TriCities Writers Fest
2025-04-07 08:00 - 17:00 (America/Vancouver) | BC
Get ready for the Tri-Cities Writers Festival 2025!
We’re welcoming more than a dozen celebrated authors to our community for four days of talks, panels, and workshops this May. Sessions will be in-person and online, and include a kick-off cocktail reception, where you can enjoy great food and drink alongside your fellow book lovers, and our panel of guest authors.
The Writers Festival is a collaboration between local libraries and the Tri-City Wordsmiths, with support from OverDrive, Evergreen Cultural Centre, and the Writers’ Union of Canada. With funding from Canada Council for the Arts/Conseil des arts du Canada.
For the schedule and author lineup, visit: https://www.coqlibrary.ca/seasonal-pages/tri-cities-writers-festival

Indie Kids Book Buzz
2025-05-06 10:00 - 11:00 | BC
Join on May 6 for an indie kids bonanza as five publishers chat through their fall 2025 titles with host Kellyanne Healey, children’s librarian at Lake Hiawatha Branch Library / 2024 ALA Emerging Leader.Register for the event here!

Bones of a Giant with Brian Thomas Isaac
2025-06-02 19:00 - 20:30 | Native Education College, 285 East 5th Avenue, Vancouver, BC, V5T 1H2, Canada
Join Massy Books, Penguin Random House, and Brian Thomas Isaac for the launch of “Bones of a Giant” at 7 pm on Monday, June 2nd!
Books will be for sale at the event, including “All the Quiet Places.”
Venue:
The event will be hosted at the Massy Books, at 229 East Georgia Street in Chinatown, Vancouver.
Registration is free or by donation and required for entry.
The bookstore is wheelchair accessible and a gender-neutral washroom is on-site.
Please refrain from wearing scents or heavy perfumes.
Covid Protocols: Masks keep our community safe and are recommended and will be provided at the venue. We ask if you are showing symptoms, that you stay home. Thank you kindly.
About the Book:
Summer, 1968. For the first time since his big brother, Eddie, disappeared two years earlier—either a runaway or dead by his own hand—sixteen-year-old Lewis Toma has shaken off some of his grief. His mother, Grace, and her friend Isabel have gone south to the United States to pack fruit to earn the cash Grace needs to put a bathroom and running water into the three-room shack they share on the reserve, leaving Lewis to spend the summer with his cousins, his Uncle Ned and his Aunt Jean in the new house they’ve built on their farm along the Salmon River. Their warm family life is almost enough to counter the pressures he feels as a boy trying to become a man in a place where responsible adult men like his uncle are largely absent, broken by residential school and racism. Everywhere he looks, women are left to carry the load, sometimes with kindness, but often with the bitterness, anger and ferocity of his own mother, who kicked Lewis’s lowlife father, Jimmy, to the curb long ago.
Lewis has vowed never to be like his father—but an encounter with a predatory older woman tests him and he suffers the consequences. Worse, his dad is back in town and scheming on how to use the Indian Act to steal the land Lewis and his mom have been living on. And then, at summer’s end, more shocking revelations shake the family, unleashing a deadly force of anger and frustration.
With so many traps laid around him, how will Lewis find a path to a different future?
About the Author:
Brian Thomas Isaac was born in 1950 on the Okanagan Indian Reserve, near Vernon, British Columbia. After completing grade eight, he found work in the Alberta oil fields and in construction, eventually retiring as a bricklayer. He came to writing late in life. In 2022, his bestselling debut, All the Quiet Places, won an Indigenous Voices Award, was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction and the Amazon Canada First Novel Award, and was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and CBC’s Canada Reads. He lives with his wife in West Kelowna, BC.

Summer Sounds and Sonics in Poetic Form
2025-07-22 18:00 - 20:00 | Vancouver Public Library, Central Branch, 350 West Georgia St., Vancouver, BC, V6B 6B1, Canada
City of Vancouver Poet Laureate Elee Kraljii Gardiner hosts a night of poems with poetry ambassadors Johnny Trinh, Kevin Spenst, and Marc Perez. These four poets with distinct craft practices invite you to consider the role of sounds and sonics within the framework of the poem. Vocalizations, modulations, polyphony, multilingualism, repetition, call and response are potential ingredients in this lively and festive introduction to the poet laureate team.
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Kevin Spenst (he/him) is a poet, teacher, and reviewer, has published four full-length poetry collections, most recently A Bouquet Brought Back From Space (Anvil Press, 2024) and 17 chapbooks, most recently Windowful (Anstruther Press, 2025). He is one of the organizers of the Dead Poets Reading Series, has a chapbook review column for subTerrain magazine, and occasionally co-hosts Wax Poetic on Vancouver Co-op Radio. He is a Poetry Mentor at The Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver on unceded xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) territory where he cohabitates with the one and only Cheryl Rossi.
Marc Perez is the author of Dayo, published by Brick Books in 2024. Perez observes and draws inspiration from the world around him. He believes that writing is a powerful political act, and he uses poetry to participate in the discourses that affect him, his communities, and the society in general. Through his poems, he offers the reader his inner self, imaginations, and worldview. He aims to create images that move hearts. In his free time, he likes to wander with his camera and capture fleeting moments in the city.
Johnny D Trinh loves making noise, making food, and feasting with people. Trinh has a long practice in spoken word poetry, theatre making, and community-engaged culinary art. Johnny’s work is focused on celebrating and unpacking the way we tell our stories and how we find identity and community through storytelling. Johnny is the artistic director for Vancouver Poetry House, interim executive director for Historic Joy Kogawa House, and founder of Stage to Page Performance Society. Trinh is also a resident artist with the City of Vancouver creating programs that bring multicultural and multigenerational communities together to share stories and celebrate cultural foods. “It takes a community to build an artist, whether we are nurtured by it… or resist against it.” johnnydavidtrinh.com
Elee Kraljii Gardiner is an author, editor, and creative mentor living in Vancouver, Canada. She is the author of two poetry books, Trauma Head, and Serpentine Loop. She is also editor of the anthologies Against Death: 35 Essays on Living and V6A: Writing From Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. A frequent collaborator with choreographers, musicians, and visual artists, Elee is currently collaborating with nature via a series of durational art installations that investigate the law of thermodynamics and cultural ideas regarding the passing of time. Elee directs Vancouver Manuscript Intensive, an online program pairing authors with mentors, and is the seventh poet laureate of Vancouver. eleekg.com

Women of the Fur Trade: An Evening with Playwright and Journalist Frances Koncan
2025-09-15 18:30 - 20:00 | Vancouver Public Library, Central Branch, 350 West Georgia St., Vancouver, BC, V6B 6B1, Canada
Frances Koncan’s play Women of the Fur Trade is about the Métis-led Red River Resistance against European colonisers. In eighteen hundred and something something, somewhere upon the banks of a Reddish River in Treaty One Territory, three very different women with a preference for twenty-first century slang sit in a fort sharing their views on life, love, and the hot nerd Louis Riel.
Winner of the Toronto Fringe Best New Play Contest 2018, this lively historical satire of survival and cultural in-heritance shifts perspectives from the male gaze onto women’s power in the past and present through the lens of the rapidly changing world of the Canadian fur trade.
Frances will be in conversation with Lois Anderson, Artistic Director at Touchstone Theatre for a delightful evening around the playwriting process and the Canadian theatre scene.
Storylines invites audiences into the creative worlds of Canada’s leading playwrights through a series of rich conversations presented by Touchstone Theatre and the Vancouver Public Library.
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Frances Koncan is an Anishinaabe and Slovene playwright and theatre artist from Couchiching First Nation. They hold an MFA in Playwriting from the City University of New York Brooklyn College. They were the Writer-in-Residence at the Winnipeg Public Library (2022-2023) and Writer-in-Residence at the University of Manitoba (2021-2022), as well as journalist at the Winnipeg Free Press (2019-2021).
Productions of their work include Women of the Fur Trade (2023) at the Stratford Festival directed by Yvette Nolan, Women of the Fur Trade (2024) at the National Arts Centre Indigenous Theatre/Great Canadian Theatre Company directed by Renae Morriseau, Space Girl (2023) at Prairie Theatre Exchange directed by Krista Jackson, The Crows (2023) at Gwaandak Theatre directed by Miki Wolf, and Women of the Fur Trade (2020) at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre directed by Audrey Dwyer.
Lois Anderson is the Artistic Director of Touchstone Theatre, and an Adjunct Professor at UBC in the Department of Theatre and Film. She won the Jessie Award for Best Direction (Pericles, Bard on the Beach) and the 2019 Critic’s Choice Award for Innovation (Lysistrata). She has worked extensively in Canada and Australia and has been an Artistic Associate with The National Arts Centre most recently directing You Used to Call Me Marie by Tai Amy Grauman. Her directing credits include Behind the Moon, Henry V, Fun Home, Medea, Timothy Findley’s The Wars, Iphigenia at Aulis, CHILDISH, Gertrude and Alice, Taming of the Shrew, My Granny the Goldfish, Buffoon.
In partnership with Touchstone Theatre.

Poetry in Translation
2025-10-30 18:30 - 20:00 | Vancouver Public Library, Central Branch, 350 West Georgia St., Vancouver, BC, V6B 6B1, Canada
Join us for an evening lost in translation with three talented poets as they discuss the often overlooked art of translation. How do you carry a book from one language to another, line by line, with precision? UBC Associate Professor Bronwen Tate will moderate the discussion with poets Rhea Tregebov, Rahat Kurd and Deborah Woodard.
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Bronwen Tate is the author of the poetry collection The Silk the Moths Ignore. She is an Associate Professor of Teaching and Undergraduate Chair in the UBC School of Creative Writing, where she offers courses in poetry, creative writing pedagogy, and literary translation. A Practical Guide to Teaching Creative Writing: Supporting Inclusive Pedagogy, a collaboration with colleague John Vigna, is forthcoming with Bloomsbury Academic in Spring 2026.
Rhea Tregebov is the author of eight collections of poetry, most recently, Talking to Strangers. She edited and co-translated the anthology Arguing With the Storm: Stories by Yiddish Women Writers and taught workshops in literary translation at UBC. In 2019 she taught a graduate course for the English Department at Tsuda University in Tokyo entitled “Translating the Self: Issues in Literary Translation.” Tregebov has translated poetry from French and Spanish and has worked in tandem translation from Japanese, Catalan and Finnish, languages she does not know. She is now an Associate Professor Emerita at the School of Creative Writing at UBC.
Rahat Kurd is a poet, writer, and editor of Kashmiri and north Indian family origin, born in Canada and based in Vancouver. The Book Of Z, published by Talonbooks this fall 2025, is her second full-length work of poetry. Her previous literary titles with Talonbooks are The City That Is Leaving Forever: Kashmiri Letters, (2021), co-authored with Kashmiri poet Sumayya Syed, and Cosmophilia, (poems, 2015). In her work as a beginner translator of contemporary Urdu poetry, Rahat Kurd is particularly interested in the ways lyrical resonances from the classical ghazal tradition have influenced modern and feminist Urdu-language poetic sensibilities.
Deborah Woodard studied with Charles Simic at the University of New Hampshire and has a PhD from the University of Washington. Her books include Borrowed Tales (Stockport Flats) and No Finis: Triangle Testimonies, 1911 (Ravenna Press). With Roberta Antognini, she has translated the poetry of Amelia Rosselli in Hospital Series (New Directions), Obtuse Diary, The Dragonfly, and Notes Scattered and Lost (Entre Rios Books). Their translation of Rosselli’s Document has just been published by World Poetry Books. Deborah teaches at Hugo House in Seattle, Washington and co-curates the reading series Margin Shift.
*This event is curated by writer, Jen Currin (Disembark and Trinity Street amongst many others).

"The Librarians" Film Screening at the Rio Theatre
2026-02-28 03:30 - 17:30 | BC
Celebrate Freedom to Read by joining local libraries for a screening of the 2025 documentary The Librarians, a documentary film about how Librarians unite to combat book banning, defending intellectual freedom on democracy’s frontlines amid unprecedented censorship in Texas, Florida, and beyond.
The screening will be accompanied by a short discussion with local librarians and academics on book bans and challenges in Canada, including libraries’ roles in protecting freedom to read and how we can all defend our right to intellectual freedom.
Where: Rio Theatre (1660 East Broadway, Vancouver, BC, V5N 1W1)
When: Saturday, February 28 (Doors 3:00 pm | Movie 3:30 pm)
Tickets & more info: $16 from the Rio Theatre:
https://riotheatretickets.ca/events/40213-the-librarians-with-post-show-panel-discussion

FREE Celebration of Outdoor Learning Books!
2026-03-10 16:00 - 17:00 | https://outdoorlearning.com/event/spring-celebration-2026/, Virtual Event
Free 1 Hour Virtual Event on Tues, March 10 at 4pm Pacific / 7pm Eastern Time.
Sign-up: https://outdoorlearning.com/event/spring-celebration-2026/
This is a chance to connect virtually with the incredible authors of some of the outdoor and Indigenous learning resources that we’ve published. Get the inside scoop, hear about their process, and ask any burning questions. Offered in partnership with Take Me Outside, with the support of Creative BC.
All registrants will receive:
– Access the recording, in case you can’t join us live
– Access a Certificate of Attendance
– Entry for some great prizes!
– A 15% coupon code to access any of the books featured!
Offered in partnership with Take Me Outside, with the support of Creative BC.

A Reading of the Play El Terremoto by Christine Quintana
2026-04-02 18:00 - 20:00 | Vancouver Public Library, Central Branch, 350 West Georgia St., Vancouver, BC, V6B 6B1, Canada
Touchstone Theatre and Neworld Theatre present a reading of Christine Quintana’s play El Terremoto (directed by Daniela Atiencia). Twenty years have passed since the three Jurado sisters lost their parents, and life just seems to continue on in their East Vancouver home.
A birthday party, a failed proposal, and a missed connection fill the days and months until an earthquake nearly destroys the city, and brings forward a shocking turn of events that splits their world wide open.
From Dora-Award winning playwright Christine Quintana, El Terremoto is a dramatic comedy about how nothing matters, so everything matters.
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A reading of the full play by seven actors will be followed by a Q & A at the end of the evening with Christine and Lois Anderson, Artistic Director at Touchstone Theatre. Join us for a delightful evening around the playwriting process and the Canadian theatre scene.
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Christine Quintana was born in Los Angeles to a Mexican-American father and a Dutch-British-Canadian mother. Christine grew up as a grateful visitor to the unceded lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh people. Christine is an actor, playwright, and co-Artistic Producer of Delinquent Theatre. In these various capacities, she has worked with Tarragon Theatre, the Arts Club Theatre Company, Bard on the Beach, The Cultch, Neworld Theatre, Electric Company Theatre, Rumble Theatre, Boca Del Lupo, Zee Zee Theatre, Caravan Farm Theatre, Ruby Slippers Theatre, Playwrights Theatre Centre, Pi Theatre, Gateway Theatre, Nightswimming Theatre, Belfry Theatre, Stratford Festival, and Young People’s Theatre. Her writing has been translated and performed in Spanish, French, ASL, and German.
Daniela Atiencia is the Artistic Associate at Touchstone Theatre and a Latinx-Canadian theatre artist born and raised in Colombia. She has a BFA in Theatre Performance from SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts and holds an MFA in Theatre Directing from The University of Essex’s East 15 Acting School. Daniela works as a freelance bilingual director, dramaturg, and deviser. She is currently working on two plays as co-director for Neworld and Green Thumb Theatre. As dramaturg she is collaborating with Tetsuro Shigematsu’s latest commissioned piece for Pacific Theatre and served as Spanish Language Dramaturg for Made in Canada, an agricultural podcast for rice & beans theatre. She is currently based on the Unceded Territories of the Coast Salish peoples (Vancouver, B.C.) and her work recently earned her a finalist spot in the RBC Rising Star Emerging Director award.
Lois Anderson is the Artistic Director of Touchstone Theatre, and an Adjunct Professor at UBC in the Department of Theatre and Film. She won the Jessie Award for Best Direction (Pericles, Bard on the Beach) and the 2019 Critic’s Choice Award for Innovation (Lysistrata). She has worked extensively in Canada and Australia and has been an artistic associate with The National Arts Centre most recently directing You Used to Call Me Marie by Tai Amy Grauman.

Talonbooks Spring 2026 Launch
2026-05-01 19:00 - 20:30 | Martha Lou Henley Rehearsal Hall, 1955 McLean Dr, Vancouver, BC V5N 3J7, Vancouver, BC, V5N 3J7, Canada
Join us at the Martha Lou Henley Rehearsal Hall for the launch of the Talonbooks spring 2026 titles! Come help us celebrate this season’s authors and books. Here’s the lineup! It’s going to be an amazing evening.
Taryn Hubbard will read from Beautiful Unknown Future
Jenn Ashton (attending digitally) will read from Growing My Way Home
George Bowering (attending digitally) will read from Pearl
Jónína Kirton will read from Save Your Prayers – Send Money
Elee Kraljii Gardiner will read from sometimes, forest
Nicole Raziya Fong will read from SUBTEXT and
Danielle LaFrance will read from Verbal Violence!
The launch will be hosted by the author of Future Works, Jeff Derksen!
A live stream will be available on the Talonbooks YouTube page. Light snacks and drinks will be provided. Hope to see you there!
Talonbooks Spring Launch
Martha Lou Henley Rehearsal Hall
Vancouver, BC
May 1, 2026
Doors at 7 p.m., readings begin at 7:30 p.m. PDT

Pretendianism
2026-05-05 18:00 - 20:00 | VANCOUVER PUBLIC LIBRARY – CENTRAL LIBRARY
Esteemed novelist Joseph Boyden, acclaimed film director Michelle Latimer and former University of Saskatchewan professor Carrie Bourassa have all made front-page news in recent years for the same reason: each is alleged to have been a “pretendian.”
The term “pretendian” has come to refer to someone who claims distant Indigenous heritage that doesn’t stand up to deeper scrutiny. But why would someone fake an Indigenous identity?
That question is the premise of The Pretendians (2022), a documentary from The Passionate Eye and the latest film featuring Anishinaabe author and playwright Drew Hayden Taylor. The documentary follows his cross-Canada journey, revealing what really lies behind this explosive issue.
Rating: PG / Runtime: 44 mins
Presented in partnership with CBC Gem.
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After the film, join Cee Peal, the 2026 VPL Storyteller in Residence for a discussion around Pretendianism and the harm and division that it creates in Indigenous communities.
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Cee Peal is a theatre artist from the Nisga’a First Nation of Northern B.C. now working in Vancouver on the traditional, unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-waututh), and sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) peoples. He brings to the library his experience in storytelling, theatre, and image making, drawing from his experience working as an actor, director, writer, dancer, and producer on various productions. With a passion for Indigenous studies and cultural evolution, Cee is also the Indigenous outreach coordinator at The Cultch and the artistic associate at The Carmen Arts Group.
To find out more about Cee’s residency and keep up with his upcoming events visit: vpl.ca/storyteller

The Flash of Fireflies: Writing the Short Story
2026-05-19 18:30 - 20:00 | VANCOUVER PUBLIC LIBRARY – CENTRAL LIBRARY
Celebrate short story month with four talented fiction writers, Alix Ohlin, Andrea Routley, Jacquelyn Zong-Li Ross, and Shashi Bhat, in conversation with local author Jen Currin about the art and craft of this wily and often misunderstood genre.
Alix Ohlin’s most recent book, the story collection We Want What We Want, won a Lambda Literary Award. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Best American Short Stories, and many other places. She teaches creative writing at UBC.
Andrea Routley is the author of the short-fiction collections This Unlikely Soil and Jane and the Whales, and was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Debut Fiction and the Malahat Review Novella Prize. She has taught creative writing in both institutional, community, and one-on-one settings, with a focus on writing as an orientation to the world, one that cultivates curiosity and compassion. She is the editor of Walk Myself Home: An Anthology to End Violence Against Women, and was the founding editor of Plenitude, Canada’s queer literary magazine.
Jacquelyn Zong-Li Ross is a writer and editor based in Vancouver, the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) nations. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph, and her fiction, poetry, essays, and art criticism have appeared in BOMB, C Mag, The Ex-Puritan, Fence, Mousse, and elsewhere. The Longest Way to Eat a Melon, her debut collection of short fictions, was published by Sarabande Books in 2025.
Shashi Bhat is the author of the story collection Death by a Thousand Cuts (McClelland & Stewart), and the novels The Most Precious Substance on Earth (M&S, Grand Central), and The Family Took Shape (Cormorant). Her fiction received the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, the Writers’ Trust/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize and a silver National Magazine Award. She has been a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for fiction, the Danuta Gleed Award, the RBC Bronwen Wallace Award, and other prizes, and was longlisted for the Giller Prize. Shashi’s work has appeared in publications across North America, including Hazlitt, The Fiddlehead, The Malahat Review, Best Canadian Stories, and The Journey Prize Stories. She is the editor-in-chief of EVENT and teaches creative writing at Douglas College.
Jen Currin has published two collections of stories, Hider/Seeker (Anvil, 2018) and Disembark (House of Anansi, 2024), and five collections of poetry, most recently Trinity Street (Houseof Anansi, 2023). Currin lives on the ancestral and unceded territories of the Halkomelem-speaking peoples, including the Qayqayt, Musqueam, Kwikwetlem, and Kwantlen Nations, in New Westminster, BC. They teach creative writing and English upgrading at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.

LiterASIAN 2026: Re-Generation
2026-06-27 13:00 - 2026-06-28 20:00 | Chinese Cultural Centre Museum, 555 Columbia Street, Vancouver, BC, V6A 3X3, Canada
The LiterASIAN Festival returns for its 14th annual edition with “Re-Generation,” a timely exploration of how Asian Canadian writers are reshaping literary culture today.
Running from June 27-28 across Vancouver, the festival brings together leading and emerging voices for a national celebration of storytelling, community, and creative exchange.
Widely recognized as Canada’s premier festival dedicated to Asian Canadian literature, LiterASIAN 2026 spotlights a new generation of writers who are reimagining inherited narratives and pushing the boundaries of form, voice, and identity.
This year’s lineup features Jinwoo Park (Oxford Soju Club), Evelyn Lau (Parade of Storms), Yasuko Thanh (To the Bridge), Larry Grant and Scott Steedman (Reconciling), Kagan Goh (Surviving Samsara), Steffi Tad-y (Notes from the Ward), Wiley Wei-Chiun Ho (Astronaut Children of Dunbar Street), and Keiko Honda (Hidden Flowers).
Additional speakers include Jessica Gin-Jade Chan (former Ricepaper Editor-in-Chief), Bonnie Quan Symons (poet and chapbook author), and Taslim Jaffer (editor, writer, and professor at the University of King’s College MFA program).
Festival programming includes feature readings, panel discussions, and workshops. Events will take place at leading cultural and literary venues across Vancouver, including the Chinatown Storytelling Centre, the Chinese Cultural Centre Museum, and Centre A: Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art.
“Fifty years after Inalienable Rice, the first anthology of Asian Canadian writing, we are witnessing a renewal,” said Festival Director Allan Cho. “LiterASIAN 2026 brings together writers who are not only reflecting on cultural inheritance, but actively transforming it.”
Highlights include:
● Literary Walking Tour — A guided exploration of Vancouver’s Chinatown through history and literature with filmmaker and photographer Larry Chin
● Emerging Writers Showcase — Featuring new voices from the Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writers’ Award
● Writing Workshop — Exploring expressive writing as a practice for reflection and healing
● Chapbook-Making Class — A hands-on introduction to editing, sequencing, and design for a cohesive, self-published work
● ACWW Community Builders Award — Honouring leadership in advancing racial equity in Asian Canadian communities
● Live Drafting Session — An intimate, behind-the-scenes look at writers developing new work in real time
LiterASIAN 2026: Re-Generation is presented by the Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop (ACWW), with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, ACCESS Copyright Foundation, the Department of Canadian Heritage, the City of Vancouver, and community partners.
For tickets and full program details, please visit www.literasian.com.

Contemporary Romance for a Swoon-worthy Summer
2026-07-20 17:30 - 20:00 | VANCOUVER PUBLIC LIBRARY – CENTRAL LIBRARY
What’s not to love about the huge surging interest in romance books and ebooks? With #RomanceRecs, #BookTok and #FriendsToLovers hashtags influencing reader behaviour find out what’s hot in the world of romance at the library.
Join us for a sweet summer social hangout with workshops, author readings, meet and greets with local romance authors and more! Bring your favourite books to discuss and recommend to the community.
This event features local Mother-Daughter romance authors Jody Holford (AKA Sophie Sullivan) and Kalie Holford, Lily Miller, Lindsay Maple, Hunter Snow, Sara Blaydes, Sophie Sullivan, Anthony Nerada, and Julia Jarret. Joining as well will be moderators Amy Pelletier (Perfect Match) and Courtney and Lauren from River City Reader Events.
In partnership with Perfect Match Bookshop (Vancouver’s first romance bookstore).
