2020 Vancouver Writers Fest Program Guide by Vancouver Writers Fest

FE STIV A L E X P E R I E N C E

WELCOME TO THE 2020 VANCOUVER WRITERS FEST LESLIE HURTIG

•

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Billy-Ray Belcourt, Caroline Adderson and Shaena Lambert all have remarkable books available this fall, and they are only a small number of the local authors of whom Vancouver can be proud.

If, this time last year, an author on one of our stages had told of citizens across the world ravaged by illness, people under lockdown to avoid the spread of a fastmoving virus, individuals unable to gather in groups, hug loved ones or share art in a common space, we would have labelled that dystopic fiction. And yet… There are silver linings to any difficult time and this notion is certainly applicable to Festival planning. We have learned how to use the technology available to us in order to present the works and ideas of over 70 authors in our fall programming. We are able to present several authors who might not have otherwise had time in their schedules to visit Vancouver during what is normally a very busy touring season. We feel fortunate to be able to present authors such as David Mitchell, Marilynne Robinson, Yaa Gyasi, Natalie Diaz, Ayad Akhtar, Kevin Kwan, Walter Mosley and many more, despite the great distance between us. It is our pleasure to present the work and ideas of emerging writers alongside those of established authors. In a year that sees Vancouverites sticking close to home, isn’t it lucky that our city is home to some of Canada’s great creative talent? Authors such as Jillian Christmas, Aislinn Hunter,

Speaking of Vancouver favourites, it has been a great pleasure to work with world-renowned storyteller and performer, Ivan Coyote, as our 2020 Guest Curator. Ivan’s ability to cut straight to the heart of empathy and humanism in their storytelling and curation has been a joy to watch. Ivan has curated four events for us this year, each one embracing their unique voice and creativity. In a year that has meant the cancellation of so many arts events across the city, we feel fortunate to be able to continue with some of our flagship offerings. This year, we welcome a new Musical Director for our celebrated Literary Cabaret. Sally Zori & the Allegories will delight fans of the Lit Cab on the Saturday night of the Festival. While a digital offering of this annual event will be different, we know it will still be great fun. I hope you will tune in! Even during this pandemic, the Vancouver Writers Fest’s mission remains the same; we want to connect people to exceptional books, ideas and dialogue, igniting a passion for words and the world around us. We hope you will find some events to brighten your outlook, broaden your horizons and boost your spirits.

Contents Festival Info Letter from the Artistic Director Letter from the Board Chair Introducing our Guest Curator & Spoken Word Curator A Year Like No Other Ticket Information Support the Festival Acknowledgments Book Selling Partners About the Festival Sponsors & Donors Board & Staff Festival Authors

01 02 03 04 04 05 06 06 07 08 09 09

Festival Events Saturday, September 12 Tuesday, September 22 Tuesday, September 29 Tuesday, October 6 Tuesday, October 13 Monday, October 19 Tuesday, October 20 Wednesday, October 21 Thursday, October 22 Friday, October 23 Saturday, October 24 Sunday, October 25 Tuesday, October 27 Sunday, November 1 Thursday, November 5 Sunday, November 15 Tuesday, November 17 Tuesday, November 24

11 12 13 14 15 16 21 24 28 35 39 44 50 51 52 53 54 55

Events at a Glance 30 2020 Hosts & Moderators 56 Year-Round Content Our Year-Round Donors Writers in the Classroom

Leslie Hurtig, Artistic Director

58 60

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.

WE L CO M E

THE FESTIVAL IN 2020 WE A C KN O WL ED GE 44• 2

Richard Kelly Kemick They can hear your stomach churn, smell the cavities in your molars,

poetry and prose

elevendollarsninetyfive

see your pulse galloping into the soft parts of your neck. There is no place they do not know you.

Read. Subscribe. Submit.

Because every issue is an EVENT

•

• 2020 National Magazine Awards Silver Winner, Poetry • 2020, 2019 & 2018 Journey Prize Short List • 2017 Canadian Magazine Awards Winner, Best Literature • Regularly featured in Best Canadian Stories, Poetry and Essays anthologies • Canada’s longest-running Non-Fiction Contest • Popular Reading Service for Writers

The Vancouver Writers Fest carries out its work on the ancestral and unceded lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil‑Waututh First Nations.

eventmagazine.ca ALEXIA JONES •

BOARD OF DIRECTORS CHAIR On behalf of the Board I want to thank our sponsors, funders and patrons for their continued support and commitment to the Vancouver Writers Fest, particularly in this unprecedented year that has impacted so many both personally and professionally. The Board is so excited about this year’s program, which we think will offer you a creative escape during these challenging times, with some of the finest writers and thinkers the world and Canada has to offer. In this year, more than any other, it is important to us as an organization that we continue to be a place where people can reflect on, interrogate and understand their relationship to society and to each other. We hope that our audiences are engaged by the diverse array of voices this year and inspired by this year’s exceptional books.

Alexia Jones, Board Chair

I V A N C O Y O T E : A message from our Guest Curator The first time I was invited to be a part of the Vancouver Writers Fest was back in 2002. I was 33 years old, my second slim volume of short stories had just been released, and I was starstruck and mostly tonguetied the whole week. I met Lorna Crozier and Patrick Lane that year, both so charming and gracious to a newcomer like me. I shared a quiet cup of tea before an event with Nancy Richler, and stayed up way too late one night listening to Susan Musgrave tell stories in the hospitality suite. I saw Pierre Berton standing in a coffee line up. I got last minute tickets to hear Michael Ondaatje speak, and shared a shy elevator ride with Thomas King. Ten published books and 18 years later, I am reflecting on all that this festival has brought into my life. The many friendships I have found and forged there, the multiple magical moments to always remember, the love of words and books and writers the festival has planted and watered and grown in me. That feeling when making it all the way from the Arts Club Theatre to Performance Works takes nearly two hours because of all the writers and readers and word lovers I needed to stop and talk to on the way. I’ve shared many phone calls and conversations with Leslie Hurtig and Clea Young over the last months, working together to try to bring some of that pre-pandemic festival feeling to our programming this fall. As I write this, we are about to begin our sixth month of physical distancing and facemasks and new infection numbers, and fear. I remain faithful in the potential of books and words and sharing stories as the very best tools we have to bring us together, even across ethernet cables and closed borders and computer screens, and witness and celebrate our shared humanity, and our common struggles to build a better After All Of This. I have done my best to curate events that stand back and let writers speak to their own stories, their own inspirations, their own challenges, and their own approach to their craft. My dream is that this October we can all gather again, from many different physical places, and listen and speak and laugh and cry together, despite all that might seek to divide us. I know that this year we all need stories, more than ever. Look for this icon on Ivan’s curated events:

GUEST CURATOR

J I L L I A N C H R I S T M A S : Spoken Word Curator As an enthusiastic organizer and advocate in the Canadian arts community, Jillian Christmas’s focus has been to increase anti-oppression initiatives in spoken word. She has executed programs in partnership with Toronto Poetry Project, The Chan Centre, Vancouver Opera, and more. Jillian has performed and facilitated spoken word workshops for youth and adults across the country and beyond. In addition to curating our spoken word events, she presents her debut book of poetry, The Gospel of Breaking, at this year’s Festival.

Look for this icon on Jillian’s curated events:

GUEST CURATOR

FE S TI V AL TIC K E T S / I N F O R M A T IO N

Key to 2020 Festival Icons:

A YEAR LIKE NO OTHER This year’s Vancouver Writers Fest will be brought to you on a variety of digital platforms. In addition to our flagship, week-long Festival, we also welcome you to our Special Events series, occurring weekly from September to November. Our physical stages may be replaced with Zoom screens or podcast episodes, but the ideas, mirth, collaboration, intrigue, discovery and excitement that stem from our conversations and performances remain. Audience members can connect with authors via our live-streamed and recorded events or by listening to podcast episodes of specially recorded conversations. For our youth and educational audiences, we continue to offer Writers in the Classroom—albeit joining students remotely.

GUEST CURATOR

YOUTH

VIDEO

PODCAST

FESTIVAL PASS

LIVE CAPTIONS

You can choose to attend one or many events this year, as ever, or buy a Festival Pass to access all events during our October Festival week. Today’s world is vastly different to that of 2019, but much remains the same, such as the transformative power of books and ideas. We’re grateful to you for joining us in this unprecedented year and for your continued support.

TICKET INFORMATION Pricing Pay what you can pricing available on all events except Book Club events. GST and a nominal processing fee will be added to your ticket price. Festival Pass ($100 – available only for members) includes access to all events during Festival Week (Oct 1925). Simplify your booking process and support the Festival by purchasing a Festival Pass. You’ll receive access to the complete lineup of events during Festival Week in one tidy bundle. Your pass does not include admission to Fall Series events occurring outside of Festival Week.

Box Office Tickets go on sale starting Tuesday, September 15 at 10am Pacific. Visit writersfest.bc.ca/box-office for complete box office info and FAQ. Our box office and events are 100% online this year. Thanks for your understanding; we look forward to bringing our box office team back in future years to offer in-person & telephone service!

Email info@writersfest.bc.ca for quick support with an event in progress, and for general inquiries about the Festival. Call 1 (844) 307-7469 for Showpass customer service if you need help completing your ticket order.

Terms No exchanges or refunds except if an event is cancelled. Check your order carefully before you click Pay. Provide a valid email address at the time of purchase; access to events will be limited to the email you submit at checkout, and cannot be transferred to another person. Programming is subject to change without notice. Visit our website for the latest program updates.

Accessibility & Equitability We’ll do our best to make the Festival a safe, inclusive, low-barrier experience for you. Please reach out with your requests and questions to info@writersfest.bc.ca.

SUPPORT THE FESTIVAL DURING THIS UNPRECEDENTED YEAR

The Vancouver Writers Fest relies on members and donations to plan and produce our incredible array of events throughout the year. We are working hard to transition our events to safe and accessible platforms to connect our audiences with 2020’s important books and ideas. More than ever, we need your help to sustain the Festival. Please consider becoming a member or giving a donation in place of your normal ticket purchase.

BECOME A FESTIVAL MEMBER

BECOME A BOOK FIEND – JOIN OUR MONTHLY DONOR CLUB

By becoming a Member of the Vancouver Writers Fest Society, you join our community of passionate readers and help sustain

The loss of ticket sales has reduced one-third of the Writers

the Festival. We reward our members with a number of benefits

Fest’s annual revenue. As ever, we rely on our donors to sustain

that include:

us through this year and into the future.

• Festival Program Guide mailed to you • Summer Reading Guide mailed to you

Monthly donations are the safest, simplest and most effective

• Exclusive access to a Festival Pass

way to support the Vancouver Writers Fest.

• Invitations to exclusive Member events • A vote at the VWF Annual General Meeting We have two membership options: One-year membership: $40 Two-year membership: $70 Show your passion for books and ideas by joining our Writers Fest community today. Visit writersfest.bc.ca/membership.

Your monthly gift is helping us adapt to the changing dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic. Help the Writers Fest today by becoming a Book Fiend: visit writersfest.bc.ca/bookfiend. If you’re not ready to become a monthly donor, we completely understand and greatly appreciate all donations from our community members. Please give a one-time donation anytime at writersfest.bc.ca/donate.

12015_Kidsbooks ad_concept.ai

ACKN O W L E D G M E N T S

Thank You

INDEPENDENT BOOK SELLING PARTNERS

Thank you to the following publishers for supporting author appearances at this yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Festival.

Support local and get a 15% discount on Festival titles!

Annick Press Anvil Press Arsenal Pulp Press Biblioasis

The Vancouver Writers Fest is delighted to partner with our cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vibrant community of independent booksellers. This year, Festival patrons can receive a 15% discount on all Festival titles. Books can be special ordered and/or purchased by visiting or calling the store and using the following discount code. Offer valid until October 25, 2020. Discount Code: VWF READING LIST

Coach House Books

Douglas & McIntyre

Official Festival Bookseller

Dundurn Press

Kidsbooks

ECW Press

kidsbooks.ca

Greystone Books

604.738.5335

Hachette Book Group Canada

CMY

HarperCollins Canada

Bookseller Partners

House of Anansi Press

Book Warehouse

Paper Hound

bookwarehouse.ca

paperhound.ca

604.879.7737

604.428.1344

Penguin Random House Canada

Iron Dog Books

Pulp Fiction*

Publishers Group Canada

irondogbooks.com

pulpfictionbooksvancouver.com

Raincoast Books

604.215.8807

604.876.4311

and Groundwood Books

Kids Can Press

Pajama Press

Scholastic Canada Simon & Schuster Canada

Massy Books

World Editions

massybooks.com 604.721.4405

* Please inquire at store to determine discount rate.

On Broadway 2557 West Broadway 604-738-5335 In the Village 3040 Edgemont Blvd. 604-986-6190

VA N C O U V E R W R I T E R S F E S T : M O R E T H A N A F E S T I VA L The Vancouver Writers Fest runs a diverse range of programs to connect book enthusiasts from across the Lower Mainland and beyond with authors, ideas… and their own imaginations. We work year round to connect audiences to exceptional writing. Our programs include:

INCITE

Presented by the Vancouver Writers Fest and the Vancouver Public Library, Incite offers conversations with authors every two weeks from January to June. Celebrated writers and new talents with recently-released books discuss their latest works, answer questions about their creative process and speak to an overarching theme. Incite is presented thanks to the support of the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association and the Government of British Columbia.

Vancouver Public Library www.vpl.ca

Pictured: The Vancouver Writers Fest team during a virtual meeting.

YOUTH EDUCATION PROGRAM ( YEP!) — VIRTUAL IN 2020

YEP! offers students the opportunity to interact with celebrated writers from across the globe in more than 50 events designed specifically for young people, teachers, schools and student groups. At the Festival: Each year, we reach more than 7,000 students across British Columbia—in the classroom and at the Festival. Our programs are curated with the BC curriculum in mind, for K-12 student groups. Writers in the Classroom: 20 authors visit local schools to read and discuss their writing process in intimate class discussions and school assemblies in both traditional and non-traditional learning environments. All costs covered by the Vancouver Writers Fest. Youth Writing Contest: Encouraging reading and writing in Canada requires supporting burgeoning future authors. The Vancouver Writers Fest hosts an annual writing contest during which youth can submit their works of fiction and/or poetry. A judge reviews the entries each year, awarding a cash prize. Thanks to the support of Bonnie Mah and the Government of British Columbia.

SPECIAL EVENTS

Our year-round Special Events feature some of the biggest names in the literary community today. In addition to providing eye-opening conversations and showcasing extraordinary books, our Special Events capture the excitement of Festival Week throughout the year. These events are currently held online. Our Fall series runs from September to December.

BOOKS & BRUNCH ( POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE )

Our latest event series, Books & Brunch, combines author conversation with a delicious brunch at the boutique Granville Island Hotel. Authors Shelley Wood (The Quintland Sisters) and Terry Fallis (The Albatross) were featured at these sold out spring and summer events in 2019.

WHISKY & WORDS ( POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE )

Our biggest annual fundraiser, where guests engage in a multi-sensory experience, exploring whisky from across the globe, local craft spirits and beer all while relishing in live entertainment from local DJs. Learn more at whiskywords.ca.

MY ROOTS

The My Roots Workshop is an expanded vision of what education outreach can be. Taking place each year, the writing workshop encourages new immigrants to develop and share their stories of place through a mix of writing exercises and writing craft lessons, the workshop encourages writers at all levels to think imaginatively about those places and landscapes called ‘home’. To find out more about our programs, visit writersfest.bc.ca.

T HAN K S TO O U R S P O N S O R S & D O N O R S TITLE SPONSOR

COLLECTORâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S EDITION SPONSOR

BESTSELLER EDITION SPONSOR

LIMITED EDITION SPONSOR

GOVERNMENT SUPPORT

FESTIVAL SUPPORTER

COMMUNITY PARTNER

ABO U T U S

AUTHORS

Founder And Lifetime Member

Festival Authors

Alma Lee

A Caroline Adderson Nasra Adem Ayad Akhtar

Board Of Directors

B Billy-Ray Belcourt andrea bennett Cicely Belle Blain

Chair Alexia Jones

Treasurer Robert McLean

Vice Chair Kyla Epstein

Members At Large Hurriya Burney Natascha Kiernan Harvey McKinnon

Secretary Holman Wang

Tracy Rogers Amanda Ross Nisha Sikka Shannon Taylor Terry Whitehead

Staff & Collaborators Artistic Director Leslie Hurtig Development Director Andrew Forshner Marketing Director Zoe Grams, ZGÂ Stories Senior Artistic Associate Clea Young Marketing & Publicity Manager Ariel Hudnall, ZG Stories

Marketing & Development Coordinator Lauren Dembicky Operations Manager Chelsee Damen Outreach Coordinator Leena Desai Volunteer Manager Kathryn Fowler Production Manager Eduardo Ottoni Festival Assistant Aditya Bhagirath Vishakha Uppoor

Festival Box Office Showpass Program Guide Advertising Trevor Battye Advertising Sales Festival Designs andÂ Program Guide Hangar 18 Design Continuum Original Silhouette Artwork Carter Hales Design Lab Program Guide Printing Mitchell Press

This program guide is printed on recycled paper made with 30% post-consumer materials.

C Jillian Christmas Ivan Coyote Lorna Crozier D

Wade Davis Charles Demers Natalie Diaz Farzana Doctor Emma Donoghue Roddy Doyle

E Francesca Ekwuyasi F

Katherine Fawcett Will Ferguson John Freeman Patrick Friesen

G Michelle Good Yaa Gyasi H

Steven Heighton Catherine Hernandez Thomas Homer-Dixon Helen Humphreys Aislinn Hunter

Joe Ide

J Oliver Jeffers Christy Jordan-Fenton K

Michelle Kadarusman Sheena Kamal Meiko Kawakami Jess Keating Elin Kelsey Thomas King Wesley King A.S. King Seth Klein Kevin Kwan Tanya Lloyd Kyi

Sybil Lamb Shaena Lambert Amanda Leduc Nancy Lee Attica Locke Canisia Lubrin Annabel Lyon

Amin Maalouf Margaret MacMillan Megha Majumdar Eternity Martis Janice Lynn Mather Daniel Mendelshon Valzhyna Mort Walter Mosley

N Noor Naga O Jenny Offill Kenneth Oppel P Lishai Peel Margaret Olemaun Pokiak-Fenton Q Tegan Quin Sara Quin R S

Ian Rankin David A. Robertson Marilynne Robinson Aleksandra Ross

Hermoine Tankard Jeremy Tankard Brandon Taylor Truth Is...

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson Kevin Spenst Emily St. John Mandel John Elizabeth Stintzi

W Jack Wang Kawai Strong Washburn Ian Williams Y

Charles Yu

it was never going to be okay jaye simpson

Before the Usual Time Darlene Naponse (editor)

Word Problems Ian Williams

Nightwood Editions Poetry/Prose

Latitude 46 Publishing Poetry/Indigenous

Coach House Books Poetry

Quick Bright Things Christopher Cook

I Will Be Corrupted Joseph A. Dandurand

Land-Water-Sky / Ndè-Tı-Yat’a KATŁIÀ

Playwrights Canada Press Drama

Guernica Editions Poetry/Indigenous

Fernwood Publishing Fiction

The Blue Moth of Morning P.C. Vandall

One Madder Woman Dede Crane

Hearts Amok Kevin Spenst

Porcupine’s Quill Poetry

Freehand Books Fiction

Anvil Press Poetry

Outlasting the Weather: Selected & New Poems 19942020 Patrick Friesen

Bar Mitzvah Boy Mark Leiren-Young

Reaching Mithymna: Among the Volunteers and Refugees on Lesvos Steven Heighton

Anvil Press Poetry

Playwrights Canada Press Drama

Biblioasis Memoir

THOUGHT-PROVOKING READS FROM THE PUBLISHERS OF THE LITERARY PRESS GROUP

AVAILABLE ON ALL LIT UP alllitup.ca

E V E N TS

SATURDAY 12 SEPTEMBER • 2 PM • LIVE ON ZOOM

The Summer Book Club featuring Roddy Doyle

VIDEO

RODDY DOYLE was born in Dublin in 1958. He is the author of ten acclaimed novels, including The Commitments, The Van (a finalist for the Booker Prize), Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha (winner of the Booker Prize), A Star Called Henry and, most recently, Love. Doyle has also written several collections of stories and works for children and young adults including the Rover novels. (IRELAND)

In this special member-exclusive book club event, Booker Prize-winning author and beloved novelist Roddy Doyle shares insights and answers questions on his newest, highly-anticipated release, Love. One of this summer’s must reads, ticketbuying members will receive a copy of the book with admission, and gain access to an intimate, virtual Q&A session Saturday, September 12 at 2 pm PT. Known for his powerful representations of fraught social and historical issues in Ireland, Doyle’s writing also carries with it rich humour and deeply affectionate portrayals of Dublin’s working class. Considered by many to be the father of the modern Irish novel, Doyle’s Love offers a vibrant and moving addition to the canon.

Hosted by Bill Richardson.

WHA T’S O N

TUESDAY 22 SEPTEMBER • 6 PM • LIVE ON ZOOM

Setting The Stage: Bestsellers to Kick off the Fest Authors: Megha Majumdar, Emily St. John Mandel, Brandon Taylor

Delve into the minds and motivations of three of the biggest literary names this year with these one-to-one conversations. Megha Majumdar’s A Burning, already a Today Show pick and an instant NYT bestseller has received accolades everywhere from the Wall Street Journal to Vogue. Majumdar has been compared to Tommy Orange, Yaa Gyasi and Jhumpa Lahiri for her electrifying debut about three interwoven characters looking to rise above their circumstances. Emily St. John Mandel transfixed millions of readers with Station Eleven before repeating her success with The Glass Hotel: a story of money, beauty and white collar crime. Booker Prize longlisted Brandon Taylor is a New Yorker favourite, whose debut novel Real Life was one of the most anticipated titles of 2020, described as a novel of startling intimacy, violence and mercy. You don’t want to miss this.

Moderated by Artistic Director Leslie Hurtig.

VIDEO

MEGHA MAJUMDAR is Associate Editor at Catapult in New York City, where she works on both books and the magazine. Her debut novel, A Burning, was an instant NYT bestseller. She grew up in India, and studied anthropology at Johns Hopkins and Harvard. She lives in Brooklyn, NY. (UNITED STATES/INDIA)

EMILY ST. JOHN MANDEL’S fifth novel, The Glass Hotel, was recently published in Canada, the US, and the UK. Her previous novels include Station Eleven, which was a finalist for a National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award, and won the 2015 Arthur C. Clarke Award among other honours, and has been translated into 33 languages. She lives in New York City with her husband and daughter. (BRITISH COLUMBIA/UNITED STATES)

BRANDON TAYLOR is the senior editor of Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading and a staff writer at LitHub. His writing has earned him fellowships from Lambda Literary Foundation, Kimbilio Fiction, and the Tin House Summer Writers Workshop. He holds graduate degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Iowa, where he was an Iowa Arts Fellow at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in fiction. His debut novel, Real Life, is longlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize. (UNITED STATES)

WHA T’S O N

TUESDAY 29 SEPTEMBER • 7:30 PM • PRE-RECORDED

VIDEO

War:

Margaret MacMillan in Conversation with Kathryn Gretsinger

Is peace an aberration? As former president of the World Bank, Robert B. Zoellick, explained, “only a historian with… comprehensive knowledge, command of sources, clarity of thought, and artful writing could succeed so brilliantly with one volume on this sweeping topic.” That historian is bestselling author, award-winning writer and exceptional researcher Margaret MacMillan, who brings modern history to millions of readers with clarity and insight. Her latest work, War, looks at the ways in which war has influenced human society and how, in turn, changes in political organization, technology, or ideologies have affected how and why we fight. Speaking with UBC Professor of Journalism, Kathryn Gretsinger, MacMillan delves into some of the most essential questions about the nature of conflict. When did war first start? Does human nature doom us to fight one another? Why are warriors almost always men? Is war ever within our control? Tune into an event with one of the greatest minds of our generation.

MARGARET MacMILLAN is a historian, bestselling author, award-winning writer and exceptional researcher who brings modern history to millions of readers with clarity and insight. Her books include Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World, which won the Samuel Johnson Prize, the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize, and the Duff Cooper Prize and was a New York Times Editors’ Choice, and The War That Ended Peace. (ONTARIO/UNITED KINGDOM)

WHA T’S O N

TUESDAY 6 OCTOBER • 6 PM • LIVE ON ZOOM

VIDEO

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson in Conversation with Dionne Brand “Noopiming is a novel that is as philosophically generative as it is stylistically original,” explained award-winning poet, thinker and Theory author, Dionne Brand. Who better than Brand, then, to interview the creator of this anticipated new work, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson? A renowned Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg scholar, writer and artist, she has been lauded by many as one of the most compelling writers of her generation, as demonstrated by Islands of Decolonial Love, This Accident of Being Lost, Dancing on Our Turtle’s Back and As We Have Always Done. Now, in Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies, Betasamosake Simpson offers a book of wit, power, generosity and fierce insight or, as her publisher explains, “an act of decolonization, degentrification, and willful resistance to the perpetuation and dissemination of centuries-old colonial mythmaking.” These two exceptional minds speak to just that during a conversation bound to elevate our intellects and our spirits.

This event is presented in partnership with UBC Library.

LEANNE BETASAMOSAKE SIMPSON is a Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg writer, scholar, and musician, and a member of Alderville First Nation. She is the author of five previous books, including This Accident of Being Lost, which, among many other honours, was longlisted for CBC Canada Reads and was named a best book of the year by the Globe and Mail, National Post, and Quill & Quire. She has released two albums, including f(l)ight, which is a companion piece to This Accident of Being Lost (ONTARIO)

WHAT’S O N

TUESDAY 13 OCTOBER • 7:30 PM • PRE-RECORDED

PODCAST

Ayad Akhtar in Conversation with Eleanor Wachtel “The weight of politics in our country had coalesced and summoned a response out of me,” said Ayad Akhtar, the Pulitzer Prize-winning, Pakistani American novelist, playwright and screenwriter explained of his latest work, Homeland Elegies. Is it, he wondered, possible to write a letter to America in such a time—a letter to all Americans? Judging by the acclaim for this title, the answer is Yes. The story of the son of an immigrant father who searches for belonging in post-Trump America has been called “a revelation,” “profound and provocative” and “An unflinchingly honest self-portrait by a brilliant Muslim-American writer,” and the list continues. CBC Writers and Company host, Eleanor Wachtel, speaks to Akhtar about the unflinching honesty in this partly autobiographical work; the “casino” that is American life; and the consequences of everyone becoming a storyteller in the era of social media.

AYAD AKHTAR is a novelist and playwright whose work has been published and performed in over two dozen languages. He is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Akhtar is the author of American Dervish, named a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2012, as well as the forthcoming novel, Homeland Elegies. (UNITED STATES)

WHA T’S O N

MONDAY 19 OCTOBER • RELEASES AT 9AM • AVAILABLE FOR VIEWING ON THE VWF YOUTUBE CHANNEL

YOUTH & FAMILY! What We’ll Build: A Morning with Oliver Jeffers Oliver Jeffers is an author and artist who builds worlds we want to be a part of. His books— including Lost and Found, Up and Down and The Fate of Fausto—have been translated into over 45 languages and sold over 12 million copies worldwide. His original artwork has been exhibited at such institutions as the Brooklyn Museum in New York, the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, the National Portrait Gallery in London, and the Palais Auersperg in Vienna. In this riveting presentation, Jeffers shares his thoughts on storytelling, picture making, and navigating the world around us. He’ll share with audience members a brief history of his fine art practice and series, picture books, his social commentary, and how each practice cross-references and influences one another. This event with one of the most notable artists in publishing transcends genre and age. Come one, come all! OLIVER JEFFERS is a visual artist and author working in painting, bookmaking, illustration, collage, performance and sculpture. His critically acclaimed picture books have been translated into over forty-five languages, and sold over 12 million copies worldwide. Jeffers has been the recipient of numerous awards, including a New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Books Award, Bologna Rigazzi Award, an Irish Book Award and a United Kingdom Literary Association Award. His seventeenth book as author and illustrator was released in September 2019. (UNITED STATES/NORTHERN IRELAND)

Presented in collaboration with Arts Umbrella. YOUTH

VIDEO

WHA T’S O N

MONDAY 19 OCTOBER • 11 AM • LIVE ON YOUTUBE

YOUTH! This Is Your Brain on Stereotypes A Morning with Tanya Lloyd Kyi

YOUTH

VIDEO

FESTIVAL PASS

Talking to kids about the importance of fairness and equality is essential to their growth—something underscored by the rapid calls for ending injustice which have ignited worldwide. Award-winning author and Festival favourite Tanya Lloyd Kyi is ideally placed to guide students through the complex, often turbulent, world of assumptions and judgements. This is Your Brain on Stereotypes is a comprehensive introduction to the science behind stereotypes that will help young people make sense of why we classify people, and how we can change our thinking. It covers the history of identifying stereotypes, secret biases in our brains, and how stereotypes affect our sense of self. Most importantly, it covers current research into how science can help us overcome our biases, leading to a fairer classroom, community and society. Kyi is warm and witty and a seasoned classroom presenter. She’ll help students truly engage with this important topic.

TANYA LLOYD KYI writes both fiction and nonfiction on topics related to science, pop culture, social history—or a combination of the three. Her recent books include Under Pressure, Me & Banksy, Mya’s Strategy to Save the World and This is Your Brain on Stereotypes. Tanya lives in Vancouver, BC, with her family.

Proudly supporting writers and their communities of readers since 1963.

(BRITISH COLUMBIA)

bookwarehouse.ca

WHA T’S O N

MONDAY 19 OCTOBER • 2 PM • LIVE ON YOUTUBE

YOUTH! Hope Matters An Afternoon with Elin Kelsey

YOUTH

VIDEO

FESTIVAL PASS

It’s a common theme to this year’s programming: hope. In unprecedented times we collectively understand the need for courage and the possibility of a bright future. Award-winning author, scholar and educator Elin Kelsey understands this like few others. Hope Matters: Why Changing the Way We Think is Critical to Solving the Environmental Crisis reveals the collateral damage of despair, why climate anxiety is so interconnected to hyper-consumerism and how the catastrophic environmental news that dominates the media is only part of the story. In this uplifting, science-driven afternoon, Kelsey shares the counterpoint: reasons for hope. She explains how we can build on positive trends in conservation and species resilience, harnessing our emotions about the changing environment into effective personal and political action. In times of rapid change and uncertainty, this is a conversation for us all.

ELIN KELSEY, PhD, is a scholar and educator, and an award-winning author of books for children and adults. Passionate about bringing evidence-based hope and multi-species resilience to the public, she is a popular keynote speaker and media commentator. She co-created #OceanOptimism, a social media campaign to crowd-source and share marine conservation successes which has reached more than 90 million shares since it launched in 2014. (BRITISH COLUMBIA)

Where culture, marketing, design, editorial, and technology meet. SFU’s Master of Publishing program prepares graduates with the practical and conceptual tools they need to contribute to the creative economy and help shape the fast-changing world of publishing.

PUBLISHING PROGRAM

Apply now! Application deadline February 1, 2021. For more information: publishing.sfu.ca

WHA T’S O N

MONDAY 19 OCTOBER • 6 PM • LIVE ON ZOOM

Writing is What I Do Walter Mosley in Conversation with Jael Richardson

LIVE CAPTIONS

VIDEO

FESTIVAL PASS

Walter Mosley’s work includes 43 critically acclaimed books, translated into 23 languages, and countless essays in prestigious magazines, not to mention influence over some of the biggest shows on our screens. One of the most celebrated writers in America today, he has been described as both “a writer whose work transcends category” (Time) and “one of the most humane, insightful, powerful prose stylists working in any genre. He’s also one of the most radical.” (Austin Chronicle). He speaks with Festival of Literary Diversity Director, Jael Richardson, about The Awkward Black Man: a new release of 17 of Mosley’s most accomplished short stories, in which he overturns often-made stereotypes of black male characters. In prose and conversation, this incredible artist paints a subtle, powerful portrait of the complexity of humankind. This is an opportunity to hear from one of the finest writers of our generation speaking to a leading voice in Canadian publishing today. WALTER MOSLEY is the author of more than 50 critically acclaimed books, including the major bestselling mystery series featuring Easy Rawlins. His work includes literary fiction, science fiction, political monographs and a young adult novel. In 2013, he was inducted into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame, and he is the winner of numerous awards, including the Mystery Writers of America’s Grand Master Award, a Grammy, PEN America’s Lifetime Achievement Award. (UNITED STATES)

ng achie ti o m ro p d n a g s okonn Honourin nYdukporon m i t a s!hievem l ec u riza t Pg u Y kn a ti o d r o o n B a g n ia b o m C sh Colu finnadliYstsukoofnthHeo2n0o20uBriCnganad ting achievement mmunity in Briti

ea thia to b d promo n a he book co nity in British Colum g n ri u o n o promoting H d n n a o k g u u n Y m ri d u m n o o a n c o k ia H o bo tish Columb tish Columbia and Yukon ukon Honouring and pro ri B in y it n u m m and Y ok co y in Bri ia it b n u m lu m o m C o h c s nouring and u k ti o nts of the bo f the book community in British Columbia and Yukon Hod Yukon Hono n ri o a B ts ia in n b y e m it m n lu e u o v C hie book comm ok community in British h Columbia and Yukon e th f o ts n e m e hiev the bo f o ts n unity in Britis ity in British Columbia e m m e m v o c ie h k c o a o g b n e omoti ments of th ents of the book commun community in British e v ie h c a g n ti o d prom g achievem achievements of thengbaonodkpubth gok community n ti ino o sehb li m ro p d n a ti ents of rim ng promotingagcre we at v onouring promoti ukon! d ie n h a g n d g n ri n a u ti g om BC and Y o o n fr n ti m o ra H b ro n p le e o d C k n u nd Y Honouring a n o k u Y d n a ia olumb

WHA T’S O N

MONDAY 19 OCTOBER • 8 PM • LIVE ON ZOOM

Care Of A Keynote with Guest Curator Ivan Coyote

LIVE CAPTIONS GUEST CURATOR

VIDEO

FESTIVAL PASS

In the early days of the coronavirus lockdown, like every artist and creator, writer and storyteller Ivan Coyote was faced with a calendar full of cancelled shows and a heart full of questions that all rhymed with “What now?” To keep busy while figuring out what to write about next, Coyote began to answer the backlog of mail and correspondence that had come in while they were on the pre-pandemic road: emails, letters, direct messages on social media, soggy handwritten notes found tucked under the windshield wiper of their car after a gig, all of it. Coyote has collected selections from some of the most moving parts of these missives and crafted them into a giant love letter to human connection and the power of truly listening to each other. We are delighted to welcome this award-winning author and performer to our virtual stage to experience their storytelling in both first-person and curatorial form. IVAN COYOTE is the author, co-author or co-editor of twelve books, including Tomboy Survival Guide, which was shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Nonfiction Prize and an American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book, and longlisted for Canada Reads in 2018. They are also the creator of four short films, three albums that combine storytelling with music, and six full-length theatre productions. Ivan is a seasoned stage performer and an audience favourite at storytelling, literary, film, and folk music festivals. Ivan was recently named the Alice Munro Chair in Creativity at the University of Western Ontario. Their latest book, Rebent Sinner, was published by Arsenal Pulp Press in fall 2019. (BRITISH COLUMBIA/ONTARIO)

Presented in partnership with Kidsbooks.

Our Students Make Our Name

WRITING

BA, BFA, MFA Programs in Fiction, Poetry, Screenwriting, Playwriting & Creative Nonfiction

“I wouldn’t be the writer or human being that I am today had it not been for UVic. I’m so grateful for the mentorship, the friendships and the guidance I received while there.” — Richard Van Camp, Dogrib Tłı̨chǫ writer & BFA

We proudly celebrate UVic’s Fine Arts Distinguished Alumni Award recipient for 2020, Richard Van Camp.

Apply by Dec. 1 – Master’s program Jan. 31 – Bachelor’s program

writing.uvic.ca

WHA T’S O N

TUESDAY 20 OCTOBER • 11 AM • LIVE ON YOUTUBE

YOUTH! Fatty Legs: On Courage and Bravery Authors: Margaret Olemaun Pokiak-Fenton, Christy Jordan-Fenton YOUTH

VIDEO

FESTIVAL PASS

A beloved story of resilience and a perennial bestseller, Margaret Olemaun PokiakFenton’s memoir Fatty Legs has remained a pivotal text on the abuses and injustices of residential school systems in Canada. In a 10th anniversary edition, PokiakFenton’s inspiring first-person account of a plucky Inuvialuit girl’s determination to confront her tormentor has been re-issued with reflections on the book’s significant impact, as well as new, illuminating stories from Christy Jordan-Fenton, a key player in helping translate these stories to the page. In this commemorative and celebrative event, young readers can experience this British Columbia Library Association favourite—and learn the value of standing up for themselves, and others, in the face of prejudice. Warm, vulnerable, and an important pair of voices in respecting protocols for survivors, Margaret Olemaun Pokiak-Fenton and Christy Jordan-Fenton will provide a welcoming, powerful experience for students, young readers and fans of the original edition alike.

9TH ANNUAL

BETWEEN THE PAGES A virtual evening with the 2020 Scotiabank Giller Prize Finalists. Hosted By Jael Richardson Streaming Live Fall 2020 For more information scotiabankgillerprize.ca

MARGARET OLEMAUN POKIAK-FENTON is best known as the indomitable subject of four award winning children’s books about her time at residential school in the 1940s. She is very active, speaking across Canada alongside her daughter-inlaw Christy Jordan-Fenton, sharing stories of resilience and the path to reclaiming her Inuvialuit cultural identity after residential school. She is a traditional language keeper, and is well known for her beadwork, embroidery, and bannock. (BRITISH COLUMBIA)

CHRISTY JORDAN-FENTON has been an infantry soldier, a bareback bronc rider, a survival instructor and a wild pig farmer, among other things, and has lived in Australia, South Africa and Vermont. Together with her mother-in-law, Margaret Olemaun Pokiak-Fenton, she speaks with over 100 audiences a year around the world about the injustice of residential school systems in Canada and PokiakFenton’s determination as a young Inuvialuit girl. (BRITISH COLUMBIA)

WHA T’S O N

TU ESDAY 20 OCTOBER • 2 PM • LIVE ON YOUTUBE

YOUTH! The Barren Grounds An Afternoon with David A. Robertson

YOUTH

VIDEO

FESTIVAL PASS

Understanding the importance of culture and tradition comes with age, yet children are acutely aware of community and the need to belong. Bestselling author David A. Robertson has a knack for exploring these poignant, important themes in our lives. He visits the Festival with the first instalment of a new, middle grade series. The Misewa Saga follows two Indigenous children, Morgan and Eli, forced into foster care and feeling disconnected—until they find a portal to a new reality and must embark on an important mission to save their newfound community, Misewa. The novel launches in tandem with Robertson’s remarkable memoir, Black Water, which shares his story as an Indigenous son who grew up away from his culture—and how a visit to his family’s trapline heals old wounds and creates a new future. A returning favourite, Robertson captivates minds of every age with his storytelling prowess. DAVID A. ROBERTSON is the author of numerous books for young readers including When We Were Alone, which won the 2017 Governor General’s Literary Award. Strangers, the first book in his Reckoner trilogy, a young adult supernatural mystery, won the 2018 Michael Van Rooy Award for Genre Fiction at the Manitoba Book Awards. A sought-after speaker and educator, he is a member of the Norway House Cree Nation and currently lives in Winnipeg, MB. (MANITOBA)

TU ESDAY 20 OCTOBER • 6 PM • LIVE ON ZOOM

Wit For The End of Times Jenny Offill in Conversation with Marsha Lederman Jenny Offill’s Weather is a novel both of and for our times: a soaring, intricate and often hilarious exploration of how we reckon with both daily life and impending global crisis. Told through our female narrator—a mother, a sister, a citizen—the book asks, and answers, questions many of us are grappling with each day as we meet the “onslaught” of modern activities while envisioning what the future may hold, all the more exacerbated in recent months. Offill was already celebrated as offering a new kind of writing when she published Dept. of Speculation in 2014, hailed as “not so much a novel as the X-ray of one.” Join us for a riveting conversation with a writer who has the ability to act as a mirror through which we can explore—and face—our deepest selves. JENNY OFFILL is the author of the best seller Dept. of Speculation—one of the New York Times Book Review’s Ten Best Books of the Year, a Pen/Faulkner finalist and also selected as a best book of the year by The New Yorker, The Boston Globe, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Vogue, and Buzzfeed. Her latest novel, Weather, is a shimmering tour de force about a family and a nation in crisis. (UNITED STATES)

LIVE CAPTIONS

VIDEO

FESTIVAL PASS

WHA T’S O N

TUESDAY 20 OCTOBER • 7:30 PM • LIVE ON ZOOM

A Recipe for Anything Authors: Cicely Belle Blain, andrea bennett, Jillian Christmas, Lorna Crozier Anything can happen during a pandemic lockdown. In kitchens there are unprecedented bouts of baking. On computer screens there are virtual concerts and online choir practices. On balconies and front porches pots are banged, and songs are sung across alleys and courtyards to honour and connect with each other. In the streets we gather worldwide for demonstrations that shine the spotlight on systemic racism, and reveal the potential for revolution in all of our hearts. How do we navigate through all of this, and greet an unknowable future? Join this array of exceptional writers and thinkers—Jillian Christmas, Cicely Belle Blain, andrea bennett and Lorna Crozier—as they bring us some of their very own recipes, blueprints, or to-do lists for these times.

Moderated by our 2020 Guest Curator, Ivan Coyote. This event is presented in partnership with the Read Local BC campaign. #BCBooks

LIVE CAPTIONS GUEST CURATOR

VIDEO

FESTIVAL PASS

ANDREA BENNETT is a National Magazine Award-winning writer and editor and the author of one book of poetry, Canoodlers, and two travel guides, Montreal and Quebec City. Like a Boy but Not a Boy is bennett’s first book of essays. (BRITISH COLUMBIA)

Presented thanks to the support of RBC.

CICELY BELLE BLAIN is a Black/mixed, queer femme from London now living on the lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. They are noted for co-founding Black Lives Matter Vancouver and subsequently being listed as one of BCBusiness magazine’s 30 under 30. They are now the CEO of Cicely Blain Consulting, a social justice-informed diversity and inclusion consulting company with over 100 clients across North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. (BRITISH COLUMBIA/UNITED KINGDOM)

JILLIAN CHRISTMAS is is a queer, afro-caribbean writer living on the unceded territories of the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh, and Musqueam people (Vancouver, BC), where she works as Speaker Coordinator at Cicely Blain Consulting, and served for six years as artistic director of Verses Festival of Words. She has won numerous Grand Poetry Slam Championship titles and represented both Toronto and Vancouver at eleven national poetry events, notably breaking ground as the first Canadian to perform on the final stage of the Women of the World Poetry Slam. (BRITISH COLUMBIA)

LORNA CROZIER is the author of numerous books of poetry, including God of Shadows, The Wrong Cat, Small Mechanics and the Governor General’s Literary Award winning Inventing the Hawk. She has received the Canadian Authors Association Award, three Pat Lowther Memorial Awards and the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. She is an Officer of the Order of Canada and has been acknowledged for her contributions to Canadian literature, her teaching and her mentoring with five honourary doctorates. (BRITISH COLUMBIA)

WHA T’S O N

WEDNESDAY 21 OCTOBER • 11 AM • LIVE ON YOUTUBE

YOUTH! Hatch & Bloom A Morning with Kenneth Oppel

YOUTH

VIDEO

FESTIVAL PASS

Join beloved Governor General’s Literary Award-winning author Kenneth Oppel as he discusses the first and second books in his critically-acclaimed trilogy about deadly plants, bizarre pathogens and a scrappy crew of teens working to unravel the mystery of their own immunity. Oppel is a favourite among young readers and an exceptional presenter. Audiences can look forward to an engaging and energetic start to their day—complete with themes of how the next generation can take the planet’s future into their own hands and prevent environmental calamity. An author who has sold millions of copies worldwide and inspired generations of readers, Oppel is a celebrated and immersive storyteller with a loyal following of teachers, librarians, and students alike. KENNETH OPPEL is the author of numerous books for young readers. His award-winning Silverwing trilogy has sold over a million copies worldwide and was adapted into an animated TV series and stage play. Airborn won the Governor General’s Literary Award and also won the Michael L. Printz Honor Book Award. His latest trilogy includes Bloom and Hatch. A two-time nominee for the Hans Christian Andersen Award, he lives in Toronto, ON, with his wife and three children. (ONTARIO)

The best way to support a community is to be a part of it. At the heart of every community, you’ll find organizations fuelled by committed people who are passionate about building a better future for us all. We are inspired by our friends at the Vancouver Writers Fest, who continue to share the importance of storytelling, community and listening to new voices and perspectives.

® / ™ Trademark(s) of Royal Bank of Canada . VPS107494

90780 (08/2020)

WHA T’S O N

WEDNESDAY 21 OCTOBER • 2 PM • LIVE ON YOUTUBE

YOUTH! I Didn’t Do What You Told Me Authors: A.S. King, Sybil Lamb, David A. Robertson The best books for young adults contain the very same elements that any great book does: innovation, careful attention to craft, and, of course, a really great story at the heart of it all. Join three fantastic writers and creators as they discuss their work that does all of this, and so much more. A.S. King, David. A Robertson and Sybil Lamb also use story to challenge us to reinvent the template of a novel, to investigate and interrogate our concepts of gender, and to decolonize our minds. Tanya Boteju guides a discussion about how each of these authors didn’t do what others told them to—in craft, in life, in selfperception—during an unexpected and inspiring event that celebrates heart as much as it does talent.

This event is moderated by Tanya Boteju.

GUEST CURATOR

YOUTH

VIDEO

FESTIVAL PASS

A.S. KING is the award-winning author of many acclaimed books for young readers. Her novel, Dig, won the 2020 Michael L. Printz Award and Ask The Passengers won the 2013 Los Angeles Times Book Prize. The New York Times called her “one of the best YA writers working today.” King lives with her family in Pennsylvania, where she returned after living on a farm and teaching adult literacy in Ireland for more than a decade. (UNITED STATES)

SYBIL LAMB is the author of the illustrated YA novel The Girl Who Was Convinced Beyond All Reason that She Could Fly. Her writing and art have appeared in books, magazines, comix, alleys and tattoos. Her novel I’ve Got a Time Bomb was published by Topside Press. Her underground comic The Lost Little Girl Show 19999 has been a hit with subterranean bunker-dwellers since the era of Livejournal. (ONTARIO/UNITED STATES)

DAVID A. ROBERTSON is the author of numerous books for young readers including When We Were Alone, which won the 2017 Governor General’s Literary Award. Strangers, the first book in his Reckoner trilogy, a young adult supernatural mystery, won the 2018 Michael Van Rooy Award for Genre Fiction at the Manitoba Book Awards. A sought-after speaker and educator, he is a member of the Norway House Cree Nation and currently lives in Winnipeg, MB. (MANITOBA)

Bringing people together one story at a time Now more than ever, sharing the human experience and connecting through literature is essential to our well-being, and the Vancouver Writers Fest is more essential than ever. As a proud partner of the Vancouver Writers Fest for 30+ years, the Raincoast Distribution Group is pleased to help support bringing writers and readers together to share meaningful conversations and ideas while continuing to strengthen the Canadian literary community.

WHAT’S O N

WEDNESDAY 21 OCTOBER • 6 PM • LIVE ON ZOOM

The Bright Side: On Writing in America Today Authors: Megha Majumdar, Kawai Strong Washburn, Charles Yu The list of awards and accolades for these three American writers combined would continue long past this page, so we’ll just say that these incredibly gifted writers are at the top of their game, their works each addressing timeless and timely themes of individuality, freedom, justice, equality. Megha Majumdar’s electrifying debut, A Burning, follows three characters seeking to rise—to the middle class, to political power, to fame in the movies. Kawai Strong Washburn’s groundbreaking novel folds the legends of Hawai’ian gods into an engrossing family saga. Charles Yu’s fiction can be discovered in episodes of Westworld or one of his two lauded novels. His most recent, Interior Chinatown, is an intimate story about race, pop culture, and escaping stereotypes. These three sharp minds talk about the bright side of living in America right now—and writing it, too.

Moderated by Jen Sookfong Lee. Presented in partnership with Vancouver Film School.

LIVE CAPTIONS

VIDEO

FESTIVAL PASS

KAWAI STRONG WASHBURN was born and raised on the Hamakua coast of the Big Island of Hawai’i. His work has appeared in The Best American Nonrequired Reading, McSweeney’s, and Electric Literature’s “Recommended Reading,” among other outlets. He was a 2015 Tin House Summer Scholar and a 2015 Bread Loaf work-study scholar. Today, he lives with his wife and daughters in Minneapolis. Sharks in the Time of Saviors is his first novel. (UNITED STATES)

CHARLES YU is the author of three books, including the novel How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, which was a New York Times Notable Book and named one of the best books of the year by Time magazine. He received the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 Award and was nominated for two WGA awards for his work on the HBO series Westworld. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in a number of publications including The New Yorker and The Wall Street Journall. (UNITED STATES)

WHA T’S O N

WEDNESDAY 21 OCTOBER • 8 PM • LIVE ON ZOOM

Magdalena

LIVE CAPTIONS

VIDEO

FESTIVAL PASS

Wade Davis in Conversation with Ian Gill

Author and renowned National Geographic explorer Wade Davis has fascinated people around the world by capturing the essence of places; awakening in his readers a longing for worlds thousands of miles away. What happens when the explorer himself falls for one magnificent place in particular? The answer is Magdalena: a tribute and love letter to Colombia, the first country that gave Davis a license to be free. He shares intimate stories of travelling the mighty Magdalena river: a corridor of commerce and fountain of culture for Colombian music, literature, poetry and prayer. His long-time friend and award-winning environmental writer, Ian Gill, asks him about this majestic place and corresponding book. Listen in as they discuss the experiences that captured Davis’ heart and share tales of a country often shrouded in mystery. Don’t miss this intimate and expansive discussion.

WADE DAVIS is the author of twenty books, including One River, The Wayfinders and Into the Silence, which won the 2012 Samuel Johnson prize, the top award for literary nonfiction in the English language. Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society from 1999 to 2013, he is currently Professor of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. In 2016, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada. (BRITISH COLUMBIA)

WHA T’S O N

THURSDAY 22 OCTOBER • 11 AM • LIVE ON YOUTUBE

YOUTH! Yorick and Bones A Morning with Jeremy and Hermione Tankard

YOUTH

Featuring a highly unlikely friendship and dialogue written completely in Shakespearean iambic pentameter, celebrated local authors and father-daughter pair Jeremy and Hermione Tankard’s Yorick and Bones is a delightful, quirky graphic novel families will enjoy over and over. After being dug up by a hungry dog named Bones, Yorick the skeleton is thrust into a modern world of strange realities and an even odder friendship with a puppy who keeps trying to eat him. Will he Presented in collaboration with ever find a true friend? Will Bones ever find a treat that doesn’t the Vancouver International Children’s Festival. bite back? In this special youth event, the Tankards share the rib-tickling, heartfelt joy of Yorick and Bones, certain to delight and entertain young minds and inspire new writers to flex their creative muscles.

VIDEO

HERMIONE TANKARD discovered her love of Shakespeare in fourth grade when she asked her father to buy her a copy of Romeo and Juliet. She read it to herself as a bedtime story for the next two weeks. Little did she know it would one day lead to a job writing new Shakespearean adventures with her dad. When not helping her dad with their book Yorick and Bones, she enjoys acting and singing onstage. decade. (BRITISH COLUMBIA)

JEREMY TANKARD is the bestselling author and illustrator of the Grumpy Bird picture book series. He has always loved comics and planned to make a career of them when he was about nine years old. He discovered the joys of Shakespeare in high school when his drama teacher cast him in a production of The Tempest. He has loved all things Shakespeare ever since. His book Yorick and Bones sees these two interests collide in the most unexpected ways. (BRITISH COLUMBIA)

Join an intensive, diverse & collaborative environment for crafting literary excellence. UBC’s creative writing program is Canada’s oldest and most respected. We offer an unprecedented 12 genres of study as well as multiple funding and enrichment opportunities. Study at the BA Minor, BFA or MFA level.

Fiction • Poetry • Nonfiction • Screenwriting TV Writing • Children & Young Adult Playwriting • Graphic Novel • Podcasting Translation • Song Lyrics • New Media

creativewriting.ubc.ca

• • • • • • •

Work with award-winning faculty. Entrance and continuing scholarships. Flexible, part-time low residency MFA. TA in undergraduate writing courses.* Teach in local high schools.* Edit and manage one of Canada’s oldest literary magazines, PRISM international.* Participate in the Brave New Play Rites theatre festival.

*Note: some opportunities are MFA-only

FESTIVAL PASS

WHA T’S O N

TH URSDAY 22 OCTOBER • 2 PM • LIVE ON YOUTUBE

YOUTH! Word!

YOUTH

VIDEO

FESTIVAL PASS

Authors: Lishai Peel, Truth Is ... , Nasra Adem Every year we share in this program guide that Word! is one of our first events to sell out. And every year it does—in our biggest theatre, with at least two versions of the event running. Why? Likely it’s the magnetic energy that the artists bring to their spoken word poetry: inciting and igniting young imaginations. This year is no different thanks to our long-time Spoken Word Curator, award-winning slam poet and artist, Jillian Christmas. She performs alongside NASRA, a queer, Muslim, Oromo creator who has won—amongst other accolades—the Edmonton Mayor’s Emerging Artist award. Truth is ... is an accomplished slam poet and director of Guelph Youth Poetry Slam (Sound Off). Lishai Peel is a poet, writer and theatre workshop facilitator with a stream of credits to her name, most recently her manuscript, Motherhood & Other Mishaps. If all the world’s a stage, these poets demonstrate why.

LISHAI PEEL is a writer and educator currently based in Hamilton. For the last decade, she has designed and facilitated theatre and writing workshops in schools throughout Toronto, working extensively with The Toronto Public Library and The Toronto Public School Board. Her creative nonfiction won first place in The Malahat Review’s 2019 open season awards and her poetry came second place in The Vancouver Writers Fest Annual Contest in 2017. Her work has also been shortlisted for The Puritan Poetry Prize and Room magazine’s Creative Nonfiction and Short Forms Contest. (ONTARIO)

TRUTH IS ... A poet, a writer, a motivational speaker & an arts educator. In addition to Slam and a long list of feature performances across Canada and the U.S., Truth Is … has headlined in several conferences focused on social equity, gender equity, youth motivation and labour. She has also opened up for Canadian Hip-Hop idol K-OS & legendary activist Angela Davis. (ONTARIO)

Hosted by Jillian Christmas. NASRA ADEM is a queer, Muslim, Oromo curator/creator living in Amiskwaciwȃskahikan (Edmonton) on Treaty 6 territory. They were the Youth Poet Laureate of Edmonton from 2016 to 2017 and are currently the Director of Sister to Sister, an artistic showcase for/by femmes and women of colour. They are also the Festival Director of Black Arts Matter—Alberta’s interdisciplinary Black arts festival—and were the 2017 recipient of the Mayor’s Emerging Artist award. (ALBERTA)

WHAT’S O N

E V E N T S A T A GL A N C E

THURSDAY 22 OCTOBER • 6 PM • LIVE ON ZOOM

SATURDAY 12 SEPTEMBER P11

LIVE CAPTIONS

VIDEO

FESTIVAL PASS

Night Class: Brief Craft Lessons from UBC Creative Writing Authors: Taylor Brown-Evans, Tariq Hussain, Maureen Medved, Bronwen Tate, Timothy Taylor, John Vigna What is an MFA program really like? Back by popular demand, the UBC Creative Writing team returns for an evening of nimble, electrifying craft and rapid-fire creativity. In this interactive and unpredictable virtual workshop, participants learn key writing skills from UBC’s exceptional professors in 5 minutes or less. Try out concepts and ask questions before listening to UBC students share model work. Full of invigorating thought exercises, Night Class explores a wide array of styles and genre, from poetry songand screenwriting to comics, nonfiction and YA. Don’t miss this exciting opportunity to gain key tips and tricks and take your writing to the next level. (There might be homework!) Then, when school’s out, hang out in the virtual lounge with your questions.

This workshop is suitable for new and established authors. Presented in collaboration with UBC Creative Writing.

The Summer Book Club with Roddy Doyle 2:00pm • Live on Zoom

TUESDAY 22 SEPTEMBER P12

Setting the Stage: Bestsellers to Kick off the Fest Megha Majumdar, Emily St. John Mandel, Brandon Taylor 6:00pm • Live on Zoom

TUESDAY 29 SEPTEMBER P13

War: Margaret MacMillan in Conversation with Kathryn Gretsinger 7:30pm • Pre-Recorded

TUESDAY 6 OCTOBER P14

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson in Conversation with Dionne Brand 6:00pm • Live on Zoom

TUESDAY 13 OCTOBER P15

Ayad Akhtar in Conversation with Eleanor Wachtel 7:30pm • Pre-Recorded

MONDAY 19 OCTOBER P16 P17 P18 P19 P20

YOUTH & FAMILY! What We’ll Build: A Morning with Oliver Jeffers 9:00am • YouTube YOUTH! This Is Your Brain on Stereotypes: A Morning with Tanya Lloyd Kyi 11:00am • Live on YouTube YOUTH! Hope Matters: An Afternoon with Elin Kelsey 2:00pm • Live on YouTube Writing is What I Do: Walter Mosley in Conversation with Jael Richardson 6:00pm • Live on Zoom Care Of: A Keynote with Guest Curator Ivan Coyote 8:00pm • Live on Zoom

TUESDAY 20 OCTOBER P21 P21 P22

YOUTH! Fatty Legs: On Courage and Bravery Margaret Olemaun Pokiak-Fenton, Christy Jordan-Fenton 11:00am • Live on YouTube YOUTH! The Barren Grounds: An Afternoon with David A. Robertson 2:00pm • Live on YouTube Wit For The End of Times: Jenny Offill in Conversation with Marsha Lederman 6:00pm • Live on Zoom

E V EN TS AT A G L A N C E

P23

A Recipe for Anything Cicely Belle Blain, andrea bennett, Jillian Christmas, Lorna Crozier 7:30pm • Live on Zoom

WEDNESDAY 21 OCTOBER P24 P25 P26 P27

YOUTH! Hatch & Bloom: A Morning with Kenneth Oppel 11:00am • Live on YouTube YOUTH! I Didn’t Do What You Told Me A.S. King, Sybil Lamb, David A. Robertson 2:00pm • Live on YouTube The Bright Side: On Writing in America Today Megha Majumdar, Kawai Strong Washburn, Charles Yu 6:00pm • Live on Zoom Magdalena: Wade Davis in Conversation with Ian Gill 8:00pm • Live on Zoom

THURSDAY 22 OCTOBER P28 P29 P30 P32 P34

YOUTH! Yorick and Bones: A Morning with Jeremy and Hermione Tankard 11:00am • Live on YouTube YOUTH! Word! Lishai Peel, Truth Is ..., Nasra Adem 2:00pm • Live on YouTube Night Class: Brief Craft Lessons from UBC Creative Writing Taylor Brown-Evans, Tariq Hussain, Maureen Medved, Bronwen Tate, Timothy Taylor, John Vigna 6:00pm • Live on Zoom Poetry Bash Cicely Belle Blain, Natalie Diaz, John Freeman, Patrick Friesen, Noor Naga, Ian Williams 8:00pm • Live on Zoom What We Talk About When We Talk About Love Mieko Kawakami, Daniel Mendelsohn, Valzhyna Mort 8:00pm • Podcast

FRIDAY 23 OCTOBER P35 P36 P37 P38

Finding Community Eternity Martis, David A. Robertson 10:30am • Live on Zoom Fairytales and Legends Katherine Fawcett, Amanda Leduc, Kawai Strong Washburn 1:00pm • Live on Zoom Poets on Memoir Billy-Ray Belcourt, Lorna Crozier, Steven Heighton 3:00pm • Live on Zoom High School with Tegan and Sara 8:00pm • Live on Zoom

SATURDAY 24 OCTOBER P39 P40

Ian Rankin in Conversation with Linwood Barclay 10:30am • Live on Zoom Marilynne Robinson in Conversation with Ian Williams 2:00pm • Pre-Recorded

P41 P42

Thomas King in Conversation with Waubgeshig Rice 6:00pm • Live on Zoom The Literary Cabaret Billy-Ray Belcourt, Jillian Christmas, Charles Demers, Aislinn Hunter 8:00pm • Live on Zoom

SUNDAY 25 OCTOBER P44 P45 P46 P48 P48

The Interviews Seth Klein, Shaena Lambert, Amin Maalouf 11:00am • Live on Zoom Sex & Vanity: Kevin Kwan in Conversation with Doretta Lau 1:00pm • Live on Zoom The Afternoon Tea Caroline Adderson, Francesca Ekwuyasi, Will Ferguson, Michelle Good, Kevin Spenst, Jack Wang 3:00pm • Live on Zoom No Putting Them Down: Riveting Crime Fiction Joe Ide, Sheena Kamal, Attica Locke 5:30pm • Live on Zoom Commanding Hope: A Closing Night Address from Thomas Homer-Dixon 7:30pm • Live on Zoom

TUESDAY 27 OCTOBER P50

Emma Donoghue in Conversation with Laura Spinney 7:30pm • Pre-Recorded

SUNDAY 1 NOVEMBER P51

Emerge 2:00pm • Live on Zoom

THURSDAY 5 NOVEMBER P52

The Next Generation Farzana Doctor, Catherine Hernandez, John Elizabeth Stintzi 6:00pm • Live on Zoom

SUNDAY 15 NOVEMBER P53

The Fall Book Club with Yaa Gyasi 3:00pm • Live on Zoom

TUESDAY 17 NOVEMBER P54

The Golden Hour Helen Humphreys, Annabel Lyon 7:30pm • Pre-Recorded

TUESDAY 24 NOVEMBER P55

The Poetry Immersive Nancy Lee, Canisia Lubrin, John Elizabeth Stintzi 6:00pm • Live on Zoom

WHA T’S O N

THURSDA Y 22 OCTOBER • 8 PM • LIVE ON ZOOM

PODCAST LIVE CAPTIONS

VIDEO

FESTIVAL PASS

The Poetry Bash Authors: Cicely Belle Blain, Natalie Diaz, John Freeman, Patrick Friesen, Noor Naga, Ian Williams We say it year after year: The Poetry Bash is a long-time audience favourite for a reason. There’s a reverence in the air, and a sense of possibility met with hilarity, collective gasps and cathartic insights. Our 2020 Bash is no different thanks to a stellar lineup of poets and returning host Billeh Nickerson. If anyone can make an event jump from the screen, it’s Billeh. Spend the evening with Cicely Belle Blain—author of Burning Sugar, activist and the visionary behind Stratagem; American Book Award winner Natalie Diaz with her “anthem of desire against erasure,” Postcolonial Love Poem; Patrick Friesen, sharing tips for Outlasting the Weather in a collection from his 26 years of work; John Freeman pondering the lives of the Park (and what they say about us); Noor Naga reading from her verse-novel Washes, Prays; and Scotiabank Giller-prize winning author Ian Williams sharing his Word Problems. Whatever you’re looking for, you’re likely to find it tonight.

NATALIE DIAZ is the author of the award-winning poetry collection When My Brother Was an Aztec. She has received many honours, including a MacArthur Fellowship, a US Artists Ford Fellowship, and a Lannan Literary Fellowship. Her newest collection is Postcolonial Love Poem. She teaches at Arizona State University. (UNITED STATES)

Hosted by Billeh Nickerson. Presented in partnership with SFU’s Department of World Languages and Literature.

JOHN FEEMAN is an American writer and literary critic. The former president of the National Book Critics Circle, Freeman is the editor of Freeman’s, a literary biannual, and author of two books of nonfiction. The former editor of Granta and current executive editor at LitHub, he lives in New York, where he teaches at The New School and is Distinguished Writer-in Residence at New York University. (UNITED STATES)

WHA T’S O N

Christy JORDAN-FENTON & Margaret-Olemaun POK I A K- F EN TON Margaret-Olemaun Pokiak-Fenton shares the powerful story of her resistance and strength as a child at residential school in these awardwinning and critically acclaimed books for young readers.

PATRICK FRIESEN has published more than a dozen books of poetry, a book of essays, has written stage and radio plays, and has co-translated, with Per Brask, five books of Danish poetry, including Frayed Opus for Strings & Wind Instruments by Ulrikka Gernes, which was nominated for the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2016. (BRITISH COLUMBIA)

awards

NOOR NAGA is an Alexandrian writer who was born in Philadelphia, raised in Dubai, studied in Toronto, and now lives in Alexandria. She is the winner of the 2017 Bronwen Wallace Award, the 2019 Disquiet Fiction Prize, and the 2019 Graywolf Press Africa Prize for her book, Washes, Prays. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Granta, The Walrus, The Common, The Sultan’s Seal, POETRY and more. (EGYPT/UNITED STATES)

awards

IAN WILLIAMS is the author of five books. His novel, Reproduction, won the Scotiabank Giller Prize. His last poetry collection, Personals, was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize and the Robert Kroetsch Poetry Book Award. Not Anyone’s Anything won the Danuta Gleed Literary Award for the best first collection of short fiction in Canada. You Know Who You Are was a finalist for the ReLit Poetry Award. (BRITISH COLUMBIA)

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

WHAT’S O N

TH URSDAY 22 OCTOBER • RELEASES AT 8PM • AVAILABLE ON ALL PODCAST PLATFORMS

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love Authors: Mieko Kawakami, Daniel Mendelsohn, Valzhyna Mort Join us for a heady evening of ideas. Three Freeman’s contributors from three different genres, born on three different continents, talk about the way love makes a story, a poem, and the shape of a memoir. Mieko Kawakami is the award winning author of Breasts & Eggs, her North American debut, and is declared by Haruki Murakami as his favorite new Japanese novelist; Daniel Mendelsohn is the National Book Critics Circle Award winning author of The Lost, translator of poems of Cavafy, and his latest genre bending tale, Three Rings: A Tale of Exile, Narrative and Fate, and Valzynha Mort is a poet and translator and author of four books. Born in Belarus, she now lives in Ithaca, New York. Her latest collection is Music for the Dead and Resurrected. Join Festival favourite John Freeman as he leads a discussion on a topic we could all use a little more of in our lives: love.

Moderated by John Freeman.

PODCAST

FESTIVAL PASS

MIEKO KAWAKAMI made her literary debut as a poet in 2006. The following year, her first novella, My Ego, My Teeth, and the World, was awarded the Tsubouchi Shoyo Prize for Young Emerging Writers. Kawakami then published Breasts and Eggs in 2008, and won Japan’s most prestigious literary award, the Akutagawa Prize. In 2016, she was selected as Granta Best of Young Japanese Novelist. She was born in Osaka prefecture, Japan. (JAPAN)

DANIEL MENDELSOHN is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books, where he is the Editor at Large. His books include the international bestsellers An Odyssey: A Father, A Son, and an Epic, a PBS/New York Times Book Club Pick and a Best Book of the Year by NPR and many others and The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Prix Médicis in France. (UNITED STATES)

VALZHYNA MORT was born in Minsk, Belarus, and writes in Belarusian and English. Her new book, Music for the Dead and Resurrected, is coming out in November 2020 from Farrar, Straus and Giroux. (UNITED STATES/BELARUS)

WHA T’S O N

FRIDAY 23 OCTOBER • 10:30 AM • LIVE ON ZOOM

Finding Community Authors: Eternity Martis, David A. Robertson You’ll likely recognize Eternity Martis’s They Said This Would Be Fun: the bright cover of this powerful memoir was featured on must-read roundups for months prior to publication and is a frequent feature on bestseller lists since its release. Martis, an award-winning reporter, shares the racism she encountered as a Black student on a predominantly white campus, described as a “beautifully-written account of what it’s like to finally find your people.” Finding belonging is a common theme in Governor General’s Literary Award Winner, David A. Robertson’s, books. In his latest, a memoir, Black Water: Family, Legacy, and Blood Memory, Robertson shares the powerful story of connecting with his Indigenous roots on a trip with his Cree father to the family’s trapline. Author Rachel Giese writes: “At once intimate and expansive, this is a story of healing and home.” In conversation with Brother and I’ve Been Meaning To Tell You author, David Chariandy, they explore the importance of belonging, and finding strength amidst uncertainty and difference.

VIDEO

FESTIVAL PASS

ETERNITY MARTIS is an award-winning Toronto-based journalist and a senior editor at Xtra. She was a 2017 National Magazine Awards ﬁnalist for Best New Writer and the 2018 winner of the Canadian Online Publishing Awards for Best Investigative Article. Her work has appeared in Vice, Hufﬁngton Post, The Walrus, among others, and in academic syllabuses around the world. (ONTARIO)

Presented thanks to the support of RBC. DAVID A. ROBERTSON is the author of numerous books for young readers including When We Were Alone, which won the 2017 Governor General’s Literary Award. Strangers, the first book in his Reckoner trilogy, a young adult supernatural mystery, won the 2018 Michael Van Rooy Award for Genre Fiction at the Manitoba Book Awards. A sought-after speaker and educator, he is a member of the Norway House Cree Nation and currently lives in Winnipeg, MB. (MANITOBA)

PHOTO: ALBERT NORMANDIN

Moderated by David Chariandy.

LIVE CAPTIONS

COMMUNITY 18 MAKING WAVES Covid 19 has allowed us to focus on what's important. Community 18 is our ongoing pledge to help our community flourish. We believe that through innovative design and a collaborative process we can make things happen within our community and beyond. We're very proud to be a part of this year's Vancouver Writers Fest.

H18.COM

WHAT’S O N

FRIDAY 23 OCTOBER • 1 PM • LIVE ON ZOOM

Fairytales and Legends Authors: Katherine Fawcett, Amanda Leduc, Kawai Strong Washburn Oral and written traditions have produced some of the world’s best-known and fascinating tales, from Gilgamesh to the Trickster, Beauty and the Beast and mythologies born on the islands of Hawai’i. In an evocative and deeply subversive afternoon of mythic reimaginings and deconstructed narratives, three authors blend genre, moral dilemmas, the supernatural and, of course, happily-ever-afters. Katherine Fawcett’s Swan Suit delivers the contemporary, witty and macabre, while Amanda Leduc’s Disfigured explores disability and difference in fairytales. Kawai Strong Washburn’s Sharks in the Time of Saviors rounds out the conversation with contemporary legends of heritage and survival. Prepare to revisit humanity’s oldest and most beloved story forms—and see them reformed into meaningful messages for our modern world.

Moderated by Sirish Rao.

Presented in collaboration with Indian Summer Festival.

LIVE CAPTIONS

VIDEO

FESTIVAL PASS

KATHERINE FAWCETT is a short fiction author whose collection, The Little Washer of Sorrows, was shortlisted for the ReLit Short Fiction Award and a Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic. Her writing has also appeared in Event, Geist, FreeFall, Grain, SubTerrain and Other Voices. Originally from Calgary, AB, she now lives, writes, works and plays in Squamish as a musician, a teacher, a dedicated yogi and outdoor enthusiast. (BRITISH COLUMBIA)

AMANDA LEDUC‘s essays and stories have appeared in publications across Canada, the US, and the UK. She is the author of the novels The Miracles of Ordinary Men and the forthcoming The Centaur’s Wife. Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space is her latest work. She has cerebral palsy and lives in Hamilton, ON, where she works as the Communications Coordinator for the Festival of Literary Diversity (FOLD). (ONTARIO)

WHAT’S O N

FRIDAY 23 OCTOBER • 3 PM • LIVE ON ZOOM

Poets on Memoir Authors: Billy-Ray Belcourt, Lorna Crozier, Steven Heighton In the world of memoir, there is nothing quite like the precision, intimacy and beauty of a poet’s words. In this panel of Governor General Award winners and finalists, masters of their craft join moderator, friend of the Festival and multi-award winning author Aislinn Hunter. Billy-Ray Belcourt reminisces on his kokum and memories of his early life, as well his earliest loves, revelations and grief in A History of My Brief Body; Lorna Crozier discusses her long and devoted marriage to Patrick Lane (and their cats) in Through the Garden; Steven Heighton recounts his time volunteering on the frontlines of the Syrian refugee crisis in Reaching Mithymna. A trifecta of exceptional memoirs bound by the skill of the poets that penned them, this is sure to be a life and love-affirming event for audiences.meaningful messages for our modern world.

Moderated by Aislinn Hunter. This event is presented in partnership with KPU Creative Writing and organized in collaboration with the Canada Council for the Arts to celebrate the finalists and winners of the Governor General’s Literary Awards.

LIVE CAPTIONS

VIDEO

FESTIVAL PASS

BILLY-RAY BELCOURT is a poet, author, and scholar from the Driftpile Cree Nation. He won the 2018 Griffin Poetry Prize for his debut collection, This Wound Is a World, which was also a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award. Belcourt is a recipient of the prestigious Rhodes scholarship and an Indspire Award, the highest honour the Indigenous community bestows on its leaders. (BRITISH COLUMBIA/ALBERTA)

STEVEN HEIGHTON‘s written works include The Waking Comes Late, which received the 2016 Governor General’s Award for Poetry. His work has received four gold National Magazine Awards and has appeared in Granta, London Review of Books, Best American Poetry, and five editions of Best Canadian Stories. Heighton is also a translator, an occasional teacher, and a reviewer for the New York Times Book Review. (ONTARIO)

WHAT’S O N

FRIDAY 23 OCTOBER • 8 PM • LIVE ON ZOOM

High School with Tegan and Sara

LIVE CAPTIONS GUEST CURATOR

VIDEO

FESTIVAL PASS

TEGAN QUIN SARA QUIN During the course of their twenty-year career, Tegan and Sara Quin have sold well over one million records and released eight studio albums. They have received three Juno Awards, a Grammy nomination, a Governor General’s Performing Arts Award, and the 2018 New York Civil Liberties Union Award. They have performed on some of the world’s biggest stages, from Coachella to the Academy Awards. Outspoken advocates for equality, in 2016 Tegan and Sara created the Tegan and Sara Foundation, which fights for health, economic justice, and representation for LGBTQ girls and women. Their memoir, High School, was published in 2019. The sisters currently split their time between Vancouver, BC and Los Angeles, CA. (BRITISH COLUMBIA/UNITED STATES)

Arguably two of the coolest Canadians, Tegan and Sara Quin have provided a soundtrack for nights out, loves found and loves lost since the mid-90s. In this intimate conversation, the identical twins, global LGBTQ icons and award-winning rock stars talk High School, sharing their unique coming-of-age story during the height of grunge and rave culture. While grappling with their identity and sexuality, often alone, they also faced academic meltdown, their parents’ divorce, and the looming pressure of what might come after high school. Their memoir is a raw account of the drugs, alcohol, love, music, and friendship they explored in their formative years. Transcendent—just like their music—their stories will offer selfreflection for those whose high school days are long gone, and solace for those still in them. It’s not every day you get to hear the origin story of icons. This is a conversation you won’t want to miss.

Moderated by Baharak Yousefi. Presented in partnership with SFU Masters of Publishing Program.

WHAT’S O N

SATURDAY 24 OCTOBER • 10:30 AM • LIVE ON ZOOM

Ian Rankin

LIVE CAPTIONS

VIDEO

FESTIVAL PASS

in Conversation with Linwood Barclay It may be a mid-morning conversation, but this discussion between two close friends would be a natural fit in Edinburgh’s stark Oxford Bar—the favourite haunt of Ian Rankin’s most beloved character, detective John Rebus. What would internationally bestselling authors at the height of their craft discuss when considering their two latest works? Don’t miss the chance to find out. Rankin’s A Song of the Dark Times is the 23rd novel in the Rebus series, explores the relationship between crime, punishment and redemption and revolves around the disappearance of a man in which Rebus’ own daughter might be involved. Linwood Barclay’s Elevator Pitch has been called “one hell of a suspense novel” by Stephen King and “wildly inventive and really scary” by the New York Times. They may be crime writers, but these two minds are guaranteed to provoke a laugh during this Festival highlight.

Writers’ Trust Awards 2020 Watch as we award ten literary prizes and more than $300,000 to Canadian authors. Follow @writerstrust for details. October 21 Emerging Writers Edition

IAN RANKIN is a #1 international bestselling author, most known for his series of crime novels featuring Inspector Rebus. The latest in this series is A Song for the Dark Times. Winner of an Edgar Award and the recipient of a Gold Dagger for fiction and the Chandler-Fulbright Award, he lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, with his wife and their two sons. (SCOTLAND)

Presented in partnership with SFU Continuing Studies.

November 18 Best Books of the Year Edition December 2 Career Honours Edition

WHA T’S O N

SATURDAY 24 OCTOBER • 2 PM • PRE-RECORDED

CONTINUING STUDIES

THE WRITER’S STUDIO NEW! ONLINE COURSES IN FICTION, NON-FICTION AND POETRY Available January 2021

sfu.ca/write

PODCAST

FESTIVAL PASS

Marilynne Robinson in Conversation with Ian Williams

Time to break out your headphones! In a truly special event and conversation available exclusively through the Festival’s Books & Ideas Audio series, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World, Marilynne Robinson, sits with 2019 Scotiabank Giller Prize winner and national bestselling author Ian Williams to discuss her widely anticipated new novel Jack, the fourth and last of her Gilead quartet. In this timely conclusion, Jack harkens to a world of segregation, polarizing love and overcoming in rural Iowa. Listen in as these master writers discuss craft, thematic choice and the infinite power of fiction to inspire. Subscribe to Books & Ideas Audio to be notified as soon as this conversation goes live Saturday.

The Contemporary Literature Collection at Simon Fraser University Library

Canadian poet bpNichol's lively archive is part of this collection of innovative, avant-garde, and "underground" writing, with a focus on North American poets of the 1960s and 70s. To visit, contact SFU Library Special Collections at 778.782.8842

MARILYNNE ROBINSON is the recipient of a 2012 National Humanities Medal, awarded by President Barack Obama, for “her grace and intelligence in writing.” In 2013, she was awarded South Korea’s Park Kyong-ni Prize for her contribution to international literature. Her books include Lila, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and a finalist for the National Book Award and Gilead, winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award. (UNITED STATES)

Presented in partnership with SFU Creative Writing.

WHAT’S O N

SATURDAY 24 OCTOBER • 6 PM • LIVE ON ZOOM

LIVE CAPTIONS

VIDEO

FESTIVAL PASS

Thomas King

in Conversation with Waubgeshig Rice Indians on Vacation, Thomas King’s latest novel, is already an audience favourite— and it’s only just released. The fervour around the multi-award winning author and inaugural Massey Lectures speaker is understandable; King probes personal and political histories like no other. He speaks about his latest creative achievement with journalist and author Waubgeshig Rice, whose own novel, Moon on the Crusted Snow, was a favourite in 2019 and positioned him as a talented new Indigenous voice to watch. Witty, poignant, brilliant: these are just some of the words used to describe Indians on Vacation, and will no doubt apply to this exceptional conversation between two prestigious authors.

SHAME AND PREJUDICE

A Story of Resilience By Kent Monkman

The Daddies (detail), Kent Monkman, 2016.

August 6, 2020 – January 3, 2021 moa.ubc.ca THOMAS KING is an award-winning novelist, short story writer, scriptwriter and photographer. His critically acclaimed, bestselling fiction includes The Back of the Turtle (winner of the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction); The Inconvenient Indian (winner of the RBC Taylor Prize); the Dreadful Water mystery series; and the poetry collection 77 Fragments of a Familiar Ruin. A Member of the Order of Canada and the recipient of a National Aboriginal Achievement Award, he lives in Guelph, ON. (ONTARIO)

Presented in partnership with SFU Library.

This exhibition is produced by the Art Museum at the University of Toronto in partnership with the Confederation Centre Art Gallery, Charlottetown, and has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Ontario Arts Council. Lead Sponsor: Donald R. Sobey Foundation.

WHAT’S O N

SATURDA Y 24 OCTOBER • 8 PM • LIVE ON ZOOM

LIVE CAPTIONS

VIDEO

FESTIVAL PASS

The Literary Cabaret Authors: Billy-Ray Belcourt, Jillian Christmas, Charles Demers, Aislinn Hunter Band: Sally Zori & the Allegories

This year there’s no limit to how many people can experience this magical coalescence of author readings and improvised songs. At the helm of these fusions is Sally Zori: our new Musical Director bringing energy and originality to the proceedings with their band, Sally Zori & the Allegories. A transgender Iraqi raised in the United Arab Emirates and different parts of Canada, Sally is a session musician, percussionist, and content creator. They have played stages and theatres in North America, Europe, and Australia with different bands, orchestras, musicals, theatre shows, and (one new years eve in 2008) was the percussionist for Aretha Franklin. And now, we’re proud that Zori will grace our virtual Festival stage, too. CHARLES DEMERS is an author, comedian, actor, playwright, screenwriter and political activist. His collection of essays, Vancouver Special, was shortlisted for the Hubert Evans BC Book Prize for Non-Fiction. He is one of the most frequently returning stars of CBC Radio’s smash-hit comedy The Debaters. Demers lives in Vancouver, BC, where he is working on a second book in the Dr. Boudreau Mystery series, Suicidal Tendencies, the follow-up to Primary Obsessions. (BRITISH COLUMBIA)

You’ll hear Griffin-poetry prize winning Billy-Ray Belcourt sharing from A History of My Brief Body; our Spoken Word Curator and lauded poet Jillian Christmas preaching The Gospel of Breaking; multi-award-winning author and comedian Charles Demers reading from his work of crime fiction, Primary Obsessions; and Aislinn Hunter, exceptional poet and novelist who shares her most recent title, The Certainties.

The Literary Cabaret Package Hosted by Musical Director Sally Zori.

Double your enjoyment of the Literary Cabaret by ordering a custom-made gourmet food and wine package from Granville Island Foodie Delivery.

WHA T’S O N

Thank you to everyone who has supported the Vancouver Writers Fest through these unprecedented times. JILLIAN CHRISTMAS is a queer, afro-caribbean writer living on the unceded territories of the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh, and Musqueam people (Vancouver, BC), where she works as Speaker Coordinator at Cicely Blain Consulting, and served for six years as artistic director of Verses Festival of Words. She has won numerous Grand Poetry Slam Championship titles and represented both Toronto and Vancouver at eleven national poetry events, notably breaking ground as the first Canadian to perform on the final stage of the Women of the World Poetry Slam. (BRITISH COLUMBIA)

AISLINN HUNTER is an award-winning novelist and poet and the author of seven highly acclaimed books including The World Before Us, which was a New York Times Editor’s Choice book, a Guardian, The Globe and Mail and NPR “Book of the Year,” and winner of the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. Her work has been adapted into music, dance, art, and film forms—including a feature film, based on her novel Stay, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. (BRITISH COLUMBIA)

The Literary Cabaret package includes treats from your favourite Granville Island vendors: red or white wine, cheese, baguette and preserve, chocolate and nuts! $60 + shipping Place your order at bit.ly/vwfcab

The incredible support from our community has been humbling and allows us to continue our work connecting all people to exceptional books and ideas, whether it be on-stage or on-screen.

WHA T’S O N

SUNDAY 25 OCTOBER • 11 AM • LIVE ON ZOOM

The Interviews

LIVE CAPTIONS

VIDEO

FESTIVAL PASS

Authors: Seth Klein, Shaena Lambert, Amin Maalouf Marsha Lederman, Western Arts Correspondent for The Globe and Mail, is known for her incisive talent as a Festival moderator, year after year cutting to the heart of some of the most important works of the day. This year, globalization and the climate crisis’s past, present and future collide with a suite of authors at the top of their game: Seth Klein’s climate change manifesto A Good War re-envisions WWII mobilization tactics for Canada’s future; Shaena Lambert revels in a fictionalized account of the captivating (and largely erased) life of Germany’s first Green Party leader and feminist in Petra; Amin Maalouf traces the roots of our global divisions—and the challenges we can still rise to—in Adrift. An afternoon certain to reinvigorate your inner activist and provide roadmaps to real change, The Interviews is not to be missed.

SETH KLEIN was the founding BC director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives for two decades and has been immersed in climate change and inequality issues since. A social activist for over 35 years, his activism started as a high school student in the peace movement, and in the anti-racism movement while attending university. He is currently an adjunct professor in urban studies at Simon Fraser University and remains a research associate with the CCPA. (BRITISH COLUMBIA)

SHAENA LAMBERT is the author of the novel Radiance and two books of stories, Oh, My Darling and The Falling Woman—all of which were Globe and Mail best books of the year. Her fiction has been nominated for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, and others. Her stories have been chosen four times for Best Canadian Stories, and have appeared in many publications, including The Walrus and The Journey Prize Anthology. (BRITISH COLUMBIA)

Interviewed by Marsha Lederman. Amin Maalouf is presented thanks to the support of Alliance Francaise and the Consulate General of France in Vancouver.

AMIN MAALOUF was born in Beirut where he studied economics and sociology and then worked as an international reporter until the Lebanese Civil War broke out in 1975. In 1993, The Rock of Tanios, his fourth novel, won the Prix Goncourt, the most prestigious literary award in France. Maalouf is a member of the Académie Française and in 2020 was awarded France’s National Order of Merit. (FRANCE/LEBANON)

WHAT’S O N

SUNDAY 25 OCTOBER • 1 PM • LIVE ON ZOOM

Sex & Vanity

LIVE CAPTIONS

VIDEO

FESTIVAL PASS

Kevin Kwan in Conversation with Doretta Lau Over a decade in the making, Sex & Vanity is fiction rockstar Kevin Kwan’s newest trilogy, set in the world’s most glamorous fashion capitals: New York, London and Paris. Author of the global megahit and major motion picture Crazy Rich Asians, Kwan brings his signature flare for material opulence and messy romantic entanglements, from Long Island all the way to the Tyrrhenian Sea. In an unforgettable conversation with author Doretta Lau, Kwan will speak to his new opus and romcom of manners, which pays homage to E.M. Forester’s A Room with a View. This is an event you won’t want to miss! KEVIN KWAN is the author of Crazy Rich Asians, the international bestselling novel that has been translated into more than 30 languages. Together with its two sequels, China Rich Girlfriend and Rich People Problems, the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy commanded the top three positions of the New York Times bestseller list in 2018 for several weeks. In 2018, he was named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. (UNITED STATES/SINGAPORE)

PACIFIC MFA in WRITING POETRY — FICTION — CREATIVE NONFICTION

KWAME DAWES, author of Nebraska

Work one-on-one with award-winning writers. WWW.PACIFICU.EDU/MFA

WHAT’S O N

SUNDAY 25 OCTOBER • 3 PM • LIVE ON ZOOM

LIVE CAPTIONS

VIDEO

FESTIVAL PASS

The Afternoon Tea Authors: Caroline Adderson, Francesca Ekwuyasi, Will Ferguson, Michelle Good, Kevin Spenst, Jack Wang

CAROLINE ADDERSON is the author of five novels including A History of Forgetting and The Sky Is Falling and two collections of short stories, as well as many books for young readers. Published in 11 countries, her work has received numerous award nominations including the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prizes, the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Rogers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the Scotiabank Giller Prize. (BRITISH COLUMBIA)

One of the Festival’s signature events year after year, The Afternoon Tea returns in digital format! Bring your favourite scones and tea and sidle up for an afternoon steeped in words, including readings from celebrated international and Canadian authors making this year’s Must Read lists: Caroline Adderson (A Russian Sister); Francesca Ekwuyasi (Butter Honey Pig Bread); Will Ferguson (The Finder); Michelle Good (Five Little Indians) Kevin Spenst (Hearts Amok); and Jack Wang (We Two Alone). Relaxing, jovial and always an instant sell-out and book club favourite, this year’s Afternoon Tea remains an intimate, delectable affair FRANCESCA EKWUYASI is a writer, artist, and ﬁlmmaker born in Lagos, Nigeria.

Hosted by Bill Richardson. Generously supported by the Faris family in memory of Yulanda Faris.

Her writing has been published in Winter Tangerine Review, Brittle Paper, Transition Magazine, The Malahat Review, Visual Art News, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, and GUTS magazine. Her story “Orun is Heaven” was longlisted for the 2019 Journey Prize. Butter Honey Pig Bread is her ﬁrst novel. (NOVA SCOTIA)

Presented thanks to the support of RBC.

The Afternoon Tea Package Bring home the ambience of the Afternoon Tea by ordering a custom-made gourmet food and tea package from Granville Island Foodie Delivery.

The Afternoon Tea package includes treats from your favourite Granville Island vendors: tea, macaron, lemon square, finger sandwiches, scone, and more! $35 + shipping Place your order at bit.ly/vwftea

WILL FERGUSON is the author of four novels, including 419, which won the Scotiabank Giller Prize. A three-time winner of the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, he has been nominated for both a Commonwealth Prize and an IMPAC Dublin Award. The Finder is his most recent novel. (ALBERTA)

WHATâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S O N

MICHELLE GOOD is is a writer of Cree ancestry and a member of the Red Pheasant Cree Nation in Saskatchewan. She obtained her law degree after three decades of working with Indigenous communities and organizations. Her poems, short stories and essays have been published in magazines and anthologies across Canada. (BRITISH COLUMBIA) Presented thanks to the support of RBC.

KEVIN SPENST , a Pushcart Prize nominee, is the author of Ignite, Jabbering with Bing Bong, and over a dozen chapbooks including Pray Goodbye and Ward Notes. His work has won the Lush Triumphant Award for Poetry, been nominated for both the Alfred G. Bailey Prize and the Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry, and has appeared in dozens of publications including Prairie Fire, CV2, BafterC, Lemon Hound, Poetry is Dead, and the anthology Best Canadian Poetry 2014. (BRITISH COLUMBIA)

JACK WANG is an associate professor in the Department of Writing at Ithaca College in Ithaca, NY. Stories in his debut collection, We Two Alone, have been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize and longlisted for the Journey Prize, and have appeared in PRISM International, The Malahat Review, The New Quarterly, The Humber Literary Review and Joyland. (UNITED STATES/BRITISH COLUMBIA)

WHAT’S O N

SUNDAY 25 OCTOBER • 5:30 PM • LIVE ON ZOOM

No Putting Them Down: Riveting Crime Fiction Authors: Joe Ide, Sheena Kamal, Attica Locke

LIVE CAPTIONS

VIDEO

FESTIVAL PASS

Fans of good crime writing know the hazards: late nights from turning pages and vivid dreams questioning who’s really to blame for a wicked deed. There’s no better way to spend an early Sunday evening than immersing oneself in the complex imaginings of three authors, all of whom transcend the catch phrase “murder mystery” in their work. Sheena Kamal’s No Going Back, the third in her Nora Watts thriller series, was named one of the most anticipated books of the year by a host of outlets such as LitHub and Book Riot. Joe Ide returns with the latest in his fast-paced IQ series, the protagonist of which grew out of his youthful passion for Sherlock Holmes stories. And film and TV writer Attica Locke (When They See Us and Little Fires Everywhere) joins us with Heaven, My Home, the second in her Highway 59 series about race and justice in America. How do they keep the pages turning and their secrets safe? Hear exactly that in a lively conversation with three writers at the top of their genre.

Moderated by Jerry Wasserman.

JOE IDE is the acclaimed author of IQ which won the Shamus, Macavity and Anthony Awards for Best First Novel while also being nominated for the Edgar Award, the Strand Critics Award, and a Barry Award. Born from a youthful passion for Sherlock Holmes, Ide’s crime fiction series featuring Isaiah Quintabe includes Righteous, Wicked and the latest, Hi Five, have found their place in the pantheon of detective fiction. (UNITED STATES) SHEENA KAMAL holds an HBA in Political Science from the University of Toronto, and was awarded a TD Canada Trust scholarship for community leadership and activism around the issue of homelessness. Her bestselling debut The Lost Ones won her a Kobo Emerging Writer Prize, a Strand Critics Award, and Macavity Award for Best First Novel. The sequel, It All Falls Down, has been called “a stunning, emotionally resonant thriller” in its Kirkus-starred review. (BRITISH COLUMBIA/ONTARIO) ATTICA LOCKE is the author of the 2018 Edgar Award winner Bluebird, Bluebird; Pleasantville, which won the 2016 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction and was long-listed for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction; and The Cutting Season, a national bestseller and winner of the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence. She is also a television writer and producer, most recently for When They See Us and the adaptation of Little Fires Everywhere. (UNITED STATES)

SUNDAY 25 OCTOBER • 7:30 PM • LIVE ON ZOOM

Commanding Hope

LIVE CAPTIONS

VIDEO

FESTIVAL PASS

A Closing Night Address from Thomas Homer-Dixon Hope. It’s a substance in short supply in 2020, yet more exquisitely important than ever before as we face unparalleled challenges as a species. We conclude this year’s Festival with a keynote address from esteemed thought leader Thomas Homer-Dixon, renowned for bestselling titles such as The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization, The Ingenuity Gap: Can We Solve the Problems of the Future and, now, Commanding Hope: The Power We Have to Renew a World in Peril. In this extraordinary work, Homer-Dixon delves into complexity science, and how societies can evolve, to show we can shift human civilization onto a decisively new path—if we mobilize our imaginations and collective values. Commanding Hope marshals a fascinating, accessible argument for, ultimately, a renewed hope in a positive future for everyone on Earth.

THOMAS HOMER-DIXON is an esteemed thought leader renowned for bestselling and award-winning titles including The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization and The Ingenuity Gap: Can We Solve the Problems of the Future. He holds a University Research Chair in the Faculty of Environment at the University of Waterloo, and is Director of the Cascade Institute at Royal Roads University, British Columbia. (BRITISH COLUMBIA)

4949

SEE THESE AUTHORS!

CAROLINE ADDERSON

EMMA DONOGHUE

MICHELLE GOOD

CATHERINE HERNANDEZ

HELEN HUMPHREYS

SHEENA KAMAL

THOMAS KING

EMILY ST. JOHN MANDEL

KENNETH OPPEL

DAVID A. ROBERTSON

ALEKSANDRA ROSS

JEREMY & HERMIONE TANKARD

ATTENDING VANCOUVER WRITERS FEST VIRTUALLY THIS FALL

WHA T’S O N

TUESDAY 27 OCTOBER • 7:30 PM • PRE-RECORDED

VIDEO

Emma Donoghue

in Conversation with Laura Spinney

There are few moments we feel more connected to the events of 100 years ago—during the Spanish Flu—than as we experience a global pandemic… or when we read Emma Donoghue’s latest work, The Pull of the Stars. Bringing light and hope to a dark subject, the novel centres around three women in an understaffed maternity hospital in Ireland, 1918: a nurse, a doctor on the run, and a young volunteer. As they lose patients to the baffling pandemic, they share humanity amidst their impossible work. Donoghue’s research for this title included reading the work of Laura Spinney—a science journalist and author—whose own book, Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World, masterfully explores the consequences of the pandemic with insights into some of the individual lives impacted and rich, quirky details. Hear two fascinating minds explore a subject of heightened relevance amidst the celebration of their new titles.

EMMA DONOGHUE is best known for her novels, which range from the historical (The Wonder, Slammerkin, Life Mask, The Sealed Letter) to the contemporary (Akin, Stir-Fry, Hood, Landing). Her international bestseller Room was a New York Times Best Book of 2010 and was a finalist for the Man Booker, Commonwealth, and Orange Prizes; her screen adaptation, directed by Lenny Abrahamson, was nominated for four Academy Awards. (ONTARIO)

Presented in partnership with HarperCollins Canada.

WHA Tâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S O N

SUNDAY 1 NOVEMBER â&#x20AC;˘ 2 PM â&#x20AC;˘ LIVE ON ZOOM

Emerge

VIDEO

Join SFU Creative Writing to hear readings from emerge 2020: the annual anthology from the students of The Writerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Studio program at Simon Fraser University. Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll receive a tantalizing taste of work from those emerging authors who have participated in the illustrious program this year, and discover new voices in British Columbiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s writing community, from novelists to poets to essayists. For aspiring authors, hear from writers who have turned a dream of creating into a reality with the help of professional mentors. Join this immersive celebration of new talent!

Presented in collaboration with SFU Creative Writing.

Catch a Rising Star ANDREA BENNETT

FRANCESCA EKWUYASI

CICELY BELLE BLAIN

JILLIAN CHRISTMAS

IVAN COYOTE

SYBIL LAMB

JOHN ELIZABETH STINTZI

Â Â? Â? Â? Â Â?

CATCH THEM ALL IN ACTION AT THE VWF!

WHA T’S O N

TH URSDAY 5 NOVEMBER • 6 PM • LIVE ON ZOOM

The Next Generation Authors: Farzana Doctor, Catherine Hernandez, John Elizabeth Stintzi

VIDEO

Each of these authors is one of the most lauded names in Canadian Literature this year, transforming the range and depth of stories that we tell. Some have published work for more than a decade; others have been celebrated as a remarkable emerging writer. They all share the ability to write soulfully about pressing personal and political frictions and, in doing so, offer the possibility of a more just world. We delve into their celebrated, varied titles in a conversation about creativity and imagination. Farzana Doctor’s Seven, a story of inheritance and resistance, has been called “penetrating and subtle,” and “defiant and engrossing.” Catherine Hernandez’s Crosshairs is an unputdownable page-turner, a cautionary tale exploring a dystopian near future in which communities of colour, the disabled and the LGBTQ+ are forced into labour camps in Toronto. RBC Bronwen Wallace Award winner John Elizabeth Stintzi’s Vanishing Monuments is a tender, powerful story of grief and connection. Come meet some of our most exciting voices today.

Moderated by Anna Ling Kaye.

ANANSI PUBLISHES VERY GOOD BOOKS @houseofanansi | houseofanansi.com

FARZANA DOCTOR is is the author of Stealing Nasreen, All Inclusive, and Six Metres of Pavement, which won a Lambda Literary Award and was short-listed for the Toronto Book Award. Her most recent work is Seven. She lives in Toronto, ON. (ONTARIO)

CATHERINE HERNANDEZ is a proud queer brown femme author and artistic director of b current performing arts. She is of Filipino, Spanish, Chinese, and Indian heritage, and she is married into the Navajo Nation. Hernandez is the author of the novel Scarborough, which is soon to be a motion picture; won the Jim Wong-Chu Award for the unpublished manuscript; was a finalist for the Toronto Book Awards, the Trillium Book Award and others; and was longlisted for Canada Reads. (ONTARIO)

JOHN ELIZABETH STINTZI is a non-binary writer who was raised on a cattle farm in northwestern Ontario. They are the author of two previous chapbooks of poetry, and their poems have been awarded the 2019 RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers and the Long Poem Prize from The Malahat Review. (ONTARIO/UNITED STATES)

Presented thanks to the support of RBC.

From fighting for workers’ rights to mobilizing around social justice issues...

Together we’re building a strong future for British Columbians.

Find us on social media

   @bcgeu

WHAT’S O N

SUNDAY 15 NOVEMBER • 3 PM • LIVE ON ZOOM

The Fall Book Club with Yaa Gyasi:

In Conversation with Matt Galloway of CBC’s The Current

VIDEO

Ticket price (includes book): $32 + shipping, if requested

YAA GYASI was born in Ghana and raised in Huntsville, Alabama. She holds a BA in English from Stanford University and an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she held a Dean’s Graduate Research Fellowship. Her debut novel, Homegoing, won the American Book Award among others. Her most recent book is Transcendent Kingdom. She lives in Brooklyn, NY. (UNITED STATES)

Yaa Gyasi is undoubtedly one of the most exciting novelists of her generation. Her debut novel, Homegoing, was published when she was just 26 and won the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Award, the Pen/Hemingway Award, and the American Book Award (amongst others). Transcendent Kingdom is the anticipated follow-up to this national bestseller; a powerful, intimate and beautifully layered story of an immigrant Ghanaian family in Alabama, as told through the eyes of Gifty: a sixth year PhD candidate in neuroscience at Stanford, whose suicidal mother is living in her bed. Ticket buyers to our Fall Book Club will receive a copy of this powerful book and have the opportunity to hear a fascinating interview with CBC The Current’s Matt Galloway. We’re always proud to showcase some of the most exceptional writers across the globe, not least when they are interviewed by one of the most thoughtful and engaging hosts in the country.

Hosted by Matt Galloway of CBC’s The Current.

WHA T’S O N

TUESDAY 17 NOVEMBER • 7:30 PM • PRE-RECORDED

The Golden Hour Authors: Helen Humphreys, Annabel Lyon

VIDEO

Sometimes the favourite part of our work is in simplicity: the simple joy of listening to two exemplary thinkers share their work and perspectives with each other. Such is the case during this conversation between award-winning, bestselling favourites Helen Humphreys and Annabel Lyon, sharing insights on writing and insights on life taken from their two most recent works. Humphrey’s Rabbit Foot Bill is a gem of a historical fiction novel about a lonely boy in a prairie town who befriends a tramp in 1947—before witnessing a shocking murder. Lyon’s Consent is a mysterious, heartbreaking novel centred on two sets of sisters whose lives are braided together. There is something that connects these varied stories: the extraordinary. Both books are already celebrated as the writers at their finest. Join us for a discussion with these brilliant minds that underscores the power of hope, beauty— and women’s friendship.

MFA

IN CREATIVE WRITING

Seattle Pacific University’s low-residency MFA program is for apprentice writers who want to pursue excellence in the craft of writing and care about the relationship between faith and literature. Merit scholarships available. CORE FACULTY

Susanna Antonetta Bryan Bliss Scott Cairns Robert Clark Robert Cording Gina Ochsner Jeanne Murray Walker Lauren F. Winner Sara Zarr

GENRES

Poetry Fiction Creative nonfiction Young-adult fiction

HELEN HUMPHREYS is an acclaimed and award-winning author of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Her work includes the Roger Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize-winning novel Afterimage and her non-fiction includes The Ghost Orchard and The Frozen Thames, as well as the memoir Nocturne. She has won the Toronto Book Award, and she has been a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for Fiction, the Trillium Book Prize, the Lambda Literary Award and CBC Radio’s Canada Reads. (ONTARIO)

ANNABEL LYON is the author of seven books for adults and kids, including the internationally bestselling The Golden Mean. Consent is her latest novel. She teaches creative writing at the University of British Columbia. (BRITISH COLUMBIA)

Thank you to the Vancouver Writers Fest for your inspirational work with BC students and teachers. Meeting authors and exploring their work opens minds to new ideas and other worlds.

LEARN MORE

spu.edu/mfa 800-601-0603

A message from the BC Teachers’ Federation | bctf.ca

Image source: iStock.com/ClaudioVentrella

WHA T’S O N

TUESDAY 24 NOVEMBER • 6 PM • LIVE ON ZOOM

The Poetry Immersive

VIDEO

Authors: Nancy Lee, Canisia Lubrin, John Elizabeth Stintzi For poetry fans, hearing readings from poets at the height of their talent is a reminder of the power of the form; for newcomers to poetry, talented lyricists can open a world of possibility with syntax and rhythm. Hear from three of Canada’s finest poets as they each read from their work before engaging in a collective conversation about craft. Nancy Lee is author of the poetry collection What Hurts Going Down and two works of fiction, The Age and Dead Girls, which have won and been nominated for multiple awards. Canisia Lubrin’s Voodoo Hypothesis was named a CBC Best Poetry Book and has captured minds across the continent. John Elizabeth Stintzi’s poems have been awarded the 2019 RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers and the Long Poem Prize from The Malahat Review. Their recent collection, Junebat, is already one of the hottest books of 2020.

Moderated by Shazia Hafiz Ramji. This event is presented in collaboration with the Vancouver Poetry House.

NANCY LEE is the author of the poetry collection What Hurts Going Down and two works of fiction, The Age and Dead Girls, winner of the VanCity Book Prize, and a finalist for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, the Pearson Readers’ Choice Award and the Wordsworthy Award. Lee is Assistant Professor in Creative Writing at UBC and is co-creator of the EdX online series, “How to Write a Novel.” (BRITISH COLUMBIA)

CANISIA LUBRIN is the author of the novel Radiance and two books of stories, Oh, My Darling and The Falling Woman—all of which were Globe and Mail best books of the year. Her fiction has been nominated for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, and others. Her stories have been chosen four times for Best Canadian Stories, and have appeared in many publications, including The Walrus and The Journey Prize Anthology. (ONTARIO)

JOHN ELIZABETH STINZI is a non-binary writer who was raised on a cattle farm in northwestern Ontario. They are the author of two previous chapbooks of poetry, and their poems have been awarded the 2019 RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers and the Long Poem Prize from The Malahat Review. (ONTARIO/UNITED STATES)

Presented thanks to the support of RBC.

BIO G R AP HI E S

2020 FESTIVAL HOSTS AND MODERATORS

LINWOOD BARCLAY is the multi-million copy New York Times bestselling author of eighteen previous novels, including A Noise Downstairs, Far From True, The Twenty-Three, Broken Promise, Parting Shot and No Time For Goodbye, and two thrillers for children. His books have been translated into more than two dozen languages. His latest novel is Elevator Pitch. Barclay lives in Toronto with his wife, Neetha.

TANYA BOTEJU is an English teacher and writer living on unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. Her debut novel, Kings, Queens, and In-Betweens, was named a Top Ten Indie Next Pick by the American Booksellers Association, as well as selected for the American Librarian Association 2020 Rainbow List. Boteju’s next YA novel, Bruised, is due out with Simon & Schuster in 2021.

KATHRYN GRETSINGER is an associate professor of teaching at the School of Journalism, Writing, and Media. She is a long-time public broadcaster at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, with a record of creating awardwinning work at the local and national level in Canada. She is also a Killam Teaching Prize winner and she was named as one of North America’s top innovative journalism educators in 2018.

ANNA LING KAYE is a fiction writer and freelance editor based in Vancouver. A former editor at PRISM international and Ricepaper magazines, she is co-founder of Hapa-palooza Festival and sits on the board of Project Bookmark Canada. Her fiction has been short-listed for the Journey Prize.

DIONNE BRAND ’s literary credentials are legion. Her latest novel, Theory, won the 2019 OCM BOCAS Prize for Caribbean Literature, and was a Globe and Mail Best Book. Her latest poetry collection, The Blue Clerk, was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize and won the Trillium Book Prize. In 2017, she was named to the Order of Canada. Brand is a Professor in the School of English and Theatre Studies at the University of Guelph.

DORETTA LAU is the author of the short story collection How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun? and the poetry chapbook Cause and Effect. She is currently writing a comedic novel about an inept company struggling to open a theme park about death, and an essay collection about navigating volcanoes, illness, and other enormities on the worst timeline.

DAVID CHARIANDY ’s debut novel, Soucouyant, received stunning

MARSHA LEDERMAN is the Western Arts Correspondent for the Globe and Mail, based in Vancouver. She covers the film and television industry, visual art, literature, music, theatre, dance, cultural policy, and other related areas. Before joining the Globe, she worked for CBC Radio, mostly in Toronto, where she held a variety of positions, including National Arts Reporter and morning news editor. She was born in Toronto and has lived in Vancouver since 2007.

reviews and recognition from eleven literary awards juries. Brother, his second novel, was named a Best Book of 2017 on no fewer than eight lists, and won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. In 2018 he authored I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You written as a letter to his daughter about history and the experience of growing up a visible minority within the land of one’s birth.

MATT GALLOWAY is the host of The Current on CBC Radio One. He has been with CBC Radio for more than 15 years. In addition to hosting Metro Morning for more than a decade, he has also anchored CBC Radio’s coverage of the Olympic Games on several occasions, including Beijing 2008, Vancouver 2010 and Sochi 2014, as well as the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

IAN GILL is a writer, filmmaker and social entrepreneur who founded and led Ecotrust Canada and served as CEO of Ecotrust Australia. He has been a reporter and editor for the Vancouver Sun and CBC. He is also now a regular columnist for The Tyee. His groundbreaking work of nonfiction, No News is Bad News, explores what’s happening to our newsrooms—and where the future of journalism, and democracy, may lie.

JEN SOOKFONG LEE ‘s books include The Conjoined, nominated for International Dublin Literary Award and a finalist for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, The Better Mother, a finalist for the City of Vancouver Book Award, The End of East, Gentlemen of the Shade, Chinese New Year, and Whatever Gets You Through. She teaches at The Writers’ Studio Online with Simon Fraser University, edits fiction for Wolsak & Wynn, and co-hosts the literary podcast, Can’t Lit.

BILLEH NICKERSON is a Vancouver-based author of five books and a past Editor of both Event and Prism International. His sixth book, Duct-Taped Roses, is forthcoming with Book*hug. He is Co-Chair of the Creative Writing department at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Surrey, BC.

BIOG R AP HI E S

2020 FESTIVAL HOSTS AND MODERATORS

SHAZIA HAFIZ RAMJI ’s writing has appeared in Best Canadian Poetry 2019, Maisonneuve, and Gutter: the magazine of new Scottish and international writing. She was named as a “writer to watch” by the CBC and her poetry and prose have been nominated for the 2020 Pushcart Prizes. She is the author of Port of Being, a finalist for the 2019 Vancouver Book Award, the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize, Gerald Lampert Memorial Award, and winner of the Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry.

ELEANOR WACHTEL has earned a reputation as one of the world’s best literary interviewers during her 30 years as host of Writers & Company on CBC Radio. In 2011, Writers & Company won a silver medal at the prestigious New York Festivals International Radio Awards. Wachtel herself has earned numerous accolades, including nine honorary degrees, as well as being an Officer of the Order of Canada.

SIRISH RAO is a writer, producer, cultural curator with deep connections to the international cultural world. He spent a decade as Director of one of India’s most respected publishing houses and has worked in event production in India, the UK and Europe. Rao has authored twenty books, from commentaries on street art to children’s books, to retellings of Greek plays. His books have been translated into seventeen languages and won several international awards.

JERRY WASSERMAN is an actor, theatre critic, Emeritus Professor of English & Theatre at UBC, and an avid fan of crime fiction.

WAUBGESHIG RICE is an author and journalist from Wasauksing First Nation on Georgian Bay. His most recent novel, Moon of the Crusted Snow, was published in 2018 and became a national bestseller. He graduated from Ryerson University’s journalism program in 2002, and spent the bulk of his journalism career at CBC, most recently as host of Up North, the afternoon radio program for northern Ontario. He lives in Sudbury, Ontario with his wife and two sons.

BAHARAK YOUSEFI has been peddling books in Vancouver for the past twenty-two years. She is a bookseller-turned-librarian and a refugee-turnedsettler. Baharak is co-editor of Feminists Among Us: Resistance and Advocacy in Library Leadership.

When BILL RICHARDSON isn’t writing for children or adults, he works in restaurant dish pits and stocks (not stalks) grocery shelves. Forthcoming are Hare B&B, with illustrations by Bill Pechet, from Running the Goat Books and Broadsides; and, from Groundwood, Last Week. He lives in Vancouver.

JAEL RICHARDSON is the author of The Stone Thrower, a book columnist on CBC’s q and the founder and Artistic Director for the Festival of Literary Diversity (FOLD). Her debut novel, Gutter Child, arrives in 2021.

LAURA SPINNEY is a writer and science journalist. Her writing on science has appeared in The Guardian, The Economist, Nature and National Geographic, among others. She is the author of two novels, The Doctor and The Quick, and a collection of oral history, Rue Centrale. In 2017 she published a bestselling nonfiction account of the 1918 influenza pandemic, called Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World.

Biographies for moderators also participating as authors, including Jillian Christmas, Ivan Coyote, John Freeman, Aislinn Hunter and Ian Williams, can be found in the event pages.

T HAN K S TO O U R D O N O R S

THANK YOU TO OUR DONORS COLLECTOR’S EDITION BENEFACTORS ($10,000+)

Janice & Doug Dalzell

Valerie Hunter

Kirsten Kohler

Ronald Wright

Jill Davidson

Crissy George

Tom Morton

Paul Lu

Laura Yazedjian

Anne Dobbie

Anonymous

Sally Harding S

Kathryn Neilson

Fran Maclean

Patricia Young

Darcy Dobell

Leslie Hurtig S

Carol Newell

Stefka Marinova-Todd

Richard Johnston

Kathleen Pearson

Jim Mayhew

Natascha Kiernan

Mary Robertson

Robert McLean

SPECIAL EDITION BENEFACTORS ($100–$249)

Catherine Fallis

Maureen & Larry Lunn CLASSIC EDITION BENEFACTORS ($5,000–$9,999)

Jodine Ducs Kyla Epstein S Lynda Erickson

Jeanne Krabbendam

Ian & Jane Strang

Victoria Mendes

Stephen Aberle

Shirley Lew S

Susan & David Van Blarcom

Barbara Nelles

Cathy Abrossimoff

Melanie Ferrandi

Terri Newell

Caroline Adderson

Dale Flexman

Carol Newson

Wallis Allen

Jane Flick

Susin Nielsen

Janet Allwork

Cynthia Flood

André & Brock Rowland

FIRST EDITION BENEFACTORS ($250–$499)

Caroline North

Brian Anderson

Brian Friesen

Leonard Schein

Stefania Alexandru

Susan Olding

Barry Auger

Erica Gilbert

BESTSELLER BENEFACTORS ($2,500–$4,999)

Marsha Sibthorpe

Deb Armour

Eduardo Ottoni

Bob Ayers

Genevieve Goggin

Shannon Taylor & Lorne Folick

Barbra Arnold

Talea Pecora S

Erin Barrett

Linda Graham

Kelli Bodnar & Daryl Martini

Naomi Perks

Elizabeth Bastedo

Mukhtar Haidar

Holman Wang

Cathleen Boyle

Joseph Planta

Trevor Battye

Elisabeth Hall

John & Susan Webster

Hurriya Burney

Lynda Prince

Gillian & Richard Beattie

Janet Chahwan

Diane Hartley S

Terry Whitehead

Bill Richardson

Avalon Bourne

Karin Hartner

Paul & Joan Whitney

Jeff Charpentier

Marc Rinfret

Lindsay Brooks

Elizabeth Hay

David Williams

Charlene de Faye

Laura Robertson

Brenda Brown

William Hay

Marian Dodds

Tracy Rogers

Carole Cameron

Ross Hedley

Mary Doherty

Caroline Hinterberger

Moh Faris, Reema Faris, Ramona Chu & Yasmeen Strang in loving memory of Yulanda Faris Alexia Jones Bonnie Mah

Thomas Green Sandy Jakab & Bob LesperanceS Carol McClelland

Judy & James McFarlane Harvey McKinnon Ebie & Ian Pitfield

Martha Baldwin

Joanie McEwan & Irwin Nathanson

LIMITED EDITION FRIEND ($500–$999)

Martin Roland

Derek Campbell

Amanda Ross & Neal McLennan

Lillian And Ross Davidson Fund

Sharon Dos Remedios

Clarke Ross

Erin Campbell

Marion Holmes

Anne Elliott

Melanie Rupp

Deborah Campbell

Richard Hopkins

Barbara Devlin

Allison Felker

Katherine Doyle S

Ian Gill S

Rob Sanders & Colleen MacMillan

Ann Carroll

Chris Hossie

Doran Chandler

Miranda Huron

Brian Duncan

Karen Gilmore

John Schaub

Gillian Hurtig

Andrew Forshner

Zoe Grams

Nisha Sikka

Marilyn & Sheldon Chandler

Asha Fraser

Diana Green

Veronica Singer

Joyce Chong

Janet Fretter S

Sharon Jeroski

Colin & Helen Harris

Lisa Slater

Mac Clayton

Karin Hartner S

Lesley Johnson

Sandy Garossino & Ravi Sidhoo

Jane Slemon

David Conlin

Laurence Johnston

Ann Howe

Kristin Stockley

Clare Crosthwait

Marilyn Goebel Vicki Hamill

Debbie Jung

Jan Whitford & Michael Michael Stevenson

Patricia Curtis S

Linda King

Linda Johnston

Alison Hart

Phyllis Kenney

Pamela Whittall

Jane Davidson

SPECIAL EDITION BENEFACTORS ($1,000–$2,499) Megan Abbott S George and Donna Battye Fund Claudia Casper & James Griffin Lisa Cawley Ramona & Ed Chu Jude Coffin

Kate Dahlstrom

June Hutton

Monica Kosmak S Fiona Lam Shaena Lambert

THA N K S TO O U R D O N O R S

THANK YOU TO OUR DONORS Alma Lee

Lauren Pughe

Myrna & Erling Lindstrom

Lee Rachar

Daphne Lobb

Carole Randle

Aileen Lord

Susan Ridout

Marion Lovelace

Linda Robbins & Paul Stein

Patricia Lundh

Carol Roberts

Karin Lypkie

William Robins

S. MacIntyre

Jane Robinson

Linda MacKinley-Hay

Deborah Roitberg

Doreen MacLean

Shirley Rudolph

Michael MacNeill

Michael Ruskin

Judith MacPherson

Anita Russo

Kim Mah

Clare Saadien

Andrea Maitland

Minna Schendlinger

Susan Masi

Helen Smith

Patricia Massitti

Sharon Street

Robert & Alicia Matas

Diane Stuart

Carol Mayer

Kaarina Talvila

Sharon McKibbon

Ronnie Tessler

Bruce McLean

Camilla Tibbs

Michele McManus

Ellen Volden

Pamela McPhail S

Lindsay Ward

Margo Metcalfe

Susan & Jerry Wasserman

Kathy Mezei

Laurie Watt

Laura Moore

Orrin Webber

Lisa Morgan

Roberta & Merrill Wittman

Cheryl Neighbour

Annie Wong

Nicole Nozick

Kathryn Wood

Sharron O’Brien

Katherine Wreford

Susan & Lonnie Ogul-Propas

Stephen Wright

Greg O’Toole

Max Wyman

Brenda Peterson

Marian Yaremy

MEMBERS OF THE POSTSCRIPT SOCIETY Beth Coleman Leslie Hurtig Talea Pecora Terry Whitehead Eagranie Yuh THE ALMA LEE LEGACY FUND In 2006, The Vancouver Writers Fest and several of our community supporters established an endowment fund to celebrate the accomplishments of Festival founder Alma Lee. Our $1 million dollar endowment fund at the Vancouver Foundation enables the Festival to continue to thrive. To see who has supported the Alma Lee Legacy Fund, please visit our website.

S VWF Book Fiends, members of our monthly giving club.

“Over the past twenty years, the Vancouver Writers Fest has been a great source of joy, inspiration and knowledge for me. The events I have attended and the authors I have been introduced to have left an indelible mark on my understanding of our world and my appreciation for written art, empathy and learning. This is why I have pledged a gift in my will to the Festival. I like the idea of ensuring that great conversations on the VWF’s stages continue long after I am gone.” —LESLIE HURTIG, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Join Leslie in the Vancouver Writers Fest’s Post-script Society by leaving a gift in your will or life insurance. Leaving an enduring legacy helps the Festival live on and is simpler than it sounds. If you’d like to learn more about our Post-script Society, please contact:

Timothy Pezarro Manon Poitras Brian Porter Beverley Price

Donations received between July 10, 2019 – July 31, 2020

Andrew Forsher, Development Director aforshner@writersfest.bc.ca | 604.262.2080

Our Writers in the Classroom program—designed to connect children and youth to authors through live, interactive events—continues in 2020 in a virtual format.

YOUR CLASS CAN ENJOY

Writers in the Classroom

Invite an author from our stellar 2020 Vancouver Writers Fest lineup to discuss their most recent title (and share secrets of the writing craft) with your class this fall. These digital visits will enliven and enrich classroom discussion in the lead-up to the author’s appearance, and leave you much to unpack with your students afterwards.

This program is presented thanks to the support of the Government of British Columbia.

CAROLINE ADDERSON Pierre and Paul: Avalanche (bilingual Gr. K–3), It Happened on Sweet Street (Gr. K–3)

MICHELLE GOOD Five Little Indians (Gr. 10–12) Presented thanks to the support of RBC

STEVEN HEIGHTON The Stray and the Strangers (Gr. 1–4)

MICHELLE KADARUSMAN Music for Tigers (Gr. 4–7)

SHEENA KAMAL Fight Like a Girl (Gr. 9–12)

JESS KEATING Bunbun & Bonbon: Fancy Friends (Gr. 2–5), & Nikki Tesla and the Traitors of the Lost Spark (Gr. 3–7)

WESLEY KING Sara and the Search for Normal (Gr. 4–7) Presented thanks to the support of Simon & Schuster Canada

JANICE LYNN MATHER Facing the Sun (Gr.9+) Presented thanks to the support of Simon & Schuster Canada

ALEKSANDRA ROSS Don’t Call the Wolf (Gr. 8+) Presented thanks to the support of RBC

MARGARET OLEMAUN POKIAK-FENTON & CHRISTY JORDAN-FENTON Fatty Legs (Gr. 3–6)

To book an author, please submit an application through our website. You can learn more at writersfest.bc.ca/programs/education. Please note: bookings are made on a first-come, first-serve basis.

celebrate local at the Vancouver Writers Fest

festival author

Beep Beep Bubbie

Hope Matters

tradewind books

greystone books

by Bonnie Sherr Klein and Ă&#x2030;lisabeth Eudes-Pascal

by Elin Kelsey

Maison Rouge

Balancing Bountiful

tradewind books

caitlin press

by Liliane Leila Juma

festival author

The Swan Suit

Cancer is a C Word

Primary Obsessions

douglas & mcintyre

rebel mountain press

douglas & mcintyre

by Katherine Fawcett

by Mary Jayne Blackmore

by Sunita Pal

Spirits of the Coast

by Charles Demers

eds. Martha Black, Lorne Hammond and Gavin Hanke, with Nikki Sanchez

Discover #BCBooks at ReadLocalBC.ca

Supported by the Province of British Columbia

royal bc museum

PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE CANADA WELCOMES OUR AUTHORS TO THE VANCOUVER WRITERS FEST

penguinrandomhouse.ca

penguinrandomca