The legendary Margaret Atwood joined award-winning author Ian Williams to discuss Old Babes in the Wood, her extraordinary new collection of short fiction, as part of our May Bestsellers Series. A cornerstone of Canada’s literary canon, Atwood is the author of over fifty books. Presented in partnership with Scotia Wealth Management and with support from the Chan Endowment Fund at the University of British Columbia.

After 33 years as the acclaimed host of CBC Radio’s Writers & Company, Eleanor Wachtel retired this year. Celebrate her long career by revisiting her interview with Lebanese-German author Pierre Jarawan, who joined us at the 2022 Festival to discuss Song for the Missing, named one of 24 must-read 2022 Books in Translation by BookRiot. Critically lauded by European and North American press alike, this poetic novel links events of the Middle East, including the Lebanese Civil War and the Arab Spring. Discover a deeply personal lens on the complex, tumultuous history of this region—and a literary voice as mysterious as it is moving.

Rebecca F. Kuang discusses transparency in publishing, cultural identity, Asian representation, and the messy main character in her literary thriller 'Yellowface'. The podcast explores themes of racism, appropriation, and diversity in literature, as well as the author's transition from The Poppy War to her latest novels. It also delves into the complexities of character relationships, forging multi-dimensional villains, and the importance of amplifying important stories despite feeling tokenized.

Those who are first introduced to Maggie Nelson soon notice her name throughout their literary and social worlds. The award-winning writer, scholar, poet, and critic is one of the most prolific and influential Western thinkers today. She’s the author of the National Book Critics Circle Award winning work The Argonauts, a genre-bending memoir that gives a firsthand account of the complexities and joys of queer family-making. Her latest work, On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint, draws on a vast range of material to explore how we might think, experience, or talk about freedom. Thinking publicly through the knots in our culture—from recent art-world debates to the turbulent legacies of sexual liberation, from the painful paradoxes of addiction to the lure of despair in the face of the climate crisis—is itself a practice of freedom, a means of forging fortitude, courage, and company. Hear her in conversation with bookseller-turned-librarian Baharak Yousefi.

These three American writers are at the top of their game, their works each addressing timeless and timely themes of individuality, freedom, justice, equality. Megha Majumdar’s electrifying debut, A Burning, follows three characters seeking to rise—to the middle class, to political power, to fame in the movies. Kawai Strong Washburn’s groundbreaking novel folds the legends of Hawai’ian gods into an engrossing family saga. Charles Yu’s Interior Chinatown is an intimate story about race, pop culture, and escaping stereotypes. These three sharp minds talk about upending stereotypes, writing with a day job, and the bright side of living and writing in America right now.

Entrancing, surprising, and memorable: The Poetry Bash gathers some of our favourite poets from across the globe. This recording from our 2022 flagship Festival features Claudia Castro Luna (Cipota under the Moon) sharing an ode to the Salvadoran immigrant experience in the United States; Andrew Faulkner, who’s written a “buddy cop dramedy poetry collection” (Heady Bloom); New Zealand poet Tayi Tibble sharing a bold, intimate exploration of being an Indigenous woman (Poūkahangatus); Alexandra Oliver with a scintillating portrait of the suburban uncanny (Hail, the Invisible Watchman); and 2022 ReLit Award-winner Charlie Petch (Why I Was Late). Hosted by Billeh Nickerson.

Canadian writer, director, and actor Sarah Polley joined the Vancouver Writers Fest in celebration of her evocative release, Run Towards the Danger. A complex and exquisite collection of essays, the book captures keystone moments in Polley’s life, as well as the “fallibility of memory, the mutability of reality in the mind, and the possibility of experiencing the past anew, as the person you are now but were not then.” With the paperback version publishing this month, and Polley’s adaptation of Women Talking nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, revisit this intimate conversation between Polley and Vancouver Writers Fest Artistic Director Leslie Hurtig. 

Two of the biggest names in literary historical fiction discuss race, humanity, and writing sweeping stories based on true events. Nadifa Mohamed’s The Fortune Men, based on the real story of a young Somali sailor accused of a crime he did not commit, was a finalist for the Booker Prize. Nathan Harris joined us with The Sweetness of Water, depicting the bond between two brothers, freed by the Emancipation Proclamation in the waning days of the Civil War. It was an Oprah’s Book Club pick, one of President Obama’s favourite books of the year, and won the Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction. The authors spoke about their powerful novels, and the historical contexts in which they took place, with moderator John Freeman at our 2022 Festival.

The long wait is over: John Rebus, detective inspector and the central protagonist of Edgar Award and Diamond Dagger recipient Ian Rankin’s acclaimed series, is back in A Heart Full of Headstones. In this 24th book in the now televised series, Rankin brings new intrigue and suspense to the dark of Edinburgh, in what Publishers Weekly called “one of his best Rebus novels in years.” He joined us in partnership with SFU Woodward's Cultural Programs, to speak with local detective writer and Juno-nominated comedian Charles Demers about the craft of sleuths, scandals, and (of course) murder.

In a television interview for CBC in the mid-60s, Mavis Gallant spoke of her love for mirrors—as objects, and as symbols. She refers to them often in her 120 short stories, almost all of which were published over a fifty year span in The New Yorker. Her legacy was even the inspiration behind Wes Anderson’s female journalist in The French Dispatch. Mavis Gallant was often interviewed; sometimes, she cooperated, sometimes not. Born in Montreal in 1922, Gallant died in Paris in 2014. On the last night of the last day of the last full year of her life, alone in her apartment, age 91, she grants one last interview, this one to herself. Tune in to this magnificent one-of-a-kind staging, with the distinguished collaboration of actors Nicola Cavendish, Gabrielle Rose, and Alessandro Juliani. Curated and written by Bill Richardson.