The Vancouver Writers Fest returns for the 29th time to bring readers and writers together to talk, think and explore the world of literature. The festival starts on October 17 and lasts for a week, closing on October 23. This year, there will be an excess of 100 authors appearing at more than 90 events, attended by a group of roughly 17,000 people. A festival like this big can seem a little bit daunting to the uninitiated, so we picked out six standout events for you to take a look at.
LIT UP: David Denby in conversation with Stephen Quinn
The published author of four books and a staff writer for The New Yorker, David Denby spent a year with Grade 10 students in order to observe their English classes. He was trying to answer a contemporary question — in this era of social media, can students obsessed with their phones become serious readers? How can reading be turned into a lifelong habit? Lit Up tries to demonstrate that — with the help of good teaching and inspiring books — students can be more creative and surprising than one might expect.
Lit Up will take place on Tuesday October 18, at 8:30 p.m., at the Revue Stage.
THIS REALLY HAPPENED: Coming of Age
This Really Happened is a live storytelling series, back this year to deal with a subject that can be a little bit scary and terribly uncomfortable for some, but which is certainly familiar to all — coming of age. This year, Iain Reid, Zoe Witthall, C.C Humphreys, Lisa Charleyboy and Omari Newton will be telling their stories on growing up (or not). This Really Happenedhas taken place in Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Banff with the previous participation of writers such as Lisa Moore and Charlie Demers.
This Really Happened is on Wednesday October 19, at 8:30 p.m. It will take place at the Revue Stage.
TOMBOY SURVIVAL GUIDE
Tomboy Survival Guide is a show done by Ivan Coyote and his three fast friends. It takes apart the gender stories that we tell, using music, stories, photography and memories. Ivan Coyote is a storyteller, an award-winning author, creator of four short films and he has released three albums in which he imbibes his music with the heavy influence of storytelling. Tomboy Survival Guide is also the name of his 11th book. With this performance, Coyote and his friends aim to tell their own stories in a very sincere, brave and delicate way.
Tomboy Survival Guide is on Thursday October 20. The show starts at 1 p.m. and takes place at the Performance Works.
OUT OF PLACE
Sometimes it is impossible to separate the story from its location. It is almost like the location itself is taking part in the story not just as the setting, but also as a character — as though it has its own story to tell.
For Gail Anderson-Dargatz’s novels, the Thompson-Shuswap region where she grew up is a crucial inspiration. Anderson-Dargatz taught in UBC’s creative writing MFA program for more than a decade and now uses online forums to mentor writers around the globe.
Best-selling author of suspense novels Michael Koryta creates landscapes from Montana to Florida.
Award-winning author Olive Senior lives in Toronto, but she tells stories from Jamaica, where she’s from. Her writing is authentic because she writes of the history, the hopes and even the smell of her country.
Xue Yiwei is a Chinese-Canadian author and his first novel in English tells stories inspired by the city of Shenzhen — a market town located in the north of Hong Kong and that in 1980, acted as an experiment to introduce capitalism to Communist China.
This event will provide a globe-trotting survey of setting and how it can influence the work of a writer, even when they are apart from it.
Out of Place will take place on October 21, Friday evening at the Revue Stage at 8:30 p.m.
A DISAPPEARENCE IN DAMASCUS: Deborah Campbell in conversation with Alison Broddle
Award-winning journalist Deborah Campbell spent the last ten years reporting from countries like Iran, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt, while immersing herself in those societies. She is currently teaching narrative non-fiction here at UBC. The plot of her latest book,A Disappearance in Damascus, is about the time she went undercover to report the exodus of Iraqi refugees into Syria. When she realized that her employee Ahlam — a Syrian refugee she hired to help set up contacts — is kidnapped, Campbell spends months looking for her. All the while she is aware of the very real danger that she could end up in a Syrian prison cell herself. In her book, Campbell tells the story of her unbreakable friendship with Ahlam — two women from very different backgrounds, both surrounded by violence and conflict.
A Disappearance In Damascus will take place on October 22, at 8:00 p.m. on the Revue Stage.
Scree: Fred Wah in Conversation with Colin Browne
In the 1960s — while he was a student at UBC — Fred Wah helped found the avant-garde poetry magazine Tish. Since then, he published 17 poetry books and won countless awards. This year, Talonbooks published Scree: The Collected Earlier Poems, 1962-1991, which compiles Wah’s changing poetry through the years into a single volume. Now 77 years old, Wah is still an active poet and you can join him while he talks about his evolution as an artist.
Scree: Fred Wah in Conversation with Colin Browne is on October 23, Sunday at 1:30 p.m. It takes place at the Revue Stage.