he 38th annual Vancouver Writers Festival takes place on Granville Island Oct. 20-26. Among the 130-plus local and international authors at 87 events are several members of the Jewish community. A glance through the lineup finds, in order of appearance, Rachel Hartman, Marsha Lederman, Guy Gavriel Kay, Katherine Ashenburg, Jill Yonit Goldberg, Eve Lazarus, Sam Wiebe and Jerry Wasserman. There are, no doubt, others.
Hartman, author of the bestseller Seraphina, comes to the festival with Among Ghosts, which has a found-family theme set in a vibrant fantasy world. She participates with other writers in Paranormal Activity: Ghost Stories for YA (grades 8-12) on Oct. 21, 1 p.m., at Granville Island Stage ($12).
Lederman talks with Linden MacIntyre about his latest work of nonfiction, An Accidental Villain, on Oct. 21, 6 p.m., at the NEST ($27), and she is in conversation with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on Oct. 22, 5:30 p.m., at the Revue Stage ($27), about her own new book, October 7th: Searching for the Humanitarian Middle. October 7th is a collection of Lederman’s columns for the Globe and Mail, which have been a real-time archive capturing a period of deep division and trauma.
Kay, the internationally bestselling author of Tigana, All the Seas of the World and A Brightness Long Ago, talks about his latest fantasy novel, Written on the Dark, which is set in a magical version of medieval France, replete with ambitious royals, assassins and invading armies. He also talks about his overall body of work with moderator Robert J. Wiersema on Oct. 24, 8 p.m., at the Revue Stage ($27).
Ashenburg, author of Margaret’s New Look, published her first fiction book at the age of 72. She will join two other writers in the session called Wisdom, Age & Beauty, which takes place Oct. 25, 5 p.m., at Waterfront Theatre ($27). She also participates with several other writers in the Afternoon Tea on Oct. 26, 3:30 p.m., at Performance Works ($50), which includes high tea delicacies, including a signature glass of sherry.
The Soundtrack of Life panel, on Oct. 25, 8 p.m., at the Revue Stage ($27), includes Jill Yonit Goldberg with her book After We Drowned, a haunting coming-of-age story with a fierce feminist subplot set in 1984 to the music of Tina Turner, Madonna and Stevie Nicks.
On Oct. 26, 10:30 a.m., at Performance Works ($40), Lazarus joins six other authors of nonfiction in an event described as TED Talk meets café social, with a morning snack included. Lazarus explores a forgotten tragedy in Beneath Dark Waters, an account of the 1914 sinking of the Empress of Ireland.
The Crime Scene on Oct. 26, 7 p.m., at Waterfront Theatre ($27) is moderated by Jerry Wasserman and the authors featured include Sam Wiebe, whose The Last Exile finds PI Dave Wakeland at the centre of gang warfare on the streets of Vancouver.
In addition to Lederman’s October 7th, there are a couple of other Israel-related books included in the program, the first directly, the second only tangentially.
Palestinian-Canadian author Saeed Teebi is one of the writers joining Blood in the Pen: Stories, Crises, Repair and the Writer on Oct. 21, 8:30 p.m., at Granville Island Stage ($27), and he will be in conversation with Adel Iskandar on Oct. 22, 8:30 p.m., at Waterfront Theatre ($27). Teebi is also one of the writers featured in A Doctor, a Lawyer and a Journalist Walk into a Literary Festival, on Oct. 23, 8:30 p.m., at Waterfront Theatre ($27). He describes his memoir You Will Not Kill Our Imagination as exploring “what it means to be a Palestinian in this moment, the effects of the genocide on Palestinian art and imagination, and that to even claim a belonging to the land from a country thousands of miles away is an act of subversion.”
Queer Stories on the Map on Oct. 23, 8 p.m., at Revue Stage ($27) includes Ziyad Saadi, whose reimagining of Mrs. Dalloway, Three Parties, follows a Palestinian refugee who plans to come out to his entire family at his birthday dinner party.
For more information about festival events and to purchase tickets, visit writersfest.bc.ca.
– from Vancouver Writers Festival program