2012 Writers Fest Reading List

Vancouver Writers Fest Reading List 2012 Ekiwah Adler-Beléndez (MEX), Poet Ekiwah began writing poems at the age of 10, and published his first book of poetry when he was only 12. He is a graduate of Bard College at Simon’s Rock and Hampshire College. He has written and acted in three plays, and speaks at universities across the US and Mexico, advocating for the power of poetry and its use in understanding disability.

Margaret Atwood (CAN), Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature Celebrating 40 years since the first edition was published in 1972, Survival is a survey of Canadian authors which attempts to define Canadian national identity through thematic links in contemporary Canadian literature. (Non-fiction, McClelland and Stewart, March 2004) C.R. Avery (CAN), Spoken Word From musical beginnings in his late teens, C.R. Avery has recorded more than 15 albums as well as written and directed six hop-hop operas, which were mounted and performed from New York’s Bowery to L.A.’s South Central. He is a one-man band with the rare ability to sing poetic verse while beatboxing, pounding the piano, and playing the harmonica.

Deni Y. Béchard (CAN), Cures for Hunger Cures for Hunger, an extraordinary memoir, recalls how Deni Béchard was drawn to piece together the various scraps of Andre Béchard’s life discovering in the process his own gift for writing and his need to give full voice to his father’s story. (Memoir, Goose Lane Editions, May 2012) Heather Birrell, (CAN), Mad Hope In a collection of short stories that use precise, inventive language, Birrell creates astute and empathetic portraits of people we thought we knew—and deftly captures the lovely, maddening mess of being human. (Stories, Coach House, April 2012) Marjorie Celona (US), Y Dumped at the YMCA as a baby, Shannon grows up in foster care, struggling to define her life on her own terms while attempting to uncover her roots. (Fiction, Penguin Group Canada, August 2012) Chris Cleave (UK), Gold In Gold, Cleave explores the world of competitive cycling through best friends and Olympic competitors Zoe and Kate with emotional depth and intense race scenes that will leave readers breathless. (Fiction, Doubleday Canada, June 2012) Ivan Coyote (CAN), One in Every Crowd One in Every Crowd is Coyote’s first book for queer youth, but the stories are for anyone who has ever felt different or alone in their struggle to be true to themselves. (Stories, Arsenal Pulp Press, March 2012).

Lorna Crozier (CAN), The Book of Marvels: A Compendium of Everyday Things Operating as a sort of literary detective, Crozier examines the mystery of the everyday, seeking the essence of household objects: everything from doorknobs, washing machines, rakes and zippers, to the kitchen sink. (Poetry, Douglas & McIntyre, July 2012) Marie Darrieussecq (FR), Tom is Dead After avoiding the subject of her young son’s death for 10 years, the narrator strives to tell Tom’s story as precisely as possible in order to lead the reader to the truth. (Fiction, Text Publishing, August 2009) Junot Díaz (US), This Is How You Lose Her The stories in This is How you Lose Her, by turns hilarious and devastating, raucous and tender, lay bare the infinite longing and inevitable weaknesses of our all-too-human hearts. (Stories, Riverhead, September 2012) Cory Doctorow (UK), Pirate Cinema Living in a near-future dystopian Britain, 16 year-old Trent is obsessed with making films on his computer by reassembling footage from old films—a hobby which begins to attract the attention of the powers-that-be. (YA Fiction, Raincoast, October 2012).

Joanne Drayton (NZ), The Search for Anne Perry Acclaimed literary biographer Joanne Drayton examines the life and work of crime-novelist Anne Perry, featuring a dramatic incident from her early life that was the basis for the film Heavenly Creatures. (Non-fiction, HarperCollins, October 2012) Nuruddin Farah (Somalia), Crossbones Following Links, and Knots, Crossbones tells the story of individuals caught in the maw of zealotry, profiteering, and political conflict in war-torn Somalia. (Fiction, Riverhead, September 2011) Patrick Friesen (CAN), A Dark Boat Heavily inspired by cante jondo (Spanish “deep song”) and Portuguese ‘fado,’ these poems explore the kind of yearning that is contained in the Portuguese word saudad: a longing for something in the past that can never be found because time has shifted everything away from what it was. (Poetry, Anvil Press, April 2012) Tess Gallagher (US), Midnight Lantern Midnight Lantern is a collection of new and selected poems from Gallagher that confronts a tumultuous century’s worth of art, warfare, and illness, while certifying the stubborn resilience of poetry and love. (Poetry, Bloodaxe Books, March 2012).

Updated June 7, 2012; all programming subject to change

Bill Gaston (CAN), The World Weaving together five heartbreaking stories, Bill Gaston transforms the cruelty of life into something not only beautiful, but heartwarming. (Fiction, Penguin Group Canada, September 2012) Graeme Gibson (CAN), The Bedside Book of Beasts: A Wildlife Miscellany In this stunning companion to The Bedside Book of Birds, Gibson explores the relationship between predators and their prey using myths, fables, poetry, and excerpts from nature and travel writing, journals, sacred texts, and works of fiction. (Non-fiction, Doubleday Canada, October 2009) Rawi Hage (CAN), Carnival There are two types of taxi drivers in Carnival city—the spiders and the flies. Raised in a circus, the son of a golden-haired trapeze artist and a flying-carpet man from the East, Fly was born to wander, to watch, and to know. From the seat of his taxi we see the world in all of its carnivalesque beauty and ugliness. (Fiction, House of Anansi, August 2011) Mohammed Hanif (PK), Our Lady of Alice Bhatti Alice Bhatti, an extraordinary young woman from Karachi’s Christian slum, has become the new junior nurse at the Sacred Heart Hospital for All Ailments. Alice can work miracles, but in order to do so she must struggle against hospital bureaucracy, the caste system, and dangerous familial obligations. (Fiction, Doubleday Canada, May 2012) Steven Heighton (CAN), The Dead are More Visible In The Dead are More Visible, Heighton gives us 11 profoundly moving and finely crafted stories encapsulating wildly divergent themes of love and loss, containment and exclusion. (Stories, Random House, May 2012) Miranda Hill (CAN), Sleeping Funny In Sleeping Funny, Miranda Hill seamlessly inhabits the consciousnesses of a 16 year-old navigating a sex-ed class, a 19th century minister, a war-widow during WWII, and a modern professional woman in downtown Toronto. (Stories, Doubleday, September 2012) Simonetta Agnello Hornby, (IT), The Nun It’s 1839 in Messina, Italy and Agata, the daughter of Marshall don Peppino Padellani di Opiri, is being sent to Naples after having an affair with the wealthy Giacomo Lepre. In Naples, she will be forced to join a Benedictine monastery, but not before meeting a young Englishman, Captain James Garson. (Fiction, Penguin Group Canada, December 2011) Gail Jones (AU), Five Bells On a radiant day in Sydney, Australia, Ellie, James, Catherine and Pei Xing all converge on Circular Quay. Each is haunted by memories of the past, but over the course of one day, their lives will resonate with one another, changing them forever. (Fiction, Raincoast, February 2012) Vincent Lam (CAN), The Headmaster’s Wager Percival Chen is the Headmaster of the most respected English school in Saigon. He is a gambler, a womanizer, and is forever bribing government officials in order to maintain the elite status of his school. Despite the talk of war, Chen remains willfully ignorant, until his son gets in trouble with Vietnamese authorities and Chen is forced to send him away. (Fiction, Random House, April 2012) Patrick Lane (CAN), The Collected Poems of Patrick Lane This volume represents the accumulated richness of fifty years’ work by one of Canada’s most important poets. Ranging from Letters (1966) to Witness (2010), this collection demonstrates the breadth of Lane’s achievement. (Poetry, Harbour Publishing, September 2011) Shari Lapeña (CAN), Happiness Economics Will Thorne is a stalled poet, married to Judy, a wildly success celebrity economist. Pressured by a starving fellow poet, Will establishes the Poet’s Preservation Society, a genteel organization to help poets in need. But when Will meets his muse, the enigmatic and athletic Lily White, he becomes inspired not only to write poetry, but to take guerilla action in support of poets everywhere. (Fiction, Brindle & Glass, September 2011) Dennis Lee (CAN), Testament Testament is the summation of Dennis Lee’s decade-long exploration of the dilemma of contemporary existence. (Poetry, House of Anansi, March 2012) Annabel Lyon (CAN), The Sweet Girl Pythias is her father’s daughter. A slave to his own curiosity and intellect, Aristotle has never been able to resist wit in another—even in a girl child who should be content in the kitchen, with the loom, and a life dictated by the womb. But his little Pythias is smart, able to best his own students in debate and match wits with a roomful of Athenian philosophers. Is she a freak or a harbinger of what women can really be? (Fiction, Random House, September 2012) Kyo Maclear (CAN), Stray Love Born of an adulterous affair in London, Marcel, an ethnically ambiguous child with unknown origins, grows up under the care of a white surrogate father, Oliver during an era swept by waves of turmoil and liberation. (Fiction, HarperCollins, March 2012) Alistair MacLeod (CAN), Author Alistair MacLeod is the author of 14 short stories and the Trillium award-winning novel No Great Mischief. He received his PhD from the University of Notre Dame and currently works as a professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Windsor.

Updated June 7, 2012; all programming subject to change

Pasha Malla (CAN), People Park It’s the Silver Jubilee of People Park, an urban experiment conceived by a radical mayor and zealously policed by the testosteronepowered New Fraternal League of Men. The entire island has gathered for a special presentation by the artist Raven, whose illustration exceeds even the greatest expectations, and sets off a chain of unnatural disasters that will force people to confront what they are really made of. (Fiction, House of Anansi/Groundwood Books, June 2012) Zakes Mda (SA), Sometimes There is a Void: Memoirs of an Outsider Zakes Mda is the most acclaimed South African writer of the independence era, with eight novels that tell stories beyond traditional narratives of a people’s struggle against apartheid. In this memoir, he tells of a life that intersects with the politics of his country but that at its heart is the classic adventure story of an artist, lover, father, teacher, and bon vivant. (Memoir, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, January 2012) Stephen Miller (CAN), The Messenger Over the course of 16 days, the lives of Daria, a young terrorist sent on a mission to America, and Sam, a discredited scientist, will intersect and affect each other in profound ways, as Daria learns to question everything she has been taught, and Sam learns that evil has a human face. (Fiction, Random House, July 2012) Garry Thomas Morse (CAN), Minor Episodes/Major Ruckus In tribute to the surrealist narrative techniques of André Breton and Robert Desnos, Minor Episodes documents the serial adventures of Minor, the ubiquitous ‘everymogul.’ Meanwhile Major Ruckus is a parody of the speculative fiction genre and documents the frenzied struggle by various parties to obtain an essential time-travel component. (Fiction, Talon Books, August 2012) Donna Morrissey (CAN), The Deception of Livvy Higgs For two traumatic days, Livvy Higgs is besieged by a series of small heart attacks while the ghost of her younger self leads her back through a past devastated by lies and secrets. Caught between past and present, Livvy must pick apart the lies told to her by her father and grandmother, meanwhile her life begins to collide with that of her neighbour Gen, a single mother and part-time drug dealer. (Fiction, Penguin Group Canada, September 2012) Kate Mosse (UK), The Citadel Citadel, the final novel in Mosse’s Languedoc trilogy, is set during World War II in Carcassonne and the Aude. Mosse tells the story of an all female resistance unit fighting against the occupation of their country, and the discovery of an ancient Codex that has the power to change the course of history. (Fiction, Hachette, September 2012) Susan Musgrave (CAN), Given Resurrected from her novel A Cargo of Orchids, Rainy, Frenchy and Narrator X are reunited in an old house in a BC outport. Together they create a grand new afterlife adventure that takes them from Vancouver’s gated communities to BC’s First Nations island outposts and is rife with wild rides, social satire and visually hilarious encounters. (Fiction, Thistledown Press, October 2012) Riel Nason (CAN), The Town That Drowned Living with a weird little brother in a small town can be tough enough. Having a spectacular fall through the ice at a skating party and nearly drowning are grounds for embarrassment. Set in the 1960s, The Town that Drowned evokes the awkwardness of childhood, the thrill of first love, and the importance of having a place to call home. (Fiction, Goose Lane Editions, September 2011) Louise Penny (CAN), The Beautiful Mystery When the renowned choir director of the monastery of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups is murdered, the secretive monastery is opened to Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and Jean-Guy Beauvoir. Together they discover disquiet beneath the silence and in order to restore peace, must confront the demons roaming the corridors of the monastery, as well as those within themselves. (Fiction, Minotaur Books, August 2012) Emily Perkins (NZ), The Forrests Dorothy Forrest is immersed in the sensory world around her; she lives in the flickering moment. From the age of seven, when her odd, disenfranchised family moves from New York City to the wide skies of Auckland, to the very end of her life, this is her great gift and possible misfortune. (Fiction, Random House, June 2012) Anne Perry (UK), A Sunless Sea As commander of the River Police, William Monk is accustomed to violent death, yet he is shocked by the mysterious and brutal murder of Zenia Gadney, a woman whose secrets will not be easily uncovered. As the public cries for blood, and the government seems determined to hamper Monk’s investigation, the commander and his friends must search for answers and stop a monumental evil from going unpunished. (Fiction, Random House, August 2012) Gordon Pinsent (CAN), Next In this enchanting autobiography, celebrated actor Gordon Pinsent revisits stellar highlights of his 60 year career and the highs and lows along the way. (Memoir, McClelland & Stewart, October 2012) Nancy Richler (CAN), The Imposter Bride When a young, enigmatic woman arrives in post-war Montreal, it is immediately clear that she is not who she claims to be. Her attempt to live out her life as Lily Azerov shatters as she disappears, leaving behind a new husband and a baby daughter, and a host of unanswered questions. (Fiction, HarperCollins, March 2012)

Updated June 7, 2012; all programming subject to change

J. Jill Robinson (CAN), More in Anger: A Novel More in Anger is the poignant story of three generations of women, the emotional legacy that follows each of them throughout the years, and their attempts to break the cycle of abuse. (Fiction, Thomas Allen & Son, April 2012) Rebecca Rosenblum (CAN), The Big Dream At Dream Inc., a lifestyle-magazine publisher, people are struggling to do more than just their jobs. In The Big Dream, acclaimed short-story writer Rebecca Rosenblum documents a new generation discovering itself in the workplace. (Stories, Biblioasis, September 2011) Anakana Schofield (CAN), Malarky Malarky is the story of an Irish mother, Our Woman, forced to look grief in the eye and of a wife come face-to-face with the mad agony of longing. (Fiction, Biblioasis, March 2012) Kim Scott (AUS), That Deadman Dance Set in Western Australia in the early 19th century, That Deadman Dance explores the initial contact between the Aboriginal Noongar peoples and European settlers. (Fiction, Penguin Group Canada, February 2012) Carol Shaben (CAN), Into the Abyss On an icy night in October 1984, a Piper Navajo commuter plane carrying nine passengers crashed in the remote wilderness of northern Alberta, killing six people. Into the Abyss is a powerful narrative that combines in-depth reporting with sympathy and grace to explore how a single, tragic event can upset our assumptions and become a catalyst for transformation. (Non-fiction, McClelland & Stewart, October 2012) Lemn Sissay (UK), Poet Lemn is the author of five books of poetry, spanning twenty five years. In addition to performing internationally, Sissay has made documentaries for BBC Radio and was elected the Artist-In-Residence at London’s Southbank Centre in 2007. In 2010, he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for his contributions.

Emily St. John Mandel (US), The Lola Quartet Gavin Sasaki is a promising young journalist in New York City, until he’s fired in disgrace following a series of unforgivable lapses in his work. The last thing that Gavin wants to do is return to his hometown of Sebastian, Florida, but he’s drifting towards Bankruptcy and is in no position to refuse when he’s offered a job by his sister, Eilo, a real estate broker who deals in foreclosed homes. (Fiction, McArthur & Company, May 2012) Susan Swan (CAN), The Western Light Based on a true story, The Western Light describes 12 year-old Mouse’s struggles to win love from Morley, her neglectful parent, and Pilkie, who is famous for escaping from psychiatric hospitals he was committed to for murdering his wife and baby daughter. (Fiction, Cormorant, August 2012) Kim Thùy (CAN), Ru Ru. In Vietnamese it means lullaby; in French, it is a small stream, but also signifies a flow—of tears, blood, money. A runaway bestseller in Quebec, Kim Thùy’s Ru is a lullaby for Vietnam and a love-letter to a new homeland. (Memoir, Random House, January 2012) Jane Urquhart (CAN), Author Jane Urquhart is the author of seven internationally acclaimed novels, a collection of short fiction and four books of poetry. She grew up in Ontario, where she currently resides, and has been writer-in-residence at the University of Ottawa, Memorial University, the University of Toronto, and the University of Guelph.

M.G. Vassanji (CAN), The Magic of Saida The Magic of Saida tells the haunting story of Kamal, a successful Canadian doctor who, in middle age and after decades in North America, decides to return to his homeland of East Africa to find his childhood sweetheart, Saida. (Fiction, Random House, September 2012) John Vigna (CAN), Bull Head Bristling with restlessness and brutality, the eight linked stories in Bull Head catapult readers into the gritty lives of rural male characters lost in purgatories of their own making. (Stories, Arsenal Pulp Press, September 2012) Seán Virgo (CAN), Dibidalen In Dibidalen, Virgo reveals his knowledge of the power of short fiction, and reminds us that the act of story telling is hard-wired into human consciousness and demonstrates that the well-told story can appear in various shapes and sizes. (Stories, Thistledown Press, October 2012) Russell Wangersky (CAN), Whirl Away In his new short story collection, Russell Wangersky looks at what happens when people’s personal coping skills go awry. (Stories, Thomas Allen, February 2012) Jack Whyte (CAN), The Renegade In this latest installment of The Guardians series, Whyte recounts the life of Scotland’s greatest medieval king, Robert the Bruce.

(Fiction, Penguin Group Canada, October 2012) Updated June 7, 2012; all programming subject to change