Vancouver Writers Fest announces 2025 edition featuring guest curator Canisia Lubrin, a special event with Margaret Atwood, and much more
With the main lineup taking place October 20 to 26, events cover everything from censorship to Canadian identity
(From left) Canisia Lubrin (Rachel Eliza Griffiths photo), Margaret Atwood (Ruvén Afanador photo), and Bob Joseph.
AN OPENING NIGHT DEDICATED to current issues in Canada will launch this year’s Vancouver Writers Fest, which is taking place on Granville Island from October 20 to 26.
Oh, Canada! will feature authors Canisia Lubrin, Bob Joseph, Kate Beaton, Linden MacIntyre, Emma Donoghue, David Moscrop, Brent Butt, and Jack Wang in conversation about what it means to be Canadian, especially in an ever-shifting geopolitical landscape. The event will take place at the Vancouver Playhouse at 7:30 pm.
The just-announced Vancouver Writers Fest lineup boasts more than 85 events featuring some 130 authors at the Revue Stage, the Granville Island Stage, the Waterfront Theatre, the NEST, Performance Works, and the Dockside Lounge. There will also be a Festival Pop-Up Bookstore located at the Fishbowl, and a selection of events specifically designed for youth will tour schools around the Lower Mainland.
Lubrin, author of The World After Rain and Code Noir, is guest curator of this year’s festival. She will be hosting four events. Among them is Blood in the Pen on October 21, which will feature a conversation about the role that writers play in times of crisis, and Verses of Transformation on October 25, during which six poets will offer their reflections on a secret question drawn from a bag onstage.
Elsewhere at the festival, historian Danielle Leavitt (author of By the Second Spring) will share stories about Ukrainians living through invasion with fellow author Maria Reva, at Seven Lives and One Year in Ukraine. Queer Stories on the Map, meanwhile, will unite authors Ziyad Saadi, Iryn Tushabe, and Mike Curato, all of whom have written about 2SLGBTQIA+ characters from outside white-centric perspectives.
On Book Banning and Censorship, a timely event about the ramifications of book banning, will take place on October 24 with authors Ira Wells, Mike Curato, and Jeremy Tiang. And on October 21 at It Runs in the Family, multi-award-winning writer Miriam Toews and her daughter, emerging author Georgia Toews, will engage in a conversation with David A. Robertson about what it means to support a child who follows in their parent’s footsteps.
Among other highlights at the festival is the annual Lyrics Night; this year’s edition, Ahead by a Century, will feature readings of lyrics from distinctly Canadian songs. At the Afternoon Tea, a tradition started by the festival’s late founding artistic director Alma Lee, guests can listen to fiction readings while enjoying scones, sandwiches, cookies, tea, coffee, and sherry. More offerings include the Poetry Bash, the Literary Cabaret, and Food for Thought, a TED Talk–meets–café social event with seven nonfiction authors.
Chris Hadfield. Photo by Max Rosenstein
Two special events will take place in the lead-up to the festival. American fantasy writer R.F. Kuang will appear in conversation with Michelle Cyca at the Granville Island Stage on September 13 as a tour stop for her latest work, Katabasis. And Booker Prize–winning author Arundhati Roy will talk to Naomi Klein about her debut memoir, Mother Mary Comes to Me, at the Vancouver Playhouse on September 17.
A couple more extra-special events will cap off the year after the festival wraps. Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, one of the most accomplished space travellers of all time, will chat about his brand-new interstellar thriller Final Orbit at the Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema on November 15. And another Canadian icon, Margaret Atwood, will discuss her memoir Book of Lives with Carol Off at the Orpheum on December 9.
A variety of youth events—including workshops, masterclasses, and discussions—will take place throughout the festival, with writers and illustrators such as Mélanie Watt (author of all-time children’s faves Scaredy Squirrel and Chester), Linda Bailey, Kate Beaton, Rachel Hartman, Roz MacLean, Kenneth Oppel, David A. Robertson, and Rebecca Wood Barrett.
In other news, the Vancouver Writers Fest is hosting an inaugural Original Short Story Writing Challenge for North American writers 18 and up. Authors must interpret themes of upheaval and disruption in their stories, which will be accepted until October 31. The winner will be awarded $2,000, and additional prizes will be given out for editor’s and reader’s picks.
Tickets to the festival go on sale September 9 for members and September 16 for the general public. 
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