Join journalist and author Harley Rustad and intrepid traveller Kate Kristiansen for a conversation on the fascinating life – and presumed death – of Justin Alexander Shelter. Lost in the Valley of Death: A Story of Obsession and Danger in the Himalayas investigates the enticing and perilous draw India has had on Westerners for centuries, […]

Sadiqa de Meijer speaks with a powerhouse trio of poets in this dynamic event. In their latest collections of poetry and essays, Nancy Jo Cullen (Nothing Will Save Your Life), Gillian Sze (Quiet Night Think: Poems & Essays), and Sarah Tsiang (Grappling Hook) take a lyrical, unflinching look at the intimate and messy realities of […]

International bestselling, award-winning author Guy Gavriel Kay has been writing for nearly four decades, producing over a dozen novels which have been translated into 22 languages. Dubbed “one of the world’s greatest living storytellers”, the author of A Brightness Long Ago and Children of Earth and Sky returns to the stage with his latest novel, […]

If words like brilliant, absurd, electrifying, kaleidoscopic, and transcendent pique your interest, you won’t want to miss this exciting late night event featuring John Elizabeth Stintzi with their sophomore novel My Volcano. In conversation with fiction and fantasy writer Adan Jerreat-Poole, JES – who has been likened to Haruki Murakami and Jeff Vandermeer by critics […]

Jessamine Chan’s explosive debut novel, The School for Good Mothers, takes a mother’s bad day to the dystopian extreme. Rattled by a series of disappointments and failures, Frida has a lapse in judgement that threatens to take away the only thing keeping her life together – her daughter, unless she can prove herself redeemable. Join […]

Acclaimed author Rawi Hage returns to the Kingston WritersFest stage with Stray Dogs, a globe-spanning collection of eleven stories featuring a motley crew of irresistible characters. Jason Heroux will talk with Rawi about his decision to explore the medium of short fiction with this publication (something Jason himself has on the horizon), the influences of […]

Joshua Whitehead with Marshall Hill  Oji-Cree/nehiyaw, Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer novelist and poet Joshua Whitehead explores Indigeneity, queerness, the intersections of identity, and mental health in this captivating and much anticipated work of non-fiction, Making Love With the Land. With Marshall Hill, Joshua will discuss his emergence as major voice in the literary landscape following the publication of Jonny […]

Panel Conversation: Mark Bourrie, Tajja Isen and Robyn Maynard with Carol Off  Good words that once meant something – like freedom and free speech – have now been hijacked and used to inject odious ideas into the public space. Dictator and fascist are now used so liberally that they have lost their meaning. And the […]