Books & Ideas Audio

If only there was a word for that sense of anticipation and delight that comes with opening the cover of a new thriller, knowing you’ll be spellbound for the next 300 pages. How do thriller writers create such suspense? Three different writers of mystery, thriller, and horror speak to how they create the propulsive books they do, in a conversation moderated by Rob Wiersema. Carrie Jenkins’ debut is a queer psychological thriller following Victoria, paired with a police officer, as they try to locate her best friend while finding a miasma of sexism and isolation along the way. Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s work is atmospheric from the first sentence. "Velvet Was the Night" is a “delicious twisted treat for lovers of noir,” set in 1970s Mexico City. Sam Wiebe is a beloved local writer and lauded thriller author. "Hell and Gone: A Wakeland Novel" explores the depths of Vancouver’s criminal underworld. We’re hooked.

Te-Ping Chen’s debut fiction, Land of Big Numbers: Stories, is lauded by NPR as “as brilliant an instance of a journalist’s keen eye manifesting in luminous fiction as one can find.” Through piercing realism and tongue-in-cheek magic realism, it shares journeys of Chinese communities, their history, their government, and how all of that has tumbled into the present, where social mobility is extremely limited. Pik-Shuen Fung’s Ghost Forest reveals the resilient threads of matrilineal history and the inheritance of stories and silences in a moving story of a Chinese-Canadian astronaut family. These remarkable, perceptive writers discuss history inherited in 21st century China, and their depictions of modern day Chinese and Canadian-Chinese family dynamics, with award-winning author and columnist, Anna Ling Kaye.

Each time Susan Orlean graces the Writers Fest with a visit, audiences are reminded why she is called “a national treasure” by The Washington Post. The New Yorker staff writer, and author of The Library Book joined us to celebrate her latest work—a collection of musings, meditations, and in-depth profiles about animals. “I think I’ll always have animals and I think I’ll always write about them. Their unknowability challenges me. Our affection for them intrigues me,” she explained, when sharing the motivation behind these works, written on her farm and amidst her travels. "On Animals" is yet another stunning example of Orlean’s transcendent skill as a writer to make us newly recognize and think differently about items and creatures in our midst.

Cherie Jones and Myriam Chancy have both written powerful, dynamic, disturbing novels about upheaval and injustice in the Caribbean. Jones, a Barbadian writer, took the world by storm with the publication of her debut novel How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House: an ambitious, layered novel in which her young Barbadian protagonist fights for her life. Chancy, who was born in Port-au-Prince and raised in Haiti and in Canada, teaches at Scripps College in California. Her new novel, What Storm, What Thunder masterfully charts the inner lives of ten characters whose lives are affected by an earthquake that rocks Haiti and its people to the core. Hear them in conversation with Guest Curator Lawrence Hill as they discuss modern Caribbean literature.

Of all the attributes Lauren Groff possesses, range is surely one of them. Her “all-conquering” 2015 novel, Fates and Furies, was a literary masterpiece about a modern day marriage, creativity, and perception. Florida brought storms, snakes, and sinkholes to lurk at the edges of everyday life in strange, affecting stories. And her latest work, Matrix, a finalist for the 2021 National Book Award, explores the raptures and hardships of life in a 12th century convent, as told by seventeen-year-old Marie de France. USA Today called it "a relentless exhibition of Groff’s freakish talent." Hear from this fascinating mind—and one of our finest writers today—in a sold out conversation with author, poet, and editor John Freeman from the 2021 Vancouver Writers Fest. 

Omar El Akkad won the 2021 Scotiabank Giller Prize for his novel What Strange Paradise, a devastating yet beautiful story of two children against the backdrop of the refugee crisis, and the dehumanization of those who must flee home. The jury wrote: "Amid all the anger and confusion surrounding the global refugee crisis, Omar El Akkad’s What Strange Paradise paints a portrait of displacement and belonging that is at once unflinching and tender. In examining the confluence of war, migration and a sense of settlement, it raises questions of indifference and powerlessness and, ultimately, offers clues as to how we might reach out empathetically in a divided world." El Akkad’s writing is both fortune-telling dystopia and precise cultural criticism; a necessary writer who probes our humanity. He spoke with Globe and Mail editor, Mark Medley, at the 2021 Vancouver Writers Fest. 

Antonio Michael Downing was raised by his indomitable grandmother in the lush rainforest of southern Trinidad, but—at age 11—is uprooted to Canada when she dies. He is sent to live with his stern, evangelical Aunt Joan in Wabigoon, a tiny northern Ontario community where he is one of only a few Black children in the town. His memoir, Saga Boy, is a creative, startling mash-up of memories and mythology as he shares the experience of growing up as an immigrant minority and longing for home. Eventually, he becomes a “Saga Boy”: a Trinidadian playboy, addicted to escapism, attention, and sex. When the inevitable crash happens, he finds himself in a cold, stone jail cell. Yet this is a story of pride and reclamation, as Downing reclaims his Black identity and embraces a rich heritage. He speaks with independent curator and producer Barbara Chirinos about his unforgettable story.

As the world’s second-largest economy, China is extending its influence across the globe with the complicity of democratic nations. Internationally recognized reporter Joanna Chiu has spent a decade tracking China’s propulsive rise, from the political aspects of the multi-billion-dollar “New Silk Road” global investment project to a growing sway on foreign countries and multilateral institutions through “United Front” efforts. As the United States stumbles, Chiu’s anticipated work, China Unbound: A New World Disorder exposes Beijing’s high-tech surveillance and aggressive measures that result in human rights violations against those who challenge its power. She speaks to Globe and Mail journalist Doug Saunders about why the new world order she sees has disturbing implications for global stability, prosperity, and civil rights everywhere.

Griffin Poetry Prize winner Jordan Abel’s Nishga is a groundbreaking, deeply personal, and devastating autobiographical meditation that attempts to address the complicated legacies of Canada’s residential school system and contemporary Indigenous existence. It is necessary reading; an astounding work that explores some of the most pressing issues of our time. Journalist and award-winning author, Tanya Talaga, who has worked throughout her career to document and advocate for the need for justice for Indigenous peoples in Canada, spoke to Abel about his latest work. Presented in partnership with SFU’s Master of Publishing program.  The content in this conversation can be difficult and upsetting. Visit our website for resources supporting survivors: https://writersfest.bc.ca/event/podcast-jordan-abel-in-conversation-with-tanya-talaga 

Our Winter Book Club event featured award-winning actor and screenwriter Ethan Hawke for his novel, A Bright Ray of Darkness, moderated by Festival author and longtime podcast host Jen Sookfong Lee. As an accomplished actor, screenwriter, director and author, Ethan Hawke has commanded audiences for the screen, on the stage, and between the pages of some of this generation’s most memorable and evocative stories. A Bright Ray of Darkness, this master storyteller’s first novel in nearly twenty years, evokes the bracing whirlwinds of fame and fortune––and the price we pay for each. Hawke’s narrator is a young man on the cusp of greatness, disgusted with himself after the collapse of his marriage, and still hoping for a reconciliation that would allow him to forgive himself. As he clumsily, and sometimes hilariously, tries to manage the wreckage of his personal life, what saves him is theater and the challenge of performing the role of Hotspur in Henry IV as a debut Broadway actor. Searing, raw, and utterly transfixing, A Bright Ray of Darkness is a novel soaked in rage and sex, longing and despair; and ultimately becomes Hawke’s passionate love letter to the world of theater.