writers festival

here are some of the events i’m considering going to at vancouver’s annual writers festival.

33 old friends

linwood barclay ontario

gail bowen saskatchewan

quintin jardine united kingdom

host: the honourable larry w. campbell
thu, oct 21, 8:00pm
revue stage
$19.00 (buy tickets online)

one of the draws for aficionados of crime fiction is the recurring character who must solve a crime at the same time as his or her life is moving on. from book to book, readers get a chance to live with these characters as they develop, face challenges and age, just like the rest of us. pi joanne kilbourn, chief constable bob skinner and zack walker are three such characters, and their creators take the stage to talk about how they came to life, how they are shaped and moulded in each new novel, and maybe, just maybe, what’s to become of them.

35 dark end of the street

sandra birdsell saskatchewan	michael helm ontario	mauricio segura québec
russell wangersky newfoundland	michael winter ontario

host: genni gunn
thu, oct 21, 8:00pm
waterfront theatre
$19.00 (buy tickets online)

five authors each shine a light on the events, relationships and communities that exist in the darker parts of our cities and society. from immigrants trying to find their place, to murder on a snowy night, to a couple on the lam in a walmart parking lot, to assault in a unlit urban corner, these are novels that show readers environments, circumstances and psyches that we might not normally encounter. and isn’t that one of the reasons, after all, that fiction holds such appeal? there’s vibrancy and intrigue outside the circle of the street lamp, and these writers take us to the dark end of our streets.

36 an intimate evening with david grossman

david grossman israel

presenter: kathryn gretsinger
thu, oct 21, 8:00pm
ptc studio
$25.00 (buy tickets online)

renowned israeli writer david grossman began to the end of the land in 2003, when his eldest son was about to be released from military service and his youngest was on the cusp of being drafted. grossman had a wish that the book he was writing would protect his youngest son. but in 2006, during the last hours of the second lebanon war, his son was killed. astoundingly, he returned to writing the book and finished what is being called “one of the great anti-war novels of our time”. this is a special opportunity to hear from a great novelist who has experienced violence in the middle east in a most palpable way and yet continues to advocate compassion and reconciliation.

55 american splendour

anthony doerr united states	paul harding united states	yiyun li united states
marisa silver united states	wells tower united states

host: jerry wasserman
sat, oct 23, 2:00pm
performance works
$17.00 (buy tickets online)

step aside, fitzgerald and hemingway! here they come. this afternoon we introduce you to the next generation of american writers who are taking the literary world by storm. paul harding has just won the 2010 pulitzer prize for fiction, yiyun li and wells tower were named as two of the new yorker‘s 20 best american authors under 40. anthony doerr was named by granta as one of the 21 best young american authors and marisa silver has been included in the best american short stories and the o. henry prize stories. we are delighted to present these american voices from whom you will hear a lot more in the coming years.

this event is sponsored by simon & schuster canada.

59 polyphony

eleanor catton new zealand	genni gunn british columbia	michael helm ontario
kathy page british columbia	adam lewis schroeder british columbia	mauricio segura québec
marisa silver united states

host: paul grant
sat, oct 23, 8:00pm
waterfront theatre
$19.00 (buy tickets online)

settle back this evening to hear seven fine writers read from their new works. there’s more than enough in store tonight to get you fired up on some riveting fiction by authors whose books may not have made it into your hands yet. let these voices transport you to italy and vietnam.  get swept up in an extraordinary adventure to a remote area of british columbia and thrown into the fray of two street gangs divided by race. be turned around by the chaos of a high-school sex scandal and flung deep into the turmoil caused by an attack on a dark street.  in other words, go places you’ve never been, feel things you’ve never felt, and come out changed.

68 an intimate afternoon with david mitchell

david mitchell united kingdom

sat, oct 23, 5:00pm
waterfront theatre
$25 (buy tickets online)

david mitchell has been called many things, all of them enviable. according to dave eggers, mitchell is “one of the more fearless and fascinating writers alive.” charles foran declares him “the most gifted of his generation of novelists.” of his five novels, two have been shortlisted for the mann booker prize. he is perhaps best known for his mind-altering modern classic cloud atlas, which was shortlisted for the man booker prize and sold in the neighbourhood of a million copies worldwide. mitchell joins us this evening with a new masterpiece, the thousand autumns of jacob de zoet, which follows a dutch accountant’s adventures in feudal japan. in the hands of this formidably talented writer, this is no ordinary tale, and this will be no ordinary evening.

this event is sponsored by random house of canada.