Joshua Whitehead reads from full-metal indigiqueer The Writers Festival 2018-04-18 | Joshua Whitehead reads from his collection full-metal indigiqueer. Recorded during the launch of Arc Poetry Magazine 84: “Oh Canada, We Have Issues.” October 22, 2017 at the Ottawa International Writers Festival. In recognition of 150 years post-Confederation, Arc has collected an issue of poems concerned with Reconciliation, Decolonization, and Nation(s). Guest edited by Armand Garnett Ruffo—Band Member of the Chapleau Fox Lake First Nation and Kingston-based Queen’s National Scholar in Indigenous Literature—this themed issue contains a wide range of established and award-winning poets as well as newer rising voices. Joshua Whitehead’s new collection, full-metal indigiqueer, focuses on a hybridized Trickster character named Zoa who brings together the organic (the protozoan) and the technologic (the binaric) in order to re-beautify and re-member queer Indigeneity.
The Knowing with Tanya Talaga The Writers Festival 2024-10-01 | Presented in partnership with the Ottawa Public Library and Library and Archives Canada.We are honoured to present an evening with Tanya Talaga, the critically acclaimed and award-winning author of Seven Fallen Feathers. Her new book, The Knowing, is a riveting exploration of her family’s story and a retelling of the history of the country we now call Canada.Books are available from our friends at Perfect Books. The Ottawa International Writers Festival is supported by generous individuals like you. Please consider subscribing to our newsletter and making a donation to support our programming and children’s literacy initiatives.
Proof with Beverley McLachlin The Writers Festival 2024-09-19 | Presented in partnership with the Ottawa Public Library. From the former Chief Justice of Canada and #1 bestselling author of Full Disclosure comes Proof, a razor-sharp thriller featuring defense attorney Jilly Truitt as she defends a high-profile mother accused of kidnapping her own child.Books are available from our friends at Perfect Books. The Ottawa International Writers Festival is supported by generous individuals like you. Please consider subscribing to our newsletter and making a donation to support our programming and children’s literacy initiatives.
Book Launch: Canadians Who Innovate with Roseann O’Reilly Runte The Writers Festival 2024-05-10 | Presented in partnership with Ottawa Public Library and Library and Archives Canada.Join us for the launch of Canadians Who Innovate: The Trailblazers and Ideas That Are Changing the World by Roseann O’Reilly Runte, president of the Canadian Foundation for Innovations. This remarkable new book profiles of some of the most inventive and creative Canadians and the ideas that are making Canada a leading nation in innovation. This special occasion will include a discussion on innovation with the author and Nobel laureate, Art McDonald and a performance by OrKidstra introduced by Tina Fedeski and Margaret Maria Tobolowska. A number of innovators featured in the book will be present.Featuring brilliant thinkers from coast to coast to coast, and others from around the world who now call Canada home, Canadians Who Innovate paints a promising picture of a cleaner, healthier, more innovative future for us all.
Out of Darkness with Denise Chong The Writers Festival 2024-04-19 | Presented in partnership with Library and Archives Canada and the Ottawa Public Library.Join us for the launch of Out of Darkness: Rumana Monzur's Journey through Betrayal, Tyranny and Abuse.From the bestselling author of The Concubine’s Children and The Girl in the Picture, it is a gripping story of a domestic assault that shocked the world, of the exercise of power and political influence, and of the Bangladeshi woman whose irrepressible spirit found light in sudden darkness.From the outside, Rumana seemed an unlikely victim of domestic abuse: married to a man of her own choosing and progressing in her career as a professor of international relations at Dhaka University. But in 2011, on return from graduate studies at the University of British Columbia, her husband attacked and blinded her in front of their young daughter. As Rumana's horrifying story garnered international headlines, and connections brought her to Vancouver in an attempt—ultimately futile—to restore her sight, her plight underscored the fact that there are no typical victims of intimate-partner violence.Denise Chong goes behind the headlines to reveal the devolution of a love story into a tale of tyranny behind closed doors, and the pursuit of justice that proved all the more elusive during the rise of social media. Out of Darkness tells a globe-spanning narrative of loyalty, perseverance and a woman’s determination to face the future and rebuild a life with meaning.Books are available from our friends at Perfect Books. The Ottawa International Writers Festival is supported by generous individuals like you. Please consider subscribing to our newsletter and making a donation to support our programming and children’s literacy initiatives.
By the Ghost Light with R.H. Thomson The Writers Festival 2023-11-29 | Presented with Library and Archives Canada and the Ottawa Public LibraryHosted by Andrew CohenJoin us for a conversation between our host Andrew Cohen, award-winning journalist, author and professor, and R.H. Thomson, one of Canada’s most beloved performing artists in celebration of By the Ghost Light: Wars, Memory, and Families, an audacious work of non-fiction that explores the stories that shape us and the reach that the past can have across generations.Growing up north of Toronto, R.H. Thomson’s imagination was captured by romantic notions of war. He spent his days playing with toy soldiers on the carpet of his grandmother’s house, recreating the Battle of Britain with model planes in his bedroom, or sitting at the local theatre watching World War II B movies—ones that offered a very clear perspective on who were the heroes and who the villains; which side were the victors and which the vanquished.Yet Thomson’s childhood was also shaped by the spirits of real-life warriors in his family, their fates a brutal and more complicated reminder of the true human cost of war. Eight of Robert’s great uncles—George, Joe, Jack, Harold, Arthur, Warren, Wildy, and Fred—fought in the First World War, while his great Aunt Margaret served as a wartime surgical nurse in Europe. Five of the great uncles—George, Joe, Fred, Wildy, and Warren—were killed in battle while two others—Jack and Harold—would return home greatly diminished, spending the rest of their lives in and out of sanitariums, their lungs scarred by disease and poison gas. Throughout their lives, the great uncles, as well as great aunts and cousins, were faithful letter writers, their correspondence offering profound insights into their experiences on the front lines to their loved ones back home, a somber record of the sacrifice the family paid. In By the Ghost Light, R.H. Thomson offers an extraordinary look at his family’s history while providing a powerful examination of how we understand war and its aftermath. Using his family letters as a starting point, Thomson roams through a century of folly, touching on areas of military history, art, literature, and science, to express the tragic human cost of war behind the order and calm of ceremonial parades, memorials, and monuments. In an urgent call for new ways to acknowledge the dead, R.H. has created “The World Remembers,” an ambitious international project to individually name each of the millions killed in the First World War.
Unbroken with Angela Sterritt The Writers Festival 2023-10-03 | Join us for a conversation between activist, model and video creator Haley Robinson and Angela Sterritt about her national bestseller, Unbroken: My Fight for Survival, Hope, and Justice for Indigenous Women and Girls, an extraordinary work of memoir and investigative journalism written by an award-winning Gitxsan journalist who survived life on the streets against all odds.Presented in partnership with Library and Archives Canada.
Truth Telling: Seven Conversations about Indigenous Life in Canada The Writers Festival 2023-09-29 | Presented with Library and Archives CanadaSeptember 28th 2023Join us for an essential conversation between Algonquin Anishnaabe author and artist Karen McBride and Governor General’s Award-winning bestseller Michelle Good, for those looking to acknowledge the past and understand the way forward. Truth Telling: Seven Conversations about Indigenous Life in Canada is a bold, provocative collection of essays exploring the historical and contemporary Indigenous experience in Canada.From racism, broken treaties, and cultural pillaging, to the value of Indigenous lives and the importance of Indigenous literature, this collection reveals facts about Indigenous life in Canada that are both devastating and enlightening. Truth Telling also demonstrates the myths underlying Canadian history and the human cost of colonialism, showing how it continues to underpin modern social institutions in Canada.Passionate and uncompromising, Michelle Good affirms that meaningful and substantive reconciliation hinges on recognition of Indigenous self-determination, the return of lands, and a just redistribution of the wealth that has been taken from those lands without regard for Indigenous peoples.
Truth Telling: Seven Conversations about Indigenous Life in Canada with Michelle Good The Writers Festival 2023-09-28 | Join us for an essential conversation–with Governor General’s Award-winning bestseller Michelle Good–for those looking to acknowledge the past and understand the way forward.
Book Launch: Snow Road Station With Elizabeth Hay Hosted by Rhonda Douglas The Writers Festival 2023-04-14 | Join us in celebration of the launch of Snow Road Station , the latest novel from Giller Prize-winner Elizabeth Hay. PLEASE NOTE: For the safety and comfort of all patrons, masks are required to attend in person. This event will also be available as a live-stream directly from this page.In the winter of 2008, as snow falls without interruption, an actor in a Beckett play blanks on her lines. Fleeing the theatre, she beats a retreat into her past and arrives at Snow Road Station, a barely discernible dot on the map of Ontario. The actor is Lulu Blake, in her sixties now, a sexy, seemingly unfooled woman well-versed in taking risks. Out of work, humiliated, she enters the last act of her life wondering what she can make of her diminished self. In Snow Road Station she decides she is through with drama, but drama, it turns out, isn’t through with her. She thinks she wants peace. It turns out she wants more.Looming in the background is that autumn’s global financial meltdown, while in the foreground family and friends animate a round of weddings, sap harvests, love affairs, and personal turmoil. At the centre of it all is the friendship between Lulu and Nan. As the two women contemplate growing old, they surrender certain long-held dreams and confront the limits of the choices they’ve made and the messy feelings that kept them apart for decades.
Empathy: Turning Compassion into Action with David Johnston Hosted by Catherine Clark The Writers Festival 2023-03-01 | Presented in partnership with Library and Archives Canada.Join our host, Catherine Clark, for a conversation with David Johnston, Canada’s 28th Governor General, in celebration of his most personal and book to date, Empathy: Turning Compassion into Action .As the world stumbles through the most severe pandemic of the last century, threatened by teetering economies, torn by political division, separated by unequal access to resources, and wrestling with issues as diverse as racism, gender, cybercrime, and climate change, the nations that best adapt and prosper are those in which empathy is fully alive and widely active. Written for a post-pandemic world, Empathy is a book about learning to be empathetic and then turning that empathy into action. Based on the personal experiences of author David Johnston, the book explores how awakening to the transformative power of listening and caring permanently changes individuals, families, communities, and nations.A how-to manual for a world craving kindness, Empathy offers proof of the inherent goodness of people, and shows how exercising the instinct for kindness creates societies that are both smart and caring. Through poignant stories and crisp observations, David contends that “Everyone has power over some things that other people don’t. When they learn ways to turn that power into action, they change the future dramatically.”With clear and practical focus, Empathy looks at a host of issues that demand our attention, from education and immigration, to healthcare, the law, policing, business ethics, and criminal justice. In each of these areas, Johnston highlights the deeper understandings that have arisen during the COVID-19 crisis, with sharp emphasis on the positive and negative lessons now in crisp focus. Convinced that empathy is the fastest route to peace and progress in all their forms, David ends each short chapter with a set of practical steps the reader can take to make the world better, one deliberate action at a time. PLEASE NOTE: For the safety and comfort of all patrons, masks are required to attend in person. This event will also be available as a live-stream directly from this page.Most people coming by car park for free at the Supreme Court of Canada on Wellington St.
Bywords John Newlove Poetry Awards Richard Yves-Sitoski and Subrahj Singh Hosted by Amanda Earl The Writers Festival 2022-10-21 | Join us for the launch of "How to Be Human" by Richard Yves-Sitoski, the 2021 recipient of the John Newlove Poetry Award.Hosted by Amanda Earl, the evening also features readings by this year’s award recipient and honourable mentions—to be announced at the reading—plus music by Subrahj Singh.This year’s awards will be followed by an informal celebration of our dearly departed friend Steven Heighton. We’ll share a taste of his poetry and enjoy his remarkable debut album The Devil's Share .
A Book Launch: The Cold Edge of Heaven with Whit Fraser Hosted by Madeline Alakkarialak The Writers Festival 2022-10-02 | Join us for the launch of The Cold Edge of Heaven by journalist, award-winning author, and viceregal consort, Whit Fraser. Set in 1924 at a desolate police outpost on Devon Island in Canada’s far north, this is a story of murder, mystery, and love—intensified by a clash of cultures between Inuit guides and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers who live and work alongside them.Will Grant is one of three constables who, along with their guides and families, are dropped on the windy gravel beach of Dundas Harbour. But no amount of training—not even the horrors of the First World War—would prepare the officers for ice-locked isolation and physical threats from ocean storms, blizzards, avalanches, months of darkness, and marauding polar bears.The mental and emotional strain are exacerbated by two mysterious, violent deaths. When the Inuit abandon the outpost, Grant realizes that his values and beliefs have changed in ways he could not have imagined.Although alone and crushed by the inexplicable murders, Grant has learned much about the Arctic through Naudla, wife of one of the guides—and his secret lover. Through her, he discovers the magnificent beauty of the land and ice-covered ocean. This is not a frozen hell, but rather the cold edge of heaven.Cold Edge of Heaven is a historical fiction adventure set in the Canadian Arctic at the now-abandoned Royal Canadian Mounted Police outpost of Dundas Harbour. Stations such as these were central to Canada asserting its sovereignty over the vast far north, with the Mounties serving as “human flagpoles.”PLEASE NOTE: For the safety and comfort of all patrons, masks are required to attend in person. Most people coming by car park for free at the Supreme Court of Canada on Wellington St.
Take Your Breath Away With Linwood Barclay Hosted by Shari Lapena The Writers Festival 2022-05-19 | A missing woman. A husband suspected. The truth will . . .TAKE YOUR BREATH AWAY! We’re thrilled to welcome Linwood Barclay, the New York Times bestselling author of Find You First and Elevator Pitch, back to the Festival stage for a conversation on his latest bestseller, Take Your Breath Away .It’s a gripping psychological thriller about a formerly missing woman who has suddenly returned under mysterious circumstances.One weekend, while Andrew Mason was on a fishing trip, his wife, Brie, vanished without a trace. Most everyone assumed Andy had got away with murder—it’s always the husband, isn’t it?—but the police could never build a strong case against him. For a while, Andy hit rock bottom—he drank too much to numb the pain, was abandoned by all his friends save one, nearly lost his business, and became a pariah in the place he once called home.Now, six years later, Andy has finally put his life back together. He sold the house he once shared with Brie and moved away. To tell the truth, he wasn’t sad to hear that the old place was razed and a new house built on the site. He’s settled down with a new partner, Jayne, and life is good.But Andy’s peaceful world is about to shatter. One day, a woman shows up at his old address, screaming, “Where’s my house? What’s happened to my house?” And then, just as suddenly as she appeared, the woman—who bears a striking resemblance to Brie—is gone. The police are notified and old questions—and dark suspicions—resurface. Could Brie really be alive after all these years? If so, where has she been? It soon becomes clear that Andy’s future and the lives of those closest to him depend on discovering what the hell is going on. The trick will be whether he can stay alive long enough to unearth the answers.
Have You Eaten Yet? With Cheuk Kwan Hosted by CBC’s Judy Trinh The Writers Festival 2022-05-04 | Once in a lifetime, a book comes along that pulls all the strands of social history, migration, world politics and food into a comprehensive, entertaining book that is both enlightening and thoughtful. Have You Eaten Yet? arrives at a perfect time and is more relevant than ever. A must for anyone interested in how politics, culture, family and food merge together to create a most unique global phenomenon.— Ken Hom, OBE, author, chef and BBC?TV presenter
Arc Poetry Magazine Spring Launch 2022: Tribute to Diana Brebner The Writers Festival 2022-05-02 | An evening of poetry and music: Presented in partnership with Qu'ART Ottawa, this event features readings by John Barton, Anita Lahey, and previous Brebner Prize winners Dessa Bayrock and Sneha Madhavan-Reese, alongside special guests Allure Ensemble. In the Winter 2002 issue of Arc Poetry Magazine, the 1st Annual Diana Brebner Prize winner was announced. After 20 years of administering this award for an exceptional poem by an Ottawa-based poet not yet published in book form, Arc 97 looks back at the history of this prize and to the legacy of the late Diana Brebner, an award-winning Ottawa-based poet who was devoted to fostering literary talent among new, local writers.
Arc Poetry Magazine Spring Launch The Writers Festival 2022-04-30 | Join us for an evening of poetry and music. In the Winter 2002 issue of Arc Poetry Magazine , the 1st Annual Diana Brebner Prize winner was announced. After 20 years of administering this award for an exceptional poem by an Ottawa-based poet not yet published in book form, Arc 97 looks back at the history of this prize and to the legacy of the late Diana Brebner, an award-winning Ottawa-based poet who was devoted to fostering literary talent among new, local writers.In partnership with Qu'ART Ottawa, this event will feature readings by John Barton, Anita Lahey, and previous Brebner Prize winners Dessa Bayrock and Sneha Madhavan-Reese, alongside special guests Allure Ensemble. PLEASE NOTE: Proof of COVID-19 vaccination (double vaccination plus 14 days) will be required for all guests 12 years of age and older to enter the venue. Once inside, masks are required and reduced capacity will be in place to ensure social distancing can be maintained.
The Power of Teamwork With Dr. Brian Goldman The Writers Festival 2022-04-27 | A conversation between CHEO’s Alex Munter and Dr. Brian Goldman, host of CBC Radio’s White Coat, Black Art on his new book, The Power of Teamwork: How We All Can Work Together Better. In the high-pressure and complex setting of healthcare, a new approach to teamwork is leading to healthier patients, happier staff, and more efficient operations. Healthcare’s embrace of a new teamwork model has been noticed by people outside the medical world, so doctors are going outside the walls of the hospital to teach manufacturers, business owners, franchisees, customer service representatives and even those in sports and entertainment to do better by shifting the culture from “me” to “we.” Drawing on groundbreaking research and examples from around the world, The Power of Teamwork shows how a team approach to medicine can improve customer service and help women break the glass ceiling. It can solidify the provision of social services to troubled youth, and boost the efficiency and safety of the military and critical industrial complexes like nuclear power plants. It can even make professional sports teams perform better.Books are available from our friends at Perfect Books. The Ottawa International Writers Festival is supported by generous individuals like you. Please consider subscribing to our newsletter and making a donation to support our programming and children’s literacy initiatives.
The Power of Teamwork With Dr. Brian Goldman Hosted by CHEOs Alex Munter The Writers Festival 2022-04-27 | Join us for a conversation between CHEO’s Alex Munter and Dr. Brian Goldman, host of CBC Radio’s White Coat, Black Art on his new book, The Power of Teamwork: How We All Can Work Together Better. In the high-pressure and complex setting of healthcare, a new approach to teamwork is leading to healthier patients, happier staff, and more efficient operations. Healthcare’s embrace of a new teamwork model has been noticed by people outside the medical world, so doctors are going outside the walls of the hospital to teach manufacturers, business owners, franchisees, customer service representatives and even those in sports and entertainment to do better by shifting the culture from “me” to “we.” Drawing on groundbreaking research and examples from around the world, The Power of Teamwork shows how a team approach to medicine can improve customer service and help women break the glass ceiling. It can solidify the provision of social services to troubled youth, and boost the efficiency and safety of the military and critical industrial complexes like nuclear power plants. It can even make professional sports teams perform better.
The Next Civil War With Stephen Marche The Writers Festival 2022-04-13 | CBC Television’s Adrian Harewood, hosts a timely conversation with author and journalist Stephen Marche about his book The Next Civil War: Dispatches from the American Future , a deeply researched work of speculative nonfiction that imagines five chilling scenarios that lead to its collapse, based on in-depth interviews with experts of all kinds.On a small two-lane bridge in a rural county that loathes the federal government, the US Army uses lethal force to end a standoff with hard-right anti-government patriots. Inside an ordinary diner, a disaffected young man with a handgun takes aim at the American president stepping in for an impromptu photo-op, and a bullet splits the hyper-partisan country into violently opposed mourners and revelers. In New York City, a Category 2 hurricane plunges entire neighborhoods underwater and creates millions of refugees overnight—a blow that comes on the heels of a financial crash and years of catastrophic droughts— and tips America over the edge into ruin.These nightmarish scenarios are just three of the five possibilities most likely to spark devastating chaos in the United States that are brought to life in The Next Civil War , a chilling and deeply researched work of speculative nonfiction. Drawing upon sophisticated predictive models and nearly two hundred interviews with experts—civil war scholars, military leaders, law enforcement officials, secret service agents, agricultural specialists, environmentalists, war historians, and political scientists—journalist Stephen Marche predicts the terrifying future collapse that so many of us do not want to see unfolding in front of our eyes. Marche has spoken with soldiers and counterinsurgency experts about what it would take to control the population of the United States, and the battle plans for the next civil war have already been drawn up. Not by novelists, but by colonels. Books are available from our friends at Perfect Books. The Ottawa International Writers Festival is supported by generous individuals like you. Please consider subscribing to our newsletter and making a donation to support our programming and children’s literacy initiatives.
The Next Civil War With Stephen Marche Hosted by CBC Television’s Adrian Harewood The Writers Festival 2022-04-13 | It’s not a matter of if but when: A civil war is on the way...In a time of torment, this is a book well worth reading.— Kirkus Reviews
What Would Freedom Look Like? The Writers Festival 2022-03-30 | A clear-eyed assessment of the links between property, policing, and the subjugation of Black people ... Walcott’s analysis of the ways in which white supremacy is baked into the legal systems of Canada and the U.S. is stimulating. Progressives will embrace this well-conceived call for change.— Publishers Weekly
What Would Freedom Look Like? The Writers Festival 2022-03-30 | Join our host, City of Ottawa Book Award-Winner Kagiso Lesego Molope, as she leads a conversation with academic, author and activist Rinaldo Walcott (The Long Emancipation: Moving Toward Black Freedom); Cree environmental activist and best-selling author, Clayton Thomas-Muller (Life in the City of Dirty Water: A Memoir of Healing) and; feminist giant, Mona Eltahawy (The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls). The moment the “Freedom Convoy” took over downtown Ottawa it becasme apparent that the word “freedom”means different things to different people. Is freedom an individual state of being? What kind of freedom ignores the ties that bind, and all the ways we are interconnected? Is “might makes right” how freedom should be defined? Is equity involved in freedom? Is safety? Are there limits to personal autonomy that make us more free? We are thrilled to present a conversation on what real freedom is and what freedom would look like if we had it. Books are available from our friends at Perfect Books. The Ottawa International Writers Festival is supported by generous individuals like you. Please consider subscribing to our newsletter and making a donation to support our programming and children’s literacy initiatives.
Books and Biryani: Zarqa Nawaz and the Comedy of Errors Zarqa Nawaz Hosted by Ferrukh Faruqui The Writers Festival 2022-03-28 | Nawaz is a comic genius who has done the impossible in this brilliant fiction debut: Jameela Green Ruins Everything is, all at once, an incisive examination of recent Middle East history, a biting indictment of Western imperialism, and a darkly comic satire on terrorism. Follow Jameela Green, the comic she-ro for our modern times, as she bumbles through the unimaginable on this hilarious whirlwind adventure. I guarantee you will never think about the phrase ‘East meets West’ in quite the same way again. Three cheers for Jameela Green!— UZMA JALALUDDIN
Who is Served and What is Protected? With Desmond Cole and Brandi Morin Hosted by Erica Iffil The Writers Festival 2022-03-23 | Erica Iffil, co-host of the Bad + Bitchy podcast, hosts a necessary conversation on the state of policing with Brandi Morin (Our Voice of Fire: A Memoir of a Warrior Rising) and Desmond Cole ( The Skin We're In: A Year of Black Resistance and Power ).bb
Highlights from the 2021 Ottawa International Writers Festival The Writers Festival 2022-03-15 | A 6 minute glimpse into the ideas and imagination of some of the internationally acclaimed authors that joined us for the 2021 Ottawa International Writers Festival.
What Strange Paradise with Omar El Akkad The Writers Festival 2021-11-30 | We’re thrilled to present CBC’s Adrian Harewood in conversation with Omar El Akkad winner of the 2021 Scotiabank Giller Prize for What Strange Paradise, a profoundly moving novel that shows the global refugee crisis through the eyes of a child.Books are available from our friends at Perfect Books.The Ottawa International Writers Festival is supported by generous individuals like you. Please consider subscribing to our newsletter and making a donation to support our programming and children’s literacy initiatives.
Decolonizing the Dialogue with Lee Maracle The Writers Festival 2021-11-11 | Lee Maracle (1950-2021)Recorded on April 26, 2018: We gathered on unceded Algonquin territory to explore the true history of this country and to discuss what a decolonized future might look like and how we can get there. Harkening back to her first book tour at the age of 26–for the autobiographical novel Bobbi Lee: Indian Rebel–and touching down upon a multitude of experiences she's had as a Canadian, a First Nations leader, a woman and mother and grandmother over the course of her life, Lee Maracle's My Conversations with Canadians presents a tour de force exploration into the writer's own history and a re-imagining of the future of our nation.
Me Tomorrow: Indigenous Views on the Future with Drew Hayden Taylor, Norma Dunning and Darrel J.... The Writers Festival 2021-11-11 | Corrected video of the launch featuring editor, author, and playwright Drew Haden Taylor's groundbreaking anthology with contributors Norma Dunning and Darrel J. MacLeod. Me Tomorrow: Indigenous Views on the Future features First Nations, Métis and Inuit artists, activists, educators and writers, youth and elders come together to envision Indigenous futures in Canada and around the world. Me Tomorrow covers everything from language renewal to sci-fi. It is a powerful and important expression of imagination rooted in social critique, cultural experience, traditional knowledge, activism and the multifaceted experiences of Indigenous people on Turtle Island.For readers who want to imagine the future, and to cultivate a better one, Me Tomorrow is a journey through the visions generously offered by a diverse group of Indigenous thinkers.
Launch of ARC96 Featuring: Junie Désil, Simone Dalton and Shery Alexander Heinis The Writers Festival 2021-11-11 | Hosted by acclaimed poet and spoken word performer Brandon Wint, this event features readings by Junie Désil, winner of the Writers' Trust of Canada Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging Writers, Simone Dalton, winner of the RBC Taylor Prize Emerging Writer Award, and poet, writer, and community builder, Shery Alexander Heinis.Arc 96, the "Islands of Influence" issue, welcomes poems, essays, interviews, and visual art that celebrate, explore and elucidate the ways that Caribbean life and Canadian life have intersected to create unique literary and artistic possibilities.The Ottawa International Writers Festival is supported by generous individuals like you. Please consider subscribing to our newsletter and making a donation to support our programming and children’s literacy initiatives.
Book Launch: Best Canadian Poetry 2021 With Anita Lahey, Souvankham Thammavongsa and many more! The Writers Festival 2021-11-10 | "The wide range of writers, forms and themes represented here make it a great jumping-off point for readers who might be interested in Canadian poetry but are unsure about where to start." — Globe and MailJoin us for a conversation between series editor Anita Lahey and guest editor Souvankham Thammavongsa and poetry from Ian Keteku, John Steffler, Kate Cayley, M. Travis Lane, Manahil Bandukwala, Phoebe Wang, Randy Lundy and Ronna Bloom.“This is a book,” writes guest editor Souvankham Thammavongsa, “about what I saw and read and loved, and want you to see and read and love.” Selected from work published by Canadian poets in magazines and journals in 2020, Best Canadian Poetry 2021 gathers the poems Thammavongsa loved most over a year’s worth of reading, and draws together voices that “got in and out quickly, that said unusual things, that were clear, spare, and plain, that made [her] laugh out loud … the voices that barely ever survive to make it onto the page.” From new work by Canadian icons to thrilling emerging talents, this year’s anthology offers fifty poems for you to fall in love with as well.Books are available from our friends at Perfect Books.The Ottawa International Writers Festival is supported by generous individuals like you. Please consider subscribing to our newsletter and making a donation to support our programming and children’s literacy initiatives.
Book Launch: Best Canadian Poetry 2021 With Anita Lahey, Souvankham Thammavongsa and many more! The Writers Festival 2021-11-05 | Join us for a conversation between series editor Anita Lahey and guest editor Souvankham Thammavongsa and live poetry from many of the contributors.“This is a book,” writes guest editor Souvankham Thammavongsa, “about what I saw and read and loved, and want you to see and read and love.” Selected from work published by Canadian poets in magazines and journals in 2020, Best Canadian Poetry 2021 gathers the poems Thammavongsa loved most over a year’s worth of reading, and draws together voices that “got in and out quickly, that said unusual things, that were clear, spare, and plain, that made [her] laugh out loud … the voices that barely ever survive to make it onto the page.” From new work by Canadian icons to thrilling emerging talents, this year’s anthology offers fifty poems for you to fall in love with as well.Books are available from our friends at Perfect Books.The Ottawa International Writers Festival is supported by generous individuals like you. Please consider subscribing to our newsletter and making a donation to support our programming and children’s literacy initiatives.
My Best Mistake with Terry O’Reilly Hosted by CBCs Alan Neal The Writers Festival 2021-10-28 | It’s always a pleasure to spend time with Terry O’Reilly, the host of CBC Radio’s Under the Influence, In his new book, My Best Mistake: Epic Fails and Silver Linings, Terry uncovers the surprising power of screwing up.The Incredible Hulk was originally supposed to be grey, but a printing glitch led to the superhero’s iconic green colour. NHL hall-of-famer Serge Savard’s hockey career nearly ended prematurely, not because of an injury, but because of an oversight. And the invention of a beloved treat, the Popsicle, began with a simple mistake.In his fascinating and meticulously researched new book, Terry O’Reilly recounts how some of the biggest breakthroughs and best-loved products originated with a mistake. Some people’s “mistakes” led to dramatic life changes--losing their jobs, their companies and often their credibility--only for them to discover new opportunities on the other shore. Other people’s mistakes seemed minor, almost insignificant--until they led to a famous brand, a legendary band or a groundbreaking work of art. And in a few instances, a mistake actually saved lives.The fear of failing often holds us back. My Best Mistake will change how you think about screwing up and will encourage you to accept mistakes and embrace the obstacles that may arise from these errors, leading you to unexpected breakthroughs and silver linings of your own.
My Stories, My Times, Volume 2with The Right Honourable Jean Chrétien Hosted by Mark Sutcliffe The Writers Festival 2021-10-27 | Join us for a conversation between CPAC’s Mark Sutcliffe and The Right Honourable Jean Chrétien in celebration of his latest publication, My Stories, My Times, Volume 2. Following on the heels of his bestselling collection of political reminiscences, former Canadian prime minister Jean Chrétien still has a few more stories to tell. With a career that spanned decades and an active retirement after that, it should come as no surprise that Jean Chrétien’s illuminating, perceptive and often humorous stories could not be contained in just one book. This collection of essays features his trademark candour and ever-sharp political acumen, with plenty of wit to accompany the wisdom. With a delightful randomness, he remembers events and personalities that shaped our nation in a multitude of ways, and offers his views on international current events, including Canada-China relations, Brexit, and interprovincial dealings. Jean Chrétien’s stories serve to remind us that there is more to unite than divide us as a country, and that we have institutions we can take enormous pride in and values we must strive to maintain and keep building upon. Above all, these stories illustrate Jean Chrétien’s firm belief that we must never cease searching for common ground despite our differences.
BOOK LAUNCH: Hunting by Stars with Cherie Dimaline The Writers Festival 2021-10-19 | We’re so excited to be hosting a conversation between Shelagh Rogers, host of The Next Chapter on CBC Radio, and international bestseller Cherie Dimaline! Hunting by Stars is the thrilling follow-up to the bestselling, award-winning novel The Marrow Thieves, about a dystopian world where the Indigenous people of North America are being hunted for their bone marrow and ability to dream.Books are available from our friends at Perfect Books. The Ottawa International Writers Festival is supported by generous individuals like you. Please consider subscribing to our newsletter and making a donation to support our programming and children’s literacy initiatives.
The Menopause Manifesto with Dr Jen Gunter The Writers Festival 2021-10-19 | Author, activist and educator Julie S. Lalonde sits down with Dr. Jen Gunter to discuss her follow-up to the #1 bestseller The Vagina Bible. In her new book, The Menopause Manifesto: Own Your Health with Facts and Feminism , the internet's most fearless advocate for women's health, brings us empowerment through knowledge by countering stubborn myths and misunderstandings about menopause with hard facts, real science, fascinating historical perspective, and expert advice.Books are available from our friends at Perfect Books. The Ottawa International Writers Festival is supported by generous individuals like you. Please consider subscribing to our newsletter and making a donation to support our programming and children’s literacy initiatives. Presented in partnership with the Ottawa Public Library.
Gather with Richard Van Camp The Writers Festival 2021-10-19 | Join our host, Karen McBride, the Algonquin Anishinaabe author of Crow Winter for a conversation with Tlicho Dene author Richard Van Camp from Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, about his latest publication, Gather: Richard Van Camp on the Joy of StorytellingStories are medicine. During a time of heightened isolation, bestselling author Richard Van Camp shares what he knows about the power of storytelling-and offers some of his own favourite stories from Elders, friends, and family.Gathering around a campfire, or the dinner table, we humans have always told stories. Through them, we define our identities and shape our understanding of the world.In Gather, Van Camp shares what elements make a compelling story and offers insights into basic storytelling techniques, such as how to read a room and how to capture the attention of listeners. And he delves further into the impact storytelling can have, helping readers understand how to create community and how to banish loneliness through their tales. A member of the Tlicho Dene First Nation, Van Camp also includes stories from Elders whose wisdom influenced him.
Books and Biryani: A Muslim History of the Americas with Omar Mouallem Hosted by Ferrukh Faruqui The Writers Festival 2021-10-18 | Although Books and Biryani 2020 was hijacked by the pandemic, this fall the Canadian Council of Muslim Women-Ottawa is back (sadly, the biryani’s up to you). Join host Ferrukh Faruqui as she catches up with the kinetic Omar Mouallem, whose creative dynamism fuels multiple genres. His just released CBC Gem documentary The Last Baron celebrates the sweat-induced success of Arab immigrant families, including his own, who spawned a collection of mostly small-town hamburger joints dotting Alberta. The writer, filmmaker and self-proclaimed ‘fake dean’ of the stupendously successful Pandemic University for writers is having several moments. Mouallem’s The Ringer feature chronicling the arc of his renamed Levantine ancestor Frank Lackteen, the first Arab American movie star, is a fitting preface to his new book, Praying to the West. This personal travelogue-cum-memoir details how Muslims colonised the Americas. To his surprise, this historical quest becomes an interior journey too. As he crosses the continent from Brazil to the Arctic on the trail of diverse Islamic communities, this Canadian-born son of Lebanese immigrants sort-of finds himself too, telescoping back to his faith-saturated childhood while challenging a global narrative hostile to Islam in a world dominated by the political and cultural fallout of the never-ending war on terror. Please join us online on Sunday, October 17th at 7pm Eastern for Books and Biryani 2021: The Muslim History of North America. Books and Biryani began 18 or so years ago – even our long serving president can’t recall the exact year - in a Westboro church basement with guests perusing profound prose between sips of cardamom tea and fragrant spoonfuls of chicken-studded rice. Past guests include Moon of the Crusted Snow author Waubgeshig Rice and Cree playwright-novelist-composer Tomson Highway. The Canadian Council of Muslim Women is a national non-profit founded in 1982 by a coterie of visionaries to empower Canadian Muslim women seeking equity and social justice. CCMW-Ottawa is run by volunteers who delight in the words that hone our understanding of the colliding forces that shape our shared society. Books are available from our friends at Perfect Books.
Em with Kim Thuy The Writers Festival 2021-10-15 | Broadcaster and storyteller Lucy van Oldenbarneveld hosts a conversation with Scotiabank Giller Prize nominee Kim Thúy. Her latest, Em , translated into English by Sheila Fischman, is a virtuosic novel of profound power and sensitivity, and an enduring affirmation of the greatest act of resistance: love.Books are available from our friends at Perfect Books.The Ottawa International Writers Festival is supported by generous individuals like you. Please consider subscribing to our newsletter and making a donation to support our programming and children’s literacy initiatives.
Em with Kim Thuy Hosted by Lucy van Oldenbarneveld The Writers Festival 2021-10-15 | Broadcaster and storyteller Lucy van Oldenbarneveld hosts a conversation with 2021 Scotiabank Giller Prize nominee Kim Thúy. Her latest, Em , translated into English by Sheila Fischman, is a virtuosic novel of profound power and sensitivity, and an enduring affirmation of the greatest act of resistance: love.In the midst of war, an ordinary miracle: an abandoned baby tenderly cared for by a young boy living on the streets of Saigon. The boy is Louis, the child of a long-gone American soldier. Louis calls the baby em H?ng, em meaning "little sister," or "beloved." Even though her cradle is nothing more than a cardboard box, em H?ng's life holds every possibility.Through the linked destinies of a family of characters, the novel takes its inspiration from historical events, including Operation Babylift, which evacuated thousands of biracial orphans from Saigon in April 1975, and the remarkable growth of the nail salon industry, dominated by Vietnamese expatriates all over the world. From the rubber plantations of Indochina to the massacre at My Lai, Kim Thúy sifts through the layers of pain and trauma in stories we thought we knew, revealing transcendent moments of grace, and the invincibility of the human spirit.
An Embarrassment of Critch’s with Mark Critch The Writers Festival 2021-10-12 | David Cochrane, Senior Reporter with CBC's Parliamentary Bureau, hosts an evening with Mark Critch on his latest bestseller, An Embarrassment of Critch's: Immature Stories From My Grown-Up Life, the heartfelt and hilarious story of Mark's journey from Newfoundland to the national stage--and back home again.Books are available from our friends at Perfect Books.The Ottawa International Writers Festival is supported by generous individuals like you. Please consider subscribing to our newsletter and making a donation to support our programming and children’s literacy initiatives.
Off the Record with Peter Mansbridge The Writers Festival 2021-10-12 | Join us as we celebrate the launch of Off the Record by Peter Mansbridge. The Toronto Star’s Susan Delacourt hosts a conversation with Peter on his life and career, from his early broadcasting days in the remote northern Manitoba community of Churchill to the fast-paced news desk of CBC’s flagship show, The National, where he reported on stories from around the world.After years of interviewing others, Peter turns the lens on himself and takes us behind the scenes of his life on the frontlines of journalism as he reflects on the toll of being in the spotlight, the importance of diversity in the newsroom, the role of the media then and now, and the responsibilities we all bear as citizens in an increasingly global world.Today, Peter Mansbridge is often recognized for his distinctive deep voice, which calmly delivered the news for over fifty years. But ironically, he never considered becoming a broadcaster. In some ways, though, Peter was prepared for a life as a newscaster from an early age. Every night around the dinner table, his family would debate the news of the day, from Cold War scandals and Vietnam to Elvis Presley and the Beatles.Books are available from our friends at Perfect Books.The Ottawa International Writers Festival is supported by generous individuals like you. Please consider subscribing to our newsletter and making a donation to support our programming and children’s literacy initiatives.
An Embarrassment of Critch’s with Mark Critch Hosted by CBCs David Cochrane The Writers Festival 2021-10-08 | David Cochrane, Senior Reporter with CBC's Parliamentary Bureau, hosts an evening with Mark Critch on his latest bestseller, An Embarrassment of Critch's: Immature Stories From My Grown-Up Life, the heartfelt and hilarious story of Mark's journey from Newfoundland to the national stage--and back home again.One of Mark Critch's earliest acting gigs was in a Newfoundland tourist production alongside a cast of displaced fishery workers. Since, he's found increasing opportunities to take his show on the road. In An Embarrassment of Critch's, the star of CBC's This Hour Has 22 Minutes revisits some of his career's--and the country's--biggest moments, revealing all the things you might not know happened along the way: A wishful rumour spread by Mark's father results in his big break; two bottles of Scotch nearly get him kicked out of a secret Canadian airbase in the United Arab Emirates; and for anyone wondering how to get an interview with the Prime Minister and Bono (yes, that Bono) on the same evening, Critch might recommend a journey to the 2003 Liberal Convention.Critch's top-secret access to all of the funniest behind-the-scenes moments involve many of the charismatic and notorious politicians we love to see blush, including fearless leaders Justin Trudeau, Stephen Harper, Paul Martin, and Jean Chrétien, celebrities such as Pamela Anderson and Robin Williams, and other colourful figures he's met over years of pulling off daring skits at home and abroad. Remember when MP Carolyn Parrish took her boot to George W. Bush Jr.'s head in an interview? Or when Critch asked Justin Trudeau where the best place to smoke pot on Parliament Hill was before pulling out a joint for them to share? There's more to each of those stories than you know. Though Critch has spent years crisscrossing the country--and the globe--with the explicit aim of causing trouble everywhere he goes, like the best journeys, this one takes him right back home.
BOOK LAUNCH: Off the Record with Peter Mansbridge The Writers Festival 2021-10-06 | Join us as we celebrate the launch of Off the Record by Peter Mansbridge. The Toronto Star’s Susan Delacourt hosts a conversation with Peter on his life and career, from his early broadcasting days in the remote northern Manitoba community of Churchill to the fast-paced news desk of CBC’s flagship show, The National, where he reported on stories from around the world.After years of interviewing others, Peter turns the lens on himself and takes us behind the scenes of his life on the frontlines of journalism as he reflects on the toll of being in the spotlight, the importance of diversity in the newsroom, the role of the media then and now, and the responsibilities we all bear as citizens in an increasingly global world.Today, Peter Mansbridge is often recognized for his distinctive deep voice, which calmly delivered the news for over fifty years. But ironically, he never considered becoming a broadcaster. In some ways, though, Peter was prepared for a life as a newscaster from an early age. Every night around the dinner table, his family would debate the news of the day, from Cold War scandals and Vietnam to Elvis Presley and the Beatles.So in 1968, when by chance a CBC radio manager in Churchill, Manitoba, offered him a spot hosting the local late night music program, Peter embraced the opportunity. Without a teacher, he tuned into broadcasts from across Canada, the US, and the UK to learn the basic skills of a journalist and he eventually parlayed his position into his first news job. Less than twenty years later, he became the chief correspondent and anchor of The National.
Returnwith Kamal Al-Solaylee The Writers Festival 2021-09-30 | Join us for a conversation between Carleton University's Nduka Otiono and Toronto Book Award winner Kamal Al-Solaylee, in celebration of his acclaimed new book, Return: Why We Go Back to Where We Come From .Drawing on extensive reporting from around the world and astute political analysis, Return illuminates a personal quest. Kamal Al-Solaylee, author of the bestselling and award-winning Intolerable: A Memoir of Extremes and Brown: What Being Brown in the World Today Means (for Everyone), yearns to return to his homeland of Yemen, now wracked by war, starvation and daily violence, to reconnect with his family. Yemen, as well as Egypt, another childhood home, call to him, even though he ran away from them in his youth and found peace and prosperity on the calm shores of Toronto. Return is a chronicle of love and loss, of global reach and personal desires. It sets the narrative of going home against geopolitical forces that are likely to shape the rest of this century and beyond. It’s a book for anyone who has ever wondered what it would be like to return to their roots.
The Strangers with Katherena Vermette The Writers Festival 2021-09-29 | Acclaimed author and poet Rhonda Douglas hosts Governor General’s Award-Winner Katherena Vermette for a conversation on her latest novel, The Strangers, an exploration of race, class, inherited trauma, and matrilineal bonds that—despite everything—refuse to be broken. "Katherena Vermette’s The Strangers is a deeply moving story of how colonial institutions continue to bear down on and disrupt the lives of Indigenous women and girls. It is a powerful collective portrait of struggle and resistance, of what it’s like to be in an Indigenous body in twenty-first century Canada." — Billy-Ray BelcourtBooks are available from our friends at Perfect Books.The Ottawa International Writers Festival is supported by generous individuals like you. Please consider subscribing to our newsletter and making a donation to support our programming and children’s literacy initiatives.
The Strangerswith Katherena Vermette The Writers Festival 2021-09-29 | Acclaimed author and poet Rhonda Douglas hosts Governor General’s Award-Winner Katherena Vermette for a conversation on her latest novel, The Strangers, an exploration of race, class, inherited trauma, and matrilineal bonds that—despite everything—refuse to be broken. Cedar has nearly forgotten what her family looks like. Phoenix has nearly forgotten what freedom feels like. And Elsie has nearly given up hope. Nearly.After time spent in foster homes, Cedar goes to live with her estranged father. Although she grapples with the pain of being separated from her mother, Elsie, and sister, Phoenix, she’s hoping for a new chapter in her life, only to find herself once again in a strange house surrounded by strangers. From a youth detention centre, Phoenix gives birth to a baby she’ll never get to raise and tries to forgive herself for all the harm she’s caused (while wondering if she even should). Elsie, struggling with addiction and determined to turn her life around, is buoyed by the idea of being reunited with her daughters and strives to be someone they can depend on, unlike her own distant mother. These are the Strangers, each haunted in her own way. Between flickering moments of warmth and support, the women diverge and reconnect, fighting to survive in a fractured system that pretends to offer success but expects them to fail. Facing the distinct blade of racism from those they trusted most, they urge one another to move through the darkness, all the while wondering if they’ll ever emerge safely on the other side.
Hybrid Book Launch: Masses on Radar by David O’Meara The Writers Festival 2021-09-28 | We’re thrilled to be presenting a live broadcast of David O’Meara’s outdoor in-person–masked, socially distanced, and double-vaccinated please–launch for his anticipated new collection, Masses on Radar . Don’t miss your chance to celebrate new work by the Archibald Lampman Prize and Ottawa Book Award-winning poet. Limited seating is available on a first come, first served basis for those attending live on the back patio at Spark Beer, 702 Somerset Street West, Ottawa, Ontario. The launch will begin at 5:30 and our broadcast will begin at 5:45. The broadcast will be available right from this page and also on Coach House’s Instagram Page. The patio is directly accessible from Arthur Street. Copies of the book will be available at the launch or from Perfect Books on Elgin Street. Arriving at middle age was a decisive experience for David O’Meara, standing equidistant to the past and future with its accompanying doubts and anticipations, inviting re-evaluation of past goals, confronting personal loss, and the death of his father and friends. These are the masses on radar, indistinct but detectable existential presences encroaching, and in the center of the radar is the lyric 'I' sweeping its adjacent experience. Poems like "I Carry a Mouse to the Park Beside the Highway," "I Keep One Eye Open and One Eye Closed," and "I Sleep as the Volcano Ash Falls like Snow,” usher the reader through thematic corridors of memory, fracture, and recovery. Embracing uncertainty and incorporating seasonal forecasts, humour, trivia, satire, politics, the environment, loss, and the mundane, these poems are a detection system signaling a paradox of meanings.
Indian in the Cabinet with Jody Wilson Raybould hosted by Paul Wells The Writers Festival 2021-09-24 | A compelling political memoir of leadership and speaking truth to power by one of the most inspiring women of her generationJody Wilson-Raybould was raised to be a leader. Inspired by the example of her grandmother, who persevered throughout her life to keep alive the governing traditions of her people, and raised as the daughter of a hereditary chief and Indigenous leader, Wilson-Raybould always knew she would take on leadership roles and responsibilities. She never anticipated, however, that those roles would lead to a journey from her home community of We Wai Kai in British Columbia to Ottawa as Canada’s first Indigenous Minister of Justice and Attorney General in the Cabinet of then newly elected prime minister, Justin Trudeau.Wilson-Raybould’s experience in Trudeau’s Cabinet reveals important lessons about how we must continue to strengthen our political institutions and culture, and the changes we must make to meet challenges such as racial justice and climate change. As her initial optimism about the possibilities of enacting change while in Cabinet shifted to struggles over inclusivity, deficiencies of political will, and concerns about adherence to core principles of our democracy, Wilson-Raybould stood on principle and, ultimately, resigned. In standing her personal and professional ground and telling the truth in front of the nation, Wilson-Raybould demonstrated the need for greater independence and less partisanship in how we govern.“Indian” in the Cabinet: Speaking Truth to Power is the story of why Wilson-Raybould got into federal politics, her experience as an Indigenous leader sitting around the Cabinet table, her proudest achievements, the very public SNC-Lavalin affair, and how she got out and moved forward. Now sitting as an Independent Member in Parliament, Wilson-Raybould believes there is a better way to govern and a better way for politics—one that will make a better country for all.
The Mystery of Right and Wrong with Wayne Johnston hosted by Jillian Keiley The Writers Festival 2021-09-23 | Join us in celebrating the latest novel from one of the country's most critically acclaimed and beloved writers. In The Mystery of Right and Wrong, Wayne Johnston reveals haunting family secrets he's kept for more than 30 years, unfolding them in a novel that grapples with sexual abuse, male violence and madness. Wade Jackson, a young man from a Newfoundland outport, wants to be a writer. In the university library in St. John's, where he goes every day to absorb the great books of the world, he encounters the fascinating, South African-born Rachel van Hout, and soon they are lovers. Rachel is the youngest of four van Hout daughters. Her Dutch-born father, Hans, lived in Amsterdam during WWII, and says he was in the Dutch resistance. After the war, he emigrated to South Africa, where he met his wife, Myra, had his daughters and worked as an accounting professor at the University of Cape Town. Something happened, though, that caused him to uproot his family and move them all, unhappily, to Newfoundland.
