-Benson's new graphic novel, The Outside Circle, is a story of two Aboriginal brothers and their struggle towards reconciliation. @PALB2011

JonArno Lawson is a three-time winner of The Lion and the Unicorn Award for Excellence in North American Poetry and the author of many books for children and adults, including Enjoy It While It Hurts, Down in the Bottom of the Bottom of the Box and Think Again. Lawson’s new picture book is Sidewalk Flowers, an ode to the importance of small gestures and the open-hearted kindness of children. He lives in Toronto. @JonArnoLawson

Elaine Lui is a celebrity gossip blogger and the voice behind LaineyGossip, a leading international celebrity news source followed by more than 1.5 million people internationally. Her TEDx talk, “The Sociology of Gossip,” is about the critical place of gossip in modern pop culture. Lui has been a reporter on etalk since 2006 and is now a co-host on CTV’s daily talk show The Social. Her memoir is Listen to the Squawking Chicken: When Mother Knows Best, What’s a Daughter to Do? @LaineyGossip, laineygossip.com

CATHERINE LEPAGE

IAN MCALLISTER

QUEBEC, EVENT 23 QUÉBEC, ÉVÉNEMENT 23

BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENTS 28, 40

Catherine Lepage a étudié le graphisme au cégep de Sainte-Foy, puis s’est perfectionnée en illustration à l’École supérieure des arts décoratifs de Strasbourg. Après avoir étudié le graphisme et l’illustration, elle a travaillé pendant de nombreuses années en tant que directrice artistique pour des agences de publicité au Québec. En 2007, Mme Lepage a écrit et illustré 12 mois sans intérêt, ouvrage qui traite de la dépression, puis l’an passée Fines tranches d’angoisse. Son travail a été récompensé plusieurs fois au niveau international, notamment par Communication Arts et 3X3. Catherine Lepage studied Graphic Design at CEGEP de Sainte-Foy and then illustration at École supérieure des arts décoratifs in Strasbourg, France. She worked for several years as an art director for advertising agencies, both in Quebec City and Montreal where she now lives. Her work has been awarded several times internationally, by Communication Arts and 3X3 to name a few. Co-founder of the creative design studio Ping Pong Ping, she now spends her time creating images for others, and sometimes for herself. @catherinelepage, catherinelepage.com TRACEY LINDBERG ALBERTA, EVENTS 44, 55, 69

Tracey Lindberg is of Cree and Métis ancestry and is a professor of law at Athabasca University, where she is also chair of the Centre for World Indigenous Knowledge and Research and the Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Traditional Knowledge, Legal Orders and Laws. She is an Indigenous rights activist and was awarded the Governor General’s Gold Medal. She describes herself as next in a long line of argumentative Cree women. Birdie is her first novel. @TraceyLindberg KELLY LINK UNITED STATES, EVENTS 11, 30

Kelly Link is the author of the story collections Stranger Things Happen, Magic for Beginners, and Pretty Monsters. Her latest, Get in Trouble, has been described as ‘weird fiction,’ a genre which defies definition. She and Gavin J. Grant have co-edited a number of anthologies, including multiple volumes of The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror and, for young adults, Steampunk! and Monstrous Affections. She is the cofounder of Small Beer Press and co-edits the occasional zine Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet. @haszombiesinit, kellylink.net

Ian McAllister is the author of seven books and the co-founder of the wildlife conservation organization Pacific Wild. His latest book, The Wild in You, is a collaboration with poet Lorna Crozier. He and his wife, Karen McAllister, were named by Time magazine as “Leaders of the 21st Century” for their efforts to protect BC’s endangered rainforest. A member of the International League of Conservation Photographers, McAllister has won the North American Nature Photography Association’s Vision Award and the Rainforest Action Network’s Rainforest Hero Award. pacificwild.org

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JOAN MCEWEN BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENT 74

Joan McEwen is a lawyer and arbitration specialist. Educated at Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia, she was called to the bar in 1978. After making partner at two law firms, she became a freelance labour arbitrator, her specialty since 1990. McEwen is involved in innocence projects across North America that help exonerate and compensate the wrongfully convicted. She is the author of Innocence on Trial: The Framing of Ivan Henry. She lives in Vancouver. @joan1mc, joanmcewen.com PAIGE MCKENZIE UNITED STATES, EVENTS 17, 75

Paige McKenzie is the star of the hit YouTube channel The Haunting of Sunshine Girl, a multi-webisode network with stories of zombies, ghosts, the Sasquatch and, of course, Sunshine. At 16, McKenzie co-founded the production company Coat Tale Productions with her mother, actress Mercedes Rose, and producing partner, Nick Hagen. The Haunting of Sunshine Girl has recently been turned into a book series and subsequently optioned by the Weinstein Company for TV. @hauntedsunshine, thehauntingofsunshinegirl.com DENISE MINA SCOTLAND, EVENTS 12, 31

Denise Mina worked in a number of dead-end jobs before studying at night school to get into the University of Glasgow School of Law. She went on to study for a PhD at the University of Strathclyde and used her student grant to write her first novel, Garnethill, which won the Crime Writers’ Association John Creasy Dagger. Mina has written 12 novels, including, most recently, Blood, Salt, Water; three plays; five graphic novels; and for television and radio in the United Kingdom. @DameDeniseMina, denisemina.com

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LUCIA MISCH

KENNETH OPPEL

NINO RICCI

BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENTS 5, 16, 39

ONTARIO, EVENTS 34, 41

ONTARIO, EVENTS 61, 67, 85

Lucia Misch grew up at an astronomical observatory near San Jose, California. She began writing and performing at 15 and moved to Canada three years later. She placed second at the 2011 Canadian Individual Poetry Slam, was a member of the 2010/11 Vancouver Slam Team and has performed and taught poetry across North America. She performs and facilitates spoken word workshops with children and youth as part of Vancouver Poetry House’s WordPlay program.

Kenneth Oppel is the author of many books for young readers. His award-winning Silverwing trilogy has sold more than a million copies worldwide. Airborn won a Michael L. Printz Award and the Governor General’s Literary Award; its sequel, Skybreaker, was a New York Times bestseller and named children’s novel of the year by The Times of London. Oppel is also the author of Half Brother and This Dark Endeavor, a prequel to Frankenstein. His most recent book is The Nest. @kennethoppel, kennethoppel.ca

Nino Ricci's first novel, Lives of the Saints, won the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Books in Canada First Novel Award and the F.G. Bressani Literary Prize. Next, Ricci published In a Glass House and Where She Has Gone, which was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. His bestselling novel Testament won the Trillium Book Award. The Origin of Species received the Governor General’s Literary Award and the Canadian Authors Association Award for Fiction. His new novel is Sleep. @NotNinoRicci, ninoricci.com

MICHELLE MULDER

SUSAN PHILPOTT

BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENT 3

BILL RICHARDSON

ONTARIO, EVENTS 72, 76

BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENTS 29, 45, 89

Michelle Mulder is the author of several books for children. After graduating from university, she cycled six thousand kilometres across Canada, became a travel writer, taught creative writing in the Arctic and worked as a simulated patient for medical students. Mulder began writing for kids because she’s always loved reading children's books. Her most recent book, Trash Talk, explores the ways that people around the world are re-using trash and striving towards a ‘zero-waste’ society. michellemulder.com

Susan Philpott first fell in love with crime fiction as a child reading the Nancy Drew series but didn’t begin writing seriously until much later in life. Prior to becoming a novelist, Philpott completed a master’s degree in both science and social work. She has worked as a university teaching assistant, zookeeper and mental health professional. Blown Red, Philpott’s first novel, is a thriller about a woman who is recruited to work for a shadowy underground network dedicated to helping women in danger. @susanphilpott1

VIET THANH NGUYEN

ANNA PORTER

UNITED STATES, EVENTS 51, 65

ONTARIO, EVENT 46

Viet Thanh Nguyen’s stories have appeared in Best New American Voices, TriQuarterly, Narrative and the Chicago Tribune, and he is the author of the academic book Race and Resistance. His acclaimed debut novel, The Sympathizer, features one of the most remarkable narrators of recent fiction: a conflicted subversive and idealist working as a double agent in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Nguyen teaches English and American Studies at the University of Southern California and lives in Los Angeles. @viet_t_nguyen, vietnguyen.info

Anna Porter was the co-founder of Key Porter Books, a leading Canadian publisher for 30 years. She is the author of many books, including The Ghosts of Europe, Kasztner’s Train, The Storyteller and, released earlier this year, Buying a Better World: George Soros and Billionaire Philanthropy. Porter has won many awards for her writing, including the Shaughnessey Cohen Prize for Political Writing, the Nereus Writers’ Trust Non-Fiction Prize, the Canadian Jewish Book Award for History and the Canadian Authors Association/Birks Family Foundation Award for Biography. annaporter.ca, @annaporter_anna

BARBARA NICKEL BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENTS 4, 24

Barbara Nickel has cycled through Vietnam, taught English in Puerto Rico and spent a year of her childhood in Kenya. She is the critically-acclaimed author of Hannah Waters and the Daughter of Johann Sebastian Bach. Nickel's other books for children include The Secret Wish of Nannerl Mozart and From the Top of a Grain Elevator. Her new picture book is A Boy Asked the Wind. She is the author of several young adult novels and is also an acclaimed poet. SUSIN NIELSEN BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENTS 2, 8

Susin Nielsen is a Gemini Award-winning screenwriter who wrote 16 episodes for Degrassi Junior High and four books in the Degrassi book series. She also adapted Susan Juby’s book Alice, I Think for television. Nielsen has published children’s and young adult books, including Word Nerd, Dear George Clooney, Please Marry My Mom, The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen and, most recently, We Are All Made of Molecules. She lives in Vancouver. @susinnielsen, susinnielsen.com

AU T HOR BIO G RAP H I ES

AU T H OR B IO GRAPHIES

BETH POWNING NEW BRUNSWICK, EVENTS 51, 88

Beth Powning grew up in a small New England town and later immigrated to Canada and bought an 1870s farm in New Brunswick. She is the author of three memoirs: Seeds of Another Summer (published in the United States and in a new edition as Home: Chronicle of a North Country Life), Shadow Child and Edge Seasons. She has also written the bestselling novels The Hatbox Letters, The Sea Captain’s Wife and A Measure of Light. @bethpowning, powning.com/beth SABRINA RAMNANAN ONTARIO, EVENTS 62, 82

Sabrina Ramnanan was born in Toronto to Trinidadian parents. She completed her BA in English and BEd at the University of Toronto. She is also a recent graduate of the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Education Creative Writing Program and the recipient of the 2012 Marina Nemat award. Her work has appeared in Diaspora Dialogues, Cerulean Rain, Writing in the Margins, The Caribbean Writer and Joyland. Nothing Like Love is her debut novel. @SabrinaRamnanan Sabrina Ramnanan’s appearance is made possible by a generous donation to the Alma Lee Legacy Fund by Jab Sidhoo.

Bill Richardson has hosted many shows on CBC Radio, including Saturday Afternoon at the Opera and In Concert. Most recently, he collaborated with Veda Hille in creating Do You Want What I Have Got? A Craigslist Cantata, which was staged at the Arts Club in Vancouver. His books include Bachelor Brothers’ Bed & Breakfast and After Hamelin, a novel for children. His new book is The First Little Bastard to Call Me Gramps: Poems of the Late Middle Ages.

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PAUL ROUX QUEBEC, EVENTS 7, 37 QUÉBEC, ÉVÉNEMENTS 7 ET 37

Cet auteur-illustrateur français a écrit et illustré, à ce jour, plus de 170 livres et albums; il partage son amour des images et des mots avec les lecteurs de tous âges depuis 1981. Très actif et passionné depuis plus de 30 ans, Paul Roux a largement contribué à l’éclosion de la bande dessinée, tant en Outaouais qu’au Québec. Il a également été chroniqueur BD pendant de nombreuses années pour le quotidien Le Droit et la radio de Radio-Canada.

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Paul Roux is a Quebeçois author-illustrator who has written over 170 books and albumns for far. Roux has been sharing his passion for drawings, images and words with readers of all ages since 1981. He has been a major contributor to the popularity of la bande dessinée in French Canada. Roux received the prestigious Dragon Award in September 2012 for Les toiles mystérieuses. SIGAL SAMUEL UNITED STATES/CANADA, EVENTS 49, 85

Sigal Samuel is a writer and editor whose fiction and journalism have appeared in The Daily Beast, The Rumpus, The Forward, Tablet, The Walrus, Event, Descant, Grain, Prairie Fire, Room, Matrix and Plenitude, among other publications. She has written and produced six plays in Montreal, Vancouver, and New York. Her debut novel, The Mystics of Mile End, is about a dysfunctional Jewish family with a dangerous mystical obsession. Samuel is originally from Montreal and currently lives in Brooklyn. @SigalSamuel, sigalsamuel.wordpress.com ANAKANA SCHOFIELD BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENTS 44, 61

Anakana Schofield is an Irish-Canadian writer of fiction, essays and literary criticism. She contributes to the London Review of Books, The Recorder: The Journal of the American Irish Historical Society, The Globe and Mail and The Vancouver Sun. She has lived in London and Dublin, and now lives in Vancouver. Malarky was her debut novel; Martin John, a footnote to Malarky, is her new book. @AnakanaSchofiel, anakanaschofield.com

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AU T H OR B IO GRAPHIES

AU T HOR BIO G RAP H I ES

OWEN SHEERS

BILL SLAVIN

JORDAN STRATFORD

STEVE TOLTZ

UNITED KINGDOM, EVENTS 15, 53, 57

ONTARIO, EVENTS 6, 38

BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENTS 22, 34

AUSTRALIA, EVENTS 12, 26

Owen Sheers is a novelist, poet and playwright. He has published two poetry collections, The Blue Book and Skirrid Hill, which won a Somerset Maugham Award. His debut prose work, The Dust Diaries, won the Welsh Book of the Year in 2005 and his first novel, Resistance, has been translated into 11 languages. In 2009, Sheers published the novella White Ravens. His latest novel is I Saw a Man. @owensheers,

owensheers.co.uk

LORI SHENHER

Bill Slavin has illustrated more than 100 children’s books, both fiction and nonfiction, including Stanley’s Party by Linda Bailey, which won the 2004 Blue Spruce Award, the Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize, and the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator’s Award. In 2014, he completed his Elephants Never Forget graphic novel trilogy — Big City Otto, Big Top Otto, and Big Star Otto — fulfilling a lifetime desire to return to the world of comic books that he had inhabited in his youth. billslavin.com NEIL SMITH

BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENT 74

Lori Shenher was the first detective in the Vancouver Police Department assigned to Vancouver’s Missing and Murdered Women Investigation. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature and worked for several years as a newspaper reporter/ photographer before joining the Vancouver Police Department as a constable in 1991. Today she is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and provides fitness and wellness training to people suffering from PTSD, depression, and anxiety. She lives in Burnaby with her family. That Lonely Section of Hell is her first book. @ShenherLori, lorishenher.com

QUEBEC, EVENTS 30, 85

Neil Smith is a French translator and the author of the critically-acclaimed national bestseller Bang Crunch. He has been nominated for the Journey Prize three times, and has also received nominations for the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book. His new book is Boo, the story of a teen boy who, after a tragic accident, wakes up in a town populated only by 13 year olds. MICHAEL V. SMITH BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENTS 56, 84

JIM SHEPARD UNITED STATES, EVENTS 50, 51

Jim Shepard is the author of seven novels and four story collections, including Like You’d Understand, Anyway, a finalist for the National Book Award and winner of The Story Prize. His new novel is The Book of Aron. His short fiction has appeared in, among other magazines, The New Yorker, Harper’s, McSweeney’s and The Paris Review and has often been selected for The Best American Short Stories and The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories. He lives in Williamstown, Massachusetts and teaches at Williams College. jimshepard.wordpress.com

Michael V. Smith won the inaugural Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBT Emerging Writers from the Writers’ Trust of Canada for his first novel Cumberland. He has since published two poetry books and a second novel, Progress. His new book is the memoir My Body Is Yours. An improv comic, filmmaker, drag queen and occasional clown, Smith’s work deals with community and belonging, especially in relation to sexuality, gender, class and identity. He teaches creative writing at the University of British Columbia Okanagan. @MichaelVeeSmith, michaelvsmith.com KAREN SOLIE ONTARIO, EVENTS 60, 79

ÅSNE SEIERSTAD NORWAY, EVENTS 9, 25

Åsne Seierstad is an award-winning journalist and writer renowned for her work as a war correspondent. Her books include The Bookseller of Kabul, One Hundred and One Days: A Baghdad Journal, The Angel of Grozny: Inside Chechnya and, most recently, One of Us: The Story of Anders Breivik and the Massacre in Norway, which draws from statements and writings of Breivik in order to understand the events of 2011. Seierstad lives in Oslo. @AsneSeierstad

Karen Solie’s first collection of poems, Short Haul Engine, won the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize and was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize, the ReLit Award and the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. Her second collection, Modern and Normal, was shortlisted for the Trillium Book Award. Her third collection, Pigeon, won the Griffin Poetry Prize, the Pat Lowther Memorial Award and the Trillium Book Award. Her latest collection is The Road In Is Not the Same Road Out. BRADLEY SOMER

Seierstad's appearance is made possible by NORLA. YRSA SIGURðARDÓTTIR ICELAND, EVENTS 14, 27, 31, 72

Yrsa Sigurðardóttir is a civil engineer and crime writer who has been dubbed “Iceland’s answer to Stieg Larsson.” She is the author of the bestselling Thora Gudmundsdottir series which opened with Last Rituals in 2005, since translated into more than 30 languages. Her standalone horror novel I Remember You was awarded the Icelandic Crime Fiction Award and her novel The Silence of the Sea won the Petrona Award in 2015. The latest installment of the Thora Gudmundsdottir series is The Undesired.

ALBERTA, EVENTS 71, 89

Bradley Somer’s short fiction—characterized by a bent for the off-kilter and a touch of urban fantastic—has appeared in several literary journals, reviews and anthologies. His debut novel, Imperfections, won the CBC Bookie Award for Debut of the Year and was a Canadian Bookseller Top Pick for 2012. His new novel, Fishbowl, is told from the perspective of a goldfish named Ian as he climbs out of his fishbowl and falls from the 27th floor of an apartment building. @BradleySomer,

bradleysomer.com

Jordan Stratford is the author of the Wollstonecraft Detective Agency series in which Ada Lovelace and Mary Shelley meet as girls and form a secret detective agency. The first installment in the series is The Case of the Missing Moonstone. Stratford launched the idea for the series on Kickstarter, where the response was overwhelmingly enthusiastic. He lives on a tiny windswept island in British Columbia. @jordanstratford, jordanstratford.com RICH TERFRY ONTARIO/NOVA SCOTIA, EVENTS 62, 80

Rich Terfry, aka Buck 65, is a performer and musician from Mt. Uniacke, Nova Scotia. Buck 65’s music started out as hip hop but has since evolved into something else. Sometimes it sounds rural; sometimes it sounds like something fished out of a drainpipe. Buck 65 raps, sings, makes beats, plays instruments and DJs, but is best known for his dancing. His memoir Wicked and Weird tells the story of growing up “poor, talented, baseball-obsessed, music-mad and girl-smitten on the East Coast.” @Buck65, buck65.com RUSSELL THORNTON BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENT 79

Russell Thornton is a North Vancouver poet. He won first prize in the League of Canadian Poets National Contest in 2000 for “The Beginnings of Stars.” His poems are included in a number of anthologies of Canadian poetry. In addition to A Tunisian Notebook, Thornton is the author of several books and chapbooks, among them The Accurate Earth, The Fifth Window and House Built of Rain, which was a finalist for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. His new collection, The Hundred Lives, was nominated for the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2015. SARA TILLEY NEWFOUNDLAND & LABRADOR, EVENTS 59, 64, 88

Sara Tilley is a writer, theatre artist and clown in St. John’s. She is the founder of a feminist theatre company, She Said Yes!, and has written, co-written or co-created 11 plays, all of which have received professional production. Skin Room, her first novel, won both the Newfoundland and Labrador Percy Janes First Novel Award and the inaugural Fresh Fish Award for Emerging Writers. She also won the Lawrence Jackson Writers’ Award from the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council. Her new novel is Duke. saratilley.ca, @SheSaidTheatre

Steve Toltz’s first novel, A Fraction of the Whole, was released to widespread critical acclaim and shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and The Guardian First Book Award. His new novel Quicksand has been described as “brilliantly dark” by The Guardian. Prior to his literary career, Toltz lived in Montreal, Vancouver, New York, Barcelona and Paris, variously working as a cameraman, telemarketer, security guard, private investigator, English teacher and screenwriter. stevetoltz.com

Steve Toltz's appearance is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australian Council for the Arts, its funding and advisory body, and the Melbourne Writers Festival. JOHN VAILLANT BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENTS 48, 61, 62

John Vaillant is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, National Geographic, Outside and Men's Journal, among others. Of particular interest to Vaillant are stories that explore collisions between human ambition and the natural world. His first book, The Golden Spruce, was a bestseller and won several awards, including the Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction. His second book, The Tiger, was an international bestseller and has been translated into 15 languages. The Jaguar's Children is his first novel. thetigerbook.com, @JohnVaillant LAURA VAN DEN BERG UNITED STATES, EVENTS 77, 89

Laura van den Berg’s collections of stories, What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us and The Isle of Youth were both published to great acclaim and have been included on lists for the Frank O’Connor International Award, the Rosenthal Family Foundation Award and more than a dozen ‘Best Book’ awards from a variety of venues. Her first novel, Find Me, has received starred reviews from Booklist and Library Journal. van den Berg is a writer-inresidence at Bard College. @Lvandenberg, lauravandenberg.com JEFF VANDERMEER UNITED STATES, EVENTS 11, 30, 81

Jeff VanderMeer’s most recent fiction is The New York Times-bestselling Southern Reach trilogy (Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance). A three time World Fantasy Award winner and 13 time nominee, VanderMeer has been a finalist for the Nebula, Philip K. Dick and Shirley Jackson awards, among others. His non-fiction appears in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Washington Post, The Atlantic and the Los Angeles Times. VanderMeer serves as the co director of Shared Worlds, a unique teen science fiction/fantasy writing camp at Wofford College. @jeffvandermeer,

jeffvandermeer.com

INNDISPENSABLE The Vancouver Writers Fest gratefully acknowledges Dockside Restaurant and the Granville Island Hotel for their generous contributions to this year’s Festival.

AU T H OR B IO GRAPHIES LESLIE VRYENHOEK

DAMIEN WILKINS

NEWFOUNDLAND & LabRADOR, EVENTS 26, 49

NEW ZEALAND, EVENTS 12, 57, 71

Leslie Vryenhoek is the acclaimed author of Scrabble Lessons (fiction), Gulf (poetry) and a new novel, Ledger of the Open Hand, which asks how we can reconcile the emotional debts we owe. Her work has been published and broadcast across Canada and internationally. A Manitoban now based in St. John’s, she is also the founding director of the Piper’s Frith writing retreat. Vryenhoek’s diverse communications career has focused on local and international development, advanced education and disaster response. @LeslieVryenhoek, leslievryenhoek.com

SHERYDA WARRENER BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENT 53

Sheryda Warrener’s poems have appeared in Event, The Fiddlehead, Grain, Hazlitt, The Believer and in the anthology Best Canadian Poetry in English 2013. Her work has been shortlisted for Lemon Hound’s inaugural poetry contest and the Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry, among others. Warrener has been a resident at The Banff Centre and the Baltic Centre for Writers and Translators. Her first book was Hard Feelings, and her new collection is Floating Is Everything. @shereets MÉLANIE WATT QUEBEC, EVENTS 20, 24, 35, 43 QUÉBEC, ÉVÉNEMENTS 20, 24, 35 ET 43

Diplômée de l’école de design de l’UQAM (Montréal), l’auteure et illustratrice a inventé une foule de personnages, tous aussi colorés les uns que les autres. La collection Frisson l’écureuil dont le héros est un petit rongeur anxieux qui vit des aventures calculées et routinières s’est vendue à plus de 1,5 million d’exemplaires. Qu’elle aborde le thème de l’amitié, de l’égocentrisme ou de la vente sous pression, ses albums débordent d’humour, d’ironie et de charme, et laissent place à l’interprétation et à la réflexion. Mélanie Watt’s best-known book, Scaredy Squirrel, has won many awards including the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Award for Children’s Picture Book and the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator’s Award. Watt has often noted how the Scaredy Squirrel books helped her work out her own insecurities and fears, as the success of these titles has required her to venture out into the unknown, and like Scaredy she has found the experience truly uplifting. Watt's newest book is Bug in a Vacuum. @iamscaredy, scaredysquirrel.com ROBERT J. WIERSEMA BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENTS 15, 30

Robert J. Wiersema is one of Canada’s most respected book reviewers. Before I Wake, his first novel, was named a Globe and Mail Best Book. The World More Full of Weeping, a novella, was shortlisted for the Aurora Award. His second novel, Bedtime Story, became a national bestseller. His first non-fiction book was Walk Like a Man: Coming of Age with the Music of Bruce Springsteen. His new novel is Black Feathers. @robertjwiersema, robertjwiersemabooks.com

AU T HOR BIO G RAP H I ES

Damien Wilkins is the author of seven novels, including The Miserables, The Fainter and Max Gate. Wilkins has had books published in New Zealand, the United States and the United Kingdom, and has won and been nominated for a range of prizes and awards. He has also published poems, stories and written for television and stage. Under the band name The Close Readers he has released three albums of original songs. He lives in Wellington, where he is the director of the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University. Damien Wilkins’ appearance is made possible by Creative New Zealand and the New Zealand Book Council. SIMON WINCHESTER UNITED STATES, EVENT 47

Simon Winchester is a journalist, broadcaster and the author of bestselling nonfiction and young adult books, including the New York Times best-selling The Professor and the Madman. His recent titles include Atlantic, The Men Who United the States and Pacific. Winchester was awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his services to journalism and literature. He lives in Massachusetts and New York City. @simonwwriter, simonwinchester.com SARAH WINMAN UNITED KINGDOM, EVENTS 12, 26

Sarah Winman grew up in Essex and now lives in London. She attended the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art and went on to act in theatre, film and television. Her debut novel, When God Was a Rabbit, was the recipient of the Galaxy National Book Award for Book of the Year and the Edinburugh International Book Festival’s Newton First Book Award. Her highly-anticipated new novel is A Year of Marvellous Ways.

GENE LUEN YANG UNITED STATES, EVENTS 22, 36

Gene Luen Yang’s first book, American Born Chinese, was the first graphic novel to be nominated for a National Book Award and the first to win the Michael L. Printz Award. It also won an Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album—New. His second book, Boxers & Saints, a two-volume graphic novel about the Boxer Rebellion, was nominated for a National Book Award and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Yang teaches creative writing at Hamline University. @geneluenyang, geneyang.com

www.greystonebooks.com Freedom to read, Freedom to Write

PAUL YEE

1000 Lashes Because I Say What I Think raif Badawi

ONTARIO, EVENTS 42, 59

Paul Yee was born in Saskatchewan but grew up in Vancouver’s Chinatown. He is the author of nearly 30 books, including Ghost Train, winner of the Governor General’s Literary Award for Children’s Literature (Text), and Saltwater City: An Illustrated History of the Chinese in Vancouver, winner of the Vancouver Book Award. His most recent children’s book is Chinese Fairy Tale Feasts: A Literary Cookbook. His new novel, A Superior Man, is his first written for an adult audience. paulyee.ca CYBÈLE YOUNG ONTARIO, EVENTS 6, 19

Cybèle Young is an award-winning artist who has illustrated several books for children, including Pa’s Harvest, which was nominated for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Children’s Literature (Illustration) and Jack Pine. She has recently written and illustrated A Few Blocks, a Kirkus Best Children’s Book; Ten Birds, winner of the Governor General’s Literary Award for Children’s Literature (Illustration); and A Few Bites, which received starred reviews in Kirkus and Publishers Weekly. Her new titles are The Queen’s Shadow and Some Things I’ve Lost. @cybeleyoung, cybeleyoung.ca

Ensaf Haidar talks about her husband’s fight for freedom of expression at VWF

Brian Brett

Lori Shenher

Tuco

ThaT LoneLy secTion of heLL

The Parrot, the Others, and a Scattershot World

The Botched Investigation of a Serial Killer Who Almost Got Away

The WiLd in you Voices from the Forest and the Sea

Stella Leventoyannis Harvey with

The Brink of Freedom

RONALD WRIGHT

When a well-meaning Canadian aid worker in Greece takes a refugee boy into her care, she finds herself jailed and accused of kidnapping. Harvey’s new novel balances the politics of the moment with rich, deep character development.

BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENTS 32, 51

Ronald Wright is a novelist, historian and essayist. He is the award-winning author of nine books of non-fiction, including A Short History of Progress, and fiction, including A Scientific Romance, published in 16 languages and in more than 40 countries. Much of his work explores the relationships between past and present, people and power, other cultures and our own. His new novel is The Gold Eaters. ronaldwright.com

Lorna Crozier & Ian McAllister

www.signature-editions.com

RACHEL WYATT BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENTS 33, 57

Rachel Wyatt is a prolific and award-winning author of novels, short fiction, stage and radio plays, and non-fiction. Wyatt was director of the Writing Program at The Banff Centre during the 1990s and has appeared at writers conferences across Canada and internationally. She has won the CBC Literary Competition Drama Award and was awarded the Order of Canada and the Queen’s Jubilee Medal. Her new book of stories is Street Symphony.

ANANSI PUBLISHES VERY GOOD BOOKS WWW.HOUSEOFANANSI.COM

The Vancouver Writers Fest and Penguin Random House present AN EVENING WITH

John Irving Irving returns to the themes that established him as one of our most admired and beloved authors in Avenue of Mysteries, an absorbing novel of fate and memory.

7:30 pm Tuesday, December 1, 2015

The Seventeenth Annual Vancouver Writers Fest

Poetry & Short Story Contest Submit your finest prose and poetry to the Festival’s Poetry & Short Story Contest.

The Rewards

Prizes will be awarded to the top two entries in poetry and fiction. 1ST PRIZE IN EACH CATEGORY: $500 2ND PRIZE IN EACH CATEGORY: $350 First prize winners will published in subTERRAIN and on the Festival website at writersfest.bc.ca.

Enter online at writersfest.bc.ca/writingcontest. Please note, we accept only electronic entries. Entries must be uploaded and payment confirmed by 5:00 pm on Sunday, October 25, 2015.

Spreading the Word

Youth Writing Contest What’s your story? Grab a pen and get writing! If we like what we read, you could win a cash prize and have your work published in The Claremont Review, a magazine that showcases aspiring young writers. The contest is open to all young writers enrolled in grades 8–12 in British Columbia.

The Rewards

Prizes will be awarded to the top two entries in poetry and fiction. 1ST PRIZE IN EACH CATEGORY: $300 2ND PRIZE IN EACH CATEGORY: $200

The Vancouver Playhouse - 600 Hamilton Street, Vancouver

Tickets: $25 adults / $23 students & seniors Book club members: $21 (5 tickets minimum; phone sales only) Plus service charges

604.629.8849 or vancouvertix.com

WRITERSFEST.BC.CA

Prize winners’ works will be published in The Claremont Review and on the Festival website at writersfest.bc.ca. Please note, we accept only electronic entries. Entries must be uploaded and payment confirmed by 5:00 pm on Sunday, October 25, 2015.

The Spreading the Word Youth Writing Contest is supported by The Hamber Foundation and the Chris Spencer Foundation.

See writersfest.bc.ca/youthwritingcontest for complete contest details and to submit your entry.

HarperCollins Canada welcomes our authors to

Vancouver Writers Fest

ELISABETH de MARIAFFI

LAWRENCE HILL

JEFF VANDERMEER

ROBERT J. WIERSEMA

SIMON WINCHESTER

TRACEY LINDBERG

DENISE MINA

SHILPI SOMAYA GOWDA

KALLIE GEORGE

KENNETH OPPEL

photo credit Neil Davidson