Vancouver Writers Fest: Leslie Hurtig on the 35th annual event's learnings and laughs
Themes for 2022 include women’s reproductive rights, journalism today, and the meaning of home, says the festival’s artistic director
Leslie Hurtig.
Omar El Akkad.
Vancouver Writers Fest takes place from October 17 to 23 at various Vancouver venues
EVERYONE HAS DIFFERENT ways of coping with the fraught world we’re living in. Leslie Hurtig has always turned to books. The artistic director of the Vancouver Writers Fest reads not only to escape and to relax but also, or perhaps especially, to gain insights into whatever may be transpiring on any given day, no matter how exciting or troubling.
“People want to be told a good story that takes them somewhere new,” Hurtig says in a phone interview with Stir. “They may want to pass some time or it may alleviate stress, but people also turn to books to try to understand where somebody else has been and learn new perspectives. I think we are all feeling stressed not only by the effects of pandemic but also what is going on around us, whether it’s climate change, the war in Ukraine, or extremism south of the border. Through reading, whether it be fiction or poetry or nonfiction, we learn a better understanding of the people we share this world with.
“It can bring a sense of calm,” Hurtig adds. “It allows us to move forward in communicating with our neighbours and understanding our neighbours and in coming up with ideas on how to make this place better. I think that is why book sales are up.”
And this may also be part of the reason Vancouver Writers Fest continues to be so popular. The 2022 event marks the fest’s 35th anniversary. Taking place at venues across Granville island and at several Metro Vancouver schools, the fest will be welcoming more than 100 authors from all over the world this year.
Before she started working with the festival, Hurtig would take a week off of work just to attend. “It reminded me of undergrad, where we packed so much learning in—only it’s not a year; we’re packing it all into a week!” Hurtig says. “I come away from each and every one of these events with my head swimming, there are so many things to learn. I always feel hopeful after this festival.”
There’s much to look forward to, with this year’s festival featuring Jonathan Escoffery, Nathan Harris, Wayne Johnston, Gabor Maté, Lisa Moore, Noor Naga, Heather O’Neill, Tom Perrotta, Danny Ramadan, Bill Richardson, Buffy Sainte-Marie, John Elizabeth Stintzi, Douglas Stuart, Joshua Whitehead, and Xiran Jay Zhao, among many others.
Hurtig says the team starts working on the following year’s event the day after the current one ends, and that her starting point is always finding the perfect next guest curator, “somebody with a new viewpoint who wants to work with us to shape some of the themes”. Enter Omar El Akkad, winner of the 2021 Scotiabank Giller Prize for What Strange Paradise. The Egyptian-born journalist and author, who moved to Canada as a teen and now lives in the U.S., has earned many other awards, while his debut novel, American War, is an international bestseller that has been translated into 13 languages. It was listed as one of the best books of the year by The New York Times, Washington Post, GQ, NPR, and Esquire and was selected as one of 100 novels that changed our world by the BBC.
El Akkad’s events include What Home Means (with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, Dimitri Nasrallah, and Debra Thompson); Memory of Self, and how we confront our many pasts; Generational Fiction: Stories of Lineage, History and Things Passed Down; and Writing Across Cultures.
Elamin Abdelmahmoud.
El Akkad also worked with Hurtig and the fest team to shape themes that relate to home and community.
“We were talking about where we anchor ourselves and what we grasp for when those anchors are lifted or pulled away, whether by choice or by social conditions or war or whatever the case may be,” Hurtig says. “We were also looking at really important political issues that have come up over the past year. We’ll be talking about things like women’s reproductive rights, for instance; the rise of Indigenous storytelling, and what has happened to journalism in Canada over the past several years.”
El Akkad is featured in The Truth Ain’t What It Used To Be: Journalism in the 21st Century, alongside Kamal Al-Solaylee, Brandi Morin, Elizabeth Renzetti, and Andrea Woo.
And while pressing issues are an important focus, there’s another side to the fest: fun. The festival is in its 30s, after all; what better way to celebrate than by having several participating authors take to the stage for Don’t You Want Me, Baby?, where they will recite ’80s song lyrics as serious poetry. “They’ll talk about why that song either pierced their heart or made them fly,” Hurtig says. “It’s important to find joy, to find the laughs. We’re all looking for those.”
On that note, comedian Brent Butt will have a conversation with Ali Hassan on October 18. Butt (Corner Gas), whose career in stand-up comedy spans more than five decades, is releasing his debut novel, a psychological thriller called Huge, next year. Hassan is a stand-up comedian, actor, and professional chef whose memoir, Is There Bacon in Heaven?, is based on his hit stand-up comedy.
Beloved author Bill Richardson has two events. A Gallant Day: The Great Coincidence of August 11 features Aamina Ahmad, Ivan Coyote, Veda Hille, and Marcus Youssef, who, along with the host, all have at least one thing in common. Richardson has also curated Her Image on the Mirror: A Tribute to Mavis Gallant. The renowned writer was the inspiration for Wes Anderson’s female journalist in The French Dispatch. Richardson’s script, based on Gallant’s writings, will be read by actors Nicola Cavendish and Gabrielle Rose.
The fest’s flagship event, the Literary Cabaret, is where people can catch musical director Sally Zori and their band Sally Zori & The Allegories. Also featured are Lebanese-German author Pierre Jarawan, Booker-longlisted Gabriel Krauze, award-winning writer Heather O’Neill, Booker-finalist Nadifa Mohamed, 2022 Booker-nominee Graeme Macrae Burnet, and poet-memoirist-novelist Joshua Whitehead.
Annual sell-out events, including the Sunday Brunch, Afternoon Tea, and Poetry Bash are all back.
UBC will be offering writing workshops, with five-minute sessions that cover everything from graphic novels and fiction to short stories and poetry.
Kim Fu.
For the first time in many years, the City of Vancouver book awards will be announced during the festival. The program will include readings by the shortlisted authors, a poetry reading from Vancouver Poet Laureate Fiona Tinwei Lam, and the announcement of the 2022 Book Award Winner. Hosted by Sandra Singh, the event features finalists Meghan Bell (Erase and Rewind); Henry Doyle (No Shelter); Karen Duffek, Bill McLennan, and Jordan Wilson (Where the Power Is: Indigenous Perspectives on Northwest Coast); Grace Eiko Thomson (Chiru Sakura—Falling Cherry Blossoms); and Paul Wong, Debbie Cheung, and Christopher Lee for Occupying Chinatown.
Other fest highlights: Douglas Stuart, 2021 Booker Prize winner for Young Mungo, who also wrote Shuggie Bain, will take part in Fiction from Reality. The event moderated by Aislinn Hunter also features Gabriel Krauze (Who They Was) and Violaine Huisman (The Book of Mother). Stuart also appears in conversation with Eddy Boudel Tan (After Elias, The Rebellious Tide).
Cicely Belle Blain
Giller Prize finalists for 2022 Kim Fu, Rawi Hage, Tsering Yangzom Lama, and Suzette Mayr will join Hurtig on stage on October 17. (Noor Naga joins the fest on October 22 and 23.) An Evening with Billy-Ray Belcourt includes Mercedes Eng (author of the poetry books Mercenary English, my yt mama, and Prison Industrial Complex Explodes). Belcourt is the youngest-ever winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize; memoirist of A History of My Brief Body; and a celebrated professor, writer, and scholar from the Driftpile Cree Nation. His debut novel, A Minor Chorus, is about breaching the prisons we live inside.
Carmen Rodríguez moderates Latin American Brilliance, which features Natalia García Freire (This World Does Not Belong to Us) and Seattle’s inaugural Civic Poet Claudia Castro Luna (Cipota under the Moon). Vancouver Writers Fest is teaming up with Vancouver Latin American Cultural Society for the event. “They’re offering different perspectives on immigration and finding hope in unlikely places,” Hurtig says. “This is about celebrating those who choose every day to redefine home in Latin America.”
PEN/Hemingway Award finalist Kim Fu (Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century), Jonathan Escoffery (If I Survive You), Alexander MacLeod (Animal Person: Stories) shares their insights in Short Story Masters, moderated by Caroline Adderson.
Sally Zori.
Queer Little Nightmares sees 2SLGBTQIA+ writers taking on villains in this launch of the anthology of the same name. jaye simpson, Amber Dawn, Eddy Boudel Tan, Tin Lorica, Ben Rawluk, Jane Shi, Cicely Belle Blain, and beni xiao will offer readings and performances. Hosted by David Ly and Daniel Zomparelli, the night will also have a drag performance by Persephone.
This year’s Youth Events include writing workshops, keynotes, discussions and workshops with bestselling children’s authors such as Kenneth Oppel, Kirstie Hudson and Carey Newman, Tanya Lloyd Kyi, and Kevin Sylvester and Xiran Jay Zhao.
Virtual programming is ample. Approximately 30 events will be filmed and offered as a digital festival package in December.
The full lineup of events can be seen on the Writers Fest website.
Related Articles
