Vancouver Writers Fest 2017 Festival Guide

REIMAGINE YOUR WORLD

OCT

110 +AUTHORS 95 +EVENTS

16– 22 2 0 17

W RITERS F E S T. B C.C A

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Literature covers a lot of flavours and tastes.

(KINDA LIKE US.)

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

FE STIVAL E X P E R I E N C E

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Contents Festival Info The Festival Experience 01 Letters from the 02 Artistic Director & Board Chair About Us 03 Venues, Map & Parking 04 Festival Tickets 05 Acknowledgments 06 Festival Bookstore 06 Our Supporters 07 Festival Authors 08 Events By Genre 08

Festival Events

Explore a World of Books and Ideas with 110+ Authors, 95+ Events and Thousands of Readers Like You Words shape our worlds. They can delight, inspire, provoke, comfort and unite—as do the authors, journalists and poets who wield them. At the Vancouver Writers Fest we encourage you to explore the power of storytelling, and books, through dozens of events with local and international writers.

or walk along oceanside boulevards and savour one of the best views in the city.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Festival: one we are celebrating with an outstanding array of readings, discussions, performances and interactive events, each described in the following pages.

Granville Island is managed on behalf of the Government of Canada by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). The Vancouver Writers Fest is a proud cultural partner of CMHC Granville Island.

We welcome more than 17,000 people to the Festival each year, and encourage each one of you to enjoy the holistic experience that the vibrant Granville Island community offers. Enjoy a meal at one of the many restaurants, cafés or Public Market vendors before your event. Explore the stunning galleries and hidden artists’ studios on the Island,

Questions? Call us: 604.681.6330 Visit the website: writersfest.bc.ca

Whether you are eager to learn more about a topical issue, discover new writers or meet some favourites, we can’t wait to share the experience with you.

VanWritersFest Facebook: /VanWritersFest Twitter: @VanWritersFest Instagram: @vancouverwritersfest #writersfest17

Mon, October 16 Tuesday, October 17 Wednesday, October 18 Thursday, October 19 Friday, October 20 Festival at a Glance Saturday, October 21 Sunday, October 22 Author Biographies

10 10 14 18 26 30 32 38 40

Year-Round Content Obituaries 59 Spreading The Word 60 Our Year-Round Donors 62 Special Events 64 Writing Contests 67

How To Choose An Event

By Author: Each author bio lists (by number) the events in which that author is appearing. See pg 40—58 for bios.

By Genre: In the Event by Genre section, Festival Events have been categorized under 22 popular genres. See pg 8–9/.

To Locate A Venue: Refer to the map on pg 4.

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

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Welcome to the Vancouver Writers Fest Hal Wake Artistic Director This is my twelfth and final Festival as Artistic Director. If I were to try to list all the great writers we’ve brought to Vancouver over that time, the incredible events those writers have taken part in and the amazing experiences we’ve been able to share with audiences, it would take up the entire program. But one of the greatest pleasures I’ve enjoyed is watching how each edition of the Festival takes on a character of its own, steers us in new directions, down new paths. In March of every year my colleague Clea Young and I meet with publishers and inevitably

Alison Broddle Board Chair I am thrilled to welcome you to the 30th annual Vancouver Writers Fest, on behalf of the entire Board of Directors.

Whether you are joining us for one event or sampling the many different styles, venues and voices on offer, I am confident you will find something that engages you.

While this year marks the end of an era for us, with the departure of our long-time artistic director Hal Wake, rest assured he has once again brought together an impressive group of both new and well-known writers—in

we’re asked if we have a theme for the upcoming Festival—the answer is always no. We wait until we’ve researched all of the writers who might be available to us, usually numbering more than 300, and then we start to look for the books that will “rub up against one another” and form the basis for an important or engaging conversation. When we’ve succeeded in our programming you will witness fine minds at work on our stages explaining, exploring or creating a new understanding of our world and our place in it. The moments that stay with us forever are when we realize we’re part of the collaborative building of an idea that won’t happen again, and, if you aren’t in that room, you’ll have

missed it and it’s gone. So pore over the descriptions of events in this guide, take a moment to look into the extraordinary list of writers who are coming, and launch yourself on a voyage of discovery. You won’t be disappointed. As I say this goodbye, it’s important for me to recognize the wonderful support of my colleagues, our board and volunteers, the literary community and our audiences.

When writers leave Vancouver many say that we have amongst the best audiences in the world. You deserve that honour.

interesting and unique combinations— in order to create moments and experiences that will move everyone in the room in some way.

consider supporting us beyond this week.

My favourite events are always the ones that elicit gasps of surprise or laughter or astonishment.

Hal Wake, Artistic Director

Our membership rates are very reasonable and include not only sneak previews but the opportunity to buy advance tickets.

In addition to attracting literary talent from across town, across the country and around the world, I’m pleased to report that the Festival’s community of readers continues to grow and diversify as well.

I also invite you to consider joining me and my fellow board members in becoming patrons of the Writers Fest and donating what you can to help us continue bringing readers and writers together at these wonderful and very special events.

Thank you for helping us celebrate such a milestone anniversary— whether you are just discovering us or a delighted repeat fan—and I hope that you will

Alison Broddle, Board Chair

ABO U T U S

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Founder And Lifetime Member

Become a Festival member

Alma Lee

Board Of Directors Chair Alison Broddle Secretary Shirley Lew Treasurer Yaseen Al-Salam

Members At Large Jonathan Burke Jillian Christmas Ramona Chu Ian Gill Sandy Jakab

Alexia Jones Harvey McKinnon Amanda Ross Shannon Taylor Andrea Warner Paul Whitney

Staff Artistic Director Hal Wake

Volunteer Manager Kathryn Fowler

Executive Director Nicole Nozick

Assistant to the Volunteer Manager Michelle Harrison

Development Director Andrew Forshner Marketing & Publicity Manager Zoe Grams Artistic Associate Clea Young Communications Coordinator Arielle Spence Administrator Sandra Millard Education Coordinator Ilona Beiks Bookkeeping Boyd Norman, Office Alternatives

Catering Coordinator Carolina Sartor Catering Assistant Liz Atkinson Sunday Brunch/ Tea Coordinator Isabel Ferreras Hospitality James Tyler Irvine Interns Emily Conacher Aurora van Roon Mike Yuan Production Manager Eduardo Ottoni

Operations Coordinator Steve Adams

Our members help to make each Festival possible. By joining us as a member of the Vancouver International Writers Festival Society, you expand our network of passionate readers and support us in reaching our financial goals.

Member Benefits: — Early access to Festival ticket sales — Festival Program Guide mailed to you — Invitations to exclusive Members-only events — $2 discount on all Festival tickets We have several membership options: One-year membership: $35 Two-year membership: $60 Book Club membership: $20/person (minimum of 5 people)

Festival Box Office Theatre Wire

Show your passion for the written word by joining our Writers Fest community today. For more information call 604.681.6330 or email aforshner@writersfest.bc.ca.

Program Guide Advertising Clevers Media

Special Thanks

Program Guide Design Carter Hales Design Lab

Jillian Christmas Chelsee Damen and the Theatre Wire team Carter Hales Design Lab

Fundraising Committee Jacki Mameli Andréa Fehsenfeld Ellen Malarchuk

Vancouver Queer Film Festival Vancouver Poetry House

Outgoing board member Leslie Hurtig

Our community partners DOXA Indian Summer Festival The Drum Is Calling Festival CIVL Radio

Photos by Chris Cameron

Program Guide Event Copy Judith Walker Program Guide Printing Mitchell Press Proofreader Carlos Hernandez Fisher

Production Coordinator Katja Schlueter

This program guide is printed on recycled paper made with 30% post-consumer waste, and bleached without the use of chlorine or chlorine compounds.

Our 2017 Literati Gala Committee Co-Chairs: Yasmeen Strang and Lynda Prince

Thank you to the 300+ dedicated volunteers who contribute so much to the Festival. We could not do this without you!

V E N UE S , M A P & PA R K I N G I N F O

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All events take place on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil‑Waututh First Nations.

FALSE CREEK

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Map Legend

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7. Festival Box Office, Main Floor, Festival House, 1398 Cartwright St.

9. Performance Works, 1218 Cartwright St.

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6. Waterfront Theatre, 1412 Cartwright St.

8. Studio 1398, Third Floor, 1398 Cartwright St.

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4. Improv Centre, 1502 Duranleau St. 5. Granville Island Brewery Taproom, 1441 Cartwright St.

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2. Granville Island Stage, 1585 Johnston St. 3. The Revue Stage, 1601 Johnston St.

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1. Granville Island Public Market

E D AV E N U WEST 2N

Off Site Venues The Vancouver Playhouse 600 Hamilton St. Calabash Bistro 428 Carrall St. Parking Information Granville Island has an array of free and pay parking. Please pay attention to posted signage.

The multi-level parkade across from Ocean Cement usually has open spaces.

I L L ROA D LAMEY’S M

Off the Island (990 Lamey’s Mill Road) there is an EasyPark lot with all-day and hourly rates.

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

There is often plenty of parking on the north side of False Creek so consider leaving your car there and coming across on False Creek Ferries or the Aquabus.

Translink Schedule Information 604.953.3333 translink.ca

Public Transit & Ferries The #50 bus stops just outside Granville Island. Many other buses stop along Granville Street and West 4th. Ferries travel from various

False Creek Ferries 604.684.7781 granvilleislandferries.bc.ca Aquabus 604.689.5858 theaquabus.com

FE S TIVAL TIC K E T S

Ticket Sales Dates Advance tickets: Tuesday, September 5, 2017 (only available for Festival members) School groups: Monday, September 11, 2017 General tickets: Wednesday, September 13, 2017

How to Buy Online: writersfest.bc.ca Phone: 604-681-6330 ext. 111 In person: The Festival box office is located on Granville Island at Festival House, 1398 Cartwright Street.

All box office sales—by phone, online or in person—close three hours before the start of each event. For last-minute ticket purchases, visit the event venue 45 minutes prior to the performance.

Box Office Hours Monday to Friday: 10:00 am — 4:00 pm Saturdays from September 16 — Oct 21: Noon – 4:00 pm Closed statutory holidays MasterCard, Visa and cash (in person) are accepted. Please note that many events sell out in advance.

General Information — Senior discount with valid ID: $2 per ticket — Festival Member discount: $2 per ticket (conditions apply) — Programming is subject to change without notice.

Visit writersfest.bc.ca for the latest program updates.

— Please check your tickets carefully as there are no exchanges.

Refunds will only be given for cancelled events.

Theatre Wire service charges are $3.75 per ticket for online and phone purchases and $2.00 per ticket for in-person sales at the Festival box office and at the door. A $.50 service charge applies to all school group tickets.

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Inclusivity at the Festival The Vancouver Writers Fest strives to create a welcoming space for audience members to engage with ideas that can transform our world. Safety, inclusion and acceptance are essential components of our Festival and each event within.

• Mobility access – all Festival venues are accessible to people using mobility aids.

• Courtesy seating – available for audience members with mobility challenges, physical disabilities or chronic pain.

For further information email boxoffice@writersfest.bc.ca.

• Hearing impairment assistance – the Festival offers ASL interpretation at events on request. Email boxoffice@writersfest. bc.ca two weeks prior to the event date to request.

• Ticketing for the community – free or reduced ticket pricing is available to social service or community organizations that are impeded by the cost of the events. Email info@writersfest.bc.ca for more information. In addition, we offer reduced ticket prices for seniors and youth under 30.

• School subsidies – full and partial subsidies are available for school groups to assist with ticket and travel costs. Email boxoffice@writersfest.bc.ca for information.

• Accessible programming – we offer numerous events free of charge including our Incite events, in partnership with the Vancouver Public Library every spring, and our Spreading the Word educational events for students.

• Gender-neutral facilities – we have a gender inclusive washroom policy for all our venues and events.

Creating dialogue has been at the heart of our Festival for 30 years.

Tickets for Youth Under 30

Box Office Specials

For the first time, we’re offering youth under 30 years of age the opportunity to see Vancouver Writers Fest events for only $15 (some exceptions may apply; does not include service charge).

This replaces our previous ‘Student Discount’.

Full-Day Subscriptions

6 for 5 Deal for Members Members of the Vancouver Writers Fest can receive six tickets for the price of five (lowest-priced ticket cost waived). A promotional code to access this Members-only deal will be sent to all VWF members in the Membership package mailed in mid-August.

Offer is available for a limited time. For further information about membership, see page 3.

For patrons attending four events on Friday or Saturday (or eight events across both days), we offer a limited number of full-day subscriptions. To access the subscription via theatrewire.com, select the events you wish to attend on those days. Savings will be automatically applied to your order when you have enough eligible events in your cart. This limited offer is available only for bundles of multiple events, not multiple tickets to a single event.

Subscription price (includes service charge): Friday: $70 (save up to $25).

Saturday: $80 (save up to $30).

Friday & Saturday: $140 (save up to $60).

Less than 30 subscriptions are available for each day. Book yours today! *Please note: The Literary Cabaret is not included as part of the Full-Day subscription.

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

604-986-6190

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ACKN OW L E D G M E N T S

F E S T I VA L B O OK S T OR E

Thanks To Our Supporters

Buying Your Books

We acknowledge the generosity of the following community supporters of the Vancouver Writers Fest.

The Festival Bookstore stocks titles from all featured Festival authors, making it a perfect place to browse between events. Books are also sold at each event with signings by the featured writers.

Annick Press Arts Club Theatre Ballet BC Bard on the Beach Biblioasis Café Talia – Saltspring Island Coach House Books Cormorant Books Dark Horse Comics Douglas & MacIntyre ECW Press Greystone Books Ltd. Hachette Book Group Canada HarperCollins Canada House of Anansi Kids Can Press Neverland Tea Salon Nimbus Publishing Old Spaghetti Factory

Festival Bookstore: Located at the back of Performance Works — 1218 Cartwright Street

Penguin Random House Plum Clothing Ltd. Publishers Group Canada Raincoast Books Rogers’ Chocolates Ronsdale Press Scholastic Canada Shadbolt Centre for the Arts Simon & Schuster Canada Ten Thousand Villages – Granville Island The Keg Steakhouse Thistledown Press Toptable Group – Araxi Restaurant Tradewind Books UBC Botanical Garden Vancouver Art Gallery Vancouver Chamber Choir Vancouver Symphony Orchestra Vancouver TheatreSports League

Festival Bookstore Hours Tuesday, October 17: 4:00 pm – 10:00 pm Wednesday, October 18 – Saturday, October 21: 10:00 am – 10:00 pm Sunday, October 22: 10:00 am – 5:00 pm

An incredible supporter of the Festival: Sandy Jakab An avid reader, Sandy Jakab has served on the Board of the Vancouver Writers Fest since 2010 and as Board Chair from 2013–2017. Her support has helped the Festival deliver on its mission to bring readers and writers together to reimagine our world. An example is Sandy’s stewardship of the Festival in connecting with Vancouver’s broader communities through our free Incite reading series.

“I support the Festival because it is building a powerful sense of community through the vibrant dialogue it facilitates between audiences and the world’s best authors.”

We salute Sandy for her tireless efforts in supporting the literary arts in Vancouver and ask that you help her continue to shape and vitalize our cultural community by donating today.

To learn how you can help continue to bring the best authors to Vancouver, please contact our Development Director, Andrew Forshner, at 604.681.6330 ext. 104.

Donate Today Support a keystone of Canada’s cultural community by donating to the Vancouver Writers Fest today.

charity. Revenue from ticket sales alone cannot sustain our events and youth education programs.

We rely on our donors and sponsors to help us continue hosting life-changing discussions both on stages and in classrooms across BC. We are a nonprofit organization and a registered

Please help us continue to shape and vitalize our cultural community.

Visit us at writersfest.bc.ca/donate to learn more.

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

COLLECTOR’S EDITION SPONSOR

BESTSELLER EDITION SPONSOR

LIMITED EDITION SPONSOR

GOVERNMENT SUPPORT

FESTIVAL SUPPORTER

MEDIA SPONSOR

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AUTH O RS & E V E N T S

Festival Authors

Events by Genre Bill Gaston

Grace O’Connell

Biography:

Kim Addonizio

Marie-Louise Gay

Andrew O’Hagan

S.K. Ali

Ari Goelman

Pola Oloixarac

Dean Atta

Adam Gopnik

Ed O’Loughlin

Margaret Atwood

Barbara Gowdy

Diego Enrique Osorno

p. 11 p. 12 p. 12 p. 15 p. 16

Gurjinder Basran

Hart Hanson

Sandra Perron

Mark Billingham

Kevin Hardcastle

Tom Perrotta

Hera Lindsay Bird

Robyn Harding

Alison Pick

Camille Bordas

Kate Hilton

Sylvain Prudhomme

John Boyne

Polly Horvath

Arushi Raina

Fanny Britt

Helen Humphreys

Ahmad Danny Ramadan

Chris Brookmyre

Witi Ihimaera

Barbara Reid

Sigmund Brouwer

Sheniz Janmohamed

Jennifer Robson

Carol Bruneau

Carrie Jenkins

Deanna Rodger

Claire Cameron

Wayne Johnston

Margriet Ruurs

Maia Caron

Andy Jones

Doug Saunders

Cecil Castellucci

Sayed Kashua

Akhil Sharma

Mandy Len Catron

Hannah Kent

Tetsuro Shigematsu

David Chariandy

Ausma Zehanat Khan

Kathryn E. Shoemaker

Durga Chew-Bose

Jónína Kirton

Merilyn Simonds

Ann Cleeves

Ahmed Knowmadic

Karen Connelly

Gordon Korman

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson

Peter Darbyshire

Nicole Krauss

Sydney Smith

Dina Del Bucchia

Lydia Kwa

Katie Smith Milway

Geoff Dembicki

Nicola Lagioia

Linda Spalding

Matthew Dickman

Mary Beth Leatherdale

Esta Spalding

Cherie Dimaline

Dennis Lee

Allan Stratton

Ken Dryden

Jeff Lemire

Chris Turner

Dawn Dumont

Linden MacIntyre

Johanna Wagstaffe

Sarah Dunant

Kyo Maclear

Ruth Ware

Leanne Dunic

James Maskalyk

Paul Watson

Ali Cobby Eckermann

Suzette Mayr

Irene N. Watts

Omar El Akkad

Ken McGoogan

Jessica Westhead

Nathan Englander

Jon McGregor

Deborah Willis

Jenny Erpenbeck

Maile Meloy

Kathleen Winter

Cary Fagan

Jordan Mounteer

Britt Wray

Cynthia Flood

Eileen Myles

Jan Zwicky

John Freeman

Mahtab Narsimhan

Mary Gaitskill

Cecily Nicholson

Angie Abdou

#12 #17 #18 #27 #33

p. 20 #48 p. 20 #50 p. 21 #52 p. 26 #55 p. 26 #60 p. 27 #64 p. 28 #68 p. 28 #69 p. 34 #78 p. 35 #85 p. 35 #86

Current Affairs: The Thing Called Love Game Changer Apples, Birds and Books Seeking Refuge Original Inhabitants, Original Voices How Close Can You Get? Still Out Standing Adam Gopnik in Conversation Life Drawing James Maskalyk in Conversation with Kathryn Gretsinger The Proper Study of Mankind Our Home and Adopted Land Eileen Myles in Conversation with Aislinn Hunter The Stuff of Life Mary Gaitskill in Conversation with Eleanor Wachtel An Intimate Evening with Andrew O’Hagan

Canlit: p. 10 #1 p. 12 #13 p. 12 #14 p. 16 #28 p. 16 #29 p. 18 p. 21 p. 26 p. 26 p. 26 p. 27 p. 28 p. 32 p. 32 p. 32 p. 33 p. 33 p .34 p. 34 p. 34

#40 #54 #56 #57 #59 #66 #67 #72 #73 #74 #75 #76 #79 #80 #82

p. 35 p. 38 p. 38 p. 38

#84 #88 #89 #90

p. 38 #92

Between the Pages: An Evening with the Scotiabank Giller Prize Finalists An Intimate Evening with Linden MacIntyre Grand Openings Thrillers Three Ways Barbara Gowdy in Conversation Innocent Heroes How This Story Began Out of Character Top of the List Writing Canada (1) Portrait of a Marriage The Literary Cabaret The Interviews A Boy’s Life Let’s Talk About Class Writing Canada (2) A Celebration of Talonbooks Who I Am Ghosts and Spirits An Intimate Evening with Jeff Lemire Getting a Grip Newfoundland Jack Tales The Sunday Brunch Sustenance: A Feast of Voices The Afternoon Tea

p. 10 p. 10 p. 10 p. 11 p. 11 p. 12 p. 15 p. 16 p. 16 p. 17 p. 18 p. 20 p. 26 p. 28 p. 32 p. 39

#2 Never Too Late… Is It? #3 Citizen Kid #4 Stormy Seas #7 The Upside Down #11 The Oil Patch Conundrum #15 More Than a Good Whodunit #27 Seeking Refuge #30 Uprooted #33 Original Inhabitants, Original Voices #35 Think Big, Canada #37 North As Never Before #49 Still Out Standing #60 James Maskalyk in Conversation with Kathryn Gretsinger #68 Our Home and Adopted Land #74 Let’s Talk About Class #93 Writing Now

Events for Youth: p. 10 p. 10 p. 10 p. 10 p. 10 p. 11 p. 11 p. 11 p. 14 p. 14 p. 14 p. 14 p. 14 p. 14 p. 15 p. 15 p. 15 p. 18 p. 18 p. 18 p. 18 p. 18 p. 18 p. 19 p. 20 p. 20 p. 26 p. 26 p. 26 p. 26 p. 26 p .26 p. 27 p. 27

#2 Never Too Late…Is It? #3 Citizen Kid #4 Stormy Seas #5 A Feast of Fun #6 Superstars x2 #7 The Upside Down #8 Newfoundland Yarns #9 Family Travels #19 Word! (1) #20 The Jungles of Adolescence #21 A Series of Adventures #22 Alchemy of a Book #23 Plasticine Perfection #24 Restart #25 Lighting Out #26 A Big Difference #27 Seeking Refuge #37 North As Never Before #38 Van Slam Special #39 Potions, Ghosts and UFOs #40 Innocent Heroes #41 Best in the Biz #42 Word! (2) #43 Fault Lines #45 Frame by Frame #46 Yes, You Can! #55 Life Drawing #56 Out of Character #57 Top of the List #58 Encouraging Creativity in Kids #59 Writing Canada (1) #60 James Maskalyk in Conversation with Kathryn Gretsinger #61 Poets in the House #62 Magnetic Mysterious North

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AUTH O RS A N D E V E N T S p. 27 #63 p. 38 #88

The Pull of History Newfoundland Jack Tales

Events with Food: p. 20 #50 p. 38 #89 p. 38 #91 p. 38 #92

Come Rhyme with Me The Sunday Brunch Sustenance: A Feast of Voices The Afternoon Tea

Film and Television: p. 16 #32

Screen Gems

Graphic Novel/Illustration: p. 10 p. 14 p. 14 p. 15 p. 15 p. 18 p. 20 p. 26

#4 #22 #23 #25 #27 #41 #45 #58

p. 34 #82

Stormy Seas Alchemy of a Book Plasticine Perfection Lighting Out Seeking Refuge Best in the Biz Frame by Frame Encouraging Creativity in Kids An Intimate Evening with Jeff Lemire

History: p. 15 #27 Seeking Refuge p. 18 #37 North As Never Before p. 18 #39 Potions, Ghosts and UFOs p. 18 #40 Innocent Heroes p.20 #46 Yes, You Can! p.27 #62 Magnetic Mysterious North p.27 #63 The Pull of History p.32 #72 The Interviews p.32 #73 A Boy’s Life p.33 #77 Fact and Fiction p.38 #87 In the Name of the Family Humour: p. 11 #10 p. 17 #36 p. 28 #70

p. 20 p. 20 p. 26 p. 28

#46 #47 #55 #70

p. 33 #75 p. 33 #76 p. 34 #79

Music:

p. 11 p. 12 p. 12 p. 12 p. 16 p. 16

#10 Modern Day Satire #14 Grand Openings #15 More Than a Good Whodunit #16 Uninhibited #30 Uprooted #33 Original Inhabitants, Original Voices p. 17 #34 Nicole Krauss in Conversation with Mark Medley p. 17 #36 Live a Little p. 20 #47 Dreams and Nightmares p. 20 #48 How Close Can You Get? p. 20 #50 Come Rhyme with Me p. 21 #52 Adam Gopnik in Conversation p. 21 #53 Freeman’s New voices p. 26 #55 Life Drawing p. 27 #61 Poets in the House p. 27 #63 The Pull of History p. 27 #64 The Proper Study of Mankind p. 27 #65 The Confessional p. 28 #67 The Literary Cabaret p. 28 #68 Our Home and Adopted Land p. 28 #69 Eileen Myles in Conversation with Aislinn Hunter p. 32 #71 Plentiful Portraits p. 32 #72 A Boy’s Life p. 33 #77 Fact and Fiction p. 34 #78 The Stuff of Life p. 34 #79 Who I Am p. 34 #80 Ghosts and Spirits p.38 #89 The Sunday Brunch

p. 21 #51 p. 28 #67 p. 28 #70

p. 20 p. 21 p. 21 p. 26

#48 #53 #54 #58

Interviews:

p. 27 p. 33 p. 34 p. 39

#65 #76 #78 #93

p. 16 #29 p. 17 #34

Modern Day Satire Live a Little True Confessions and Tall Tales

Indigenous: p. 11 #7 p. 16 #33

International Authors:

The Upside Down Original Inhabitants, Original Voices Yes, You Can! Dreams and Nightmares Life Drawing True Confessions and Tall Tales Writing Canada (2) A Celebration of Talonbooks Who I Am

p. 17 #35 p. 20 #49 p. 21 #52 p. 26 #60 p. 32 #72 p. 35 #85

Barbara Gowdy in Conversation Nicole Krauss in Conversation with Mark Medley Think Big, Canada Still Out Standing Adam Gopnik in Conversation James Maskalyk in Conversation with Kathryn Gretsinger The Interviews Mary Gaitskill in Conversation with Eleanor Wachtel

p. 38 #91

Non Fiction (Adult): p. 10 p. 11 p. 11 p. 12 p. 12 p. 17 p. 20 p. 21

p. 28 #68 p. 34 #78 p. 35 #85 p. 35 #86

Never Too Late…Is It? The Oil Patch Conundrum That Thing Called Love Game Changer Apples, Birds and Books Think Big, Canada How Close Can You Get? Adam Gopnik in Conversation Magnetic Mysterious North The Proper Study of Mankind Our Home and Adopted Land The Stuff of Life Mary Gaitskill in Conversation with Eleanor Wachtel An Intimate Evening with Andrew O’Hagan

On Writing:

p. 14 p. 18 p. 18 p. 20 p. 21 p. 28 p. 28

#19 #38 #42 #50 #51 #67 #70

p .38 #88 p. 38 #91 Poetry: p. 14 p. 18 p. 18 p. 20 p. 21 p. 27

#19 #38 #42 #50 #51 #61

p. 27 #65 p. 28 #70 p. 34 #83 p. 38 #90

The Confessional True Confessions and Tall Tales The Poetry Bash Dennis Lee: A Celebration

Readings: p. 10 #1 p. 12 p. 21 p. 27 p. 28 p. 33 p. 34 p. 38 p. 38

#14 #54 #61 #67 #76 #83 #89 #91

p. 38 #92

Between the Pages: An Evening with the Scotiabank Giller Prize Finalists Grand Openings How This Story Began Poets in the House The Literary Cabaret A Celebration of Talonbooks The Poetry Bash The Sunday Brunch Sustenance: A Feast of Voices The Afternoon Tea

Science and Nature: p. 10 p. 11 p. 12 p. 18 p. 19 p. 19 p. 27

#2 #11 #18 #37 #43 #44 #62

Never Too Late…Is It? The Oil Patch Conundrum Apples, Birds and Books North As Never Before Fault Lines To Be or Not To Be? Magnetic Mysterious North

Solo Author Events: How Close Can You Get? Freeman’s New voices How This Story Began Encouraging Creativity in Kids The Confessional A Celebration of Talonbooks The Stuff of Life Writing Now

Performances:

p. 11 p. 18 p. 20 p. 34

The Upside Down Potions, Ghosts and UFOs Dreams and Nightmares Trips to the Other World

#2 #11 #12 #17 #18 #35 #48 #52

p. 27 #62 p. 27 #64

Literary Sci-Fi/Fantasy: #7 #39 #47 #81

Dance to the Coming End The Literary Cabaret True Confessions and Tall Tales Sustenance: A Feast of Voices

Word! (1) Van Slam Special Word! (2) Come Rhyme with Me Dance to the Coming End The Literary Cabaret True Confessions and Tall Tales Newfoundland Jack Tales Sustenance: A Feast of Voices

Word! (1) Van Slam Special Word! (2) Come Rhyme with Me Dance to the Coming End Poets in the House

p. 10 #4 p. 11 #8 p. 12 #13 p. 14 p. 14 p. 15 p. 16 p. 19 p. 26 p. 35 p. 38

Stormy Seas Newfoundland Yarns An Intimate Evening with Linden MacIntyre #23 Plasticine Perfection #24 Restart #26 A Big Difference #31 An Intimate Evening with Ann Cleeves #43 Fault Lines #58 Encouraging Creativity in Kids #86 An Intimate Evening with Andrew O’Hagan #87 In the Name of the Family

Thriller/Crime: p. 12 #15 p. 16 #28 p. 16 #31 p. 17 #36 p. 35 #84

More Than a Good Whodunit Thrillers Three Ways An Intimate Evening with Ann Cleeves Live a Little Getting a Grip

10 10

WHAT’S O N

MONDAY 16 OCTOBER

01

Between the Pages: An Evening with the Scotiabank Giller Prize Finalists AUTHO R S TO B E A N N O U N C E D

TUESDAY 17 OCTOBER

02

Never Too Late…Is It?

03

Citizen Kid

G E O FF D E M B I C K I , C H R I S TU R N E R

M A R GR I E T R U U R S, K ATI E S M I TH M I LWAY

Moderator: John Vaillant Info: 10–11:30 am, GRANVILLE ISLAND STAGE Price: $17 / $9.50 for student groups

Info: 10–11:30 am, WATERFRONT THEATRE Price: $17 / $9.50 for student groups

Today’s young people may be the first generation to experience the doomsday impacts of climate change, and the last to be able to do something about them.

Geoff Dembicki, a sustainability writer, travelled to Silicon Valley, Canada’s tar sands, Washington, Wall Street and the Paris climate talks to find out if millennials should hope or despair. Chris Turner, one of Canada’s leading speakers on sustainability, takes us onto the streets of Fort McMurray, and shows the myriad ways the oil sands impact our lives, for both good and bad. Young people can play an even more crucial role in shaping the planet’s health after paying attention to these two informed and passionate writers.

This year, Margriet Ruurs and Katie Smith Milway present new books that will inspire children to be better global citizens. The Elephant Keeper tells the true story of a Zambian boy raised to view elephants as dangerous to humans and their crops, until he rescues a baby elephant from drowning. In The Banana Leaf Ball, Deo is an orphan in a Tanzanian refugee camp where bullies form gangs and steal what they can. When a coach gathers all the camp’s children together to play soccer, those who were afraid of one another begin to laugh together. These two committed children’s authors show kids how everyone plays a role in environmental stewardship and can find common ground in unexpected places.

SU ITABLE F OR G R A DES 8 –1 2 A ND A DU LT S

S U I TA BL E FOR G R A DES 3 –6

05

06

Stormy Seas

A Feast of Fun

Superstars x2

MAR Y B E T H L E AT H E R DA L E

C A R Y FAG A N , K YO M AC L E A R , S Y D NE Y S M I TH

P O L LY H ORVATH , G OR DO N K O RM A N

Info: 10–11:15 am, STUDIO 1398 Price: $17 / $9.50 for student groups

Info: 10–11:00 am, REVUE STAGE Price: $17 / $9.50 for student groups

Info: 1–2:30 pm, GRANVILLE ISLAND STAGE Price: $17 / $9.50 for student groups

The millions of refugees crossing from North Africa into Europe—and the harrowing tales from war-torn towns—are not a new phenomenon. Still, it can be hard for students bombarded with images of cities reduced to rubble and overflowing boatloads of despondent faces to imagine the individual lives behind the danger and desperation.

Mary Beth Leatherdale’s true portraits of young refugees from different countries and different eras will help create that connection. Ruth boards a ship to escape Nazi Germany, Phu sets out alone from war-torn Vietnam, a child flees Afghanistan and the Taliban—four of these heroes are still alive and shared their stories with Leatherdale. Many of today’s Lower Mainland students come from families whose histories mirror these, and it helps us all to understand their stories.

Line up for a smorgasbord of stories this morning. In Cary Fagan’s tale, a long-empty birdcage leaves its attic home to find a bird to keep. Kyo Maclear spins an environmental fable that stars Warble, a small yellow warbler who lives on the beautiful island of Icyland, where he pursues his hobby of human watching. And Sydney Smith’s Town Is by the Sea follows a day in the life of a boy in a sparkling seaside town as he imagines his father digging for coal deep down under that same sea. A dash of history, a splash of environmental awareness and a good dollop of humour will make this a literary feast to remember.

Two superstars of the middle grade realm take the stage with vastly different stories that have this in common: kids in control and with the power to effect change. Polly Horvath, recipient of a Newbery Honor and a National Book Award, transports us to a farm on Vancouver Island during WWII in her magical tale about a garden that grants wishes.

But do these wishes come at a cost? Master storyteller Gordon Korman, author of more than 80 middle grade and YA novels, introduces us to Chase Ambrose who, after falling off a roof, forgets that he’s the biggest bully at Hiawassee Middle School. Kids have an innate sense of justice and Korman presses them to think deeply about the potential for redemption.

Host: Hal Wake Info: 8:00 pm, THE VANCOUVER PLAYHOUSE Price: $26 Being nominated or shortlisted for—let alone winning—the Giller has a history of changing a writer’s life and career forever. One of the authors appearing at this event will win the richest literary prize in Canada on November 20. Come meet and hear from Canada’s stellar literary talents on opening night at the Writers Fest. What a way for the Festival’s Artistic Director Hal Wake to begin this year’s extravaganza of writers!

The longlist will be announced in September, and the shortlist in early October. But this event will bring all the shortlisted Scotiabank Giller Prize finalists together. Check writersfest.bc.ca on October 2 for the announcement of the lineup.

Presented in partnership with the Scotiabank Giller Prize.

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S UITA B L E F O R G R ADE S 5–8

SU ITABLE F OR GR A DES K–3

S U I TA BL E FOR G R A DES 4 –7

11

WHAT’S O N

TU ESDAY 17 OCTOBER

07

08

09

The Upside Down

Newfoundland Yarns

CHE R IE D I M A L I N E , A R I G O E L M A N

A N DY JO N E S

M A H TA B NA R S I M H A N, E S TA S PA LD I N G

Moderator: Sean Cranbury Info: 1−2:30 pm, WATERFRONT THEATRE Price: $17 / $9.50 for student groups

Info: 1−2:15 pm, STUDIO 1398 Price: $17 / $9.50 for student groups

Info: 1−2:30 pm, REVUE STAGE Price: $17 / $9.50 for student groups

Kids, get ready to be entertained by Gemini award-winning writer and actor, former member of the comedy troupe CODCO and screenwriter for CBC’s Kids in the Hall series, Andy Jones. Jack and the Green Man is the fifth instalment in his series that takes traditional myths and oral tales heard in Newfoundland and Labrador, shakes them up and reimagines them without erasing any of their folkloric charm. On his latest quest, Jack comes up against hairy giants, impossible tasks, a three-legged pig and difficult demigods—a delight for both young and not-so-young readers. Rick Mercer has called the book “a magical, funny tale that will be read again and again and again.”

Children love stories with adventure and surprise at every turn. Luckily, that’s what Mahtab Narsimhan and Esta Spalding do best. In Narsimhan’s tale, tag along with Dylan as he joins his best friend on a family vacation to India. Turns out, even on the colourful streets of Mumbai you can’t escape family bickering. Then there are Spalding’s Fitzgerald-Trouts, four loosely related self-reliant siblings living together on a lush tropical island. Though they have no parents to answer to—they sleep in their car, bathe in the ocean, eat fish they catch and fruit they pick—what they really want is a home, the pursuit of which brings them face-to-face with a flood, illegal carnivorous plants and the chance to win an extraordinary prize at a carnival.

As much as we want to retain our childlike innocence, part of growing up is becoming aware of the cruel realities of the world. At this event, two accomplished young adult writers use speculative fiction as a way into complex issues such as racism, climate change, mental health and agency, and offer teens a way to cope with the changes in their own lives. In Cherie Dimaline’s dystopic future, Indigenous people are hunted for their bone marrow, which contains a cure to a madness that has struck down the rest of the population. Ari Goelman’s The Innocence Treatment follows Lauren, a teen with a disorder which makes her incredibly trusting. However, the treatment for this disorder has unexpected, and dangerous, side-effects.

SU ITABLE F OR G R A DES 2 –5

Family Travels

S U I TA BL E FOR G R A DES 3 –6

S UITA B L E F O R G R ADE S 8–10

11

12

Modern Day Satire

The Oil Patch Conundrum

That Thing Called Love

SUZ E T T E M AY R , TO M P E R ROT TA

C H RI S T U RN E R I N C O NV E R S ATI O N WITH IAN GILL

M A N DY L E N C ATRO N, C A R R I E J EN K I N S

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Moderator: Merilyn Simonds Info: 6–7:15 pm, WATERFRONT THEATRE Price: $20 Vices, follies, abuses and shortcomings—all fodder of great satire—are on full display in the work of these two writers, who’ve chosen the long-established satire genre to put our lives under the microscope. Tom Perrotta takes a swipe at sexuality, identity and parenthood in modern-day America, as his Mrs. Fletcher explores the erotic exploits of middle-aged women just like herself. Suzette Mayr turns a campus novel into a darkly funny gothic horror story of cutthroat peers, ruthless administration, and maggot-and hare-infested haunted halls. Satire done well has always made us laugh, albeit a little uncomfortably, at our own behaviour.

Info: 6–7:15 pm, STUDIO 1398 Price: $26

Moderator: Timothy Taylor Info: 6–7:15 pm, REVUE STAGE Price: $20

Chris Turner has travelled the globe in search of hope for a sustainable future, and exposed former Prime Minister Harper’s war on science. An authoritative voice on the global cleantech boom, Turner now turns his focus to the Alberta oil sands, and the people there who’ve seen the boom and the bust, and now face its uncertain future. The result is not a diatribe against exploiting the second largest proven reserve of oil, but rather an exploration of how deeply it affects individual lives around the world, from the families of Fort McMurray to the financiers in London or Saudi Arabia. With no easy answer in hand, Turner forces us to ask the question: In order to both fuel the world, and to save it, what do we do about the Oil Patch?

When Bonnie Raitt sings “Are you ready for the thing called love/ Don’t come from me and you/ It comes from up above,” it could be she’s wrong. Love might indeed come from us. Vancouver writer Mandy Len Catron’s collection of candid essays, How to Fall in Love with Anyone, explores biologists’ research into dopamine triggers, looks at why we prefer certain love stories and tells of her own personal experiment using 36 key questions to create an intimate— and lasting—relationship. Carrie Jenkins, a UBC philosophy professor, examines love in all its manifestations, peppered with stories from her own experiences as a polyamorous woman, in What Love Is. You can wear your heart on your sleeve for this event!

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WHAT’S O N

TU ESDAY 17 OCTOBER

13

14

An Intimate Evening with Linden MacIntyre

Grand Openings: The Alma Lee Opening Night Event

Info: 6–7:15 pm, IMPROV CENTRE Price: $26

JE N N Y E R P E N B E C K , BA R BA R A G OW DY, N I CO L A L AG IO I A , S U Z E TTE M AY R , L I N DA S PA L D I NG , R U TH WA R E

Linden MacIntyre spent 24 years as the co-host of the fifth estate and won 10 Gemini awards for his work as a journalist. But it’s as a novelist that he’s now winning the hearts of Canadians. The Bishop’s Man earned him the Scotiabank Giller Award; Why Men Lie and Punishment were national bestsellers. His new novel, The Only Café, stretches from Toronto to 1980s refugee camps in Lebanon. MacIntyre turned to fiction to tell deeper, more backgrounded stories than journalism allowed. Fiction, he says, “takes people by the hand into situations that they don’t particularly want to visit and on terms that make those situations quite understandable and real, by embedding big ideas in ordinary lives.” You’ll want to spend time with this thoughtful and experienced guide.

Host: Caroline Adderson Info: 8:00 pm, PERFORMANCE WORKS Price $26 Open the thirtieth Vancouver Writers Fest in grand style as six writers read from their new works and take us around the world. Presenting her first novel in 10 years, Canada’s Barbara Gowdy intrigues us with a psyche in turmoil.

Linda Spalding propels us by wagon and boat through the American south in 1855. Germany’s Jenny Erpenbeck puts faces to some of the refugees trying to find a new life in Germany. Italy’s Nicola Lagioia gives us family-style moral and political corruption. Canada’s Suzette Mayr lampoons academic politics and passions. And England’s Ruth Ware will scare your socks off with her psychological thriller.

Whether these authors are familiar or new to you, you’re going to love this evening’s trip around the world in their company.

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More Than a Good Whodunit M A R K B I L L I N GH A M , C H R I S B RO O K M YR E, A N N C L E E V E S, AU S M A Z E H A N AT K H A N Moderator: Lonnie Propas Info: 8:30 pm, WATERFRONT THEATRE Price: $20 Mark Billingham says the crime novel is “uniquely placed” to reflect the world through the crimes people commit, and to shine a light into some of the darker corners of society. Tackling tough subjects from “honour” killings to cybercrime and online hacking, and from the intrusion of Iran’s tumultuous politics into a peace-loving Muslim community to police and council corruption in the midst of post-industrial deprivation in northern England, these crime novelists not only weave brilliant whodunits but also help us understand that the causes of those crimes are far more difficult to unravel than the crimes themselves.

Presented by Raincoast Books

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Uninhibited

Game Changer

Apples, Birds and Books

KARE N C O N N E L LY, TO M P E R ROT TA

K E N D RY D E N I N C O NV E R S ATI O N W I TH A L I SO N B RO DD L E

H E L E N H U M P H R E Y S, K YO M AC L EA R , M E R I LY N S I M ON DS

Info: 8:30 pm, REVUE STAGE Price: $26

Moderator: Aislinn Hunter Info: 8:30 pm, IMPROV CENTRE Price: $20

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Moderator: Jen Sookfong Lee Info: 8:30 pm, STUDIO 1398 Price: $20 Two authors who don’t shy away from the risqué and oftentimes taboo subject of sex talk about why this vexing part of human nature is integral to their writing. Of her new novel, The Change Room, in which a middle-aged heterosexual woman begins a steamy affair with a women she meets at her community pool, Karen Connelly says she’s never had so much fun writing a book in her life—and this is her twelfth. In Mrs. Fletcher, Tom Perrotta—widely known for his novel Little Children about adults behaving badly in suburbia—introduces us to Eve Fletcher, a 46-yearold divorcée who can’t curtail her interest in a porn website called MILFateria.com after receiving an anonymous text: “U R my MILF.” With sex come laughs and truths about all of us. You won’t want to miss this affair.

Ken Dryden’s The Game was indisputably one of the best books ever written on the sport of hockey, and was a finalist for a Governor General’s Literary Award. But now the former NHL star and former MP has issued a challenge in his new book, Game Change: make hockey safer or risk losing it altogether. Focusing on a journeyman NHL defenceman dead at 35 because of concussions, Dryden argues that today’s players are bigger, stronger and faster, and that the game has to change to protect them—at all ages. Dryden has a plan directed at players, fans, parents and, most of all, decision makers at the NHL. If you love hockey, you’ll want to hear about it from the game changer himself, Ken Dryden.

Three insightful, contemplative writers talk about blending memoir with an examination of things seemingly ordinary.

When Kyo Maclear’s father fell ill, she focused on urban birds as a way to recharge after hours of eldercare.

In doing so, she was struck by what happens when you apply the lessons of birding to other aspects of daily life.

Helen Humphreys’ research into the history of the apple as one of her closest friends was dying resulted in deep personal insight linked to curiosity about agriculture, settlement and human relationships. Merilyn Simonds’ focus on the book, both as paper page and pixel, became part memoir, part philosophical and historical exploration of the written word. Join us for meditations on creativity and how writers can be changed by what they write about.

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WHAT’S O N

WEDNESDAY 18 OCTOBER

19

20

21

Word! (1)

The Jungles of Adolescence

A Series of Adventures

DEAN ATTA, SHENIZ JANMOHAMED, AHMED KNOWMADIC

S. K . A L I , S I G M U N D B RO U W E R , A L L A N S T R AT TO N

C A R Y FAGA N, A N DY J O NE S

Host: Jillian Christmas Info: 10–11:30 am, GRANVILLE ISLAND STAGE Price: $17 / $9.50 for student groups

Moderator: Susin Nielsen Info: 10–11:30 am, PERFORMANCE WORKS Price $17 / $9.50 for student groups

Info: 10–11:30 am, WATERFRONT THEATRE Price: $17 / $9.50 for student groups

The ever-popular spoken word showcase known as Word! has become a signature event at the Festival over the years. Today’s lineup is of the highest calibre. Dean Atta, one of the UK’s finest emerging poets, explores race, identity and sexuality in his work.

Canada’s Sheniz Janmohamed first encountered spoken word in high school. She has since completed an MFA and gone on to perform her work internationally. Ahmed Knowmadic, originally from Mogadishu, became the first Somali spoken word champion at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word in 2011.

In 2017, he was named Edmonton’s seventh Poet Laureate.

The true power of words is palpable as young minds absorb, react to and find inspiration in the talented performers on stage.

Standing up for what’s right and recognizing your true friends can be a tricky business. Join three authors for a look inside the wilds of adolescence and the paths some forge through that jungle. S.K. Ali’s Saints & Misfits, set within a multicultural Muslim family, features Janna, a ‘misfit’ sophomore with a crush on a non-Muslim boy and the even bigger problem of avoiding the ‘saint’ of the local mosque who, unbeknownst to anyone, assaulted Janna at a friend’s party. After making some bad decisions, Sigmund Brouwer’s 15-year-old Maxwell is on the run. When he impulsively hops aboard a freight train, he embarks on a journey he never expected. And Allan Stratton’s Zoe, fed-up with her narrowminded parents, also heads out on an unforgettable journey where she discovers a strength she didn’t know she had.

(This event is repeated on Thursday afternoon.)

S UITA B L E F O R G R ADE S 8–12 AND ADULTS. W A R NI N G : CO N T E NT IN THIS E VE NT MAY NOT B E S U I TAB L E F O R AL L C L ASSE S.

Cary Fagan and Andy Jones know how to talk to kids.

Both are acclaimed storytellers and the authors of popular series with more than a few tricks up their sleeves. Jones is a comedian and Gemini award-winning writer and actor. He’s also written six children’s books that bring Newfoundland fairy tales to life. In the latest book in the Jack series, young readers encounter wacky spells, hairy giants, magic animals and hijinks galore. Fagan, an award-winning author for both children and adults, introduces us to Wolfie and Fly in his new series about a girl who thinks friends just get in the way, until she meets the slightly weird and wordy boy next door. There’s a world of fun to be had with these funny and imaginative authors.

S U I TA BL E FOR G R A DES 2 –5

SU ITABLE F OR G R A DES 8 –1 2 A ND A DU LT S

23

24

Alchemy of a Book

Plasticine Perfection

Restart

SYD N E Y S M I T H , E S TA S PA L D I NG

BA R BA R A REI D

GO R D ON K OR M A N

Info: 10–11:30 am, STUDIO 1398 Price: $17 / $9.50 for student groups

Info: 10–11:15 am, REVUE STAGE Price: $17 / $9.50 for student groups

Info: 1–2:15 pm, PERFORMANCE WORKS Price: $17 / $9.50 for student groups

How much—or how little—do authors and illustrators communicate when they’re creating a book? Who’s the boss? Or is there one? And how do they make sure they’re “on the same page” when they start a project?

Today Sydney Smith and Esta Spalding talk about how they worked together on the first two books in Spalding’s Fitzgerald-Trout series, featuring a band of loosely related children living together on a tropical island and fending for themselves. Smith, a star in the realm of kids’ book illustration, was in grade six when drawing became a major part of his life. Spalding grew up writing stories and poems. It’s never too soon for kids to tap into their talents. This duo might be just the inspiration that’s needed.

Long before the current craze of homemade slime, there was Plasticine. After you’ve met Barbara Reid, winner of the Governor General’s award for children’s illustration and honoured as a member of the Order of Canada for her work, your head will be swirling with what you can do with this squishable modelling clay that has been entertaining kids for more than 100 years. The renowned author and artist has always used it to illustrate her multi-award-winning books. You’ll want to know more about her creative process, the challenges and joys of her chosen medium and stories about how she brings her Plasticine images to life.

Hint: it’s in the details—from earrings to melting ice cream to eye-rolling boys.

Gordon Korman has been a household name for decades.

Not only does he write stories that are lively and engaging for kids; he began doing it when he was just a 12-year-old kid himself. He’s now the author of more than 80 books, of which there are more than 17 million copies in print.

Korman is also a tuning fork when it comes to what kids are dealing with every day. Take Restart, his most recent novel, in which the school bully suffers amnesia and is shocked to learn of the torment he inflicted on his peers. Or last year’s novel, Slacker, about a boy completely caught up in gaming. Come meet the man who’s unleashed his imagination to the delight of young readers for almost 40 years.

S UITA B L E F O R G R ADE S 3–6

SU ITABLE F OR G R A DES 3 –6

S U I TA BL E FOR G R A DES 4 –7

22

15

WHAT’S O N

WEDNESDAY 18 OCTOBER

26

25

Lighting Out

A Big Difference

CE C I L C AS T EL L U C C I , A L L A N S TRAT TO N

K AT I E SM I T H M I LWAY

Info: 1–2:30 pm, WATERFRONT THEATRE Price: $17 / $9.50 for student groups

Info: 1–2:15 pm, STUDIO 1398 Price: $17 / $9.50 for student groups

When you’re a teenager, it’s normal to think your family just doesn’t understand you. And that’s when books can help. Good fiction allows teens to get inside the head of someone else, perhaps facing the kinds of problems they are, perhaps feeling just as misunderstood too. These two authors have created such stories. Cecil Castellucci’s graphic novel, set in 1932, shows how a teen sets out on a train-hopping journey to escape her abusive father. She finds safety disguised as a boy and friendship with a hobo.

Allan Stratton’s modern-day teen feels betrayed by her parents when they’re quick to believe the lies circulating about her at school. When you’re a teen, it helps to know you’re not the only one with problems.

Katie Smith Milway wants to help children make a difference. The bestselling author and social entrepreneur last visited the Festival with One Hen, about a Ghanaian boy who turns a small loan into a thriving farm and livelihood for many. Out of that story came One Hen, Inc., a non-profit program that uses microfinance as a model to teach youth about business and giving back. Her new book, The Banana Leaf Ball, tells the story of Deo, a boy living alone in a refugee camp in Tanzania who is targeted by a bully.

On an improvised soccer pitch, those who were frightened of one another gradually begin to play together. Making a difference might start small but can change the world.

Smith Milway can show us how.

S UITA B L E F O R G R ADE S 8–10

SU ITABLE F OR G R A DES 3 –6

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Seeking Refuge M A R Y B E TH L E ATH E R DA L E , K AT H R YN E. S H OE M A K E R , I R E N E N. WATTS Moderator: France Perras Info: 1–2:30 pm, REVUE STAGE Price: $17 / $9.50 for student groups To better understand the plight of refugees, we need to hear their stories and grasp what—and often who—they’re leaving behind. Irene N. Watts and Kathryn E. Shoemaker are co-creators of the graphic novel Seeking Refuge, the story of 11-year-old Marianne who was among the first group of Jewish children included in the Kindertransport, which moved children to safety out of Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia in the nine months preceding WWII. Watts was, in fact, one of these fortunate children. Mary Beth Leatherdale reveals the true stories of five children from different eras—from Nazi Germany to war-torn Vietnam, Afghanistan to the Ivory Coast— who undertook treacherous voyages to reach freedom and safety. You’ll appreciate your life like never before after today.

S U I TA BL E FOR G R A DES 5 –8

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16 16

WHAT’S O N

WEDNESDAY 18 OCTOBER

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Thrillers Three Ways HART HA N S O N , AU S M A Z E H A N AT K H A N , RUT H WA R E Moderator: Ian Weir Info: 6–7:15 pm, PERFORMANCE WORKS Price: $20 Say “thriller” and goosebumps, terror, nightmares, suspense and violence are sure to follow. But there’s lots of ways to get your thrills—and tonight these writers show us three.

Ruth Ware’s debut, In a Dark, Dark Wood, put her on the charts as master of the psychological thriller. Her new novel is equally full of psychological suspense, a slow unravelling of tension and fear. Hart Hanson’s debut thriller takes the action-packed route to scaring our socks off, filled with nasty violence, dirty cops and torture. And Ausma Zehanat Khan gives us murder in the midst of Iran’s tumultuous politics. The body’s already been found, but tracking the killer and getting out of Iran alive? Now you’ve got a political thriller. Three ways to make the back of your neck tingle.

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Barbara Gowdy in Conversation with Caroline Adderson Info: 6–7:15 pm, WATERFRONT THEATRE Price: $26 Fans of Barbara Gowdy—and they are legion—have waited a decade for a new novel from this acclaimed Canadian author. While excruciating back pain has slowed her output, it’s clear that her creativity and imagination are in full flight. Little Sister, in its simplest outline, is about a woman able to leave her own physical body to inhabit another and to experience the world through that other. “I’m really interested in other people’s stories, and what it would be like to be you,” Gowdy has said. This is a rare chance to turn the tables and find out what it’s like to be one of the most inventive, risk-taking writers working today, who’s been shortlisted for or awarded almost every major prize during her 25 years of work.

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Uprooted J E N NY E R P E N B E C K , A H M A D DAN N Y R A M A DA N Moderator: Genni Gunn Info: 6–7:15 pm, STUDIO 1398 Price: $20 Every refugee has a story to tell—why they left, the journey they’ve made, what they left behind, the uncertain future they face. Jenny Erpenbeck, a German writer hailed as “one of the most significant German-language novelists of her generation,” enters the refugee story through a retired Berlin professor whose curiosity turns to compassion as he befriends African refugees forced to be idle while bureaucracy grinds along. Ahmad Danny Ramadan, a Syrian refugee himself now living in Vancouver, focuses in his novel on what gets left behind, a story of two lovers forced to leave a dying Syria, but anchored to memories of childhoods in Damascus, cruelty endured, leaving home and war. Take a look behind the headlines to the lives of millions worldwide who have been uprooted.

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An Intimate Evening with Ann Cleeves

Screen Gems H A RT H A N SO N , TO M P E R ROTTA , E S TA S PA L DI N G

Original Inhabitants, Original Voices

Info: 6-7:15 pm, REVUE STAGE Price: $26

Moderator: Ian Weir Info: 8:30 pm, PERFORMANCE WORKS Price: $20

Last year, bestselling crime writer Ann Cleeves celebrated the publication of 30 books in 30 years. Her Shetland and Vera Stanhope series have been translated into 20 languages, made her a bestseller in Scandinavia and Germany were turned into two hit television series and earned her a reputation as one of the finest crime fiction writers in the world. Join Cleeves tonight as she presents The Seagull, the eighth Vera mystery, filled with her trademark brooding atmosphere and unsettling undercurrents. She comes to Vancouver fresh from a ceremony in London where she has been presented with the highest honour in British crime writing, recognizing sustained excellence—the Diamond Dagger.

Literary readers now often find they’re also drawn to thoughtful, well-written television—and there is more and more of the latter being produced. Television is attracting some of the finest writers available as it gains a new prestige. Hart Hanson, who’s just written a debut thriller, is the creator, executive producer and writer of the television series Bones. Tom Perrotta, whose novels have been transformed into television series and adapted as movies, usually has a large hand in writing the screenplays. Esta Spalding, award-winning film and television writer—from Da Vinci’s Inquest and Being Erica to Masters of Sex and The Bridge—is also a children’s author. There’s sure to be some entertaining behind-the-scenes stories shared tonight by these three screenwriters.

Presented with Vancouver Film School.

A L I C OB B Y E C K E R M A N N, W I TI I H I M A ER A , L E A N NE B E TA S A M O S A K E S I M PS O N Moderator: Nic Low Info: 8:30 pm, WATERFRONT THEATRE Price: $20 Canada, Australia and New Zealand are all former colonies of Great Britain whose original inhabitants have struggled for equality with the colonizers. Indigenous success in achieving recognition and self-determination. Three Indigenous writers share the stage to talk about their individual experiences and their country’s experiences. Australian poet Ali Cobby Eckermann is part of the “stolen generations,” forcibly taken from her mother when she was a baby. New Zealand’s Witi Ihimaera was the first Mˉaori writer to publish a novel and collection of short stories, then his novel The Whale Rider became an internationally-successful film. Canada’s Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is a storyteller, poet and activist who is a powerful voice for modern Indigenous people. What can we learn about making a better world for all?

Presented by Vancity.

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WHAT’S O N

WEDNESDAY 18 OCTOBER

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Nicole Krauss in Conversation with Mark Medley Info: 8:30 pm, STUDIO 1398 Price: $26 Award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of The History of Love, Nicole Krauss has twice been shortlisted for the Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction, nominated for the National Book Award, selected as one of Granta’s Best Young American Novelists and had her work translated into more than 35 languages. Her new novel, Forest Dark, is a tale of transformation: of an older lawyer who’s given away most of his possessions and travelled to Israel to do something to honour his parents, and a young, well-known novelist named Nicole who’s troubled by writer’s block. Each is drawn to Tel Aviv on a journey of self-discovery that has life-changing consequences.

Krauss has said that reading literature is “an opportunity for compassion.” You’ll enjoy being offered that opportunity tonight in the company of this literary talent.

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Think Big, Canada

Live a Little

D O U G S AU N D E R S I N C ON V E R S ATI ON W I T H G L O RI A M AC A R E N K O

M A R K B I L L I N GH A M , C H R I S B RO O K M YR E Info: 8:30 pm, GRANVILLE ISLAND BREWING TAPROOM Price: $20

Info: 8:30 pm, REVUE STAGE Price: $26 Author and journalist Doug Saunders is a five-time winner of the National Newspaper Award and the internationalaffairs columnist for The Globe and Mail. In Maximum Canada, he argues that Canada is underpopulated and that we need a population of 100 million if we’re to outgrow our colonial past and build a safer, greener, more prosperous future. Historically, our economic policies and social tendencies kept us poorly connected to the outside world, attracting few of the people and building few of the institutions needed to sustain us. Yet support for a ‘closed’ Canada remains influential. Saunders has a rare and bold vision for Canada’s future: tripling our population will mean avoiding global obscurity and reconciling regional divides— and this can be done without a large immigration increase.

England’s Mark Billingham and Scotland’s Chris Brookmyre, both bestselling thriller writers, know that when you’ve had a few drinks, you’re good and ready for a spot of literary filth. And can they deliver! They’ve spent the last few years successfully performing a show all around Great Britain as a literary double-act in which readings from their novels and thoughtful discussion on genre are jettisoned in favour of cheap laughs and entertaining stories from the real world of being a writer—the angry letters, the backstage shenanigans and the nutters. Oh my, the nutters! Expect strong language, dirty stories and at least one extremely disturbing piece about a chicken, as Mark and Chris stand ready, willing and able to lower the tone at this year’s Writers Fest.

TALONBOOKS 50th ANNIVERSARY 1967—2017 Anima

WAJDI MOUWAD

Translated by Linda Gaboriau

This award-winning novel by playwright Wajdi Mouawad is a thriller and a road novel – written in the North African storytelling tradition in which events unfold from an animal point of view.

Fiction • August • 978-1-77201-003-9 $19.95 CAN / $16.95 USD

From Oral to Written

A Celebration of Indigenous Literature in Canada, 1980–2010 TOMSON HIGHWAY

“A beautifully detailed collection of summaries of works by more than a hundred Indigenous Canadian writers.” —Buffy Sainte-Marie Non-fiction • August • 978-1-77201-116-6 $29.95 CAN / $29.95 USD

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WHAT’S O N

TH URSDAY 19 OCTOBER

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North as Never Before

Van Slam Special

KE N M C G O O G A N , E D O ’ L O U G H L I N , PAUL WAT S O N

L I P BA L M , M OL LY B I L L OW S, J OH NN Y M AC R A E , SP I L L I O U S, J OH NN Y TR I N H

Moderator: Wayne Grady Info: 10–11:30 am, GRANVILLE ISLAND STAGE Price: $17 / $9.50 for student groups

Info: 10–11:30 am, PERFORMANCE WORKS Price: $17 / $9.50 for student groups

For 5,000 years, people in search of a home or wealth or fame, or just driven by the need for adventure, have been voyaging “way up there,” in some pretty inhospitable weather. Today you’ll hear three stories from Canada’s far north. Every summer, Ken McGoogan goes to the Northwest Passage as a resource historian with Adventure Canada. His non-fiction Dead Reckoning challenges the conventional history of Arctic exploration and, most importantly, integrates Canada’s Indigenous people.

Ed O’Loughlin’s novel delves into the history of the lost Franklin expedition through the eyes of the explorers. And Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Paul Watson brings the failed nineteenth century attempt to find the Northwest Passage up to modern day: he was there when scientists, divers and local Inuit discovered the flagship’s wreck in 2014.

The 2017 Van Slam Team is here to knock your socks off with solo and ensemble pieces they’ve prepared to compete in tournaments and at festivals across the country. It’s no easy feat to earn a spot on this team. To even qualify for the final playoff event, poets have to gain points by ranking in the top four at Van Slams throughout the year. This year’s final was held in April, and today you’ll see the some of the foremost practitioners of this art form. Come cheer on this year’s crew and enjoy an exclusive and explosive show before they head out on tour as ambassadors of Vancouver’s vital spoken word scene.

SU ITABLE F OR GR A DES 8 –1 2 A ND A DU LT S

Presented in partnership with the Vancouver Poetry House.

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Potions, Ghosts and UFOs P O L LY H ORVATH , M A I L E M E L OY Moderator: Shannon Ozirny Info: 10–11:30 am, WATERFRONT THEATRE Price: $17 / $9.50 for student groups Sit back and enjoy suspense, fantasy, magic and mystery— each in equal supply. In her tale set on Vancouver Island during WWII, National Book Award-winner Polly Horvath ushers readers into a forbidden night garden that grants everyone one wish. UFOs, hermits and ghosts make this garden stranger still. Maile Meloy brings her bestselling, critically-acclaimed Apothecary series to an end with The After-Room. She sets her story in 1955, vividly painting the Cold War era when everyday life for children—and adults, too—was permeated by fear of nuclear disaster and Russian spies were thought to be lurking everywhere.

Turns out, Benjamin and Janie have the power to prevent nuclear disaster. Anything is possible in the creative minds of these fabulous authors.

S U I TA BL E FOR G R A DES 5 –9

S UITA B L E F O R G R ADE S 8–12 AND ADULTS

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Innocent Heroes

Best in the Biz

Word! (2)

SIGM UN D BRO U W E R

M A R I E - L O U I S E G AY, BA R BA R A R E I D, S Y D N E Y SM I T H

S H E N I Z JA NM O H A M E D, A H M E D K N OW M A D I C , DE A N NA ROD GE R

Info: 10–11:00 am, REVUE STAGE Price: $17 / $9.50 for student groups

Host: Jillian Christmas Info: 1–2:30 pm, GRANVILLE ISLAND STAGE Price: $17 / $9.50 for student groups

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Info: 10–11:15 am, STUDIO 1398 Price: $17 / $9.50 for student groups 2017 marks the centennial of the battle of Vimy Ridge.

To make this momentous event from 100 years ago come alive, Sigmund Brouwer takes a look at some of the stories of individual Canadian heroes who made a difference: there’s the border collie who warns of a gas attack, the cat who saves soldiers from rat bites and the carrier pigeon who delivers a critical message. Maybe not the heroes you were imagining? In the hands of Brouwer, bestselling author of nearly 30 novels with close to four million books in print, these animals—and the young Canadian troops who served alongside them—provide a heart-wrenching and memorable entry into four days of battle that is an essential part of Canadian history.

S UITA B L E F O R G R ADE S 4–7

Three luminaries in the world of children’s books are here to stretch, surprise and satisfy young minds.

Marie-Louise Gay—winner of two Governor General’s awards and author of the popular Stella and Sam series— shares Short Stories for Little Monsters, a collection that gives us a glimpse into the things children wonder about every day. What do cats really see? What do trees talk about? Barbara Reid, winner of every major Canadian children’s book award and appointed member of the Order of Canada, amazes with her stunning Plasticine illustrations in Picture the Sky. And Sydney Smith, arguably the most sought-after illustrator in the country, transports children to a Cape Breton mining community in Town Is by the Sea. SU ITABLE F OR G R A DES K–3

The ever-popular spoken word showcase known as Word! has become a signature event at the Festival over the years. Today’s line-up is of the highest calibre. Canada’s Sheniz Janmohamed first encountered spoken word in high school. She has since completed an MFA and gone on to perform her work internationally. Ahmed Knowmadic, originally from Mogadishu, became the first Somali spoken word champion at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word in 2011. In 2017, he was named Edmonton’s seventh Poet Laureate. Deanna Rodger was the youngest-ever UK Poetry Slam Champion and has written and performed as a poet and actor from Buckingham Palace to TedX. Witness the true power of words this afternoon from the mouths of these talented performers.

(This event is repeated on Wednesday morning) S U I TA BL E FOR G R A DES 8 –1 2 A ND A DU LT S. WA R NI NG : C ONT ENT I N T H I S EV ENT M AY N OT B E S UI TA B LE FOR A L L C L A S S ES.

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WHAT’S O N

TH URSDAY 19 OCTOBER

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Fault Lines J OHAN N A WAG S TA F F E

Under The Nail Polish

By Tina Griffith

Info: 1–2:15 pm, PERFORMANCE WORKS Price: $17 / $9.50 for student groups Experts have been predicting “The Big One” (a massive earthquake along BC’s coast) for years. What are we doing about it? More importantly, what should we be doing? This afternoon, Johanna Wagstaffe, seismologist, meteorologist and science host for CBC Vancouver, presents her new book, Fault Lines: Understanding the Power of Earthquakes, and shares her journey toward understanding the earth beneath our feet. What does a 9.1 megathrust earthquake look like? How will survivors across BC gather and communicate with the rest of the country?

What supplies should you store in your emergency kit? During this highly visual presentation, you’ll learn the important science behind what makes the earth rumble as well as hear the stories of kids around the world who’ve experienced the wonder—and terror—of an earthquake.

S UITA B L E F O R G R ADE S 4–7

Presented with the Rix Family Foundation.

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To Be or Not To Be? B R ITT W R AY I N C O N V E R S AT I O N W I T H WAY N E G RA DY Info: 1–2:15 pm, WATERFRONT THEATRE Price: $17 / $9.50 for student groups For the first time, our species—which has done so much to condemn other species to oblivion—may be poised to bring at least some of them back. Science storyteller, radio broadcaster and PhD candidate at the University of Copenhagen, Britt Wray is currently focused on the ethics as well as the environmental and legal questions around de-extinction.

What happens when you try to recreate a woolly mammoth—fascinating science or conservation catastrophe? Wray takes us deep into the minds and labs of some of the world’s most progressive thinkers to find out. Huge opportunities for research and conservation are made possible by this new field, but Wray also tells us cautionary tales that remind us de-extinction comes with as many dangers as possibilities.

Disguised as a hypnotic love story, you will find murder, deception, and interchangeable lovers. There are ghastly dark secrets which need to be kept hidden, or what ensues could be deadly. Be prepared though; you will never be the same after you finish reading this story.

S UITA B L E F O R G R ADE S 8–12 AND ADULTS

Amazon, Xlibris, Barnes & Noble, Chapters.Indigo

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WHAT’S O N

TH URSDAY 19 OCTOBER

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Yes, You Can!

Dreams and Nightmares

FAN N Y BR IT T, C E C I L C A S T E L L U CCI

S. K . A L I , C H ER I E D I M A L I NE , A R U S H I R A I N A

Info: 1–2:30 pm, STUDIO 1398 Price: $17 / $9.50 for student groups

Info: 1–2:30 pm, REVUE STAGE Price: $17 / $9.50 for student groups

C H E R I E DI M A L I N E , OM A R E L A K K A D, A L I S O N P I C K

Graphic novels which focus on serious topics have been mainstream for more than 30 years. These books have the ability to tell a story in ways that words alone can’t. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words, right? Today meet two graphic novelists who write—and draw—serious stuff for young readers. Cecil Castellucci gives us a train-hopping runaway in Depression-era United States, trying to distance herself from her abusive father. But girls have few options and Soupy disguises herself as a boy to make the break. Fanny Britt introduces us to Louis, a boy who shuttles between his alcoholic dad and his worried mom. ‘Comic’ books? Definitely not! This afternoon follow the lives of two young people making their way through difficult situations, frame by frame.

Kids often feel disenfranchised, but they’ll leave today feeling empowered and inspired. Whether fighting against stereotypes, government oppression or inequalities of race and religion, young people—even those too young to vote—can make a big difference. Today’s three authors have created strong characters standing up to forces greater than themselves. S.K. Ali’s Saints & Misfits features a Muslim teen who exposes social stigmas as she navigates both Muslim and non-Muslim communities. In Cherie Dimaline’s speculative tale, an Indigenous 15-year-old and his companions realize they hold the cure to widespread madness in their bone marrow. And Arushi Raina’s When Morning Comes explores the roots of the Soweto Uprising from the points of view of four young people living in Johannesburg in 1976. Yes, you can make a difference!

Frame By Frame

S UITA B L E F O R G R ADE S 5–8

SU ITABLE F OR G R A DES 8 –1 2 A ND A DU LT S

Moderator: Ian Weir Info: 6−7:15 pm, WATERFRONT THEATRE Price: $20 For centuries writers have been imagining perfect worlds, and worlds gone wrong. The recent acclaimed television adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale has now rekindled interest in stories about surviving in a dystopia. In Cherie Dimaline’s new novel, set in a future world, the only people still able to dream are the Indigenous people of North America, and because the key to survival is their bone marrow, they are hunted. Alison Pick sets her novel in 1921 Palestine, and shows how a vision of a Jewish homeland succumbs to pragmatism and that Utopian dream is destroyed by messy human entanglements. Omar El Akkad sets his tale in 2047 following a second American Civil War, amid a devastating plague with one family caught in the middle.

These are more than cautionary tales.

Presented with Vancity.

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How Close Can You Get? AND R E W O ’ H AG A N , D I E G O E N R I Q U E O S O RN O Moderator: Laura Lynch Info: 6–7:15 pm, STUDIO 1398 Price: $20 Mexican journalist Diego Enrique Osorno was so determined to write a biography of the world’s second richest man— Carlos Slim—that he collected 400 rejections for interviews during the eight years of the project. “I learned you have to proceed calmly in the land of power,” says Osorno.

Man Booker Prize nominee Andrew O’Hagan was commissioned to ghostwrite Julian Assange’s autobiography, then wrote about that failed endeavour as part of The Secret Life, detailing the porousness between genius and madness. Five years ago Assange seemed to be a hero to some, but his arrogance and paranoia made the ghostwriting impossible. Portraits of the powerful are fraught with trouble, and you’ll want to hear the stories that these two seasoned writers tell about their quests for honesty, not flattery.

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Still Out Standing

Come Rhyme With Me

S A N D R A P E R RON I N C ON V E R S ATI ON W I TH K AT H R Y N G R E TS I N GE R

DE A N ATTA , J I L L I A N C H R I S TM A S, A H M ED K N OW M A D I C , DE A N NA ROD GE R A N D M O R E.

Info: 6–7:15 pm, REVUE STAGE Price: $26

Info: 8:00 pm, Calabash Bistro Price: Tickets available at door – Cash only $8 performance only/$20 performance and dinner

It took 20 years for Sandra Perron, Canada’s first female infantry officer, to digest and gain perspective on her time fighting in the Canadian army—and fighting the Canadian army itself. The second battle, it’s clear, was the harder of the two. Repeatedly top of her class during training, she was harassed by her male colleagues, raped and beaten. Yet she served two tours in the former Yugoslavia before she finally left the military. Writing her memoir, Out Standing in The Field, was an act of fidelity to the military and fierce determination to pave the way for women’s inclusion in the Armed Forces. Hear first-hand from a soldier who refused to let her country down and is still fighting to make it better.

Enjoy a night of rhyming and rice and peas with Dean Atta and Deanna Rodger alongside a menu of performers known for their wit, wisdom and ability to move you. For all language lovers, slammers, singers and rappers, this spoken word explosion is presented as a Caribbean dining experience—with a set menu of performers, each style specific to the course they have been chosen to represent.

This party will kick-off with an open mic so brush up, bring your appetite and come on out!

Presented in partnership with the Vancouver Poetry House.

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WHAT’S O N

TH URSDAY 19 OCTOBER

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Dance to the Coming End

Adam Gopnik in Conversation with Charles Foran

LE ANN E D UNI C , T H E O P E N BO OK A RT CO L L E C T I V E , THE D E E P C OV E Host: Zoe Grams Info: 8:30 pm, PERFORMANCE WORKS Price: $12 Leanne Dunic is a multidisciplinary artist, musician and writer whose debut book, To Love the Coming End, has defied categorization—lyric novel or poetic prose or …? Slipping between locales in Japan, Singapore and Canada, it’s the fictional, or perhaps true, account of a disillusioned author grappling with the death of a loved one and the meaning of natural disasters. “I’m sorry that I suffer the loss of one when, at every moment, a breath is another’s last.” After perusing this slim volume, the Open Book Art Collective will produce original paintings, sculptures and multi-media works based on To Love the Coming End that will form a backdrop for Dunic’s reading.

And then, in true multidisciplinary form, join singer/guitarist Dunic and her band The Deep Cove for an all-out dance party at Performance Works.

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Freeman’s New Voices POLA O L O IXA R AC , D I E G O E N R I Q U E O S O RN O Moderator: John Freeman Info: 8:30 pm, STUDIO 1398 Price: $20 When John Freeman first came to the Festival with his book of interviews with literary figures, he made such an impression that we’ve invited him back every year since. Formerly the editor of Granta Magazine, he now edits a twice-yearly literary anthology called, naturally, Freeman’s. The new edition focuses on The Future of New Writing and features 25 poets, essayists, novelists and short story writers who are shaping the literary conversation.

Two of them, both still in their 30s, join him on stage tonight.

Pola Oloixarac’s Savage Theories is a novelistic whirlwind, blending Argentine political satire and sexual picaresque.

Diego Enrique Osorno is one of Mexico’s foremost journalists and filmmakers. His latest book is a biography of the reclusive and powerful Carlos Slim.

Info: 8:30 pm, WATERFRONT THEATRE Price: $26 Fans of The New Yorker and its longtime contributor Adam Gopnik will be thrilled to see him up close, and very personal, at this year’s Festival. In his new memoir, At The Strangers’ Gate, Gopnik ruminates about art and artists, love and apartments, writing, reading and the city that he loves, from a 1980s arrival in New York as a young, artsy and ambitious couple to growth as a New York family. Winner of three National Magazine awards for essays and criticism, Gopnik is at his most brilliant as he picks up each unlikely subject and then examines it from all sides, making connections with literature, sociology and philosophy—all in a highly readable way.

Good Money™ invests in opportunities to experience Indigenous culture.

Presented with UBC Library and alumni UBC.

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How This Story Began C A RO L B R U NE AU, DAW N D U M O NT, C Y N TH I A F L O OD, B I L L G A S TO N, J E S S I C A W E S TH E A D, DE BOR A H W I L L I S

Vancity is proud to support the Vancouver Writers Fest.

Host: Paul Grant Info: 8:30 pm, REVUE STAGE Price: $20 Short stories are a challenging form—the germ of an idea grows quickly, flowers briefly and needs to leave the reader both satisfied and longing for more. So many more avenues to explore, so many questions left unanswered. Six writers not only read tonight from their latest collections, but also reveal, to introduce the reading, what—or who, or where—was the impetus for that story. Deborah Willis’ collection, for example, features a woman who signs up for the first manned mission to Mars, another who finds a gaping hole in the floor of her home, a hole that only she can see. Just where do these ideas originate? Tonight’s your chance to peek at the creative process, and hear some fine short stories, too.

Presented by SFU’s World Literature Program.

Good Money (TM) and Make Good Money (TM) are trademarks of Vancouver City Savings Credit Union.

Meet

This year, MeeT Three seriously good wriTers

Mary Beth Leatherdale

Sandra Perron “has written a revealing and moving memoir of her time fighting in the Canadian Amy - and fighting the Canadian Army.”

-The Globe and Mail

JeSSica WeSthead “her use of language

“A timely, powerful piece.”

—School Library Journal, *starred review

annick press | available from your favourite bookstore

is skilful and comic [and] features many well-crafted sentences timed to perfect effect.”

-Quill & Quire

HOT FALL FICTION

cherie dimaline “is a gifted, essential voice ... [she creates] compelling journeys for her richly complex characters.”

-Waubgeshig rice

ANGIE ABDOU In Case I Go LYDIA KWA Oracle Bone

See Angie, Lydia, and Dina in person at the VWF!

CORMORANT BOOKS

DCB

DINA DEL BUCCHIA Don’t Tell Me What To Do

ARSENAL PULP PRESS arsenalpulp.com

time for my writing time for my degree Our world-class, accredited programs oer you the exibility to access mentorship, develop your writing practice, and earn university credit -- all at your own pace, on a schedule that suits your lifestyle.

go.athabascau.ca

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

iStock images

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

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Meet these authors!

Durga Chew-Bose

Nicole Krauss

Sarah Dunant

Barbara Gowdy

Ken McGoogan

Kate Hilton

Jon McGregor

Helen Humphreys

Jennifer Robson

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WHAT’S O N

FRIDAY 20 OCTOBER

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Out Of Character

Top of the List

HE LE N H UM P H R E Y S, W I T I I H I M A E R A , S AYED KA S HUA , E I L E E N MY L E S

C L A I RE C A M E RO N, WAY N E J OH NS TO N, L I N D E N M AC I N TY R E , K ATH L E E N W I N TE R

RO B Y N H A R D I NG , K ATE H I LTO N, J E N NI F E R ROB S O N

Moderator: Andreas Schroeder Info: 10–11:30 am, GRANVILLE ISLAND STAGE Price: $17

Moderator: Mark Medley Info: 10–11:30 am, PERFORMANCE WORKS Price: $17

Moderator: Marsha Lederman Info: 10–11:30 am, WATERFRONT THEATRE Price: $17

The art of memoir draws from life but demands the creativity and perspective to know what to focus on and what to leave out. The spotlight’s aim can be as seemingly narrow as Helen Humphreys’ history of the apple, which gradually widens to become an intimate memoir of dealing with a friend’s terminal illness. Eileen Myles’ memoir of their beloved pit bull, Rosie, expands to encompass examinations of intimacy, spirituality, alcoholism and grief.

Witi Ihimaera’s memoir takes in all his recollections of his early life in rural New Zealand and what it means to grow up Mˉaori. And Sayed Kashua documents his own life, as well as society at large, as he reflects on straddling two societies—Israeli and Palestinian.

The Canadian caricature we all know is polite and selfeffacing: we don’t make a fuss. Not a great template for fictional characters. Thankfully, none of the characters who inhabit the new novels by these four Canadian authors are caricatures in any way. Wayne Johnston’s novel is peopled by larger-than-life characters, including the boozy giantess Sheilagh Fielding, who first showed up in his Colony of Unrequited Dreams. Kathleen Winter reimagines eighteenth-century British General James Wolfe as a present-day shell-shocked war veteran. Linden MacIntyre gradually reveals the mysterious character of Pierre, whose past in Lebanon is a surprise to all who thought they knew him. And Claire Cameron vividly brings to life a pregnant Neanderthal girl desperate to survive. You’ll be intrigued to meet these interesting characters.

“Bestselling author”—words that many authors strive for and few achieve. Last year, three of Jennifer Robson’s novels were on the Globe and Mail’s Canadian fiction bestseller list at the same time. Kate Hilton spent 11 weeks on the Globe and Mail’s bestseller list for her debut novel, and reviewers are hailing her second novel, Just Like Family, as “smart, funny and honest.” Robyn Harding’s books have been translated into seven languages and her new novel The Party made the Indie Booksellers’ Bestseller list. How did all this good fortune happen? What pressure does it put on a writer? Is it harder to take chances when the publisher’s—or the readership’s—expectations are so high? And what’s the secret behind blending fine writing with popular appeal?

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Writing Canada (1)

James Maskalyk in Conversation with Kathryn Gretsinger

Life Drawing

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Encouraging Creativity in Kids MAR I E - L O UI S E G AY Info: 10–11:30 am, STUDIO 1398 Price: $17 Teachers, educators and parents, this discussion on nurturing creativity in young people is for you.

Join internationally-acclaimed author and illustrator Marie-Louise Gay to learn how she uses her own award-winning books—Short Stories for Little Monsters and Any Questions?—to teach drawing, writing and storytelling to children. For Gay, this begins with demystifying the creative process and focusing on the practical and inspirational elements behind her books.

Children should never see creativity as something that is beyond them. Writing and drawing, like anything else, is a skill that can be taught, learned and improved upon.

At this event, Gay will empower you by offering the tools you need to engage students in making art of their own.

A N G I E A B D O U, FA N NY B R I TT, M A I A C A RON , K E V I N H A RD C A S TL E Moderator: Merilyn Simonds Info: 10–11:30 am, REVUE STAGE Price: $17 Hop aboard a trans-Canada train, travelling not just through space, but through time as well. First stop is a coal mining town in the Rockies, where Angie Abdou sets her novel about Eli, a boy possessed by the ghost of his great-great grandfather, who’s pulled into history to atone for past wrongs. On the prairie, Maia Caron reimagines the Northwest resistance of 1885 through the Métis women of Batoche, who question Riel’s grip on reality. Rolling on east, Kevin Hardcastle sets his contemporary novel in rural Ontario where a feared cage fighter, his career derailed by injury, slips into a criminal underworld. And Fanny Britt sets her novel in residential Montreal and the contemporary problems of modern marriages. So many Canadas for us to explore, by rail and imagination.

Presented with HarperCollins Canada Ltd.

Info: 1–2:30 pm, GRANVILLE ISLAND STAGE Price: $17 Dr. James Maskalyk’s experience as part of Médecins Sans Frontières led him to write his bestselling memoir, Six Months in Sudan, and helped readers feel the inescapable heat and the heartbreak of life in Sudan.

It also established his reputation as a thoughtful and sensitive writer. His new memoir is Life on the Ground Floor, a reflection on his emergency room experiences.

Splitting his time between a trauma centre in Toronto’s inner city and a hospital in Ethiopia, while also caring for his grandfather in northern Alberta, Maskalyk finds time to meditate on health and sickness, on striving to give a stranger’s body another minute or another day or another year, and on knowing when it’s time to let go.

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WHAT’S O N

FRIDAY 20 OCTOBER

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Poets in the House

Magnetic Mysterious North

The Pull of History

KIM A D D O N IZ I O, H E R A L I N D S AY B I RD, D E N N IS L E E , E I L E E N MY L E S

K E N M C G O O G A N, E D O ’ L O U G H L I N

S A R A H DU NA NT, H A N NA H K E NT, J E N NI F E R ROB S O N, L I N DA S PA LD I N G

Info: 1–2:30 pm, WATERFRONT THEATRE Price: $17

Info: 1–2:30 pm, STUDIO 1398 Price: $17

Moderator: Jared Bland Info: 1–2:30 PM, REVUE STAGE Price: $17

The point of reading poetry is not to try to “solve” its puzzles, or find the meaning, or—worst of all—analyze the meter. Poetry lovers want to feel it; all else is secondary.

Enjoy an afternoon full of feeling with four fine poets as they read from their latest works. American Kim Addonizio was a finalist for the National Book Award and won a Pushcart Prize. New Zealand’s Hera Lindsay Bird is a cult figure who has gained thousands of Twitter followers since her raunchy self-titled debut collection. Dennis Lee, has been a pillar of Canada’s cultural landscape for 50 years.

Similarly, Eileen Myles, has been an icon of the American poetry scene over her 40-year career. Come enjoy the feeling of poetry that doesn’t waste a word.

The search for the Northwest Passage. Franklin. Parry.

Mutineers casting Hudson adrift. For centuries, the mysterious lure of the North has fascinated explorers and writers alike. Two fine authors discuss that fascination, historically and personally. Ten years ago, Ed O’Loughlin knew that one day he would write fiction set in the Arctic and “characters who braved the cold unknown and did not return from it.” Minds of Winter is the result. For years, non-fiction author Ken McGoogan has felt the pull of the North. Every summer, he voyages in the Northwest Passage as a resource historian. Four of his 12 books have been bestsellers about Arctic exploration. His latest, Dead Reckoning, is his vivid recasting of history that, this time, includes the Inuit.

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The Proper Study of Mankind

The Confessional

Portrait of a Marriage

DUR G A C HE W - BO S E , A DA M G OP N I K , AND R E W O ’ H AG A N

K I M A D D O N I Z I O, H E R A L I ND S AY B I R D

GU R J I N DE R BA S R A N, FA NN Y B R I TT, K A R EN C O NN E L LY, K ATE H I LTO N

Moderator: Charles Foran Info: 6–7:15 pm, WATERFRONT THEATRE Price: $20 In his An Essay on Man, Alexander Pope wrote that “the proper study of mankind is man.” Three hundred years later we’re still studying ourselves by way of the essay, an art that, at its best, starts with the personal and makes us see the world in new ways. Adam Gopnik, three-time winner of the National Magazine Award for his essays, says they are “the chief vehicles of ideas and emotions from one person to another.” Durga Chew-Bose, searching for a clearer understanding of who we are and where we live, mines her own life as a first-generation Canadian for clues in her essay collection. Andrew O’Hagan’s essays focus on the political sphere, examining three personalities of the digital age, one of whom is his own online creation.

Moderator: Lorna Crozier Info: 6–7:15 pm, STUDIO 1398 Price: $20 American Kim Addonizio has been making a living from her poetry, books, grants, prizes and readings her whole life.

New Zealander Hera Lindsay Bird’s raunchy and fearless debut book of poetry has catapulted this 29-year-old graduate student to semi-cult status. Tonight the veteran and the newcomer talk about the writing life, and what happens when you share life’s most intimate moments publicly. Addonizio’s Bukowski in a Sundress: Confessions from a Writing Life is only the latest in a long string of writing about her life, filled with jaunty wit and sarcasm—and sex and drinking and drugs. Bird writes autobiographically and explicitly with icepick casualness. “Poetry has traditionally been very elitist and probably still is,” she says. But with thousands of Twitter followers, she’s breaking the mould.

Reaching into history for material is often a compelling starting point for fiction writers. International bestseller Sarah Dunant has felt the insistent pull of Renaissance Italy for years. Her new novel, In the Name of the Family, brings back to life the passion and treachery of Lucrezia Borgia and Niccolo Machiavelli. Taking inspiration from Irish newspaper reports of 1826, Hannah Kent tells the story of three women trying to rescue a child from a superstitious community. Linda Spalding reached back to 1855 for her novel of Canadian abolitionists, a slave on the run and a family in ruins. And Jennifer Robson, inspired by the wartime experiences of her own grandmother, captures the despair and triumph of war-torn London through the eyes of a young American journalist.

No dust on this history.

Moderator: Timothy Taylor Info: 6-7:15 pm, REVUE STAGE Price: $20 Marriage: secure safety net or tangled net for imprisonment?

These two extremes, and the myriad configurations in between, are rich soil for writers. Four Canadian writers turn their attention to marriage this evening. Gurjinder Basran’s novel travels between India and Canada as Simran, faced with the disintegration of her marriage, struggles to make sense of her world. Fanny Britt paints a complex portrait of a woman trying to weigh whether to disrupt her family life for life with an old flame. Karen Connelly creates a happily married but sexually unsatisfied mother who is surprised to find herself in an affair with another woman. Kate Hilton’s character struggles to balance the demands of three husbands: past, present and might-as-well-be. Bring your spouse to this event—there’ll be plenty to discuss afterwards.

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67 PRESENTS

Our Home and Adopted Land

C A M I L L E BO RDA S, JO H N BOY N E , S A R A H DU NA NT, O M A R E L A K K A D, G R ACE O’ C ON NE L L , S Y LVA I N PRUDHOMME

A DA M G OP NI K , S AY E D K A S H UA

Host: Tom Keenlyside Info: 8:00 pm, PERFORMANCE WORKS Price: $38

Tuning In Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin

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The Literary Cabaret

Even if you’re a “Lit Cab” regular, you might not know that the chameleonic band Poetic License—an informal collection of some of the best jazz musicians that Vancouver has to offer—has only half an hour on the Friday afternoon of the cabaret to rehearse with each of the authors who will collaborate on stage with them just a few hours later. What happens during those 30 minutes is alchemy. Later that evening, those same six authors take the spotlight to “perform” alongside the band, with music that fits each reading like a warm glove over a guiding hand. Audiences are guaranteed a sensory spectacle they won’t soon forget. Don’t miss out on the fun—get your tickets early because they will go quickly.

Moderator: John Freeman Info: 8:30 pm, WATERFRONT THEATRE Price: $20 Adam Gopnik left Montreal at 24 for the wonders of New York, and he’s made a brilliant life there and in Paris as a New Yorker staff writer, and is well-known known for his quirky personal narratives. But the lure, especially these days, of returning to Canada has been on his mind. Sayed Kashua, given the Israeli Prime Minister’s Prize in 2005 for his often satirical writing, finally found it impossible for his family to live as Arabs in the Jewish state, and moved with his wife and two kids to…Illinois! In Native, he offers humorous and at times painful anecdotes about his own life as a Hebrew-speaking Palestinian in Jerusalem, and as a Muslim Arab in today’s American Midwest. This is a conversation you won’t want to miss!

Photo: Roy Grogan

Conversations about music with Eric Friesen Robert Silverman Pianist JANUARY 31, 2018 @10:30am

Beverley McLachlin Chief Justice, Supreme Court of Canada MARCH 28, 2018 @10:30am

William Eddins Music Director, Edmonton Symphony Orchestra MAY 2, 2018 @10:30am Vancouver Academy of Music, Kits Point TICKETS: 604.873.4612 musicinthemorning.org

Music in the Morning ad, v2 VIWF prgm 1.75 x 7.25” / CMYK

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Eileen Myles in Conversation with Aislinn Hunter

True Confessions and Tall Tales

Info: 8:30 pm, STUDIO 1398 Price: $26 After decades as a steady fixture on the New York poetry scene, and author of some 20 books of poetry, fiction and criticism, Eileen Myles had a rebirth of sorts. First came the 2015 film Grandma, featuring Myles’s poetry and starring Lily Tomlin as an indomitable lesbian poet. Then came the Golden Globe-winning TV series Transparent. One of the characters is based on Myles and their poetry is recited by various characters. Instant fame resulted. Their poetry collection I Must Be Living Twice came out at the same time. Not one to be easily categorized, their latest book is Afterglow (a dog memoir), in which they mourn their beloved confidante, their pit bull Rosie. You’ll enjoy this original, hilarious and valiant trailblazer.

H E R A L I ND S AY B I R D, D I NA D E L B U C C H I A , DAW N DU M ON T, L E A N NE D U N I C Moderator: Lisa Christiansen Info: 8:30 pm, REVUE STAGE Price: $20 A zany mix of quiz show, stand-up comedy, music, confessions and more is probably what’s in store tonight—but who knows?

New Zealand poet Hera Lindsay Bird’s debut was a provocative, raunchy bestseller that launched her to semi-cult status. Fringe Fest alum and comedian Dina Del Bucchia’s debut story collection, Don’t Tell Me What to Do, isn’t scared to tell the truth about those of us who are emotional and who care too much about things that might seem ridiculous. Dawn Dumont has worked as a stand-up comic. Her new stories weave together the friendships of four Indigenous First Nations people over two decades. Leanne Dunic, singer and guitarist with the band The Deep Cove, is also a multidisciplinary artist and writer.

Friday night, you’re out with friends and a little wine, anything could happen.

ENJOY OUR WRITER’S FEST FOOD SPECIAL! STUFFED SCALLOP PORK MEATBALLS PAIRED WITH LIONS WINTER ALE OCTOBER 16-22

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FE STIVAL AT A G L A N C E

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MONDAY 16 OCTOBER 01 Between the Pages: An

19 Word! (1)

Dean Atta, Sheniz Janmohamed, Ahmed Knowmadic 10—11:30 am Granville Island Stage

Evening with the Scotiabank Giller Prize Finalists 8 pm, The Vancouver Playhouse

TU ESDAY 17 OCTOBER 02 Never Too Late…Is It?

Geoff Dembicki, Chris Turner 10—11:30 am Granville Island Stage 03 Citizen Kid

Katie Smith Milway, Margriet Ruurs 10—11:30 am Waterfront Theatre 04 Stormy Seas

Mary Beth Leatherdale 10—11:15 am Studio 1398 05 A Feast of Fun

Cary Fagan, Kyo Maclear, Sydney Smith 10—11:00 am, Revue Stage 06 Superstars x2

Polly Horvath, Gordon Korman 1—2:30 pm Granville Island Stage 07 The Upside Down

Cherie Dimaline, Ari Goelman 1—2:30 pm Waterfront Theatre

08 Newfoundland Yarns

Andy Jones 1—2:15 pm, Studio 1398 09 Family Travels

Mahtab Narsimhan, Esta Spalding 1—2:30 pm, Revue Stage 10 Modern Day Satire

Suzette Mayr, Tom Perrotta 6—7:15 pm Waterfront Theatre

WEDNESDAY 18 OCTOBER

11 The Oil Patch

Conundrum Chris Turner 6—7:15 pm, Studio 1398 12 That Thing Called

Love Mandy Len Catron, Carrie Jenkins 6—7:15 pm, Revue Stage

20 The Jungles of

Adolescence S.K. Ali, Sigmund Brouwer, Allan Stratton 10—11:30 am Performance Works 21 A Series of Adventures

Cary Fagan, Andy Jones 10—11:30 am Waterfront Theatre

22 Alchemy of a Book

with Linden MacIntyre 6–7:15 pm, Improv Centre

Sydney Smith, Esta Spalding 10—11:30 am Studio 1398

14 Grand Openings:

23 Plasticine Perfection

13 An Intimate Evening

The Alma Lee Opening Night Event Jenny Erpenbeck, Barbara Gowdy, Nicola Lagioia, Suzette Mayr, Linda Spalding, Ruth Ware 8 pm, Performance Works 15 More Than a

Good Whodunit Mark Billingham, Chris Brookmyre, Ann Cleeves, Ausma Zehanat Khan 8:30 pm Waterfront Theatre 16 Uninhibited

Karen Connelly, Tom Perrotta 8:30 pm, Studio 1398 17 Game Changer

Ken Dryden 8:30 pm, Revue Stage 18 Apples, Birds and

Books Helen Humphreys, Kyo Maclear, Merilyn Simonds 8:30 pm, Improv Centre

Barbara Reid 10–11:15 am Revue Stage 24 Restart

Gordon Korman 1—2:15 pm Performance Works 25 Lighting Out

28 Thrillers Three Ways

Hart Hanson, Ausma Zehanat Khan, Ruth Ware 6—7:15 pm Performance Works 29 Barbara Gowdy

in Conversation with Caroline Adderson 6—7:15 pm Waterfront Theatre 30 Uprooted

Jenny Erpenbeck, Ahmad Danny Ramadan 6–7:15 pm, Studio 1398 31 An Intimate Evening

with Ann Cleeves 6–7:15 pm, Revue Stage 32 Screen Gems

Hart Hanson, Tom Perrotta, Esta Spalding 8:30 pm Performance Works 33 Original Inhabitants,

Original Voices Ali Cobby Eckermann, Witi Ihimaera, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson 8:30 pm Waterfront Theatre

Cecil Castellucci, Allan Stratton 1—2:30 pm Waterfront Theatre

34 Nicole Krauss in

26 A Big Difference

35 Think Big, Canada

Katie Smith Milway 1—2:15 pm, Studio 1398 27 Seeking Refuge

Mary Beth Leatherdale, Kathryn E. Shoemaker, Irene N. Watts 1–2:30 pm, Revue Stage

Conversation with Mark Medley 8:30 pm, Studio 1398 Doug Saunders 8:30 pm, Revue Stage 36 Live a Little

Mark Billingham, Chris Brookmyre 8:30 pm Granville Island Brewing Taproom

THURSDAY 19 OCTOBER 37 North as Never Before

Ken McGoogan, Ed O’Loughlin, Paul Watson 10—11:30 am Granville Island Stage 38 Van Slam Special

47 Dreams and

Nightmares Cherie Dimaline, Omar El Akkad, Alison Pick 6—7:15 pm Waterfront Theatre

Lip Balm, Molly Billows, Johnny MacRae, Spillious, Johnny Trinh 10—11:30 am Performance Works

48 How Close Can

39 Potions, Ghosts and

49 Still Out Standing

UFOs Polly Horvath Maile Meloy 10—11:30 am Waterfront Theatre 40 Innocent Heroes

Sigmund Brouwer 10—11:15 am, Studio 1398 41 Best in the Biz

Marie-Louise Gay, Barbara Reid, Sydney Smith 10—11 am, Revue Stage 42 Word! (2)

Sheniz Janmohamed, Ahmed Knowmadic, Deanna Rodger 1­—2:30 pm Granville Island Stage 43 Fault Lines

Johanna Wagstaffe 1—2:15 pm Performance Works

You Get? Andrew O’Hagan, Diego Enrique Osorno 6—7:15 pm, Studio 1398 Sandra Perron 6—7:15 pm, Revue Stage 50 Come Rhyme

With Me Dean Atta, Jillian Christmas, Ahmed Knowmadic, Deanna Rodger 8 pm, Calabash Bistro 51 Dance to the

Coming End Leanne Dunic, The Open Book Art Collective, The Deep Cove 8:30 pm Performance Works 52 Adam Gopnik in

Conversation with Charles Foran 8:30 pm Waterfront Theatre 53 Freeman’s New Voices

44 To Be or Not To Be?

Britt Wray 1—2:15 pm Waterfront Theatre

John Freeman, Pola Oloixarac, Diego Enrique Osorno 8:30 pm, Studio 1398

45 Frame By Frame

54 How This Story Began

Fanny Britt, Cecil Castellucci 1—2:30 pm, Studio 1398 46 Yes, You Can!

S.K. Ali, Cherie Dimaline, Arushi Raina 1—2:30 pm, Revue Stage

Carol Bruneau, Dawn Dumont, Cynthia Flood, Bill Gaston, Jessica Westhead, Deborah Willis 8:30 pm, Revue Stage

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FRIDAY 20 OCTOBER 55 Life Drawing

Helen Humphreys, Witi Ihimaera, Sayed Kashua, Eileen Myles 10—11:30 am Granville Island Stage 56 Out Of Character

Claire Cameron, Wayne Johnston, Linden MacIntyre, Kathleen Winter 10—11:30 am Performance Works 57 Top of the List

Robyn Harding, Kate Hilton, Jennifer Robson 10­—11:30 am Waterfront Theatre 58 Encouraging

Creativity in Kids Marie-Louise Gay 10—11:30 am, Studio 1398 59 Writing Canada (1)

Angie Abdou, Fanny Britt, Maia Caron, Kevin Hardcastle 10—11:30 am, Revue Stage 60 James Maskalyk

63 The Pull of History

Sarah Dunant, Hannah Kent, Jennifer Robson, Linda Spalding 1—2:30 pm, Revue Stage 64 The Proper Study

65 The Confessional

73 A Boy’s Life

Kim Addonizio, Hera Lindsay Bird 6—7:15 pm, Studio 1398 66 Portrait of a Marriage

Nathan Englander, Cary Fagan, Kathleen Winter 10:30 am Performance Works Camille Bordas, John Boyne, Wayne Johnston 10:30 am Waterfront Theatre

Gurjinder Basran, Fanny Britt, Karen Connelly, Kate Hilton 6—7:15 pm, Revue Stage

74 Let’s Talk About Class

67 The Literary Cabaret

75 Writing Canada (2)

Camille Bordas, John Boyne, Sarah Dunant, Omar El Akkad, Grace O’Connell, Sylvain Prudhomme 8 pm, Performance Works 68 Our Home and

61 Poets in the House

69 Eileen Myles in

North Ken McGoogan, Ed O’Loughlin 1—2:30 pm, Studio 1398

Nicola Lagioia, Jon McGregor, Maile Meloy, Alison Pick 10:30 am Granville Island Stage 72 The Interviews

in Conversation with Kathryn Gretsinger 1—2:30 pm Granville Island Stage

62 Magnetic Mysterious

71 Plentiful Portraits

of Mankind Durga Chew-Bose, Adam Gopnik, Andrew O’Hagan 6—7:15 pm Waterfront Theatre

Adopted Land Adam Gopnik, Sayed Kashua 8:30 pm Waterfront Theatre

Kim Addonizio, Hera Lindsay Bird, Dennis Lee, Eileen Myles 1—2:30 pm Waterfront Theatre

SATURDAY 21 OCTOBER

Conversation with Aislinn Hunter 8:30 pm, Studio 1398 70 True Confessions and

Tall Tales Hera Lindsay Bird, Dina Del Bucchia, Dawn Dumont, Leanne Dunic 8:30 pm, Revue Stage

David Chariandy, Matthew Dickman, Kevin Hardcastle 10:30 am, Revue Stage Carol Bruneau, David Chariandy, Dawn Dumont, Jeff Lemire 2 pm, Performance Works 76 A Celebration of

Talonbooks Jónína Kirton, Cecily Nicholson, Tetsuro Shigematsu 2 pm, Waterfront Theatre 77 Fact AND Fiction

Cary Fagan, Sylvain Prudhomme, Akhil Sharma 2 pm, Studio 1398 78 The Stuff of Life

Durga Chew-Bose, Mary Gaitskill 2 pm, Revue Stage

79 Who I Am

Maia Caron, Ali Cobby Eckermann, Ahmad Danny Ramadan, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson 5 pm, Performance Works 80 Ghosts and Spirits

SUNDAY 22 OCTOBER 87 In the Name of the

91 Sustenance: A Feast

Family Sarah Dunant 10:30 am Waterfront Theatre

of Voices Fiona Tinwei Lam, Billeh Nickerson, Shazia Hafiz Ramji, Rachel Rose, Russell Thorton, Ayelet Tsabari 1:30 pm, Revue Stage

88 Newfoundland Jack

Angie Abdou, Gurjinder Basran, Hannah Kent, Alison Pick 5 pm, Waterfront Theatre

Tales Andy Jones, Mary-Lynn Bernard 10:30 am Studio 1398

81 Trips to the Other

89 The Sunday Brunch

World Peter Darbyshire, Lydia Kwa 5 pm, Studio 1398 82 An Intimate Evening

with Jeff Lemire 5 pm, Revue Stage 83 The Poetry Bash

Kim Addonizio, Hera Lindsay Bird, Matthew Dickman, Ali Cobby Eckermann, Jordan Mounteer, Jan Zwicky 8 pm, Performance Works 84 Getting a Grip

Jon McGregor, Maile Meloy, Grace O’Connell 8 pm, Waterfront Theatre

John Boyne, Claire Cameron, Karen Connelly, Nathan Englander, Merilyn Simonds, Deborah Willis 11 am, Performance Works

92 The Afternoon Tea

Cynthia Flood, Mary Gaitskill, Bill Gaston, Jon McGregor, Akhil Sharma, Jessica Westhead 3:30 pm Performance Works 93 Writing Now

Margaret Atwood, Andrew O’Hagan 8 pm, Granville Island Stage

90 Dennis Lee:

A Celebration Margaret Atwood, Robert Bringhurst, Dennis Lee, Steven Price, Jan Zwicky 1:30 pm, Waterfront Theatre

SPECIAL EVENTS

85 Mary Gaitskill in

An Evening with Louise Penny Monday, August 28 | 7:30 pm St. Andrew’s Wesley United Church

Conversation with Eleanor Wachtel 8 pm, Studio 1398

Salman Rushdie in Conversation Tuesday, September 19 | 7:30 pm The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts

86 An Intimate Evening

In Conversation with Jennifer Egan Wednesday, October 25 | 7:30 pm The Norman Rothstein Theatre

with Andrew O’Hagan 8 pm, Revue Stage

Waiting for First Light: In Conversation with Roméo Dallaire Thursday, November 16 | 7:30 pm St. Andrew’s Wesley United Church A Newfoundlander in Canada: Alan Doyle in Conversation Monday, November 20 | 7:30 pm Norman Rothstein Theatre

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SATURDAY 21 OCTOBER

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Plentiful Portraits

The Interviews

NICO L A L AG I O I A , J O N MC G R E G O R, MAIL E M E L OY, A L I S O N P I C K

N AT H A N E N G L A ND E R , C A R Y FAG A N , K AT H L E E N W I N TE R

C A M I L L E BOR DA S, J OH N BOY N E, WAY N E J OH NS TO N

Moderator: Charles Foran Info: 10:30 am, GRANVILLE ISLAND STAGE Price: $20

Host: Marsha Lederman Info: 10:30 am, PERFORMANCE WORKS Price: $20

Moderator: Bill Richardson Info: 10:30, WATERFRONT THEATRE Price: $20

A simple, traditional plot often features a single protagonist and some supporting characters to keep moving things along. These novels are not that. These fictions take a wide cast of memorable characters, and weave a web between them that reflects on a larger society. Maile Meloy gives us a panoply of nearly 20 characters, and you’ll remember each of them in her culturally savvy thriller. Jon McGregor’s portrait of the aftermath of a tragedy takes an omniscient view, like the eye of a hawk circling over each of the villagers attempting to go on with their lives. Nicola Lagioia won Italy’s Strega Prize for his cinematic portrait of the moral and political corruption of an entire society. And Alison Pick’s band of Jewish pioneers brings the harsh reality of 1921 Palestine to life.

The Globe & Mail’s Marsha Lederman has a knack for getting at the stories behind books. Today she talks with Pulitzer finalist and bestselling author Nathan Englander about Dinner at the Center of the Earth. A thriller? A political novel? Could it be anything but both when he’s set it in the midst of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Acclaimed author of books for adults and children, Cary Fagan reveals how the old black-and-white photos that inspired his The Old World and Other Stories really “found their way” to him.

And Scotiabank Giller-shortlisted author Kathleen Winter talks about how she stumbled upon the little-known, but factual, 11 lost days in history that drive her novel Lost in September. Enjoy the in-depth conversations with these fascinating writers.

Three accomplished writers look up at the complicated, messy world of adults through the eyes of their young, male protagonists. Canada’s Wayne Johnston tells his new novel through the perspective of 14-year-old Ned who, when his parents disappear, is enmeshed in the Newfoundland poverty that his father had escaped.

Ireland’s John Boyne, whose narrator in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas was nine, begins his new novel with a male narrator still in the womb, whose travel through the world of Catholic, post-war Ireland is anything but easy. France’s Camille Bordas relates the confusions of adolescence through an 11-year-old boy, simmering with anger. What do children see that adults don’t?

30th Anniversary Chapbook by Madeleine Thien To celebrate our 25th anniversary the VWF commissioned an original short story by the beloved Alistair Macleod. It was called Remembrance and was published in a limited edition chapbook form.

We are carrying on that tradition in this our 30th year, with a story by the celebrated homegrown literary luminary Madeleine Thien. Every copy of this limited edition chapbook will be signed by the author and available at the festival bookstore for just $30 each.

Madeleine Thien’s novel Do Not Say We Have Nothing won 2016 Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and longlisted for the 2017 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. She is currently editing, with Catherine Leroux, a special edition of Granta magazine focused on contemporary Canadian writing.

A Boy’s Life

Presented with the support of the Cultural Services of the Embassy of France in Canada.

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Let’s Talk About Class DAV I D C H A R I A NDY, M ATTH E W DI C K M A N , K E V I N H A R DC A S TL E Moderator: Angie Abdou Info: 10:30 am, REVUE STAGE Price: $20 Characters from the working class are often treated stereotypically, or as foils for wealthier characters, or don’t appear at all, in contemporary literature. These three writers make social class a focal point of their stories and poems.

David Chariandy’s fictional brothers Michael and Francis, sons of Trinidadian immigrants living in suburbia, confront prejudice, low expectations and even outright fear from their neighbours. American poet Matthew Dickman fashions melancholic portraits of impoverished white teenagers, some struggling with addiction and sliding into oblivion.

Written in spare, muscular prose, Kevin Hardcastle’s novel penetrates the heart of what it means to endure life in the underclass and to find small happiness there. If we thought that social class was a nineteenth century English construct, this conversation will make us think again.

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Writing Canada (2)

A Celebration of Talonbooks

Fact AND Fiction

C ARO L B R UNE AU, DAV I D C H A RI A N DY, DAW N D U M ON T, J E F F L E M I R E

JÓ N Í N A K I R TO N, C E C I LY N I C H OL S O N, T E T S U RO SH I GE M ATS U

C A R Y FAGA N, S Y LVA I N P R U DH OM M E, AKHIL SHARMA

Moderator: Anne Fleming Info: 2:00 pm, PERFORMANCE WORKS Price: $20

Host: Stephen Collis Info: 2:00 pm, WATERFRONT THEATRE Price: $20

Info: 2:00 pm, STUDIO 1398 Price: $20

Join us again on a cross-country trip on the Writing Canada train, celebrating Canada’s 150th year since confederation.

This journey starts on the Prairies with Saskatchewan writer Dawn Dumont’s short stories that interconnect the friendship of four Indigenous people. Then, Jeff Lemire’s graphic novel Roughneck brings to life the drink-too-much, fight-anyone life of a troubled brother and sister in northern Ontario. Our train pulls into Scarborough and the leaning, concrete towers of a housing complex where David Chariandy sets his new novel Brother. Then we roll on to Nova Scotia where Carol Bruneau makes us feel the salt air and overhear the small-town gossip in her short story collection. So many Canadas for us to explore.

Vancouver publisher Talonbooks turns 50 this year!

From humble beginnings as a poetry magazine with an editorial collective based at Magee High School in 1963, Talon magazine moved to UBC in 1965. By 1967, it had published so many young writers, Talon decided to become a book publisher for its authors. Now, with more than 500 titles in print, which have received more than 300 awards, Talonbooks can also boast that it is Canada’s largest independent publisher of drama, that it does more translations from Québec than anyone else and that it has introduced readers to many Indigenous writers. This afternoon, join us for readings by Jónína Kirton, Cecily Nicholson and Tetsuro Shigematsu, shining examples of Talonbooks’ esteemed roster.

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Real-life experiences: tether or springboard? Three authors who use facts as a way into their fictions talk about the ups and downs of this device. How do they know when to begin to stray from the truth? Do they let the facts fall away once a story has taken off? Cary Fagan used black and white photographs he found as inspiration for each of the 35 pieces in The Old World. Sylvain Prudhomme’s The Greats revisits the ‘70s music group Super Mama Djombo, as seen through the eyes of its guitarist. Akhil Sharma’s novel Family Life, for which he won the International Dublin Literary Award, is semi-autobiographical. But which part of the story is imagined? Join them for a discussion about blending fact and fiction in their books.

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SATURDAY 21 OCTOBER

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The Stuff of Life

Who I Am

Ghosts and Spirits

DUR G A C HE W - BO S E , MA R Y G A I T SK I L L

MAIA CARON, ALI COBBY ECKERMANN, AHMAD DANNY RAMADAN, LEANNE BETASAMOSAKE SIMPSON

A N GI E A B D OU, G U R J I ND E R BA SR A N , H A NN A H K E N T, A L I S ON P I C K

Moderator: Nic Low Info: 5:00 pm, PERFORMANCE WORKS Price: $20

Moderator: Anne Fleming Info: 5:00 pm, WATERFRONT THEATRE Price: $20

For Ahmad Danny Ramadan, the narratives of Syrian refugees have been reduced to shocking headlines. He wants Canada, with its commitment to welcoming refugees, to listen to their individual stories. For him, that story is “what it means to be a gay person in Syria.” Leanne Betasamosake Simpson wants “the next generation of Indigenous artists and activists to see their own experiences reflected.” Writing her book was “an act of decolonizing.” Ali Cobby Eckermann describes her writing as an “emotional timeline” of the Stolen Generations—Indigenous children, herself included, taken from their families by the Australian government. When Maia Caron discovered her Métis roots she felt obliged to resurrect the ghosts of her ancestors in her writing. Come hear four writers whose personal identity is inextricably bound up in their fiction, non-fiction and poetry.

Even those who don’t believe in ghosts or ethereal spirits are likely to have had, or heard about an experience, with some kind of otherworldly entity. For writers, creating a mysterious force to meddle in human affairs is irresistible and can constantly be reinvented. Angie Abdou’s young protagonist Eli is almost possessed by his great-greatgrandfather Elijah and is dragged into a past where amends must be made. Australian Hannah Kent’s new novel centres on a changeling and the fairies that the inhabitants of her fictional village believe are all too real. Alison Pick’s Utopian Jewish settlers are haunted by ghosts and compromised by unbearable secrets. And Gurjinder Basran’s protagonist must grapple with the possibility that her brother is the reincarnation of her deceased uncle.

Moderator: John Freeman Info: 2:00 pm, REVUE STAGE Price: $20 Two distinct voices from different generations discuss mining the content of their lives in their work.

Durga Chew-Bose’s Too Much And Not the Mood takes its title from a line in Virginia Woolf’s A Writer’s Diary and showcases the author’s own brand of essay-meets-prose about identity and culture. Mary Gaitskill’s Somebody with a Little Hammer, the esteemed fiction writer’s first collected work of non-fiction, takes its title from a sentence in Chekhov’s story “Gooseberries.” “At the door of every contented, happy man,” Chekhov wrote, “somebody should stand with a little hammer, constantly tapping, to remind him that unhappy people exist….” Join these sharp and reflective thinkers for provoking discussion on what sets their pens moving, their fingers typing and their minds firing.

Presented by The SFU Writer’s Studio.

Presented with SFU Library.

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Trips to the Other World

An Intimate Evening with Jeff Lemire

The Poetry Bash

PE T E R DA R BY S H I R E , LY D I A K WA Moderator: Sean Cranbury Info: 5:00 pm, STUDIO 1398 Price: $20 Vancouver journalist Peter Darbyshire is also a blogger and author. His collection of 19 linked short stories, Has the World Ended Yet?, starts with retired superheroes living in a soulless suburbia where everyone gets lost trying to get home. Then the angels start to fall from the sky. Darbyshire weaves together superheroes, ghosts, the undead, a hired hitman, the Cold War, the rapture and avenging angels in a Twilight Zone-style collection that is riveting and human. Vancouver psychologist and author Lydia Kwa transports us to seventh-century China, which teems with magic, fox spirits and demons. Singapore-born Kwa updates traditional Chinese mythology to include female empowerment and a wickedly modern sensibility.

Fantasy with a modern twist will be on full display this afternoon.

Info: 5:00 pm, REVUE STAGE Price: $26 Jeff Lemire belongs to a new class of crossover star. He’s one of Marvel Comics’ most valued writers, and the creative mind behind four monthly titles in the comic book world, each selling 50,000 to 100,000 copies. But, he is equally known as a literary star, a New York Times-bestselling graphic novelist. His three-volume Essex County was named by CBC as one of the decade’s five essential works of Canadian fiction. Reflecting true-to-life characters and raw emotions, Lemire’s jagged drawings and spare words are compelling and surprising. His new novel, Roughneck, is a haunting story about a half-Cree former NHL’er and his kid sister. “I feel most comfortable telling the stories of outsiders, or outcasts,” Lemire says. During this event, you’ll hear, and see, why he’s a star.

Presented with Simon & Schuster Canada.

K I M A DD ON I Z I O, H E R A L I N DS AY B I R D, M ATTH E W D I C K M A N , A L I C O B B Y EC K ER M A N N , J OR DA N M O U N TE E R , JA N Z W I C K Y Host: Lorna Crozier Info: 8:00 pm, PERFORMANCE WORKS Price: $26 Festival favourite and internationally-renowned Canadian poet Lorna Crozier has brought together an incredible lineup for The Poetry Bash at our thirtieth Festival. Oakland-based poet Kim Addonizio’s work is known for its “gritty, street-wise narrators and a wicked sense of wit.” 29-year-old Hera Lindsay Bird’s self-titled debut has been the fastestselling, most popular book of poetry in New Zealand. Portland native Matthew Dickman breaks taboos about suicide in his new work. Indigenous Australian poet Ali Cobby Eckermann, a member of the Stolen Generations, was recently awarded a prestigious Windham-Campbell prize for her body of work.

Self-described ‘vagabond’ Jordan Mounteer’s poetry ranges from tree planting in BC to travels in Asia. And Governor General’s Award winner Jan Zwicky reads from her latest environmentally-conscious collection.

Sponsored By Maureen & Larry Lunn.

WHAT’S O N

SATURDAY 21 OCTOBER

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Getting a Grip J ON M C G R E GO R , M A I L E ME L OY, G R ACE O ’ CO N N E L L Moderator: Jared Bland Info: 8:00 pm, WATERFRONT THEATRE Price: $20 Suspense novel, thriller, mystery—readers know what to expect when they pick up one of these books. Tonight, though, meet literary writers who defy categorization and cross those lines. Jon McGregor won the International Dublin Literary Award. Maile Meloy was honoured by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Grace O’Connell is one of the judges for the Journey Prize this year. All three begin their books in crime and thriller territory, then venture into another kind of novel altogether. With extraordinary control, these authors highlight the emotions and broader implications of a girl’s murder, a violent hijacking and missing children with writing that’s meditative, culturally savvy or full of heart at the same time as full of fear. Mystery and crime readers, meet the literary crowd. You’ve got so much tonight to enjoy together.

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Mary Gaitskill in Conversation with Eleanor Wachtel Info: 8:00 pm, STUDIO 1398 Price: $26 In 1988, when she was 33, Mary Gaitskill published her debut short story collection Bad Behaviour. With her reputation as a teen runaway, stripper and writer of disturbing stories blending “formal elegance, sweetness and sadomasochism” (New York Times Magazine), she earned labels like “queen of kink” and “princess of darkness.” As far as Gaitskill is concerned, “Literature is not a realm for politeness.” Her new collection of essays, Somebody with a Little Hammer, ranges from the transcendentalism of Talking Heads, to the writing of John Updike and Gillian Flynn, to the subjects of date rape and political adultery. Gaitskill’s honours include a Guggenheim Fellowship and nominations for a PEN/Faulkner Award and a National Book Award.

Come hear a ferocious voice whose novels and short stories crack the veneer of life.

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An Intimate Evening with Andrew O’Hagan Info: 8:00 pm, REVUE STAGE Price: $26 Scottish author Andrew O’Hagan’s father once scolded him for telling an interviewer there were no books in the house when he was growing up. His father said: “There was a book.

It was green. It was on top of the fridge for ages.” It was the phonebook. Unlikely beginnings for an author who was voted one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists and nominated for the Man Booker Prize three times. Tonight, join O’Hagan as he tackles the porousness between genius and madness and the notion of personality in the digital age, the subject of his new book about three elusive individuals, Julian Assange among them. This is your chance to hear from one of the most important and witty voices of his generation.

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CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WRITERS FESTIVAL ON 30 YEARS OF EXCELLENCE!

From Playwriting to Podcasting...

Cross-train in 12 genres. Pursue a BFA or MFA at our stunning Vancouver campus, enjoy the flexibility of our online MFA, or take your novel from idea to completion with award-winning faculty in our open edX courses. Join us.

UBC Creative Writing

www.creativewriting.ubc.ca

Perry the Poster Man Collection at Simon Fraser University Library

Since 1978, Perry Giguere has put up promotional posters around Vancouver, always holding on to an extra copy or two at the end of a job. SFU Library holds 1,000 posters from this collection including posters on cultural, social, and political activities in Vancouver.

To visit, contact SFU Library Special Collections at 778.782.8842

LIBRARY

Bringing great writers to Vancouver.

ANNE CLEEVES The Seagull • Pan Macmillan Award-winning author of the Vera and Shetland mystery series.

GEOFF DEMBICKI  Are We Screwed? • Bloomsbury Contributor to The New York Times, The Atlantic, and The Tyee.

ARI GOELMAN  The Innocence Treatment • Roaring Brook University professor and author of acclaimed middle-grade and young adult novels.

JOHN FREEMAN Freeman’s Journal • Grove Press Literary critic, poet, and former editor of Granta literary magazine.

AUSMA KHAN  Among the Ruins • Minotaur Former human rights law professor and Editor in Chief of Muslim Girl magazine.

SAYED KASHUA Native: Dispatches from an Israeli-Palestinian Life • Grove Press Award-winning author, journalist, and TV show writer.

EILEEN MYLES Afterglow • Grove Press Award-winning poet, author and “kick-ass counter-cultural icon” (New Yorker).

RAINCOAST GROUP

For event listings, visit www.writersfest.bc.ca

from the AssociAtion of Book PuBlishers of Bc

Rowing the Northwest Passage Greystone Books

Medicine Unbundled Heritage House Publishing

When Morning Comes Tradewind Books

The Language of Family Royal BC Museum

Timbertown Tales: Chester Gets a Pet! McKellar & Martin Publishing Group

City on Edge Greystone Books

Discover more #BCBooks at readlocalbc.ca

The Three Pleasures Anvil Press

An Extraordinary Destiny Brindle & Glass Publishing

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WHAT’S O N

SUNDAY 22 OCTOBER

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In the Name of the Family

Newfoundland Jack Tales

The Sunday Brunch

SAR AH D U N A N T

A N DY JO N E S, M A R Y - LY N N B E R N A R D

Info: 10:30 am, WATERFRONT THEATRE Price: $20

Info: 10:30 am, STUDIO 1398 Price: $20

J OH N BOY N E , C L A I R E C A M E RON , K A R E N C O NN E L LY, N ATH A N E N G LA N D ER , M E R I LY N S I M ON DS, DE BOR A H W I LLI S

Murder, poison, corruption and nepotism: all perfect ingredients for sensational contemporary storytelling.

But they’re also ingredients that made the Borgia family of Italy infamous more than 500 years ago. Bestselling author Sarah Dunant presents a sumptuous, illustrated lecture that reveals the tireless research that went into her new novel, In the Name of the Family, set in Renaissance Italy in the final years of the House of Borgia. You’ll meet the wily, charismatic womanizer Pope Alexander, his sociopathic son Cesare and his daughter Lucrezia, who transforms from “the greatest whore in Rome” to duchess of Ferrara. Dunant slyly shows that history has a knack of repeating itself.

Dunant received a standing ovation for her last illustrated lecture at the Writers Fest. Don’t miss this one!

Andy Jones is an Emmy-nominated, Gemini Award winning writer and performer who has been charming audiences since his early days touring as a member of the CODCO comedy troupe. Join Jones and Mary-Lynn Bernard for a cheerful dose of Newfoundland storytelling; this all-ages performance features a puppet version of The Queen of Paradise’s Garden, a traditional tale about folk-hero Jack, and perhaps another yarn or two. You’ll also learn about the puppets, designed by Slovenian puppet scenographer Darka Erdelji, and find delight in Newfoundland’s storytelling traditions and its many tales about Jack. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to be transported (and tickled) by the magical tales and characters that have long inhabited imaginations on the opposite coast.

Host: Bill Richardson Info: 11:00 am (Doors open at 10:30 am) PERFORMANCE WORKS Price: $38 The Sunday Brunch is a hallmark of the Festival, one of the first events to sell out, and for very good reasons: mimosas, croissants, coffee and readings by six fine authors whose work you may or may not have encountered, but who will leave you wanting more. Come with a friend, or make a new one at your table, and raise a glass of bubbly to the exceptional lineup of English, American and Canadian authors set to take the stage.

Vegetarian options available but we are unfortunately unable to accommodate all dietary restrictions.

Presented by Kidsbooks.

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Dennis Lee and House of Anansi: A Celebration MAR G A R E T AT WO O D, RO B E R T B RI N G H U RST, DE N N I S L E E , S T E V E N P R I C E , JA N ZW I C K Y Host: Brian Brett, Sarah MacLachlan Info: 1:30 pm, WATERFRONT THEATRE Price: $20 This year marks both House of Anansi’s fiftieth anniversary as an independent publisher and the publication of Dennis Lee’s collected poems, Heart Residence, which also span half a century, from 1967 to 2017. How are these two occasions linked? Lee co-founded the press in 1967 and published future stars like Margaret Atwood, Marian Engel, Michael Ondaatje, Matt Cohen, Austin Clarke and Graeme Gibson.

A rising star himself at the time, Lee went on to win nearly every literary prize Canada offers, including the Governor General’s Award and the Vicky Metcalf Award for his body of work for children. Join this cast of literary luminaries as they swap stories, tell tales, celebrate one of Canada’s finest and serve up many a metaphorical slice of Alligator Pie. This event is organized in collaboration with the Canada Council for the Arts to celebrate the finalists and winners of the Governor General’s Literary Awards.

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Sustenance: A Feast of Voices

The Afternoon Tea

FI O N A T I N W EI L A M , B I L L E H N I C K E R S O N, S H A ZI A H A FIZ R A M J I , R U S S E L L TH OR NTON , AY E L E T T S A BA R I

C Y NTH I A F L OO D, M A R Y G A I TS KI LL, B I L L GA S TON , J O N M C G R E GO R, A K H I L S H A R M A , J E S S I C A W E S TH EA D

Host: Rachel Rose Info: 1:30 pm, REVUE STAGE Price: $10

Host: Paul Grant Info: 3:30 pm (Doors open at 3:00 pm) PERFORMANCE WORKS Price: $38

Today Vancouver’s outgoing Poet Laureate Rachel Rose shares a phenomenal project from her tenure in the role. Sustenance: Writers from BC and Beyond on the Subject of Food brings to the table some of Canada’s best contemporary writers, celebrating all that’s unique about Vancouver’s literary and culinary scene. Join this incredible lineup for an afternoon of live music from The Pazific, led

by Seattle-based songwriting duo Alex and Jefferson Rose, snacks and readings on subjects as diverse as exile, hunger, food scarcity, bulimia, fat shaming, urban beekeeping, rural hunting, community gardening, foraging, feeding a baby, waitressing, dumpster diving, butchering, eating vegan, and reflections on family feast days. This is an afternoon to eat, drink and be merry, and to celebrate Rachel’s exceptional contribution to the community.

For those who enjoy a little indulgence on the weekend, this is the event for you. Sleep in, go for an autumnal stroll, then make your way down to Granville Island for freshly baked treats and authors galore. It’s an afternoon spilling over with stories in all their glorious forms—short stories, tough stories, stories within stories, gritty mysteries, family chaos and stories rich in language play and grand in scope.

It might be brisk outside, but inside the tea will be hot, the Devonshire cream decadent and the stories scintillating.

Vegetarian options available but we are unfortunately unable to accommodate all dietary restrictions.

Sponsored by the Faris family in memory of Yulanda Faris.

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WHAT’S O N

SUNDAY 22 OCTOBER

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Writing Now MAR G A R E T AT WO O D, A N D R E W O ’ H AG A N Moderator: John Freeman Info: 8:00 pm, GRANVILLE ISLAND STAGE Price: $26 We live in turbulent times—how’s that for an understatement? But that sentiment seems particularly acute looking at our world, whose very existence, some would say, hangs in the balance. How does the fragile state of things affect the role of the writer? Is it incumbent on writers to increase their engagement with politics or social issues? Can writers help us see our problems more clearly and point us toward solutions? These are just some of the questions our distinguished guests, Man Booker Prize-winner Margaret Atwood and three-time Man Booker prize nominee Andrew O’Hagan will wrestle with in the finale to our thirtieth anniversary Festival. The thoughtful, passionate conversation that starts here will surely continue long after the applause.

Presented with Penguin Random House Canada.

BUILD ON YOUR PASSION FOR WRITING AND COMMUNICATING Apply now for one of our programs: •

Creative Writing: Associate Degree

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Professional Communication: Post-Degree Diploma

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English: Associate Degree

LEARN MORE douglascollege.ca 17-157b

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6/19/2017 1:03:51 PM

AUTH O R B IO GR A P H I E S

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Angie Abdou (Alberta) Events 59, 80 Angie Abdou is a Canadian fiction writer whose work has received numerous awards and is often included on the “best of” lists of the year.

In addition to being a novelist, she often moderates discussions at writers festivals across the country. She has taught for more than 15 years and is currently the Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Athabasca University. She regularly contributes to Quill & Quire, where she furthers the discussion of Canadian literature. Abdou’s new book In Case I Go is her fifth work and explores how we are haunted by the actions of our ancestors.

NOVEMBER 2-8

@angie_abdou, abdou.ca

30+ new music events featuring 100+ composers from around the globe

Kim Addonizio (United States) Events 61, 65, 83

ISCM2017.CA | #ISCM2017

Kim Addonizio has written poetry, poetry guides, fiction and non-fiction books. She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, two NEA Fellowships and was a finalist for the National Book Award. After receiving her BA and MA from San Francisco State University, she taught there and currently teaches in the MFA program at Goddard College. She was also a founding editor of the journal Five Fingers Review. Mortal Trash, Addonizio’s new poetry collection, pulls readers into the beauty and absurdity of our time on earth. @kim_addonizio, kimaddonizio.com Project2_Layout 1 4/11/2016 10:38 PM Page 1

S.K. Ali (Ontario) Events 20, 46

“

“A riveting and accomplished debut.”

—Publisher’s Weekly

S.K. Ali’s insightful work on Muslim culture has appeared in the Toronto Star. Many of her family members are scholars who consistently appear on the 500 Most Influential Muslims in the World lists. Saints and Misfits, Ali’s timely debut novel, follows a sharp and relatable Muslim teen as she forms her identity through family, faith and friends and finds the strength to speak her truth. @SajidahWrites, skalibooks.com

“Readers who love the fast pace and high stakes of dystopian teen literature should snag this book.”

—Kirkus Reviews

(starred review)

• “Arushi Raina’s When Morning Comes is riveting historical fiction . . . its characters are engaging, its description of societal differences and injustice is thought-provoking, and its action sequences are at times heart-stopping.”

Dean Atta (United Kingdom) Events 19, 50 Dean Atta is a poet from London, UK. His debut collection, I Am Nobody’s Nigger, was shortlisted for the Polari First Book Prize. He was named as one of the most influential LGBT people in the UK by The Independent on Sunday Pink List and featured in Out News Global Pride Power List. Atta has performed across the UK and internationally and has been commissioned to write poems for BBC Radio 4, BBC World Service, Dazed & Confused, Keats House Museum, National Portrait Gallery, Tate Britain and Tate Modern. He is working on his second collection, The Black Flamingo. @DeanAtta, sites.google.com/site/deanatta Dean Atta’s appearance is made possible by the British Council.

(starred review)

—Montreal Gazette

• “When Morning Comes . . . has an in-the-moment, documentary feel that puts historical realism and authenticity first.”

—The Globe and Mail

Tradewind Books

tradewindbooks.com

AUTH O R B IO GR A P H I E S

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Margaret Atwood

Camille Bordas

(Ontario) Events 90, 93

(France) Events 67, 73

Margaret Atwood is an author, literary critic, playwright, cartoonist, illustrator, puppeteer and environmental activist. She has written more than forty books of fiction, critical essays, poetry and children’s literature.

Atwood’s works have been published in more than forty languages and she has received numerous awards from around the world. She is renowned for the Man Booker Prize-winning The Blind Assassin and the MaddAddam trilogy. Her most recent works include the next in the graphic novel series Angel Catbird, and Hagseed, a retelling of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, has been recently turned into a television series by Hulu.

Camille Bordas grew up in Paris and Mexico City and now lives in Chicago.

Her transitory life is reflected in her sensitive and thoughtful writing. Her previous novels Les treize desserts and Partie commune were published in French. Her fiction has also appeared in The New Yorker. Bordas’ first English novel, How to Behave in a Crowd, has been described by George Saunders as “an utterly charming book.” It is an immersive coming of age story that brilliantly captures the difficulties of being a teenager and the realization that adulthood is just as confusing.

@MargaretAtwood, margaretatwood.ca

Camille Bordas’ appearance is supported by the Cultural Service of the Embassy of France in Canada.

Gurjinder Basran

John Boyne

(British Columbia) Events 66, 80

(Ireland) Events 67, 73, 89

Gurjinder Basran worked as a telecom manager before writing her award-winning debut novel, Everything Was Good-bye. She was named by the CBC as one of “Ten Canadian Women Writers You Need to Read” for Everything Was Good-Bye which details the struggle of holding to Indian culture while trying to adapt to Canadian customs.

Basran studied Creative Writing at Simon Fraser University and has been an instructor in their writer’s program. Her new novel, Someone You Love Is Gone, explores the elements that hold a family together and what can tear them apart. gurjinderbasran.ca

John Boyne has written several adult novels, young adult novels and a short story collection. He has been published in 51 languages. His novel The Boy in the Striped Pajamas sold nine million copies worldwide, and was made into a film. He was awarded the Hennessy Literary Hall of Fame Award for his body of work and many other literary awards.

He is a regular book reviewer for The Irish Times. The Heart’s Invisible Furies is the story of one man’s life in post-war Ireland as he struggles to discover an identity, a home and his place in the world. @john_boyne, johnboyne.com

Mark Billingham

Fanny Britt

(United Kingdom) Events 15, 36

(Quebec) Events 45, 59, 66

Before becoming a noted crime writer, Mark Billingham worked as an actor, a television writer and a stand-up comedian. His books Sleepyhead and Scaredy Cat were made into popular television shows and all of his novels featuring Detective Inspector Tom Thorne have appeared on the Sunday Times bestseller list. DI Thorne returns this year in Love Like Blood, in which he helps another detective whose partner has been murdered, possibly due to the cold-case honour killings she has been investigating. @MarkBillingham, markbillingham.com

Fanny Britt is a Francophone writer who has written a dozen plays and translated more than 15. She graduated from the playwriting program at the National Theatre School of Canada in 2010, and two years later she won the Governor General’s Literary Award in Drama for her play Bienveillance. Britt’s first graphic novel, Jane, the Fox and Me, was collaboration with Isabelle Arsenault and won numerous awards. They are working together again on Louis Undercover. Britt’s first novel for adults Hunting Houses, arriving this year, is a complex and realistic exploration of a woman’s marriage. @fannybritiche

Hera Lindsay Bird

Chris Brookmyre

(New Zealand) Events 61, 65, 70, 83

(Scotland) Events 15, 36

Hera Lindsay Bird has an MA in poetry and is one of the most acclaimed young poets to emerge from New Zealand. Her poetry reflects her wicked sense of humour and has been described by Sunday Magazine as “fearless.” Bird’s self-titled debut was the fastest selling book of poetry published by Victoria University Press and has “themes as varied as snow and tears.” She continues to work in a bookstore in Wellington while writing a children’s detective novel. @HeraLindsayBird, herabird.weebly.com

Chris Brookmyre’s award-winning debut Quite Ugly One Morning established him as a noteworthy crime author and his series of Jack Parlabane books have sold more than one million copies in the UK. He has published more than 20 novels which incorporate comedy, social commentary, action and politics. He has worked as a journalist and was the President of the Humanist Society Scotland for many years.

Brookmyre’s new work, Want You Gone, follows Parlabane as he is thrust into a world of blackmail and hackers exploring how private information is made public in the digital age.

Hera Lindsay Bird’s appearance is made possible by Creative New Zealand.

@cbrookmyre, brookmyre.co.uk

AUTH O R B IO GR A P H I E S

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Sigmund Brouwer

Cecil Castellucci

(Alberta) Events 20, 40

(United States) Events 25, 45

Sigmund Brouwer is a prolific, best-selling author with more than four million copies of his books in print. His work covers a huge variety of genres and subjects including picture books, nonfiction and young adult works. In addition to writing, Brouwer has presented literacy writing workshops to as many as 10,000 students annually across North America. Brouwer’s new novel, Innocent Heroes, takes a look at the role animals played during WWI and the bonds that form even in the darkest of times.

Cecil Castellucci is the author of books, short stories and graphic novels for young adults including Boy Proof, Odd Duck and The Plain Janes for which she was awarded best Canadian Comic Book Writer. Her short stories have been published in various anthologies. Beyond writing, Castellucci is a playwright, filmmaker, performer and musician. She is the Children’s Correspondence Coordinator for The Rumpus and the founding YA Editor at The LA Review of Books. Her newest graphic novel Soupy Leaves Home, illustrated by Jose Pimienta, is set in the 1930s and follows two misfits who are searching for a better life.

@BrouwerSigmund, sigmundbrouwer.com

@misscecil, castellucci.wordpress.com

Carol Bruneau

Mandy Len Catron

(Nova Scotia) Events 54, 75

(British Columbia) Event 12

Carol Bruneau is the author of six award-winning, critically-acclaimed books Her 2007 novel, Glass Voices, was a Globe and Mail Best Book and has become a book club favourite. Bruneau’s reviews, stories and essays have appeared in newspapers, anthologies and journals across Canada. She teaches writing at NSCAD University. Her new short fiction collection, A Bird on Every Tree, details the shifting concepts of what it means to be Nova Scotian and how we define home. @carolbruneau, carolbruneau.com

Mandy Len Catron’s first book focuses on a popular and difficult subject: love. Catron’s 2015 article “To Fall in Love with Anyone, Do This” was one of the most popular articles published by The New York Times and went viral. How to Fall in Love with Anyone is a collection of essays on what it is to love, to be loved and how we show our love to others.

She is currently working on the Love Story Project, which continues her research into this subject online. She teaches English and creative writing at the University of British Columbia. @LenMandy, mandylencatron.wordpress.com

Claire Cameron

David Chariandy

(Ontario) Events 56, 89

(British Columbia) Events 74, 75

Claire Cameron is a Canadian novelist, journalist and Queen’s University graduate. Her second novel The Bear was a national bestseller and award-winner. Her love of the outdoors permeates her work, including her latest novel The Last Neanderthal, which follows a teenage Neanderthal on her journey to find a mate and the archaeologist who discovers her in the present. @clairecameron, claire-cameron.com

David Chariandy is a Canadian writer and one of the co-founders of Commodore Books, the first dedicated black Canadian press in Western Canada. His academic focus is on diaspora and the racialized experience of black Canadians, as well as the stories they tell. His debut novel, Soucouyant, was well-reviewed and nominated for many literary prizes and awards, including a shortlisting for the Governor General’s Literary Award.

Brother, his second novel, details the relationship of two Trinidadian teenager brothers as they navigate their way through the complex issues of identity, race, and family. He currently teaches at Simon Fraser University.

Maia Caron

Durga Chew-Bose

(Ontario) Events 59, 79

(Canada) Events 64, 78

Before becoming a writer, Maia Caron was a registered massage therapist and studied Buddhism, Taoism and spiritual healing. In her twenties, she discovered she is Red River Métis and her ancestors fought at the Battle of Seven Oaks in 1816 and served in Louis Riel’s councils.

Song of Batoche is her first novel which affectionately explores the relations of Louis Riel, Gabriel Dumont and the Métis. @MaiaCaron, maiacaron.com

Durga Chew-Bose’s writing has appeared in Hazlitt, the Guardian and The Globe and Mail. Her debut collection of essays, Too Much and Not the Mood takes its title from a diary entry of Virginia Woolf’s to describe her issues with satisfying audiences and embodies Chew-Bose’s guiding theme, namely, what is worth writing? It was called “transcendent and grounding” by The Globe and Mail. @durgapolashi

AUTH O R B IO GR A P H I E S

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Ann Cleeves (United Kingdom) Events 15, 31 Ann Cleeves’ crime novels featuring Vera Stanhope and Jimmy Perez have sold millions of copies, been translated into 20 languages, and been adapted into successful television series. Last fall, she celebrated publishing 30 books in 30 years. Her latest novel in the Vera Stanhope series, The Seagull, focuses on fracturing families and corruption that can tear apart a community as past events clash with the present. @AnnCleeves, anncleeves.com

Karen Connelly (Ontario) Events 16, 66, 89 Karen Connelly is the author of ten books of bestselling non-fiction, fiction and poetry and has lectured in Canada, Europe, Asia and Australia. Her first book, Touch the Dragon, was a long-time national bestseller and won the Governor General’s Award, making Connelly the youngest winner. She divides her time between rural Greece and Toronto.

Her new novel, The Change Room, is an exploration of desire as a married woman develops an overwhelming crush on a woman at her community pool. @karenmconnelly, karenconnelly.ca

Peter Darbyshire (British Columbia) Event 81 Peter Darbyshire is a Canadian journalist, editor, blogger and author.

His novel Please won the KM Hunter Artist Award for Literature and the ReLit Award for Best Novel. His work has appeared in publications across North America. He also publishes the fantasy series Cross under the alias Peter Roman. His collection of short stories, Has the World Ended Yet?, is a riveting and unexpected novel of retired superheroes as they try to figure out what to do in the face of Armageddon. @peterdarbyshire, peterdarbyshire.com

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The

th

annual

Rockwood Centre | Sechelt

Dina Del Bucchia

August 16 -19 2018

(British Columbia) Event 70 Dina Del Bucchia s the author of three books of poetry, has worked with Poetry is Dead magazine, the Robson Reading Series and is the Artistic Director of the Real Vancouver Writers’ Series. She hosts Can’t Lit, a podcast on Canadian literature and culture, with Daniel Zomparelli. She received an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia, where she currently teaches. In her debut story collection, Don’t Tell me What to Do, Del Bucchia writes about the people who don’t fit in and how they try to place themselves in the world. @DelBauchery, dinadelbucchia.com

604.885.9631 toll free:1.800.565.9631 tel:

www.writersfestival.ca

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Scholastic Canada is excited to present:

Geoff Dembicki (British Columbia) Event 2 Geoff Dembicki is a journalist and staff writer at The Tyee. His work has appeared in the Toronto Star, Foreign Policy and The Walrus, and has been cited by the Center for Public Integrity and NPR. His work on energy sustainability has taken him to cities like San Francisco, New York, Fort McMurray and Beijing. His book Are We Screwed? is based on his popular series of the same name written for The Tyee. It explores the generational shift in values around climate change from the millennial perspective in an attempt to form more equitable and viable lifestyles. @GeoffDembicki

Matthew Dickman (United States) Events 74, 83

Gordon Korman

Allan Stratton

Matthew Dickman is an award-winning poet whose work has appeared in The American Poetry Review, Tin House, Clackamas Literary Review and The New Yorker. He has published chapbooks and books, worked as a poetry editor at Tin House and as a professor of creative writing at Vermont College of the Arts. His most recent poetry collection, Brother, was written with his twin brother Michael about their older brother’s suicide. The book has been praised for each poet’s distinct writing style as they unflinchingly reflect on grief, family and life. matthewdickmanpoetry.com

Cherie Dimaline (Ontario) Events 7, 46, 47 Cherie Dimaline is a Métis author and editor from the Georgian Bay community. Her award-winning fiction has been published and anthologized internationally. She has edited numerous publications including Spirit, FNH, Muskrat Magazine and FACE. Dimaline was named the first Writer in Residence in Aboriginal Literature for the Toronto Public Library. She also coordinates the annual Indigenous Writers’ Gathering in Toronto. The Marrow Thieves is Dimaline’s newest dystopic sci-fi novel aimed at young adults in which global warming has devastated the planet and the Indigenous people of North America are hunted for their bone marrow. @writeoncherie, cheriedimaline.blogspot.com

Barbara Reid

Mahtab Narsimhan

Ken Dryden (Ontario) Event 17

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Find out more about literacy in the Kids & Family Reading Report™ Canadian Edition here: scholastic.ca/ readingreport

Ken Dryden is a best-selling author, politician, member of the NHL Hall of Fame and officer of the Order of Canada. In the 1970s, Dryden was a goalie for the Montreal Canadiens, and helped them take home six Stanley Cups. He has been named one of the 100 Greatest NHL Players and has written many powerful books on hockey including The Game.

His latest work, Game Change, follows the tragic story of player Steve Montador who died at the age of 35 from chronic traumatic encephalopathy a condition often found in athletes who have suffered multiple concussions.

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Dawn Dumont

Omar El Akkad

(Saskatchewan) Events 54, 70, 75

(Ontario/United States) Events 47, 67

Dawn Dumont is a Plains Cree comedian, actor and writer. She has written for CBC Radio and the Edmonton Journal, and is currently a columnist for Saskatoon StarPhoenix, Regina Leader-Post and Eagle Feather News. Her work has been published in magazines, literary journals and anthologies like Now and Gatherings. Glass Beads is Dumont’s new short story collection about the friendship of four First Nations people and how they evolve through family tragedy, historical events, and newfound intimacy over two decades. @dawndumont

Omar El Akkad is a revered journalist and author. His reporting has taken him all over the world where he has covered some of the most important news stories including the military trials at Guantànamo Bay, the NATO-led war in Afghanistan and the Arab Spring revolution in Egypt.

His investigation of the “Toronto 18” terrorism arrests lead to his National Newspaper Award. American War is his first piece of fiction set during the Second American Civil War and follows a family as they experience the devastation and consequences of America’s deadly weapons and policies. @omarelakkad

Sarah Dunant

Nathan Englander

(United Kingdom) Events 63, 67, 87

(United States) Events 72, 89

Sarah Dunant is an internationally-acclaimed author and bestseller of historical fiction. She writes reviews for The New York Times, The Guardian and The Times and sits on the editorial board of the Royal Academy magazine. She teaches a Renaissance studies course at Washington University and is a creative writing fellow at Oxford Brookes University.

Her thorough research is reflected in her novels set during the Renaissance and the believable and interesting women she writes. In the Name of the Family, Dunant’s latest, focuses on the strong ties of one of the most notorious families of Renaissance Italy: the Borgias. sarahdunant.com

Bestselling novelist and short story writer Nathan Englander was selected as one of “20 Writers for the 21st Century” by The New Yorker.

His work has been translated into more than 20 languages and he was a finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize. His essays have appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker and The Washington Post. He teaches in the MFA program at New York University. His most recent novel, Dinner at the Center of the Earth, is a political thriller that pivots on the complex dynamic between a prisoner and his guard during the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. @NathanEnglander, nathanenglander.com

Leanne Dunic

Jenny Erpenbeck

(British Columbia) Events 51, 70

(Germany) Events 14, 30

Leanne Dunic is a writer, multidisciplinary artist and musician. Her work has been published in several magazines and anthologies. Her short story “Without Her” won the Alice Munro Short Story Prize in 2015.

She is the Artistic Director of the Powell Street Festival Society in Vancouver, celebrating Japanese Canadian arts and cultures in Canada.

She is also the singer and guitarist of The Deep Cove. To Love the Coming End is her first book and follows a writer as she travels around the world in an attempt to come to terms with the loss of a loved one. @leannedunic, leannedunic.com

Before becoming a writer, Jenny Erpenbeck trained as a bookbinder and worked as a wardrobe supervisor and director at an opera house. Her diverse artistic background has made Erpenbeck a unique voice who has been called, “one of the most significant German-language novelists of her generation” by The Millions. Erpenbeck’s Go, Went, Gone is a critical and thoughtful novel about the the European refugee crisis and one man’s attempts to understand the immigrant experience.

Ali Cobby Eckermann

Cary Fagan

(Australia) Events 33, 79, 83

(Ontario) Events 5, 21, 72, 77

Ali Cobby Eckermann is an Indigenous Australian writer. Like her mother and grandmother, she is a member of the Stolen Generations: a large group of Indigenous children forcibly taken from their parents by the government to be assimilated. In 2017, Eckermann won the international Windham-Campbell Literary Prize for Poetry. Eckermann also founded Australia’s first Aboriginal Writers Retreat. Her poetry collections, verse novels and memoir have won several literary awards and she has travelled broadly performing her work. Inside My Mother explores the separation and reunion of a mother and child across generations.

Cary Fagan is an award-winning writer for children as well as a respected author of adult novels and anthologies. His critically-acclaimed works include A Bird’s Eye, a finalist for the Rogers Trust Fiction Prize, and the story collection My Life Among the Apes, longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. This year, Fagan has many children’s books coming out, including Mort Ziff is Not Dead, Little Blue Chair and Wolfie and Fly. The Old World, Fagan’s short story collection based on old found photographs, gives a vivid and mesmerizing peek into the lives of strangers. @caryfagan, cary-fagan.com

Jenny Erpenbeck’s appearance is made possible by the Goethe-Institut.

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Cynthia Flood

Marie-Louise Gay

(British Columbia) Events 54, 92

(Quebec) Events 41, 58

Cynthia Flood is a novelist and short-story writer. She has been active in many socialist, anti-war, environmental and feminist groups which have contributed her work. She was also an English instructor at Langara College. Her work has been selected six times for Best Canadian Stories and has appeared in many literary magazines. Her fifth book of short stories, What Can You Do, focuses on several individuals and how they understand their motives and behaviour over time. cynthiaflood.com

Marie-Louise Gay is a renowned children’s author and illustrator of more than 60 books whose characters are beloved by children and adults all around the world. She has won many awards, including two Governor General’s awards and the Claude Aubry Award, which is presented

by IBBY Canada for distinguished service within the field of children’s literature. This year she has three books coming out, including a new Princess Pistachio book and Short Stories for Little Monsters. marielouisegay.com

John Freeman

Ari Goelman

(United States) Event 53

(British Columbia) Event 7

John Freeman is a literary critic and writer. He was the editor of Granta and his work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times and the Paris Review. His writing has appeared in almost 200 English-language publications around the world and has been translated into more than twenty languages. He also served as the president of the National Book Critics Circle. This fall, Freeman has a new book coming out, Tales of Two Americas Stories of Inequality in a Divided Nation; a debut poetry collection, Maps and an issue of Freemans regarding “The Future of New Writing”.

Ari Goelman is a short story writer, professor and young adult novelist.

He has published many science fiction and fantasy short stories, and his academic work has been covered by the Brookings Institution and The New York Times. His previous novel, The Path of Names, is a paranormal mystery about a young woman at a Jewish summer camp.

His latest novel, The Innocent Treatment, is about a 16-year-old high school student who undergoes a cutting-edge medical treatment to cure her cognitive disability that causes her to develop severe paranoia. @agoelman, arigoelman.com

@FreemanReads

Mary Gaitskill

Adam Gopnik

(United States) Events 78, 85, 92

(United States) Events 52, 64, 68

Mary Gaitskill is a critically-acclaimed essayist, short story writer and novelist. Her novel Veronica was a finalist for the National Book Award and named one of The New York Times’ Ten Best Books of 2005.

Her collection of essays, Somebody with a Little Hammer is her most autobiographical work to date, which delves into literature, politics, culture and social issues of American society.

Adam Gopnik is a renowned writer and essayist. He has been writing for The New Yorker since 1986, where he has contributed numerous non-fiction, fiction, memoir and criticism pieces. Beyond this, he has written children’s books, edited anthologies, and engaged in many musical projects as a lyricist and libretto writer. He was selected by the CBC to deliver the fiftieth anniversary Massey Lectures and has lectured in almost every major American city. At the Strangers’ Gate is Gopnik’s vivid memoir of his move to New York in the 1980s. @adamgopnik, adamgopnik.com

Bill Gaston

Barbara Gowdy

(British Columbia) Events 54, 92

(Ontario) Events 14, 29

Bill Gaston worked his fair share of struggling-writer jobs as a logger, salmon fishing guide, group home worker and as a hockey player in the south of France. Now he is an established novelist, playwright and short story writer. For a time he was the editor of Canada’s oldest literary journal, The Fiddlehead, and he currently teaches at the University of Victoria. A Mariner’s Guide to Self Sabotage is ten cautionary tales about characters on the path to self‑destruction.

Barbara Gowdy has written seven books which have received widespread international acclaim. As a novelist and short story writer, she has been described by Harper’s as someone who has “refused to subscribe to worn-out techniques and storytelling methods.” She is a member of the Order of Canada and a three-time finalist for The Governor General’s Award. Her latest work, Little Sister, written after a struggle with depression caused by extreme back pain, follows a woman who can leave her body and experience the world through another person. barbaragowdy.com

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Hart Hanson (Canada/United States) Events 28, 32 Hart Hanson is a television writer, producer, creator and most recently, a novelist. He was the executive producer of the Emmy nominated show, Judging Amy, and worked on the award-winning series, Joan of Arcadia.

He created, produced and wrote the Fox television series, Bones, which was the longest-running scripted hour-long series on Fox. It ran for 12 seasons and was well-received. The Driver is Hanson’s debut thriller about a Special Forces sergeant turned limo driver who stumbles into a world of trouble he has tried to avoid after a threat on his client’s life. @HartHanson

Kevin Hardcastle (Ontario) Events 59, 74 Kevin Hardcastle is a fiction writer whose debut collection of short stories Debris won the 2016 Trillium Book Award and received copious accolades. His work has appeared in The Walrus, Joyland, The New Quarterly, The Malahat Review and has been anthologized in Best Canadian Stories and in two issues of The Journey Prize Stories.

His first novel, In the Cage, is a carefully crafted story about a vicious Mixed Martial Arts cage-fighter who falls into the criminal world after a career-ending injury. @KHardcase, kevinmhardcastle.com

Robyn Harding (British Columbia) Event 57 Before becoming a writer, Robyn Harding studied journalism and worked in the advertising industry. She has written four novels in the contemporary women’s fiction genre, a young adult novel and a comedic memoir. Her books have been translated into seven languages.

Harding also wrote and produced an independent film, The Steps, which premiered at at the Toronto International Film Festival. The Party is a domestic drama about a tragedy at a sweet sixteen party that sends a wealthy family into a chaotic spiral that undoes their picture-perfect life. robynharding.com

Kate Hilton (Ontario) Events 57, 66 Kate Hilton is a bestselling author and experienced media contributor.

She has appeared on Breakfast Television, CBC Early Edition, Global Morning, CTV Morning, and other local shows. Her work has been featured in Canadian Living, CBC Canada Writes and The National Post, among others. Before becoming a writer, she worked in law, public relations and fundraising. She co-authors a non-fiction blog, the Pen Pal Project. Her second novel, Just Like Family, follows a successful business woman juggling the demands of her ex-husband, her fiancée and a work husband. @katemhilton, katehilton.com

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

s t r at e g i c p u b l i s h i n g

www.pagetwostrategies.com

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Polly Horvath (British Columbia) Events 6, 39 Polly Horvath is an award-winning author of children’s and young adult books. Before turning to writing, she studied dance in Toronto and New York. Horvath has won a National Book Award, a Newbery Honor and numerous other awards. Her books have been on The New York Times bestseller lists, featured as an Oprah’s pick, translated into more than 25 languages and are taught all over the world in schools. Set in WWII, The Night Garden is a magical and clever story about a garden that grants wishes. pollyhorvath.com

Helen Humphreys (Ontario) Events 18, 55

Sidewalk Sales on the Promenade @ Central Library Sept 21-23 & Nov 30 - Dec 2

friendsofthevpl.ca | (604)331 - 4049

Helen Humphreys is a poet and writer. She has written six novels, four poetry books and two works of creative non-fiction. Her last novel, The Evening Chorus, was a national bestseller and nominated for a Governor General’s Award. Humphreys was awarded the Harbourfront Festival Prize for literary excellence in 2009. The Ghost Orchard is a moving, well-researched novel that delves into the secret history of the apple and how it is a symbol of settlement and ties between people. hhumphreys.com

Witi Ihimaera (New Zealand) Events 33, 55 Witi Ihimaera is the first M¯aori author to publish a collection of short stories and a novel. His work often draws inspiration from his upbringing and portrays M¯aori culture in the modern world. He is an accomplished writer of memoir, plays and novels. He has worked as a diplomat in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in cities around the world and was a professor of M¯aori Literature. His book, The Whale Rider, became an internationally successful film. The first volume of his autobiography, M¯aori Boy, was recently published and details his early life and the myths that formed this fascinating writer’s imagination.

Witi Ihimaera’s appearance is made possible by Creative New Zealand.

Sheniz Janmohamed (Ontario) Events 19, 42 Sheniz Janmohamed is an arts educator, spoken word artist and author.

Janmohamed has performed nationally and internationally for more than 10 years and her work has been published in various journals and anthologies. Beyond her writing, she has taught spoken word and creative writing workshops for all ages at schools, libraries and community organizations, helping participants find their voice. She founded Ignite Poets, a spoken word program that focuses on social awareness and collaboration.

Her second poetry collection Firesmoke delves into the meaning of self and the power of the four elements. @ShenizJ, shenizjanmohamed.com

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Carrie Jenkins

Hannah Kent

(British Columbia) Event 12

(Australia) Events 63, 80

Carrie Jenkins is a writer and philosopher, with a focus on epistemology and metaphysics. She has worked in universities in the United States, Ireland, Australia and currently is a professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia. Jenkins is a nationally-elected Canada Research Chair and is working towards an MFA in Creative Writing.

She is also a member of The 21st Century Monads, a philosophy-themed musical group. What Love Is And What It Could Be is an exploration on the nature of romantic love. @carriejenkins, carriejenkins.net

Hannah Kent is an award-winning writer. Her first novel, Burial Rites, was an international bestseller and has been translated into 30 languages.

Kent is the co-founder and publishing director of Australian literary publication Kill Your Darlings. Her second novel, The Good People, is based on true events in nineteenth-century Ireland. It tells the story of three women who are trying to protect a child whom the community suspects is a changeling. @HannahFKent, hannahkentauthor.com

Wayne Johnston

Ausma Zehanat Khan

(Newfoundland) Events 56, 73

(Canada/United States) Events 15, 28

Wayne Johnston is a bestselling fiction and memoir author. His books include The Divine Ryans and The Colony of Unrequited Dreams, which has been made into a stage play and is being developed into a television series. He worked as a reporter for the St. John’s Daily News and was a member of a championship ball-hockey team before committing himself to writing. His latest work, First Snow, Last Light follows a young boy as he searches for his missing parents. As he encounters his larger-than-life family, he learns what can challenge and compel a person’s actions. @waynejohnston17, waynejohnston.ca

Ausma Zehanat Khan is a writer and long-time community activist. She holds a PhD in International Human Rights Law, taught human rights law in university and practiced immigration law in Toronto. She is also a frequent lecturer and commentator, with a research specialization in military intervention and war crimes in the Balkans. She was Editor-in-Chief of Muslim Girl magazine, the first magazine targeted to young Muslim women.

Among the Ruins is a powerful mystery about a murdered filmmaker in Iran and explores what it means to be Muslim in the West. She is also at work on a fantasy series. @AusmaZehanat, ausmazehanatkhan.com

Andy Jones

Jónína Kirton

(Newfoundland and Labrador) Events 8, 21, 88

(British Columbia) Event 76

Andy Jones has been a comedian, performer and writer for more than 40 years. He is formerly a member of the groundbreaking Newfoundland comedy group CODCO and has written for The Kids in the Hall. He has been acknowledged for his acting through many awards, including an ACTRA Award of Excellence for Lifetime Achievement. He has written five critically-acclaimed one-man comedy shows and has toured across Canada. Jones has also written five children’s books. He is currently performing The Queen of Paradise’s Garden Puppet Show with his wife, puppeteer Mary-Lynn Bernard, which follows in the tradition of Newfoundland fairy tales.

Jónína Kirton is a Métis/Icelandic poet, author and facilitator. She is involved with the Aboriginal Writers Collective – West Coast and coordinated the first National Indigenous Writers Conference in Vancouver. Her work has been featured in anthologies and literary journals, including Ricepaper’s Asian & Aboriginal issue and Toronto Quarterly. She is a member of the Simon Fraser University’s Writer’s Studio Advisory Board. Kirton is also a member of Room magazine’s editorial board. Her second poetry collection, An Honest Woman, challenges the norms of femininity and sexuality as a mixed-race woman.

Sayed Kashua

Ahmed Knowmadic

(United States/Israel) Events 55, 68

(Alberta) Events 19, 42, 50

Sayed Kashua is a journalist and author of four critically well-received novels. As a columnist for Haaretz, he writes anecdotal, tongue-in-cheek columns about problems faced by Arabs in Israel. He is also the creator of the popular sitcom, Arab Labor, and a teacher of Israel Studies in Illinois.

His latest book, Native, is a collection of humorous essays exploring life as an Israeli-Palestinian and as a man delving into fatherhood, marriage, ambition, literature and prejudice.

Ahmed Knowmadic is a poet, writer, comedian and speaker. His writing and community activism is inspired by his experiences as an immigrant to Canada, and his desire to make the world a better place. He has competed in spoken word festivals and has received recognition for his involvement in arts and culture initiatives like the Breath in Poetry Collective, which he founded with other poets. He has several poems published in anthologies and journals that are taught in Canada. In 2017, Knowmadic was named the Poet Laureate for the city of Edmonton. @AKnowmadic, ahmedknowmadic.com

@joninakirton, joninakirton.wixsite.com

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Gordon Korman

Mary Beth Leatherdale

(United States) Events 6, 24

(Ontario) Events 4, 27

Gordon Korman is the bestselling author of more than 80 books for children and young adults. They have been translated into 32 languages and sold over 28 million copies worldwide. Korman’s writing career began when he had his first book published at the age of 14. His 39 Clues series has won many awards, including four ALA Best Books for Young Adults. This fall, Korman has a new book in his Swindle series, and a novel, Restart, about a young man who loses his memory and has to discover what sort of person he was, and who he wants to be. gordonkorman.co

Mary Beth Leatherdale has been working as a writer, editor and consultant, creating books, magazines and resources for more than 25 years. She was the founding editor of Chirp, Canada’s first preschool magazine, and oversaw the publishing of OWL. Beyond her educational work, she has pushed to have more anti-racist curricula in schools by working with Indigenous authors to develop books on Indigenous culture.

Her new picture book, Stormy Seas: Stories of Young Boat Refugees shows the terrifying journey some children have to go through when their countries become unsafe. @mbleatherdale, marybethleatherdale.com

Nicole Krauss

Dennis Lee

(United States) Events 34

(Ontario) Events 61, 90

Nicole Krauss has been described by The New York Times as “one of America’s most important novelists.” Her three novels, Man Walks Into a Room, The History of Love and Great House were international bestsellers, received critical acclaim and have been translated into more than 35 languages. Her fiction has been published in The New Yorker, Harper’s, Esquire and Best American Short Stories. Her fourth novel, Forest Dark, follows two unhappy people on a search for meaning in the Israeli desert. nicolekrauss.com

Dennis Lee is a teacher, editor, critic, poet and literary icon. He is a Governor General’s Award winner, an Officer of the Order of Canada and the author of more than 30 books. Lee was the first poet laureate of Toronto and has served as a writer-in-residence for a number of universities. He also worked as a songwriter on the television program, Fraggle Rock. This year, a collection of his poetry from 1967–2017 is being released, entitled Heart Residence. His incredible range of styles and depth of emotion has touched people of all ages throughout his career.

Lydia Kwa

Jeff Lemire

(British Columbia) Event 81

(Ontario) Events 75, 82

Lydia Kwa is a writer and clinical psychologist in Vancouver. She has written novels and poetry books which have been positively received, including 2013’s sinuous. Over the years she has worked with various mental health organizations and different aspects of her practice have been used in her writing. Oracle Bone, her new magical realism novel set in seventh-century China, uses tropes of old Chinese myths to tell a story about human desires and greed. lydiakwa.com

Jeff Lemire is a noted awarding-winning writer and artist of many acclaimed graphic novels including Essex County, Sweet Tooth and The Underwater Welder. He also writes several monthly titles for Marvel Comics including Thanos, Moon Knight and Old Man Logan. He has appeared on The New York Times bestseller list and many of his works have been adapted for film and television. Lemire’s latest title, Roughneck, emerges from his deep love for hockey and delves into important themes of family, heritage and violence. After hitting rock bottom, a brother and sister reconnect after many years and evaluate their disturbing past. @JeffLemire, jefflemire.blogspot.com

Nicola Lagioia

Linden MacIntyre

(Italy) Events 14, 71

(Ontario) Events 13, 56

Nicola Lagioia is Italy’s foremost literary novelist. He has written three novels and one collection of short stories. He has also worked for many years as an editor for Minimum Fax, an Italian publisher. He has won many literary awards, including the Strega Prize, which is Italy’s most prestigious award.

He is a regular host of Pagina3, a book and culture program on Italy’s national radio. Lagioia’s English-language debut, Ferocity, is a dramatic tale about a young socialite whose suicide sends her brother into a spiral as he finds out more about his estranged sister and her rise to prominence. @NicolaLagioia

Linden MacIntyre is a broadcaster, journalist and bestselling novelist.

MacIntyre worked for 24years as a co-host for the fifth estate, a program dedicated to thorough and comprehensive investigations. He has won ten Gemini Awards for his work on the program, as well as numerous awards for journalistic excellence and writing, including a Scotiabank Giller Prize for The Bishop’s Man. MacIntyre’s new novel The Only Café is a thought-provoking and timely piece of literature. After his father’s mysterious death, Cyril learns more about his father’s hidden past and his life in Lebanon that he fled from as a refugee.

Nicola Lagioia’s appearance is made possible by the Istituto di Italiano di Cultura in Toronto.

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Kyo Maclear (Ontario) Events 5, 18 Kyo Maclear is an essayist, novelist and children’s author. Her essays, short fiction and art criticism have been published in Brick, Canadian Art, The Guardian, Quill & Quire, The Globe and Mail and many other publications and anthologies. Her first children’s novel Spork, about a mixed kitchen utensil, was inspired by her mixed Japanese and British heritage. Maclear has two upcoming children’s novels, Yak and Dove and The Fog, and a memoir, Birds, Art Life, about her search for inspiration to write and how she found solace in birds and the natural world. kyomaclear.com

LEARN THE SCIENCE BEHIND WHAT MAKES THE EARTH RUMBLE FROM CBC’S

J O H A N N A WA G S TA F F E

James Maskalyk (Ontario) Event 60 James Maskalyk is an emergency-room physician, award-winning professor and member of Médecins Sans Frontières, where he worked for as a doctor and as a journalist. He directs a program at Addis Ababa University to train East Africa’s first emergency physicians. He practices and teaches mindfulness at the Consciousness Explorers Club in Toronto.

He is the writer of the highly-acclaimed, international bestseller Six Months in Sudan and his most recent work, Life on the Ground Floor: Letters From the Edge of Emergency Medicine, recounts his experiences in emergency rooms around the world and reflects on health and human life. @jamesmaskalyk, jamesmaskalyk.com

Suzette Mayr (Alberta) Events 10, 14 Suzette Mayr has written four critically-acclaimed novels. Monoceros was long-listed for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and was on The Globe and Mail’s 100 Best Books of 2011. As a poet, novelist and professor, much of her work focuses on issues of identity and race. She is a former President of the Writers’ Guild of Alberta and teaches Creative Writing at the University of Calgary. Her fifth novel, Dr. Edith Vane and the Hares of Crawley Hall, is a captivating satire about the stresses of academic life and what could be lurking under the surface of your university building. suzettemayr.com

Ken McGoogan (Ontario) Events 37, 62 Ken McGoogan is the author of 12 books, including four bestsellers about Arctic exploration. He worked as a books editor and columnist for two decades at the Toronto Star, the Montreal Star and the Calgary Herald. He has served as chair of the Public Lending Right Commission and is a fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. Every summer, he voyages through the Northwest Passage as a resource historian with Adventure Canada. Inspired by these journeys, McGoogan wrote Dead Reckoning, his latest nonfiction work, which retells the history of Arctic exploration through a 21st century, decolonial lens. @KenMcGoogan, kenmcgoogan.blogspot.ca

“A must read fo r any in an earthquak one living e zone.”

— Bob McDonal d, Science Corres pondent with The National an d host of CBC’s Quirks & Quark s

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Simon & Schuster Canada congratulates The Vancouver Writers Fest on its 30th anniversary!

Jon McGregor (United Kingdom) Events 71, 84, 92 Jon McGregor wrote his first novel, If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things, while living on a narrowboat. The book was so well received that he was chosen as the youngest contender and only debut novelist on the 2003 Man-Booker Prize longlist. His work is often described as experimental as he takes on different forms and styles. He is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Nottingham, where he edits The Letters Page, a literary journal in letters. He is the author of four novels and a story collection and his newest work, Reservoir 13 tells the stories of the many lives affected by one family’s loss. @jon_mcgregor, jonmcgregor.com

Maile Meloy

Jennifer Egan

Tom Perrotta

Ruth Ware

(United States) Events 39, 71, 84 Maile Meloy is a writer of short fiction, essays and novels. Her Apothecary trilogy for young readers, the final book of which was released this year, was a New York Times bestseller. She is a frequent contributor to The New York Times and her essays and short fiction have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, Granta and O. Some of Meloy’s short stories were adapted into a film which premiered at Sundance Film Festival. Her new adult fiction book, Do Not Become Alarmed, is a harrowing novel about two families whose children go missing while on vacation. @mailemeloy, mailemeloy.com

Mandy Len Catron

Chris Turner

S.K. Ali

Jordan Mounteer (British Columbia) Event 83 Jordan Mounteer’s poems have appeared in Canadian and American publications, and his work has won or been shortlisted for CBC Poetry Prize, PRISM international’s Poetry Contest and many others. He works as a freelance writer and editor. In his first collection of poetry, liminal, Mounteer writes about home, travel, love, aging and the natural world in a self-aware and passionate fashion.

Eileen Myles (United States) Events 55, 61, 69

Jeff Lemire

Robyn Harding

Eileen Myles is an award-winning poet, performer, art journalist and novelist with more than 20 books. In the 1970s they moved to New York to become a poet and learned plenty from the readings and workshops put on by the St. Mark’s Poetry Project. Later, Myles became the artistic director. They have toured throughout North America and Europe and have contributed to many publications such as The New Yorker, TimeOut and Paris Review. Afterglow, a memoir, is Myles’ love letter to their recently departed dog, Rosie. The heartfelt poems discuss loss and the bond between a pet and owner. @EileenMyles, eileenmyles.com

AUTH O R B IO GR A P H I E S

Mahtab Narsimhan (British Columbia) Event 9 Mahtab Narsimhan was born in Mumbai and emigrated to Canada in 1997. After several attempts, her first middle grade novel The Third Eye was published in 2007 and won the Silver Birch Fiction Award.

Narsimhan is now the author of six middle-grade books. Her seventh novel, Mission Mumbai, follows two best friends on the trip of a lifetime in India, each with their own motivations and secrets that threaten their relationship. @MahtabNarsimhan, mahtabnarsimhan.com

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Pola Oloixarac (United States/Argentina) Event 53 Pola Oloixarac is a writer, academic, journalist and translator. As a writer, she has been invited to present on literature at international forums and universities all around the world, including Stanford, Harvard, University of Toronto, the Jaipur Literature Festival, LIWRE in Finland, Marathon des Mots in Toulouse and more. She’s a founding editor of The Buenos Aires Review, about contemporary literature in the Americas, and is completing a PhD at Stanford University. Savage Theories is her English-language debut that takes a philosophic perspective on flawed people grappling with violence, war, sex and madness. @poliamida

Cecily Nicholson

Ed O’Loughlin

(British Columbia) Event 76

(IRELAND) Events 37, 62

Cecily Nicholson is the administrator of the artist-run centre Gallery Gachet, an exhibition and studio space for artists. She has worked since 2000 in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside neighbourhood and belongs to the Joint Effort prison abolitionist group. She is a member of the Research Ethics Board for Emily Carr University and is currently a writer-in-residence for Simon Fraser University. In 2015, she won the Dorothy Livesay prize for poetry. Nicholson has written two poetry collections, Triage and From the Poplars, with her third, Wayside Sang, about movement and trauma in the heavily industrialized world, arriving this year.

Before becoming an author, Ed O’Loughlin worked for twenty years as a journalist for the Sydney Morning Herald and the Irish Times. Fourteen of those years were spent as a foreign correspondent in the Middle East and Africa. His first novel, Not Untrue & Not Unkind was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2009 and received critical acclaim. His latest novel, Minds of Winter, follows two people who journey to the Arctic Circle hoping to learn what happened to family members, who they discover are linked through the Franklin expedition to find the Northwest Passage.

Grace O’Connell

Diego Enrique Osorno

(Ontario) Events 67, 84

(Mexico) Events 48, 53

Grace O’Connell is an editor, author of the national bestseller Magnified World and a Canadian Authors Association Emerging Writer Award winner.

Her fiction and non-fiction have appeared in publications such as The Walrus, The Globe & Mail, National Post, Toronto Star, ELLE Canada and The Journey Prize anthology. She writes for This Magazine, is the Senior Editor of Open Book, and teaches creative writing at University of Toronto.

Be Ready for the Lightning is her new page-turning novel told through the eyes of a young woman who is trapped on a hijacked bus. @yesgrace, graceoconnell.wordpress.com

Diego Enrique Osorno is a reporter and writer. He has witnessed some of the twenty-first century’s major conflicts in Mexico and Latin America and has been called one of the region’s most important journalists by the Gabriel García Márquez Foundation for New Journalism. In 2014, he was awarded Mexico’s National Journalism Prize, which he dedicated to the Zapatista Army of National Liberation. His books El cártel de Sinaloa and La guerra de los Zetas have sold widely and appeared on many year-end lists of best non-fiction. His next book, Un vaquero cruza la frontera, is forthcoming this fall.

Andrew O’Hagan

Sandra Perron

(Scotland) Events 48, 64, 86, 93

(Ontario) Event 49

Andrew O’Hagan is a highly-regarded novelist and non-fiction author. His works often focuses on issues in contemporary Britain and its role as a global player. His novels have been translated into 15 languages. His essays and stories have appeared in The New York Review of Books, Granta, The Guardian and The New Yorker. He is also an Editor at Esquire, London Review of Books and a critic for T: The New York Times Style Magazine. The Secret Life: Three True Stories of the Digital Age discusses three men who have used technology to reform and change the world around them.

Major Sandra Perron was Canada’s first female infantry officer. After graduating at the top of her class, she joined the Van Doos, and served for 13 years. She was deployed on peacekeeping missions to the former Yugoslavia, and earned an exceptional service commendation. She is a senior partner with A New Dynamic Enterprise Inc. and is the founder and president of the Imagine… Project, a charitable organization which distributes school supplies to children in need. Out Standing in a Field is Perron’s remarkable memoir on her military service, describing her fight against institutional sexism and her love of service.

AUTH O R B IO GR A P H I E S

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Tom Perrotta

Ahmad Danny Ramadan

(United States) Events 10, 16, 32

(British Columbia) Events 30, 79

For many years, Tom Perrotta taught writing at universities like Yale and Harvard while he was struggled to get published. His first novel, Election, was eventually picked up, and was a huge hit. It was made into a critically-acclaimed, Academy Award-nominated film, as was his novel Little Children. He also worked with HBO to adapt his novel, The Leftovers, into a successful show. His latest, Mrs. Fletcher, is a witty examination of sexuality, desire, and identity as a middle-aged woman tries to figure out what she wants after her only child leaves for college. tomperrotta.net

Ahmad Danny Ramadan has written two collections of short stories in Arabic and his articles have been published in The Washington Post, The Guardian and Foreign Policy. His personal experiences as a Syrian refugee and his work with organizations in the Middle East inspired his passion for democracy, social justice and LGBTQ rights. He is currently the Community Outreach Coordinator of QMUNITY, a Queer Resource Centre, and was the Grand Marshal for Vancouver’s Gay Pride Parade 2016.

The Clothesline Swing, his first English novel, follows two male lovers during the aftermath of the Arab Spring. @DannySeesIt

Alison Pick

Barbara Reid

(Ontario) Events 47, 71, 80

(Ontario) Events 23, 41

Alison Pick was the 2002 winner of the Bronwen Wallace Award for the most promising young writer in Canada. She is the author of three poetry books, and her novels, The Sweet Edge and Far to Go, were well-received bestsellers. Her memoir, Between Gods, which was published internationally, is about her conversion to Judaism as a young woman. Her latest novel, Strangers with the Same Dream, is a politically-charged novel that delves into the turmoil surrounding Palestine in the 1920s and how this conflict changed people and their aspirations. @alisonpick, alisonpick.com

Barbara Reid’s stunning plasticine illustrations and amazing stories have made her a household name for many. She is a member of the Order of Canada and has received every major Canadian children’s book award, including the Governor General’s Award. In 2015 she was named Honorary Chair of Family Literacy Day, and her books have been distributed in literary programs across Canada. Picture the Sky is her latest book and is a companion piece to Picture a Tree. In it, Reid encourages everyone to not take the everyday for granted and to see the magic in the world. @barbreidart, barbarareid.ca

Sylvain Prudhomme

Jennifer Robson

(France) Events 67, 77

(Ontario) Events 57, 63

Sylvain Prudhomme spent his childhood in Cameroon, Burundi, Niger and Mauritius. He moved to study literature in Paris, but left to become a full-time writer. He has written several novels, and is one of the founders of the Geste magazine, which publishes interviews with contemporary writers and artists. He was also one of the founders of Le Tigre magazine. His French novel, Les Grands (The Greats), has been translated by Jessica Moore to be released this year. It tells the story of a country that falls under a dictatorship that challenges their ideals and hope.

Jennifer Robson first learned of the Great War from her father Stuart Robson, an acclaimed historian, who has been a major influence on her work. She has worked as an academic and editor and is the USA Today and Globe & Mail bestselling author of Somewhere in France, After the War is Over and Moonlight Over Paris. She also contributed to the anthology Fall of Poppies. Her latest, Goodnight from London, was partly inspired by her grandmother’s experiences and is about a young journalist who is hired in Britain to report on WWII just as The Blitz begins. @AuthorJenniferR, jennifer-robson.com

Sylvain Prudhomme’s appearance is supported by the Cultural Service of the Embassy of France in Canada.

Arushi Raina

Deanna Rodger

(Ontario) Events 46

(United Kingdom) Events 42, 50

Arushi Raina grew up in South Africa, and by the age of 25, has lived in Egypt, Nigeria, India, the US, UK and, most recently, Canada.

She had tried to write a novel since high school, and she finally succeeded while completing her Economics and English degree in New York. Her well-researched debut novel, When Morning Comes, is from the perspective of four very different young people living in Johannesburg in 1976, the year of the Soweto Uprising that challenged the apartheid in South Africa. @arushi101, arushiraina.ca

Deanna Rodger is a spoken word artist and actor. She is the youngest UK Poetry Slam Champion and is the co-founder of two popular spoken word events, Chill Pill and Come Rhyme with Me. She is also a member of several poetry collectives, including Point Blank Poets, Keats House Poetry Forum and Podium Poets, which teaches workshops in and around the UK. She has performed at the 2012 Olympic Team Welcome Ceremonies, Buckingham Palace, 10 Downing Street and at TedX events. Currently, she is writing a one-woman show called LondonMatter and her debut collection, I Did It Too, was just published by Burning Eye. @DeannaRodger, deannarodger.co.uk Deanna Rodger’s appearance is made possible by the British Council.

AUTH O R B IO GR A P H I E S

Margriet Ruurs (British Columbia) Event 3 Margriet Ruurs has written more than 30 books for children.

Her Master’s Degree in Education inspired her to write books that children can learn from and that can help educators become better teachers. She also tours schools to tell students about being a writer and her love of language. When she’s not travelling, she is running a bed and breakfast on Salt Spring Island. Inspired by true events, The Elephant Keeper is about a young man who dedicates himself to protecting elephants after discovering they are close to extinction because of poaching. @margrietruurs, margrietruurs.com

Doug Saunders (Ontario) Event 35 Doug Saunders is an author, journalist and long-term international affairs columnist for The Globe and Mail. He was the head of the Los Angeles bureau and the London-based European bureau chief for the paper for many years. He has travelled the world as a writer, including to East Asia, the Middle East, Africa and India. He is a five-time winner at the National Newspaper Awards. Maximum Canada, Saunders’ most recent book, argues that we need more people to move to Canada in order to build a more prosperous future and progress from our colonial past. @DougSaunders, dougsaunders.net

Akhil Sharma (United States) Events 77, 92 Akhil Sharma’s fiction has been described as “a glowing work of art” by the Wall Street Journal. He was born in New Delhi and moved to New Jersey when he was eight. His cultural background, upbringing and the challenges he faced come through in his work. His last book, Family Life, was a semi-autobiographical, award-winning work that was on The New York Times Best Book of the Year list and won the 2016 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Sharma teaches creative writing at Rutgers University–Newark.

His new short story collection, A Life of Adventure and Delight, follows Indian characters at home and abroad and explores the unpredictable nature of the heart.

Tetsuro Shigematsu (British Columbia) Event 76 At 19, Tetsuro Shigematsu became the youngest playwright in history to compete in the Quebec Drama Festival. This launched his career as a playwright, but he is also a well-known actor, comedian, filmmaker and radio broadcaster. He was the host of The Roundup and was a writer for the comedy show This Hour has 22 Minutes and a number of CBC shows.

He currently writes for the Huffington Post and serves as president of Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre. Empire of the Son is his funny, one-man show about two generations of CBC broadcasters and their intergenerational conflicts. @tweetsuro, shiggy.com

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AUTH O R B IO GR A P H I E S

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Kathryn E. Shoemaker

Katie Smith Milway

(British Columbia) Event 27

(United States) Events 3, 26

Kathryn E. Shoemaker is the illustrator of more than 40 books for children and the author of four books for teachers. She has broad experience as an art teacher, curriculum specialist, filmmaker, fund raiser and as a event designer. She teaches children’s literature at the University of British Columbia. Most recently, she has illustrated Irene N. Watts’ graphic novel, Seeking Refuge, a sequel to Good Bye Marianne.

According to Publisher’s Weekly, Shoemaker’s “quiet, silvery-pencilled panels soften this Holocaust narrative.” For more information on the novel, see IRENE N. WATTS.

Katie Smith Milway is an author dedicated to bringing world issues to children. She spent a decade working in more than a dozen countries in Africa and Latin America on sustainable development projects, including village banking, food security, primary health care, water resourcing and education. She has written books and articles for adults on sustainable development and is a partner at The Bridgespan Group, a non-profit and philanthropy advisor. Her latest book for children, Banana-Leaf Ball, is based on a true story of a young refugee in Africa who used soccer to bring his community together. @KatieSMilway

Merilyn Simonds

Esta Spalding

(Ontario) Events 18, 89

(Ontario) Events 9, 22, 32

Merilyn Simonds is the author of more than 17 books of fiction, nonfiction and memoir. Her most well-known book is the creative nonfiction classic, The Convict Lover, which was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award. As a former chair of the Writers’ Union of Canada and the founding artistic director of Kingston WritersFest, Simonds spends a lot of time thinking about issues that matter to writers.

She teaches creative writing and mentors writers around the world. Gutenberg’s Fingerprint explores the development of the book over time and how we read today in light of the digital shift. @MerilynSimonds, merilynsimonds.com

Esta Spalding is an award-winning writer for television and film, as well as a poet and author. She has written for some of Canada’s most popular and award-winning series. Currently, she is the supervising producer of the HBO series Masters of Sex, and is writing for the new Amazon series The Last Tycoon. Her upbringing in Hawaii inspired her Fitzgerald-Trout series, which has two new books arriving this year. estaspalding.com

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson

Linda Spalding

(Ontario) Events 33, 79

(Ontario) Event 14, 63

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is a Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg writer, scholar, musician, and is one of the most compelling Indigenous voices of her generation. She has lectured extensively at universities across Canada and her books are regularly used in courses across North America. Simpson often combines poetry, storytelling, performance and song to create something unique. Her album f(l)ight is a companion piece to her newest collection of stories and poems The Accident of Being Lost.

This book challenges the world as we know it by imagining a decolonized reality that appears in fragments and images. @betasamosake, leannesimpson.ca

Linda Spalding is a fiction and non-fiction writer and editor.

She was raised in Kansas, and spent some time in Hawaii before moving to Canada. As the editor of Brick magazine, she was awarded the Harbourfront Festival Prize for her contribution to the Canadian literary community. Her work The Purchase was a Governor General’s Award winner, and her companion piece The Reckoning is coming out this year. The novel follows the Dickinson family as they are put in a difficult situation that forces them to make a tragic decision and become fugitives, testing them individually. @LindaSpalding, lindaspalding.com

Sydney Smith

Allan Stratton

(Ontario) Events 5, 22, 41

(Ontario) Events 20, 25

Sydney Smith is an award-winning children’s book illustrator. He was raised in rural Nova Scotia and began drawing at a young age. He studied drawing and printmaking at NSCAD University. His work has appeared on festival posters, album covers and magazines. He illustrated the highly acclaimed and wordless, Sidewalk Flowers, which won a Governor General’s Award and was named a New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book. Currently his illustrations feature in Smoot a Rebellious Shadow and the breathtaking Town is by the Sea, which follows a boy and his wandering mind on his walk around Cape Breton. @Sydneydraws

Allan Stratton is an award-winning writer of young adult novels and plays, and an accomplished world traveller. His career began with his play Nurse Jane Goes to Hawaii, which is one of the most-produced plays in Canadian history with more than 350 North American productions. He has been published in more than 20 countries and his book Chanda’s Secrets has received more than 26 awards and citations. The Way Back Home, Stratton’s latest novel, is an honest look at family conflicts: a young misfit runs away with her grandmother to save her from being put into a senior’s home by her parents. allanstratton.com

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AUTH O R B IO GR A P H I E S

Chris Turner

Irene N. Watts

(Alberta) Events 2, 11

(British Columbia) Event 27

Chris Turner is one of Canada’s leading writers and speakers on sustainability and the global cleantech industry. He is the author of the bestseller The Geography of Hope, a finalist for the Governor General’s Award and the National Business Book Award. His feature writing has earned seven National Magazine Awards. He has given keynote addresses and lectures at 13 university campuses, literary festivals and major professional and industrial conferences nationwide. The Patch: The People, Pipelines, and Politics of the Oil Sands is Turner’s analysis of the importance and history of the oil sands. @theturner

Irene N. Watts has been a storyteller since the age of seven. She has written poems, plays, novels and non-fiction books. As a member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada, she wrote and directed plays for young audiences to be performed at schools. Watts’ graphic novel, Seeking Refuge, captures her experiences when she was sent to England from Germany on the Kindertransport at the age of seven. This was a military operation that saved almost 10,000 Jewish children during WWII.

Johanna Wagstaffe

Jessica Westhead

(British Columbia) Event 43

(Ontario) Events 54, 92

Johanna Wagstaffe is the meteorologist and science host for CBC Vancouver and CBC News Network, covering local, national and international weather and science stories. With a background in seismology, geophysics and earth science, Wagstaffe has covered a wide range of science stories, including the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire, the 2011 Japan tsunami and the Paris Climate Change Conference. She enjoys teaching children about weather and science and is part of the Astronuts Kids Space Club. Fault Lines: Understanding the Power of Earthquakes is Wagstaffe’s debut non-fiction book about the science behind earthquakes and children who have experienced them. @jwagstaffe

Jessica Westhead is a Toronto writer and editor who the CBC named one of the “10 Canadian women Writers You Need to Read Now.” Her fiction has been shortlisted for the CBC Literary Awards and selected for a Journey Prize anthology. She helped create YOSS (Year of the Short Story) which aimed to bring short fiction to a wider audience. Her stories have appeared in major literary magazines including Hazlitt, Geist, Indiana Review and The New Quarterly. Her new short story collection, Things Not to Do, features women who lack power and intend to change it. jessicawesthead.com

Ruth Ware (United Kingdom) Events 14, 28 Ruth Ware is the internationally-acclaimed author of psychological crime thrillers such as In a Dark, Dark Wood and The Woman in Cabin 10. Her books have appeared on The New York Times and The Globe and Mail bestseller lists and have been published internationally. Before becoming a writer, she worked as a waitress, a bookseller, a teacher of English as a foreign language and a press officer. This year, she presents, The Lying Game, a story that revolves around four friends, separated after a horrible lie they spread in school, who are brought together again to find the truth. @RuthWareWriter, RuthWare.com

Paul Watson (British Columbia) Event 37 Paul Watson is a distinguished reporter, activist and author. For almost two decades, Watson covered world events and wars for which he received National Newspaper Awards and a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting and photography. He has had a successful long a career as a war correspondent working for the Los Angeles Times and the Toronto Star in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Europe. He has written several books, his most recent being Ice Ghosts: The Epic Hunt for the Lost Franklin Expedition about the mission to discover a shipwreck in the Northwest Passage. @CaptPaulWatson, seashepherd.org

Creative Writing Work with a mentor in a supportive community

The Writer’s Studio Vancouver program starts January 2018

Application deadline October 31 Program also available online sfu.ca/creative-writing

AUTH O R B IO GR A P H I E S

Deborah Willis (Alberta) Events 54, 89 Before becoming a writer, Deborah Willis worked as a horseback riding instructor, a reporter, and a bookseller. Her first book, Vanishing and Other Stories, was nominated for the Governor General’s Award and the BC Book Prize. Her fiction has appeared in Event, PRISM international, The Walrus, The Virginia Quarterly, The Iowa Review and Lucky Peach.

She was a writer-in-residence at the Historic Joy Kogawa House, and was the Calgary Distinguished Writers Program writer-in-residence at the University of Calgary in 2013. Her collection of short stories, The Dark and Other Love Stories, published this spring, explores the ways that love binds us all and the complications that ensue.

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BETWEEN THE PAGES

AN EVENING WITH THE SCOTIABANK 2017 GILLER PRIZE FINALISTS VANCOUVER PLAYHOUSE OCTOBER 16, 2017

Kathleen Winter (Quebec) Events 56, 72 Kathleen Winter’s first novel, Annabel, has been sold in 15 countries and received major international recognition, including nominations for The Scotiabank Giller Prize, The Governor General’s Award and the Rogers Writer’s Trust Prize. Her memoir, Boundless, about her journey to the arctic was also highly-acclaimed. Winter’s work has appeared in literary journals from coast-to-coast and she was a Saturday columnist for the Evening Telegram. In Lost in September, a PTSD-suffering homeless veteran—who bears a striking resemblance to Canadian General James Wolfe—wanders the streets of Montreal and Quebec City trying to remember his past. @supremetronic

Britt Wray (Ontario) Event 44 Britt Wray calls herself a “science storyteller” and is a radio broadcaster, producer, professor, acclaimed documentarist and science writer. She is a PhD candidate in Science Communication with a focus on Synthetic Biology. She has worked as a host on national programs for CBC Radio and is the co-host of the upcoming BBC podcast Tomorrow’s World. She also is working on an interactive documentary series about personal genomics. In Rise of the Necrofauna, Wray delves into the larger questions and ethics raised in de-extinction, a science to bring extinct species back to life, which is full of dangers and possibilities. @brittwray, brittwray.com

Jan Zwicky (British Columbia) Events 83, 90 Jan Zwicky has published more than a dozen books of poetry and prose and is the winner of the Governor General’s Award for poetry and the Dorothy Livesay Prize. As a poet, philosopher, essayist, musician and teacher, she has established a reputation as one of Canada’s most innovative thinkers. Zwicky has taught philosophy, interdisciplinary humanities, English and creative writing at universities across Canada.

In her new poetry collection The Long Walk, Zwicky examines the cataclysmic effects of climate change on both the environment and the human spirit.

SCOTIABANKGILLERPRIZE.CA

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O BITUA RIE S

In Memoriam Leonard Cohen captivated the imaginations and emotions of people across the globe. His music, poetry and writing will be remembered through the ages for elevating everyday life and giving voice to light within.

As we welcome new and old friends to the Festival, we reflect on those we have lost this year.

Victoria—and British Columbia—lost two of its magnificent independent booksellers. Jim Munro founded the beloved Munro’s Books in 1963 with the help of his wife, author Alice Munro, before cultivating both a stunning store for book lovers, and a literary community that surrounds it. The iconic building on Government Street will continue his legacy.

CBC Radio host, author and performer Stuart McLean entertained and consoled Canadians from coast to coast with his beloved series, The Vinyl Café. Nostalgic yet witty, his stories became part of the fabric the country’s media and culture. He will be missed by the Festival, and by thousands of his loyal listeners.

Melanie Bolen, founder of Bolen Books and a trailblazer in female entrepreneurship, launched Bolen Books in 1975. It grew into a 17,000 square foot space that is now host to conversations and events that enrich Victoria cultural life.

Richard B. Wright was perhaps best known for his novel Clara Callan.

Winner of The Giller Prize, The Trillium Book Award and The Governor General’s Award. The Globe & Mail heralded Wright as writing “finely crafted novels turn life’s ordinary moments into something extraordinary.” His presence in words and at the Writers Fest will be sorely missed.

Catherine Montgomery was a long-serving program officer at the Canada Council for the Arts, and worked with the Writers Fest for many years through grant funding procedures and program changes. We are indebted to her enthusiasm for the Festival and her dedication to the arts demonstrated throughout her work.

Richard Wagamese will be remembered for generations as one of Canada’s most profound storytellers. The Ojibway author of 13 books, many of them award-winners, explored the deep, intergenerational trauma from Residential Schools. Eloquent and powerful, his stories— whether on page or in performance—balanced a raw look at suffering with a celebration of creativity and grace. We were privileged and honoured to host him at the Festival.

We will continue to remember those we have lost, and celebrate their contributions.

Proud supporter of the Vancouver Writers Fest

Bharati Mukherjee’s fiction and non-fiction work illuminated immigrant lives. The Indian-born American writer will be remembered for her power and poise, and the groundbreaking work she contributed to literature exploring complex issues facing minority groups.

A behemoth of community building, Jim Wong-Chu championed Asian Canadian literature through multiple initiatives and opportunities.

He founded Ricepaper magazine and the Asian Canadian Writers Workshop, which fostered the writing of many fledgling and awardwinning authors. Championing others and never himself, he exemplified kindness and dedication.

Bonnie Burnard’s debut novel A Good House was not only a Giller Prize winner but a national bestseller. Her other accolades include receiving the Marian Engel Award and being a two-time Giller Prize juror. Described as smart, assertive, entertaining and thoughtful, Burnard’s ability to describe the inner-lives of individuals will remain with her readers.

#WeAreOneUBC

Y E AR- RO UN D F E S T I VA L I N F O

Spreading the Word Through our Spreading the Word Education Program, the Vancouver Writers Fest offers students from K–12 the opportunity to interact with celebrated writers from across the globe both in the classroom and at the Festival. Events and activities are engaging, interactive and inspiring. They encourage children to become life-long readers and learners.

Spreading the Word educational events take place from October 17-20, 2017.

Spreading the Word includes: — 30+ weekday Festival events featuring presentations and discussions with authors from Canada and around the world.

— 6,000 student attendees from the Lower Mainland, the Sunshine Coast and Vancouver Island.

— Reading with Writers: 20 events where professional writers visit schools across the Lower Mainland to engage students in important conversations.

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“This presentation was probably one of the most engaging ones I’ve seen in my entire high-school career! It definitely made me interested in writing a novel in the future.”

— Grade 11 student, Semiahmoo Secondary (Surrey) “This was a wonderful event – marvellous for my students to hear the writers and share their experiences. I loved how we touched on writer’s block, characterization, memoir etc.

Lots to discuss in class!”

— Teacher, 2016 Festival Attendee “My favourite part was when the author read to us. I loved the book, it was so fun!”

— Grade 3 student, Lord Roberts Annex (Vancouver) “The author inspired me as a teacher to do more creative writing in the classroom.

The experience was definitely worthwhile.”

— Brent Van Hulsentop, Teacher, Enver Creek Elementary (Surrey) Spreading the Word is made possible thanks to the generous support of The Government of British Columbia, the Rix Family Foundation and the Hamber Foundation.

— Writer in Residence: Week-long author residencies in outlying BC communities, providing interactive workshops at schools and community centres.

— Youth Writing Contest: An opportunity for young writers (grades 8–12) to have their work published (see next page for contest details).

If you are an educator interested in booking an author visit to your school, or finding out more about our education programs, contact: Ilona Beiks, Education Coordinator, education@writersfest.bc.ca, 778-873-3094 You can also learn more at writersfest.bc.ca/youth.

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Y E AR - RO UN D F E S T I VA L I N F O

Incite

YOUTH WRITING CONTEST 2017

Incite is a free reading series presented by the Vancouver Writers Fest and the Vancouver Public Library. It offers intimate conversations with authors every second Wednesday from January to May. Featured authors include world-famous best sellers and newly published talents from the West Coast and beyond. Hosted at the VPL’s central branch, Incite provides a highly accessible opportunity for all members of the city’s community to engage with writers and ideas.

What’s your story? Grab a pen and get writing! You could have your work published and win a cash prize. The contest is open to all young writers enrolled in grades 8–12 in British Columbia.

PRIZES IN EACH CATEGORY

1ST PRIZE

$

300

+PUBLICATION IN THE CLAREMONT REVIEW

2ND PRIZE

$

200

DEADLINE

+PUBLICATION ON WRITERSFEST.BC.CA

Tuesday, Sept 5

FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO SUBMIT ENTRIES, VISIT WRITERSFEST.BC.CA/YOUTHWRITINGCONTEST

Previous authors include Yann Martel, Elan Mastai, Jillian Tamaki, Sharon Butala, Bif Naked, Micah White, John Vaillant, Eden Robinson and Guy Gavriel Kay. The 2018 Incite series lineup will be announced in December 2017.

Supported in part by the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association and the Vancouver Courier.

Our Students Make Our Name

WRITING

BA, BFA, MFA Programs in Fiction, Poetry, Screenwriting, Playwriting & Creative Nonfiction “The help I received from my UVic advisors went above and beyond. I can’t thank them enough.”

— Yasuko Thanh, MFA & Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize winner

Photo by Helene Cyr

Frequent service between Granville Island, the West End, Yaletown, Kitsilano, and the Olympic Village.

NEW Creative Writing Minor Digital & Interactive Media in the Arts Minor Poetry Professor Shane Book

Apply by Dec. 1 for the Master’s program Mar. 31 for the Bachelor’s program

http://writing.uvic.ca

THANK S TO O U R D O N O R S COLLECTOR’S EDITION BENEFACTOR ($10,000+) Moh Faris, Reema Faris, Ramona Chu & Yasmeen Strang in loving memory of Yulanda Faris.

Maureen & Larry Lunn CLASSIC EDITION BENEFACTOR ($5,000+) Alexia Jones Bonnie Mah BESTSELLER EDITION BENEFACTOR ($2,500+) Jonathan Burke Jude Coffin Sandra Jakab & Bob Lesperance Carol McClelland Linda Robbins Amanda Ross Donald Shumka Shannon Taylor SPECIAL EDITION BENEFACTOR ($1,000+) Diane Bridges Alison Broddle Janice & Doug Dalzell Judy Gale Crissy George Mike Gray Sally Harding Trudy Jaskela Richard Johnston Shirley Lew Moshe Mastai Joan McEwen & Irwin Nathanson Sheahan & Gerald McGavin Harvey McKinnon Ebie & Ian Pitfield André Rowland Bonnie Sheldon Marsha Sibthorpe Colette & Marvin Storrow (QC, LLD) Denis Walker

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Bruno Wall & Jane Macdonald Carol Walls John & Susan Webster Paul & Joan Whitney LIMITED EDITION FRIEND ($500+) M. Catherine Alpaugh Yaseen Al-Salam Richard & Virginia Angus Hazel Chee Ramona Chu Katherine Doyle Cynthia Flood Bruce Forster Nicole Geyer Marilyn Goebel Alison Hart Carlos Hernandez Fisher Leslie Hurtig Ken Jaremco Patricia Laidley Linda MacKinley-Hay Carolyn McCool Angela & George McWhirter Ann-Marie Metten Jane Mortifee William & Margaret New Debra Nordheimer Roberta Rich Mary Robertson Ian & Jane Strang Deborah Torkko Hal Wake Rosalie Walls Jori Woodman FIRST EDITION FRIEND ($250+) Stephen Aberle Sarah Armstrong Margaret Atwood Sal Audia George and Donna Battye Fund Gillian Beattie

Lois Beckett Darren Bold Cathleen Boyle Curtis Bremner Andy Broderick Ruth Brodie Carina Calitz Claudia Casper Ann Cowan Carol Anne de Balinhard Charlene de Faye Gerald Deo Patrick Dunn Lynda Erickson Daniela Esparo Verian Farnsworth Diana Filer Andrew Forshner Dale Flexman Janet Fretter Shirley Gee David Gibbs Julia Gibson Ian Gill Jim Girard Zoe Grams Clarissa Green Colin Harris Tom Hobley Stephanie Hollis Violet & Grant Hughes Jane Hunter Sharon Jeroski Laurence Johnston Sandra Katalinic Susan Knott Alice Laberge Beryl Lamb Jim Littleford Fran Maclean Brian MacNeil Sheila Martineau Dave Mason Peter McGinn Erin McGuire Sandra Moe Alexandra Montgomery

Cheryl Neighbour Carol Newson Susin Nielsen Nicole & Jason Nozick Nora Osborne Rex Panther Helen Rose Pauls Kit Pearson Elaine Peddie Joseph Planta Lynda Prince Barbara Quinn Nicole Racette Pam Ratner & Joy Johnson Mark Raymer Carol Roberts Catherine Ross Rob Sanders & Colleen MacMillan Kathryn Shoemaker Jane Slemon Nicole Stefenelli Matthew Suno Wayne Sutherland Rhea Tregebov David & Susan Van Blarcom Fernanda Viveiros Jerry & Susan Wasserman Jennifer Webb Roberta & Merrill Wittman in memory of Stephen Hayden William Woodson Laura Yazedjian Eagranie Yuh NEW EDITION FRIEND ($100+) Anthony Abrahams Cathy Abrossimoff Caroline Adderson Christopher Airola Elisa Aisenstat Leslie Alexander Beth Allard Janet Allwork

Jack Amar & Deborah Roitberg Wendy Amirault Sky Andrews Norman & Deb Armour Barbara Armstrong Monique Badun Ingrid Barnes Jenna Bartnik Justin Barton Larry Bisaro Gordon Bitney Russel Black Ray Boucher Michael Brady Kate Braid in honour of Joy Coghill – Joy loved good literature. Thanks to the Writers Fest for keeping it glowing in Vancouver!

Doug Brandes Jessica Breen Brian Brett Maura Brown Brenda Brown Tammy Brumwell Emma Buchanan Sherry & Allan Buium Ann Carroll Anita Chapman Jeff Charpentier Stephen Chatman Jane Cherry Linda Clark Emma Coffin Isobel Cole Jennifer Conkie David Conlin Chris Connal Lynn Copeland David Coutts Vickie Critchley Clare Crosthwait Patricia Curtis Don Davidson Brendan Dawes Barbara Dawson Kelly DeCaigny

Roxanne DeMeyer Tina Dhillon Margaret Dickson Laura Dochtermann Mary Doherty Victor Dukowski Corinne Durston Mani Ebrahimi Lori Anne Eddy Anne Elliott Paul Evans John Farquhar Allison Felker Susan Fielden Lorne Folick Lily Fong Sharlene Ford Mark French Christopher French Irene Fritschi Nelin Gary Geddes William Gibson Stuart Gilfedder Karen Gilmore Maryke Gilmore Mary Gilzean Tait Given Morva Gowans Alana Green Tania Gudrian Karin Hartner Paula Havard William Hay Elizabeth Hay Cyndy Hill Kathleen Hilton James Ho Virginia Hong Richard Hopkins Karen Howe Valerie Hunter Tom Hunter Lara Infanti Jason Ip Peter Jackson Shana Johnstone Nigel Kellett

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THAN K S TO O U R D O N O R S Jayson Kennedy Phyllis Kenney Linda King Wes Knapp Dolya Konoval Lorraine Koren Beverley Kort Monica Kosmak Yvonne Kwan Denny Lang Justin LaRue Glenn Laufer John Laurie William Laurie Vincent Le Frank Leffelaar Marshall Letcher Anita Leung Amanda Lim Ramin Lohrasb Rowland Lorimer Karin Lypkie Catherine Macdermott Andy & Georgina Macdonald Kathleen MacKinnon Doreen MacLean in honour of Stuart McLean Bill MacPherson Denise Man Marcia Marchenski Diane Marshall Jules Marshall Carl May Carol Mayer Jim Mayhew Kelly Mayson Kelsey McDermott Bev McDowell Kerrie McFarlane Ken McGoogan Betty McGowan Dylan McKay Gordon McKee Sharon McKibbon Berwyn McKilligan Steven McKoen

Elizabeth McLean Michèle McManus Pam McPhail Camille McRae Margaret Meggy Victoria Mendes Gordon Miller Julie Mitchell Jeanette Mracek Colin Naslund Terri Newell Tessa Nicholl Susan & Lonnie Propas Peggy Olive Marcelle O’Reilly David Parrish Robin Pascoe Brian Paterson Ed Pawson Talea Pecora Brenda Peterson Daryl Peterson Eugenia Pfeffer Rene Pichette Fay Potter Beverley Price Tom Protheroe Heidi Pullem Patricia Rebbeck Trevor Riverson Elise Roaf Sylvia Roberts Curtis Ronning Jenny Rootman Todd Rowlatt Deborah Kim Rowley Shirley Rudolph Kelly Ryan Clare Saadien Anita Salchert Debbie Schachter Minna Schendlinger Andrea Seminiano Scott Shepherd Tracy Sherlock Veronica Singer

Roy Sinn Helen Smith Darlene Sorel Ann-Marie Spicer Lynda Spratley Marika Stanger Kristin Stockley Sharon Street Nardia Strydom Mary Suh Reena Taank Ronnie Tessler John Thistle Deborah Thomas Camilla Tibbs Fiona Tinwei Lam Rebecca Toolan Carol Tulpar Shelagh Van Kempen Ellen Volden Olga Volkoff Bryan Wade Kevin Wallingford Julia Wallis Una Walsh Irene N. Watts Lynn Westwick Valerie White Glynis Whiting Scott Whittaker Gordon Wilcox Marshall Wilensky Brian Williams Elaine Williamson Sandi Witherspoon Larry Wong Yim Diana Wong Sabine Wood Ronald Wright Rachel Wyatt Ernest Yee Patricia Young Clea Young Terence Young Patricia Young

BEQUEST Beth Coleman Talea Pecora Eagranie Yuh THE ALMA LEE LEGACY FUND The Festival’s endowment fund celebrates the accomplishments of Alma Lee, the Festival’s founder. During our 30th year, we want to extend our thanks to the donors who contributed to this fund, which has allowed for the Festival to sustain itself and thrive.

LEAD DONORS: Colin & Helen Harris Jab Sidhoo Yosef Wosk The Vancouver Sun Cynthia Woodward Development Fund Sandra Garossino Sheahan & Gerald McGavin Rudy & Patricia Noth Megan Abbott Douglas Coupland Yulanda & Moh Faris Anne & Tony Giardini Scott Griffin KMC Foundation Caroline Lawrence Bonnie Mah Joanne & David McDonald Tracey McVicar Brenda & Michael O’Keefe Ebie & Ian Pitfield Rod & Laurie Scheuerman Helen Shore Yasmeen & Andrew Strang Thomas Allen & Sons Ltd. W.A.U. Nicoll Robertson Charitable Foundation Trust John Welson Jan Whitford & Michael Stevenson Donations received between May 1, 2016 – July 12, 2017.

Sustenance: Writers from BC and Beyond on the Subject of Food Edited and with a Foreword by Rachel Rose Sustenance: Writers from BC and Beyond on the Subject of Food brings to the table some of Canada’s best contemporary writers—Renée Sarojini Saklikar, Mark Winston, Susan Musgrave, Lorna Crozier, Ayelet Tsabari, Adèle Barclay and many others—celebrating all that is unique about Vancouver’s literary and culinary scene. Punctuated by beautiful local food photographs, interviews with and recipes from some of our top local chefs—Frank Pabst (Blue Water Café), Thomas Haas (artisan chocolatier), Meeru Dhalwalla (Vij’s and Rangoli)—each of these short pieces will shock, comfort, praise, entice, or invite reconciliation, all while illuminating our living history through the lens of food.

A portion of the proceeds will be donAted to the fArmers mArket nutrition coupon progrAm, providing A refugee or low-income fAmily with fresh, locAlly grown produce, And At the sAme time supporting b.c. fArmers, fishers, beekeepers And gArdeners.

$25 isbn: 978-1-77214-101-6

anvilpress.com

S PE CIA L E V EN T S

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In addition to our October Festival programming, we are delighted to welcome the following authors to Vancouver as part of the Vancouver Writers Fest Special Events series.

Monday, August 28 at 7:30 pm

The Vancouver Writers Fest Presents:

An Evening with Louise Penny In her latest, gripping book, No. 1 New York Times bestselling author Louise Penny shatters the conventions of the crime novel to explore what Gandhi called ‘the court of conscience.’ Join Penny to hear about the latest instalment

in her award-winning Gamache Series, her fascinating career—including why she left her CBC post to write her first novel—and insight into her work for devoted fans and new readers alike.

St. Andrew’s Wesley United Church 1022 Nelson Street, Vancouver Tickets: $40/26/15 theatrewire.com A Vancouver Writers Fest Special Event

The Vancouver Writers Fest in Association with Indian Summer Festival Present:

Tuesday, September 19 at 7:30pm

Salman Rushdie in Conversation with Hal Wake

The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, 6265 Crescent Rd, Vancouver

One of the most celebrated public thinkers of our time, the multi-award-winning and bestselling author Salman Rushdie discusses his latest, brilliant epic, The Golden House: an unparallelled modern-day thriller with a compelling storyline straight out of today’s headlines. Rushdie will consider the novel in the context of the current U.S. political

climate, probing key moments in recent history, from the inauguration of Obama to post-election Trump. Join us for a timely conversation with one of the greatest writers of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Sponsored by:

Tickets: $50/40/30/15 tickets.ubc.ca A Vancouver Writers Fest Special Event

SPE CIA L E V EN T S

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Wednesday, October 25 at 7:30 pm

The Vancouver Writers Fest Presents:

In Conversation with Jennifer Egan The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of A Visit from the Goon Squad discusses her long-awaited first historical novel, Manhattan Beach, in this special event.

Jennifer Egan’s widely acclaimed books include The Invisible Circus, which was adapted into a feature film starring

Cameron Diaz, and The Keep, a national bestseller. This evening she shares insight into her latest work, and opens up about her esteemed writing career to date.

Join us for an engrossing and uplifting conversation with one of the foremost writers of our time.

The Vancouver Writers Fest Presents: Waiting for First Light:

In Conversation with Roméo Dallaire In this candid, electric evening, Roméo Dallaire – bestselling author, retired general and senator, leading humanitarian— discusses his struggle with PTSD following his missions around the world including assisting the UN during the Rwandan Genocide. Rivalling Joan Didion’s The Year

of Magical Thinking, the RBC Taylor Prizenominated memoir Waiting for First Light: My Ongoing Struggle with PTSD is a moving self-portrait of a top political and military figure whose nights are invaded by despair, but who faces each day with the renewed desire to make a difference in the world.

The Vancouver Writers Fest Presents: A Newfoundlander in Canada:

Alan Doyle in Conversation Following the runaway success of his bestselling memoir, Where I Belong, Great Big Sea front man Alan Doyle discusses A Newfoundlander in Canada: a hilarious, heartwarming account of discovering Canada through the eyes of the Newfoundlander leaving home for the first time. The author shares never-

before-heard stories from the band’s early touring days—including opening for Barney the Dinosaur and drinking moonshine with an elderly churchgoer in PEI—and takes the audience on a journey through the complexities of community, regionalism and the true meaning of ‘Canadianness’.

Norman Rothstein Theatre 950 West 41st Avenue, Vancouver Tickets: $26/24/15 theatrewire.com A Vancouver Writers Fest Special Event

Thursday, November 16 at 7:30 pm St. Andrew’s Wesley United Church 1022 Nelson Street, Vancouver Tickets: $50/30/15 theatrewire.com A Vancouver Writers Fest Special Event

Monday, November 20 at 7:30pm Norman Rothstein Theatre 950 West 41st Avenue, Vancouver Tickets: $26/24/15 theatrewire.com A Vancouver Writers Fest Special Event

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“If you can tell stories, create characters, devise incidents, and have sincerity and passion, it doesn’t matter a damn how you write.”

W. Somerset Maugham

Interesting point, Mr. Maugham. We certainly bring sincerity and passion to every brand identity, package design and website we create, but writing prose worthy of this festival? That's a tall order.

We’ll simply say we’re proud to partner with the Vancouver Writers Fest, and join everyone in celebrating Hal Wake’s 12th and final year as Artistic Director.

learn more About us at

carterhales.com

AN N U AL AD U LT W R I T I N G C O N T E ST

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ADULT WRITING CONTEST 2017

WORLD LITERATURE

THERE’S MORE THAN ONE WAY TO SEE THE WORLD.

The World Literature program at Simon Fraser University is proud to support the 2017 Vancouver Writers Fest and the amazing author

Pola Oloixarac Submit your finest prose and poetry to the Vancouver Writers Fest’s Poetry and Short Story Contests.

You may join the ranks of winners who have gone on to be published authors, won additional contests and received acclaim throughout Canada.

CONTEST CLOSES:

Tuesday, September 5, 2017 SPONSORED BY FRIESEN PRESS.

1ST PRIZE WINNERS IN BOTH CATEGORIES WILL RECEIVE: 01: Editorial evaluations of written works provided courtesy of Friesens Press (value of $750).

02: Publication of their winning entry in subTERRAIN magazine and on writersfest.bc.ca.

03: $500 cash prize 2ND PRIZE IN EACH CATEGORY 03: $350 cash prize and publication on writersfest.bc.ca

ENTER ONLINE AT W RITE RSFEST.BC.CA/ W RITI NGCONTEST Results will be announced on Monday, October 16, and winners will be invited to attend the exclusive Vancouver Writers Fest opening reception.

For more information about our dynamic program, visit:

www.sfu.ca/worldlit

HOUSE CANADA M O D N A R N I U G N PE 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF TO THE

SPECIAL THANKS TO HAL WAKE FOR 12 INCREDIBLE

WELCOMES OUR AUTHORS VANCOUVER WRITERS FEST!

YEARS OF SERVICE TO OUR BOOKS AND AUTHORS! penguinrandomhouse.ca

DOUGLAS

GARALINE TOM Coaching Aboriginal youth.

Creating a better Canada.

#Perspective APPLY NOW AT douglascollege.ca