Events
$375; excludes Writers Studio classes
October 1, 2, 3 – $140; October 4 – $115
Download the 2026 KWF Program at a Glance
Our Reconstructions
How do the stories we inherit shape who we become? Kingston WritersFest is thrilled to present, a special evening with literary legends Helen Humphreys and Judith Thompson.
Short Story Showcase
Three masterful storytellers take the festival stage to show exactly how much narrative power, depth, and precision can be packed into the short story form. This marquee event brings together distinct literary voices to explore the sharp edges of human relationships, hidden histories, and the art of the literary remix.
The Inbetween Leader
Kingston WritersFest is delighted to present former Minister of Justice Jody Wilson-Raybould with her new book, The Inbetween Leader: Cultivating Courage and Unity in a Complex World.
Authors Onstage
Dark Side Fantasy
Meet two premier voices in Canadian dark fantasy fiction.
Beyond the Veil of Things
Sophia Hannan and Rebecca Hirsch Garcia take to the stage with two remarkable fantasy novels.
Odds, Ends, and Exile: Essays in Focus
The personal essay possesses an incredible, elastic range, serving as a vital tool to inform, delight, and profoundly change minds. Award-winning writers Richard Kelly Kemick and Jamaluddin Aram explore this dynamic form on the KWF stage.
Into (and Out of) the Wild
Delve into our complicated relationship with the natural world with acclaimed authors Robert Moor and Andrew Westoll.
Our Reconstructions
How do the stories we inherit shape who we become? Kingston WritersFest is thrilled to present, a special evening with literary legends Helen Humphreys and Judith Thompson.
Short Story Showcase
Three masterful storytellers take the festival stage to show exactly how much narrative power, depth, and precision can be packed into the short story form. This marquee event brings together distinct literary voices to explore the sharp edges of human relationships, hidden histories, and the art of the literary remix.
Strange Pilgrims
For aspiring Canadian screen or TV writers, Hollywood is the north star. Getting there is a combination of hard work, talent, and luck. Coming back is a whole other thing.
A Fan’s Life
What happened to the sports we used to love? And the way we used to love them? Giller Prize-nominee David Macfarlane explores these questions in On Sports, a nostalgic yet sharp look at the games that define, move, and repel us.
Poets in a Strange Land
Join acclaimed author Camilla Gibb and former Kingston Poet Laureate Jason Heroux as they discuss their new collections. Blending Gibb’s profound anthropological insight with Heroux’s signature “surrealism of the everyday,” this compelling session celebrates two distinct, powerful voices.
Reckonings
Experience a powerful evening of storytelling with award-winning authors Tara Gereaux and Wayne Johnston, author of The Colony of Unrequited Dreams. Johnston’s new novel, The Novice of Holloway Hall, follows an acerbic former novice unearthing family secrets in a crumbling Newfoundland estate. Meanwhile Tara’s Wild People Quiet, set on the prairies post World War II, is the story of a woman with a strong interest in keeping her secrets hidden.
Familiar Creatures
Authors Dan Werb and Nadja Lubiw-Hazard explore the complex connections between humans and the animal kingdom.
Future Forces & Quixotic Quests
Glenn Dixon and Mark Medley take to the stage to explore profound human connections in The Infinite Sadness of Small Appliances and Live to See the Day.
The Unremembered Past
Welcome back Marina Nemat as she joins Leslie Shimotakahara on stage to discuss two remarkable works of historical fiction inspired by real-life family stories.
Modern Myths and Miracles
Kingston WritersFest welcomes award-winning novelists Colin McAdam and Anita Rau Badami to the stage.
The Inbetween Leader
Kingston WritersFest is delighted to present former Minister of Justice Jody Wilson-Raybould with her new book, The Inbetween Leader: Cultivating Courage and Unity in a Complex World.
Grease on the Palms
Lifelong eco-activist Maude Barlow takes the stage with journalist, author, and former roughneck Don Gillmor to examine and expose the forces driving our climate crisis.
The Sting
Join Leslie Bradford Scott and Kingston’s own Adrian Michael Kelly as they dismantle family secrets and personal wreckage.
Writers Studio
Crafting Bridges to the Past
Glide into historical fiction by exploring rich literary, archival, and cultural landscapes that bring the past to life on the page. You’ll read excerpts from various works, discuss the major thematic and formal concerns of the genre, and put pen to paper in a facilitated creative writing exercise.
Close Encounters with Poetry
Poetry is a medium in which form and meaning are in close encounter—so how do we write poems that make organic connections between structure and subject? Concoct homemade verse forms during a workshop that will stretch your poetic imagination and find new ways to bring your ideas to the page.
Make ‘Em Laugh
No matter the genre, every writer can benefit from incorporating humor. Whether to relieve tension, refine a character, or provoke a belly laugh, a bit of funny improves any text.
Workshop for Stage or Screen
New to the festival for 2026, this Script Writing Workshop is a limited-enrollment, full-day intensive session for serious writers. Led by award-winning playwright Judith Thompson, the workshop is designed to elevate your craft alongside a select group of dedicated peers by teaching you how to safely turn lived experiences into captivating scripts for film and theatre.
An Item and a Journey
Physical objects can hold great emotional power. Each participant in this workshop will bring an item of emotional significance and will write two pieces in which the item plays a role.
Writing the Self
Writing yourself in a memoir or personal essay is a daunting challenge. Through a mixture of lecture, discussion, and generative writing exercises, participants in this 90-minute workshop will explore how to write the self as a character. We will move beyond surface impressions to develop a richer, more authentic portrait of the central character of your work (i.e. you).
Building Better Stories for Screen
Whether a half-hour comedy, one-hour drama, or a two-hour feature film, all narratives adhere to the rules of dramatic storytelling. What are those rules? And how can you use them to diagnose, organize, and improve your story?
Advanced Fiction Workshop
New to the festival for 2026, this Advanced Fiction Workshop is a limited-enrollment, full-day intensive session for serious writers. Led by award-winning novelist and short story writer Dennis Bock, the workshop is designed to elevate your craft alongside a select group of dedicated peers.
Plotting the Novel
Plotting a novel is an art which can be mastered. From a compelling beginning to a satisfying conclusion, the goal is always to keep the reader engaged.
Experiments in Collage and Poetry
A hands-on 90-minute workshop on creating collage-incorporating text.
The Essence and Essentials of Style
Whether novel, memoir, or non-fiction, style is key to vibrant and memorable writing. And yet for many writers, the concept remains elusive. In this three-hour workshop, participants will practice the techniques of description, characterization, and dialogue through the lens of style with an emphasis on sound, rhythm and sentence variation.
The Writers’ Toolbox
A generative and editorial-based workshop aimed at more experienced writers. Using prompts, games, and writer-based workshop techniques, participants will be guided through a series of “rules” and “protocols” to supply the editorial tools necessary for refining and improving first drafts.
Medicine, Meaning and Stories
Designed for healthcare practitioners, this highly interactive and collaborative workshop introduces the theory and practice of Narrative-Based Medicine—the effort to understand the stories at work in healthcare better and enhance our ability to step into them more fully, which can have extraordinary impact on patient care and practitioner fulfillment.
Taking A History: Illness Narratives
Serious illness, whether our own, that of someone we love or care for, often leaves us searching for ways to understand, clarify, and describe the experience. Writing can be a powerful means of making sense of the journey.
A How-to Guide to Writers’ Circles
Writing doesn’t have to be a solitary act. In this interactive workshop, writers – fiction, non-fiction, memoir –– will learn practical ways to create or strengthen their writing groups and imagine a more positive approach to writing.
ورشة الكتابة
This workshop will be conducted in Arabic and is intended for fluent Arabic speakers.
Salon Series
(Sponsored by Chez Piggy & Pan Chancho)
Reading the Continent
Each of the three countries that occupy the place we call North America are uniquely different cultures with their own individual literatures. Join Merilyn Simonds as she explores how three classic novels, one from each country, reflect these distinctions.
Media and the Struggle for Objectivity
How can we rebuild trust in an era of record-low media credibility? Award-winning journalist and author Tara Henley addresses this critical breakdown in her timely new work, The Trust Spiral.
Narrative-Based Medicine
Medical science offers hard data while patients tell stories. Narrative-based medicine (NBM) unites the two.
Truth Lives in Language
How can literature resist silencing and repression in an increasingly chaotic world? Join award-winning novelist Kim Echlin discussing her new essay collection, Tell Others: Storytelling for a World in Turmoil.
The Crisis of CanLit
What happens when a nation loses the infrastructure that sustains its stories? Author and media executive Richard Stursberg addresses this decline in his sweeping new book, Lament for a Literature.
Free Events
The Page on Stage
Event DetailsFridayOctober 2, 20268:30 pmRCHA Club193 Ontario Street (directions)Event Description...