The annual Vancouver Writers Festival will return next month with events scheduled from Oct. 21 to Oct. 27.
Artistic director Leslie Hurtig tells 1130 NewsRadio that the festival will be packed with literary fun and acclaimed writers from around the world.
The festival will open with an event called ‘Finding Joy Amid Turmoil.’
“That’s going to feature authors such as Andrey Kurkov, coming from Ukraine; Tanya Talaga, one of Canada’s best-known nonfiction writers with her new book The Knowing; Bill Richardson, Vancouver’s own Bill Richardson; and also John Valiant, among others. And they’re all just going to talk about where they find joy in their lives amid this rather tumultuous time we’re living through,” said Hurtig.
That event, among six others Hurtig says, will feature the award-winning Quebecois author Kim Thúy, whose debut novel Ru won the Governor General’s award for French-language fiction.
The “returning favourite” Lyrics Night event, hosted by Elamin Abdelmahmoud, will show for the third year on Oct. 25.
“We have authors coming up on stage. They don’t tell us ahead of time what they’ve chosen, but this year our theme is movie soundtracks. One well-known song from a movie soundtrack that they’re going to read as serious poetry,” Hurtig explained.
“So we’re really honing in on the lyrics here for these. But for these different songs, they’ll either tell a story about why that music has really touched their heart or they’ll read it as poetry. And then, to top it all off, we’re having a dance party at the end of it.”
Other featured writers include Liane Moriarty, Lousie Edrich, Daniel Levitin, and Malcolm Gladwell.
Tickets to the dozens of events throughout the city are on sale now.