Vancouver Writers Fest draws authors from around the world to Vancouver

WireService.ca Media Release (08/24/2015) Vancouver, BC – In addition to well known and very popular Canadian authors, including Lawrence Hill, Elizabeth Hay, Patrick deWitt, Nino Ricci, John Vaillant, Bill Richardson and Camilla Gibb, stars of the literary world attending the Festival include Paula Hawkins, best-selling author of The Girl on the Train, non-fiction writer Simon Winchester and internationally best-selling UK author Sarah Dunant.

The annual Festival, now in its 28^th year, features panel discussions, one-on-one interviews, spoken word performances, poetry jams, events for children in both English and French, and readings accompanied by musicians. In total there will be 89 events, most taking place on Granville Island.

“There are more great authors and more fine writing out there than any of us can possibly stay on top of,” says Hal Wake, Artistic Director of the Festival. “For many of us, the Vancouver Writers Fest is a voyage of discovery, meeting authors who have achieved success alongside those such as America’s Jim Shepard and the UK’s David Constantine whose writing is brilliant but relatively unknown in North America, and new writers who are about to become the buzz of the literary world.”

Headlining the Festival from Europe are Norwegian journalist and author Asne Seierstad, Sara Blaedel, known as the “Queen of Crime” in Denmark, best-selling Icelandic crime author Yrsa Sigurdardóttir, Italy’s Giuseppe Catozzella, and Scottish crime writer Denise Mina. From Brazil, Daniel Galera is one of that country’s most influential young authors. Also coming to this year’s Festival are Australian authors Hannah Kent and Steve Toltz, and New Zealand’s Damien Wilkins. Ensaf Haidar, wife of imprisoned Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, will talk with Vancouver audiences about her husband’s struggle for freedom of expression.

American authors coming to the Festival include Man Booker Prize-nominated Marlon James, the creator of The Haunting of the Sunshine Girl, Paige McKenzie, short story writer and editor Kelly Link, prolific author, blogger and essayist Roxane Gay, and award-winning authors Shauna Singh Baldwin, Lauren Groff and Laura van den Berg.

This year’s Festival also features more non-fiction writers than ever before, including Asne Seierstad, whose book The Bookseller of Kabul has been translated into more than 40 languages, Anna Porter with her portrait of the billionaire philanthropist George Soros, Lorna Crozier who has profiled the Great Bear Rainforest, environmentalists David Boyd and Alejandro Frio, author and lawyer Joan McEwen and CBC personalities Wab Kinew and Rich Terfry.

For grades K – 12 students, the Writers Fest features daytime events in both French and English that will bring more than 5,000 young readers to Granville Island.

Following the Festival, the Vancouver Writers Fest presents and evening with John Irving on Dec. 1.

The full lineup of events is online at www.writersfest.bc.ca. Tickets for the Festival events go on sale to the public on Tuesday, Sept. 8, online through vancouvertix.com or by calling 604-629-VTIX (604-629-8849). Tickets will also be available in person at the Writers Fest box office, 1398 Cartwright Street.

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For more information on the Festival, contact:

Judith Walker
Media Relations Manager
Cell 604.921.4029
media@writersfest.bc.ca

NT5