Read Local BC

Tales for Late Night Bonfires by G.A. Grisenthwaite with host Molly Cross-Blanchard
2023-11-22 08:00 - 17:00 (America/Vancouver)
On Wednesday, December 6th at 6pm, join Massy Arts, Massy Books and Freehand books in celebrating the launch of G.A. Grisenthwaite’s Tales for Late Night Bonfires, with host Molly Cross-Blanchard.
“Tales for Late Night Bonfires is funny, dark, and rich all at once; each story is immense and alive. Grisenthwaite shows us what fiction can be when story leads the way.” QUILL & QUIRE starred review
This project has been made possible by the Government of Canada. Ce projet a été rendu possible grâce au gouvernement du Canada.
Venue & Accessibility
The event will be hosted at the Massy Arts Gallery, at 23 East Pender Street in Chinatown, Vancouver.
Registration is free and required for entrance.
The gallery is wheelchair accessible and a gender-neutral washroom is on-site.
Please refrain from wearing scents or heavy perfumes.
For more on accessibility including parking, seating, venue measurements and floor plan, and how to request ASL interpretation please visit: massyarts.com/accessibility
Covid Protocols: Masks keep our community safe and are mandatory (N95 masks are recommended as they offer the best protection). We ask if you are showing symptoms, that you stay home. Thank you kindly.
About the book:
Tales for Late Night Bonfires (Freehand Books, 2023)
These are stories that are a litle bit larger than life, or maybe they really happened. Tales that could be told ’round the campfire, each one-upping the next. Tales about a car that drives herself, ever loyal to her owner. Tales about an impossible moose hunt. Tales about the Real Santa(TM) mashed up with the book of Genesis, alongside SPAM stew and bedroom sets from IKEA.
G.A. Grisenthwaite’s writing is electric and inimitable, blending meticulous literary style with oral storytelling and coming away with a voice that is entirely his own. Tales for Late Night Bonfires is truly one of a kind, and not to be missed.
About the author:
G.A. Grisenthwaite is a Nlaka’pamux writer and a member of the Lytton First Nation. His debut novel, Home Waltz, was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award. Grisenthwaite lives in Kingsville, Ontario. In 2023, he served two months as the Writer-in-Residence at Berton House, Dawson City.
About the host:
Molly Cross-Blanchard is a white and Métis writer and editor born on Treaty 3 territory (Fort Frances, ON), raised on Treaty 6 territory (Prince Albert, SK), and living on the unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples (Vancouver, BC). She published her debut collection of poems, Exhibitionist, in 2021 with Coach House Books, and currently teaches Creative Writing and Indigenous Studies at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.

Family Holiday Book Pop-Up & Reading!
2023-11-25 13:00 - 15:00 | Massy Arts, 23 East Pender, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
On Saturday, November 25th at 1pm, join Massy Arts and Massy Books at the Family Holiday Book Pop-Up & Reading, featuring childrens, middle-reader, and young adult fiction and non-fiction with authors Tanya Boteju, Jillian Christmas, Tony Correia, Hasan Namir, Emily Pohl-Weary, Holman Wang, and Andrea Warner. Plus, enjoy arts & crafts, story prompts, shopping, and book signings!

Escape to Paris: History, Archives and the City of Light
2023-11-25 14:00 - 15:00 | Vancouver Island Regional Library, Sidney/North Saanich Branch, 10091 Resthaven Drive, Sidney, BC, V8L 3G3, Canada
Join local author and archivist Sonia Nicholson as she takes you to one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Following some of the locations featured in her novel, Provenance Unknown, travel from Victoria to Paris using local history and sense of place as a gateway for storytelling.
This casual talk will include an author reading and lots of opportunities for questions. Copies of the book will also be available for purchase, (cash or e-transfer).

Horror in Seconds: Horror Poetry Night
2023-11-25 18:00
Join for a night of horror poetry and delicious horror-themed catering

An Afternoon With Authors Featuring Tellers of Tales and Poetic Justice
2023-11-26 13:00 - 17:00 | I Heart New West Community Art Space, Unit 103 - 78 10th Street, Columbia Square Plaza, New Westminster, British Columbia, V3M 1C4, Canada
Royal City Literary Arts Society presents An Afternoon With Authors
Featuring Tellers of Tales and Poetic Justice
Sunday November 26, 2023, 1pm to 5pm
Location:
I Heart New West
Community Art Space
Unit 103 – 78 10th Street
Columbia Square Plaza, New Westminster
Tellers of Tales – 1:00pm
• Winona Kent – The Jason Davey Mysteries: Ticket to Ride
• Jerena Tobiasen – The Nightingale and Sparrow Chronicles: Tsarina’s Crown.
• Ruth Kozak – Shadow of the Lion, Dragons in the Sky
• Una Bruhns – Apartheid
Poetic Justice – 3:00pm
• Herb Bryce – Seeds of Poetry
• Franci Louann – Portugal Calling
Music
• Catherine Booth
The Royal City Literary Arts Society presents an afternoon of fiction and poetry, with music, door prizes, a book market (signed books make wonderful Christmas gifts!), nibbles and an open mic. No admission charge. Free parking (the Community Art Space is across from Cockney Kings Fish & Chips in Columbia Square).

Nimrods: a fake-punk self-hurt anti-memoir by Kawika Guillermo
2023-11-29 18:00
On Wednesday, November 29th at 6pm, join Massy Arts, Massy Books and Duke University Press Books in celebrating the launch of Nimrods: a fake-punk self-hurt anti-memoir by Kawika Guillermo, with guest David Chariandy.
Their discussion will focus on memoir, parenthood, and the possibilities of love within histories of violence. Guillermo will also bring his late wife Y-Dang Troeung’s red Chinese stamp to sign copies of her memoir Landbridge on her behalf, as she wished he do.
This project has been made possible by the Government of Canada. Ce projet a été rendu possible grâce au gouvernement du Canada.
Venue & Accessibility
The event will be hosted at the Massy Arts Gallery, at 23 East Pender Street in Chinatown, Vancouver.
Registration is free and required for entrance.
The gallery is wheelchair accessible and a gender-neutral washroom is on-site. Please refrain from wearing scents or heavy perfumes.
For more on accessibility including parking, seating, venue measurements and floor plan, and how to request ASL interpretation please visit: massyarts.com/accessibility
Covid Protocols: Masks keep our community safe and are mandatory (N95 masks are recommended as they offer the best protection). We ask if you are showing symptoms, that you stay home. Thank you kindly.
About the book:
Nimrods: a fake-punk self-hurt anti-memoir (Duke University Press Books, 2023)
In Nimrods, Kawika Guillermo chronicles the agonizing absurdities of being a newly minted professor (and overtired father) hired to teach in a Social Justice Institute while haunted by the inner ghosts of patriarchy, racial pessimism, and imperial arrogance. Charged with the “personal is political” mandate of feminist critique, Guillermo honestly and powerfully recounts his wayward path, from being raised by two preachers’ kids in a chaotic mixed-race family to his uncle’s death from HIV-related illness, which helped prompt his parents’ divorce and his mother’s move to Las Vegas, to his many attempts to flee from American gender, racial, and religious norms by immigrating to South Korea, China, Hong Kong, and Canada. Through an often crass, cringey, and raw hybrid prose-poetic style, Guillermo reflects on anger, alcoholism, and suicidal ideation—traits that do not simply vanish after one is cast into the treacherous role of fatherhood or the dreaded role of professor. Guillermo’s shameless mixtures of autotheory, queer punk poetry, musical ekphrasis, haibun, academic (mis)quotations, and bad dad jokes present a bold new take on the autobiography: the fake-punk self-hurt anti-memoir.
About the author:
Kawika Guillermo is a third generation Filipino American whose family is primarily from Hawai’i and Texas. He has lived in Portland, Las Vegas, Seattle, Gimhae South Korea, Nanjing China, Hong Kong, and Vancouver, Canada. His debut novel, Stamped: an anti-travel novel (2018), won the 2020 Association for Asian American Studies Book Award for Creative Prose, while his follow-up speculative fiction novel, All Flowers Bloom (2020), won the 2021 Reviewers Choice Gold Award for Best General Fiction/Novel. His first novel was recently adapted into the video game Stamped: an anti-travel game, released November 1st by Analgesic Productions.
About the guest reader:
David Chariandy is the author of Soucouyant, which was nominated for eleven literary awards, including the Governor General’s Award and the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and Brother, nominated for fourteen awards, winning the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, and the Toronto Book Award. His most recent book is a memoir entitled I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You: A Letter to My Daughter. David lives in Vancouver and teaches literature and creative writing at Simon Fraser University. In 2019, he received the Windham-Campbell Prize for fiction. In 2022, he was elected a fellow of the Academies of Arts, Humanities, and Sciences of Canada.
Also featuring discussion of:
Landbridge (Knopf Canada, 2023)
The inaugural title from Alchemy by Knopf Canada: A searing account by an exquisite writer who came to Canada as a baby, escaping war in Cambodia.
In 1980, Y-Dang Troeung and her family were among the last of the 60,000 refugees from Cambodia that then-Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pledged to relocate to Canada. As the final arrivals, their landing was widely documented in newspapers, with photographs of the PM shaking Y-Dang’s father’s hand, reaching out to pat baby Y-Dang’s head. Forty years later, in her brilliant, astonishing book, Y-Dang returns to this moment, and to many others before and after, to explore the tension between that public narrative of happy “arrival,” and the multiple, often hidden truths of what happened to the people in her family.
In precise, beautiful prose accompanied by moving black-and-white visuals, Y-Dang weaves back and forth in time to tell stories about her parents and two brothers who lived through the Cambodian genocide, about the lives of her grandparents and extended family, about her own childhood in the refugee camps and in rural Ontario, and eventually about her young son’s illness and her own diagnosis with a terminal disease. Through it all, Y-Dang looks with bracing clarity at refugee existence, refusal of gratitude, becoming a scholar, and love.
About Landbridge’s author:
Y-Dang Troeung was Assistant Professor of English at the University of British Columbia, where she did research and taught in the fields of transnational Asian literatures, critical refugee studies, global south studies, and critical disability studies. She was also an Associate Editor of the journal Canadian Literature, and a 2020 Wall Scholar at the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies. Her recent publications can be found in Canadian Literature, Brick: A Literary Magazine, Amerasia Journal, and Inter-Asia Cultural Studies. Y-Dang passed away in November 2022, after completing the final draft of her extraordinary memoir, Landbridge. See also: http://www.y-dang.com/

Storied: Writing and illustrating comics with Michele Assarasakorn and Nathan Fairbairn
2023-11-29 19:00 - 20:00
Join the BC and Yukon Book Prizes for Storied: Discussions on Books, Publishing, and the Creative Process.
On Wednesday, November 29th, Michele Assarasakorn and Nathan Fairbairn will be offering mini-lectures on writing and illustrating comics and graphic novels. Michele and Nathan’s book PAWS: Mindy Makes Some Space was a finalist for the 2023 Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize.
The event begins at 7 pm (PT). It will run for an hour.
This is a free event, but registration is required.
Funding for the Storied Series is thanks to Canada Book Fund, Creative BC, the Government of BC and the Canada Council for the Arts.
About the guests:
Nathan Fairbairn is a New York Times bestselling and Eisner-nominated creator who has worked as a colorist for such iconic characters as Spider-Man, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Scott Pilgrim. He’s also co-creator, writer, and colorist of the graphic novel Lake of Fire. He started writing PAWS, his middle grade debut, as a way to share his passion for comics and storytelling with his daughter. Nathan lives with his family in Vancouver. You can follow him on Twitter and Instagram (@NathanFairbairn) and see more of his work at nathanfairbairn.com.
Michele Assarasakorn (also known as MSASSYK) is colorist who worked on comic series such as Eisner-nominated Isola, Gotham Academy, and the Magnificent Ms. Marvel. Originally from Bangkok, Thailand, Michele now calls Vancouver home but also likes to travel the world working remotely as an artist. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@Msassyk) and see more of her work at msassyk.com.

The Bones of Belonging: Finding Wholeness in a White World
2023-11-30 08:00 - 17:00, 2023-11-30 18:00
On Thursday, November 30th at 6pm, join Massy Arts, Massy Books and Dundurn Press in celebrating The Bones of Belonging: Finding Wholeness in a White World with author Annahid Dashtgard, in conversation with equity leader Suzanne Hawkes.
“Annahid is a stunning writer, daring to speak truths that are often hidden or marginalized, and in the process opening people’s hearts and minds.” —Judy Rebick, journalist and author
This project has been made possible by the Government of Canada. Ce projet a été rendu possible grâce au gouvernement du Canada.
Venue & Accessibility
The event will be hosted at the Massy Arts Gallery, at 23 East Pender Street in Chinatown, Vancouver.
Registration is free and required for entrance.
The gallery is wheelchair accessible and a gender-neutral washroom is on-site.
Please refrain from wearing scents or heavy perfumes.
For more on accessibility including parking, seating, venue measurements and floor plan, and how to request ASL interpretation please visit: massyarts.com/accessibility
Covid Protocols: Masks keep our community safe and are mandatory (N95 masks are recommended as they offer the best protection). We ask if you are showing symptoms, that you stay home. Thank you kindly.
About the book:
Bones of Belonging: Finding Wholeness in a White World (Dundurn Press, 2023)
Sharp, funny, and poignant stories of what it’s like to be a Brown woman working for change in a white world.
I take a deep breath, check my lipstick one last time on my phone camera, and turn on my mic. It’s about ten steps, two metres, and one lifetime to the front of the room. “Hello,” I repeat. “My name is Annahid — pronounced Ah-nah-heed — and shit’s about to get real!”
In a series of deft interlocking stories Annahid Dashtgard shares her experiences searching for, and teaching about, belonging in our deeply divided world. A critically acclaimed, racialized immigrant writer and recognized inclusion leader, Dashtgard writes with wisdom, honesty, and a wry humour as she considers what it means to belong — to a country, in a marriage, in our own skin — and what it means when belonging is absent. Like the bones of the human body, these stories knit together a remarkable vision of what wholeness looks like as a racial outsider in a culture still dominated by whiteness.
About the author:
Annahid Dashtgard is an author and CEO/ Co-founder of leading racial justice company Anima Leadership. Her books Bones of Belonging: Finding Wholeness in a White World (Dundurn, 2023) and Breaking the Ocean: A Memoir of Race, Rebellion and Reconciliation (Anansi, 2019) have both been bestsellers, marking her a voice to listen to. She is also host of the podcast Soundwaves of Belonging, creator of the BIPOC Leader Lab program and spends what’s left of her free time trying to keep up with her two kids. Her personal mantra: Be excellent, love fiercely, no bullshit.
About the guest:
Suzanne Hawkes is an equity-centered management consultant, leadership trainer, and facilitator. She has supported stakeholder engagement and dialogue, organizational planning and change initiatives across the US, Canada and overseas for 25 years, for a range of corporate, governmental and not-for-profit clients. Her vision: a multi-racial, cross-sectoral network of collaborative, service-oriented leaders working across difference to achieve transformational change.

Lha yudit’ih — We Always Find a Way
2023-12-01 18:00
On Friday, December 1st at 6pm, join Massy Arts, Massy Books and Talonbooks in celebrating the launch of Lha yudit’ih — We Always Find a Way: Bringing the Tŝilhqot’in Title Case Home by Lorraine Weir with Chief Roger William. We are honoured to also have sχɬemtəna:t Audrey Siegl (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm) conducting a Welcome for this event.
Venue & Accessibility
The event will be hosted at the Massy Arts Gallery, at 23 East Pender Street in Chinatown, Vancouver.
Registration is free and required for entrance.
The gallery is wheelchair accessible and a gender-neutral washroom is on-site.
Please refrain from wearing scents or heavy perfumes.
For more on accessibility including parking, seating, venue measurements and floor plan, and how to request ASL interpretation please visit: massyarts.com/accessibility
Covid Protocols: Masks keep our community safe and are mandatory (N95 masks are recommended as they offer the best protection). We ask if you are showing symptoms, that you stay home. Thank you kindly.
About the book:
Lha yudit’ih — We Always Find a Way is a community oral history of Tsilhqot’in Nation v. British Columbia, the first case in Canada to result in a declaration of Aboriginal Rights and Title to a specific piece of land. Told from the perspective of the Plaintiff, Chief Roger William, joined by fifty Xeni Gwet’ins, Tŝilhqot’ins, and allies, this book encompasses ancient stories of creation, modern stories of genocide through smallpox and residential school, and stories of resistance including the Tŝilhqot’in War, direct actions against logging and mining, and the twenty-five-year battle in Canadian courts to win recognition of what Tŝilhqot’ins never gave up and have always known.
About the authors:
Chief Roger William is the Plaintiff in the Tŝilhqot’in Rights and Title case. Born at Naghataneqed in Xeni, he is from the Bulyan family and is the great-great-grandson of Warrior Qaq’ez, older brother of Warrior Chief Lhats’assʔin. Roger served his community, Xeni Gwet’in, for six terms as Chief and three terms as Councillor. In recognition of his twenty-five-year contribution to the Title case, Chief William was awarded an honorary LL.D. by the University of Northern British Columbia in 2015.
Lorraine Weir came to oral history from Irish studies early in her career and Indigenous Studies more recently via a bridge from the Law and Society field and papers on the concepts of “time immemorial” and “oral tradition” in the Tŝilhqot’in case. She worked as an expert witness in touchstone Canadian censorship court cases. A fifth-generation descendant of Irish Famine survivors, she grew up in Montréal and holds a Ph.D. in Irish literature from Ollscoil na hÉireann (National University of Ireland). Weir is an Emeritus Professor of Indigenous Studies, Department of English Language and Literatures, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.
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This project has been made possible by the Government of Canada. Ce projet a été rendu possible grâce au gouvernement du Canada.

Under the Table Open Mic Series Ft. Smokii Sumac
2023-12-01 18:00

Book Launch: Better Next Year
2023-12-01 18:00 - 20:00 | Caffè Fantastico Specialty Coffees, 965 Kings Road, Victoria, British Columbia, V8T 1W7, Canada
Please join Munro’s Books in launching Better Next Year: An Anthology of Christmas Epiphanies!!
Christmas is trumpeted as a time of peace, joy, bounty and goodwill. Believers and non-believers alike covet the spirit of the holidays even when circumstances are screwed up.
Recollections from acclaimed Canadian authors combine with emerging voices from across the country in an anthology that debunks the popular depiction of Christmas while delivering its messages of hope and renewal.
Writers marginalized by personal circumstance, faith, and race share memories of surviving bleak Christmases past: holidays spent in shelters, or on the streets; families marred by alcohol and violence; personal struggles with addiction, poverty or grief; isolation and loneliness. Despite these and other obstacles, contributors strive to salvage the spirit of the season.
This event will be hosted by the book’s editor, J. J. Lee and will feature readings from Joseph Kakwinokanasum and Jordan Kawchuk.
WHEN: Friday, December 1st from 6PM-8PM
WHERE: Caffe Fantastico Roastery, 965 Kings Rd.
WHAT: Hosted by J. J. Lee, readings from Joseph Kakwinokanasum and Jordan Kawchuk
HOW: This event is free to attend

North Shore Authors Collection Book Fair
2023-12-02 10:00 - 14:00 | North Vancouver Public Library – Lynn Valley branch, 1277 Lynn Valley Road, North Vancouver, BC, V7J 0A2, Canada
SHOP LOCAL, READ LOCAL
North Shore Authors Collection Book Fair
When: Saturday December 2, 2023 10am – 2pm
Where: Community Meeting Room across from the Lynn Valley Library
Looking for great holiday gifts or eager to discover captivating stories written by North Shore authors? Join us to read local and support local authors.
Explore a diverse collection of books authored by more than 20 talented writers from the North Shore Authors Collection. Meet the authors in person to chat about their work or have your books personally signed.
Note: authors may have different payment preferences, including cash, e-transfer, or cheque.
No registration required. Call 604-984-0286, ext. 8144 for more information.

Wild Prose Readings Presents: Boy, Interrupted
2023-12-03 19:00 - 22:00
Please join the Wild Prose Reading Series for Boy, Interrupted—readings from books about young men whose lives were interrupted, and the story of how they came back. Jason Jobin will read from his memoir, The Wild Mandrake, about his struggle with cancer as a young man; Katłįà will read from her novel, This House is Not A Home, about a young Dene man who goes hunting and returns to find that his home has been bulldozed by the government, and Jason Schreurs will read from his memoir about how punk rock has helped him and many others cope with their mental health issues: Scream Therapy: A Punk Journey Through Mental Health. The evening will begin with an open mic, opened by local poet, Sophie Crocker.

Book Launch / Tales for Late Night Bonfires by G.A. Grisenthwaite with host Molly Cross-Blanchard
2023-12-06 18:00 - 20:00
On Wednesday, December 6th at 6pm, join Massy Arts, Massy Books and Freehand books in celebrating the launch of G.A. Grisenthwaite’s Tales for Late Night Bonfires, with host Molly Cross-Blanchard.
“Tales for Late Night Bonfires is funny, dark, and rich all at once; each story is immense and alive. Grisenthwaite shows us what fiction can be when story leads the way.” QUILL & QUIRE starred review
This project has been made possible by the Government of Canada. Ce projet a été rendu possible grâce au gouvernement du Canada.
Venue & Accessibility
The event will be hosted at the Massy Arts Gallery, at 23 East Pender Street in Chinatown, Vancouver.
Registration is free and required for entrance. Register here: https://www.showpass.com/tales-for-late-night-bonfires-by-ga-grisenthwaite-with-host-molly-cross-blanchard/
The gallery is wheelchair accessible and a gender-neutral washroom is on-site.
Please refrain from wearing scents or heavy perfumes.
For more on accessibility including parking, seating, venue measurements and floor plan, and how to request ASL interpretation please visit: massyarts.com/accessibility
Covid Protocols: Masks keep our community safe and are mandatory (N95 masks are recommended as they offer the best protection). We ask if you are showing symptoms, that you stay home. Thank you kindly.
About the book:
Tales for Late Night Bonfires (Freehand Books, 2023)
These are stories that are a litle bit larger than life, or maybe they really happened. Tales that could be told ’round the campfire, each one-upping the next. Tales about a car that drives herself, ever loyal to her owner. Tales about an impossible moose hunt. Tales about the Real Santa(TM) mashed up with the book of Genesis, alongside SPAM stew and bedroom sets from IKEA.
G.A. Grisenthwaite’s writing is electric and inimitable, blending meticulous literary style with oral storytelling and coming away with a voice that is entirely his own. Tales for Late Night Bonfires is truly one of a kind, and not to be missed.
About the author:
G.A. Grisenthwaite is a Nlaka’pamux writer and a member of the Lytton First Nation. His debut novel, Home Waltz, was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award. Grisenthwaite lives in Kingsville, Ontario. In 2023, he served two months as the Writer-in-Residence at Berton House, Dawson City.
About the host:
Molly Cross-Blanchard is a white and Métis writer and editor born on Treaty 3 territory (Fort Frances, ON), raised on Treaty 6 territory (Prince Albert, SK), and living on the unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples (Vancouver, BC). She published her debut collection of poems, Exhibitionist, in 2021 with Coach House Books, and currently teaches Creative Writing and Indigenous Studies at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.

Storied: On queerness in children’s books with Danny Ramadan and Robin Stevenson
2023-12-13 19:00 - 20:00 | Zoom
Join the BC and Yukon Book Prizes for Storied: Discussions on Books, Publishing, and the Creative Process.
On Wednesday, December 13th, Danny Ramadan, author of Salma the Syrian Chef, The Foghorn Echoes and more, and Robin Stevenson, winner of the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence, will discuss queerness in children’s book.
The event begins at 7 pm (PT). It will run for an hour.
This is a free event, but registration is required. There will be no recording for this event.
Funding for the Storied Series is thanks to Canada Book Fund, Creative BC, the Government of BC and the Canada Council for the Arts.
About the guests:
Danny Ramadan is a Syrian-Canadian author and LGBTQ-refugees advocate. His latest novel, The Foghorn Echoes (Penguin – 2022) won the Lambda Award for Gay Fiction, and is shortlisted for the BC & Yukon Book awards, as well as the city of Vancouver Book Award. The Clothesline Swing (Nightwood – 2017) is translated to multiple languages. His award-winning children’s books The Salma Series includes picture book Salma the Syrian Chef (2020), and early chapters books Salma Makes a Home, Salma Writes a Book (2023) and Salma Joins the Team (2024). He is expected to release his memoir Crooked Teeth in 2024. His short stories and essays have appeared in publications across North America and Europe. Since his arrival to Canada, Ramadan has raised over $300,000 for LGBTQ+ identifying refugees.
Robin Stevenson is the award winning author of thirty books of fiction and non-fiction for kids and teens: her writing has been translated into numerous languages and published in more than a dozen countries. Robin’s books have won the Silver Birch Award, the Sheila A. Egoff award and a Stonewall Honor, and been finalists for the Governor General’s Literary Awards, the Lambda Literary Awards, and many reader’s choice awards. She is the Book and Periodical Council of Canada’s Champion of Free Expression for 2022.

Vancouver Writers Fest Digital Festival
2023-12-15 - 2024-02-01 | Online
Watch online! 25 exceptional events from the Vancouver Writers Fest’s flagship Festival.
Purchase a Pay-What-You-Can pass for yourself or as a gift, and watch 25 full-length events from our flagship Festival, from December 15 through January 31.
Featuring a wide range of genres and formats, these events represent some of the most outstanding offerings from our 2023 Festival.

Book Launch at Massy Arts / Glass House by Andrew Heid
2023-12-15 18:00
On Friday, December 15th at 6pm, join Massy Arts, Massy Books and No Architecture in celebrating the launch of Glass Houses by Andrew Heid.
Glass Houses presents 50 stunning architect designed homes that utilize glass to maximum effect. The international selection includes early modernist houses from the 1930s, such as Philip Johnson’s Glass House and Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House, and glamorous mid-century LA villas like Pierre Koenig’s Case Study #22, alongside outstanding contemporary examples, where new innovations have made even more daring glass structures possible. Each house is celebrated with awe-inspiring photographs that showcase the dynamic, light-filled living spaces that only glass can deliver.

North Shore Reads: Outsider
2024-01-17 18:30 - 20:00 | Zoom
Join the North Shore libraries for a community-wide book club event!
North Shore Reads — a collaboration between North Vancouver City Library, North Vancouver District Public Library, and West Vancouver Memorial Library — presents an evening with Brett Popplewell in conversation with Marsha Lederman. Popplewell will discuss his 2023 national bestseller Outsider: An Old Man, a Mountain and the Search for a Hidden Past.
When journalist Brett Popplewell first heard about Dag Aabye, an aging former stuntman who lived alone in a school bus on a mountain, running day and night through blizzards and heat waves, he was intrigued and bewildered. Captivated by the seemingly implausible tale of a wild super-athlete aging more slowly than the rest of us, he was determined to meet the apocryphal white-haired man who was pushing the boundaries of the human mind and body beyond what anyone could dream was possible.
What Popplewell witnessed on a secluded mountain perch led him on a six-year odyssey to uncover the true story of the 81-year-old man. Outsider takes readers on a remarkable journey from Nazi-occupied Norway to Argentina and British Columbia. The book chronicles how a child born under mysterious circumstances during World War II finds his way onto the big screen in Goldfinger, is heralded as the world’s first extreme skier, and is later driven into the wilderness. Both joyful and tragic, Outsider presents a bold challenge to our notions of aging, belonging and human accomplishment.
North Shore Reads invites you to a dynamic conversation between Brett Popplewell and Marsha Lederman. Our program will begin with a traditional Indigenous welcome from Tsitsáyxemaat Rebecca Duncan of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nation.

Hockey Day in Canada Book Signing with Ron MacLean, Ken Reid, and Brian Burke
2024-01-19 11:30 - 13:00 | Munro’s Books, 1108 Government Street, Victoria, BC, V8W 1Y2, Canada
Please join Munro’s Books for a Hockey Day in Canada book signing!!!
During the Hockey Day in Canada festivities this January, we will welcome hockey broadcasting and analysts Ron MacLean (long-time host of CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada), Ken Reid (Sportsnet Central sportscaster), and Brian Burke (NHL executive and analyst) into the store to meet you and sign books!
When you first meet Ron MacLean, he asks where you’re from, and he always comes back with a story. No one has crossed this country more than MacLean. In his 28 years on Hockey Night in Canada and now as host of Rogers’ Hometown Hockey, Ron has met fascinating people from coast to coast and has had great stories to tell. In Hockey Towns, MacLean shares untold stories of superstars Wayne Gretzky and Eric Lindros, of Original Six legends, of junior players who left their hearts on the ice, of blue-collar players who persevered. These tales of triumph and sometimes tragedy will resonate with hockey fans across the country. Once again working with Kirstie McLellan Day, co-author of the blockbuster bestsellers Playing with Fire, Tough Guy and Cornered, this is MacLean at his finest.
In many communities across Canada, hockey lives in the nearby arenas and leagues that forge both decades-long rivalries and unbreakable friendships. Fans show up to cheer not for distant NHL superstars, but for the homegrown heroes who define their town. These players don’t always make it to the big leagues, but they inevitably become legends. In the entertaining collection, Hometown Hockey Heroes, Canadian broadcaster and Sportsnet Central host Ken Reid tells their uplifting stories, from Pictou, Nova Scotia, to Kimberley, British Columbia—and everywhere in between.
In Burke’s Law, the gruffest man in hockey opens up about the challenges, the feuds, and the tragedies he’s fought through. Brian Burke is one of the biggest personalities in the media landscape. His brashness makes him a magnet for attention, and he does nothing to shy away from it. Most famous for advocating “pugnacity, truculence, testosterone, and belligerence” during his tenure with the Maple Leafs, Burke has lived and breathed hockey his whole life. He has been a player, an agent, a league executive, a scout, a Stanley Cup-winning GM, an Olympic GM, and a media analyst. He has worked with Pat Quinn, Gary Bettman, and an array of future Hall of Fame players.
WHEN: Friday, January 19th, 11:30AM – 1:00 PM
WHERE: in-store at Munro’s Books, 1108 Government St.
WHAT: A meet and greet and book signing with Ron MacLean, Ken Reid, and Brian Burke
HOW: This event is free to attend

Write Your Novel or Memoir
2024-01-22 13:00 - 14:00 | North Vancouver Public Library – Parkgate branch, 3675 Banff Court, North Vancouver, BC, V7H 2Z8, Canada
Do you want to write a novel or a memoir?
Please join author, Julianne Harvey, of Ruby Finch Books for a fun writing class. We will talk about the things that hold us back when we want to write, brainstorm ideas and outlines for your upcoming projects, and do some journaling and writing prompts together in a supportive and kind atmosphere. Please bring a notebook & pen or a laptop.
Julianne has written four books and her work has appeared in several literary magazines. She holds an MFA and a BA in Creative Writing. For more information, please see julianneharvey.com and rubyfinchbooks.com.
Registration required. Register online or call 604-929-3727, ext. 8166. Contact Vanessa at gillv@nvdpl.ca for more information.
This event takes place in the Enid Dearing Room at Parkgate Library.

Wild Prose Reading Series Presents: The Subversives
2024-01-25 19:00 - 22:00 | Paul Phillips Hall, 1923 Fernwood Road, Victoria, BC, V8T 0A5, Canada
Please join us for The Subversives—readings from books about women and nonbinary people subverting the status quo. JD Derbyshire will read from Mercy Gene, the Man-Made Making of a Madwoman, a genre-smashing work of auto-fiction about gender confusion, patriarchy, addiction, and mental health; Kathryn Mockler will read from her book of short stories, Anecdotes, a book of varied, immersive works that bristle with truth in the face of unprecedented change; and Emi Sasagawa will read from her debut novel, Atomweight, about a “good girl” who becomes herself through fighting—a novel about the need to reconcile competing cultures, traditions, and values and explores sexual identity and violence. The evening will begin with an open mic at 7:00 p.m. The open mic will be opened by local writer Justina Elias, reading “To Do,” her Constance Rooke Creative Nonfiction Award-winning story, published in issue #217 of The Malahat Review – and then it’ll open up to YOU! Bring some writing of any genre to share (poetry is very welcome)!

Author talk with Anthea Penne
2024-02-01 11:30 - 12:30 | North Vancouver Public Library – Parkgate branch, 3675 Banff Court, North Vancouver, BC, V7H 2Z8, Canada
Join Anthea Penne, author of Old Stones, as she reads excerpts from her novel and discusses the research behind it.
At the end of the Second World War nearly 50,000 women emigrated to Canada from Britain and the continent. For those women, the Atlantic crossing marked the beginning of a great adventure: a new country, a new life and a new husband. But those transcontinental marriages often created a dual heritage for the children of the unions, making “home” difficult to define. In Old Stones, the gap between Anthea’s privileged English and provincial Canadian backgrounds is made achingly clear in family stories from both continents. An unsentimental look at a war-time union, Old Stones is an inquiry into one woman’s very different backgrounds as well as a candid examination of a family’s cultural divide.
Registration required. Register online or call 604-929-3727, ext. 8166. Contact Vanessa at gillv@nvdpl.ca for more information.
This event takes place in the Enid Dearing Meeting Room at Parkgate Library.

Challenge to Civilization: Indigenous Wisdom & the Future -Blair Stonechild
2024-02-03 14:00 - 17:00
ONLINE EVENT
On Saturday, February 3rd at 2pm (Vancouver time) join Massy Arts, Massy Books and University of Regina Press for the launch of Challenge to Civilization: Indigenous Wisdom and the Future by Blair Stonechild with guest Jesse Archibald-Barber.
This project has been made possible by the Government of Canada. Ce projet a été rendu possible grâce au gouvernement du Canada.
Venue & Accessibility
The event will be hosted online on zoom, all listed times are in the Vancouver time zone.
Closed captioning can be accessed via zoom.
Registration is free and required for entrance.
About the book
In this final book of his trilogy, Dr. Stonechild deftly illustrates how Indigenous spirituality, wisdom, and land-based knowledge is critical to human survival in the face of environmental destruction and human-induced climate change. Reinterpreting world history from an Indigenous perspective, Stonechild’s solution to this unfolding catastrophe is “ecolization,” a state in which humans recognize they are not the central purpose of creation and a way of existing harmoniously with the natural and spiritual worlds.
Beautifully written, urgent, and critical, Challenge to Civilization reminds us that it is not Earth that is in danger of extinction, but ourselves, and Indigenous spiritual wisdom can be the guiding light through what will otherwise be humanity’s final, ever-darkening days.
About the author
Blair A. Stonechild is a member of the Muscowpetung First Nation in Saskatchewan. He is a residential school survivor and was the first faculty member hired at the First Nations University of Canada in 1976. He is an author of five previous books and lives in Regina with his wife Sylvia and three adult children.
About the guest reader
Jesse Archibald-Barber is from oskana kâ-asastêki. He teaches Indigenous Literatures in English at the First Nations University of Canada, specializing in Saskatchewan Indigenous literary history and early Indigenous literatures in Canada.

Design Book Club
2024-02-06 18:00
Don’t worry, this isn’t a commitment to a monthly book club!
SEGD Vancouver in partnership with DesCan (Design Professionals of Canada)​ is holding a one-off night where we come together to geek out on our favourite design books amongst some beverages and snacks. You may have had a great holiday read, a book you’ve loved for years, or even one that you’ve been meaning to open for ages and now we’re giving you the impetus to read up over the next month!
Books can cover the realm of art, design, architecture, urban planning, creativity – the list goes on! We would love if everyone could bring one or more of their favourite books that they’ve read at least a good chunk of (we will too), and be ready to chat about it with other people. Maybe you can even come home with someone else’s book if they’re open to a swap! We also accept the book-less that are just looking to learn about some new reads.
If you have books accumulating dust on your shelves, bring them along, we’ll have a dedicated space for any books seeking new homes.
When: Tuesday, February 6th, 6 – 8 pm
Where:Massy Arts Society​, 23 E Pender St, Vancouver, BC V6A 1S9

Book Launch: Cold by Drew Hayden Taylor
2024-02-14 18:00
On Wednesday, February 14th at 6pm, join Massy Arts, Massy Books, Penguin Random House Canada for the launch of Cold by Drew Hayden Taylor with host Sam Wiebe.
This project has been made possible by the Government of Canada. Ce projet a été rendu possible grâce au gouvernement du Canada.
Venue & Accessibility
The event will be hosted at the Massy Arts Gallery, at 23 East Pender Street in Chinatown, Vancouver.
Registration is free and required for entrance.
The gallery is wheelchair accessible and a gender-neutral washroom is on-site.
Please refrain from wearing scents or heavy perfumes.
For more on accessibility including parking, seating, venue measurements and floor plan, and how to request ASL interpretation please visit: massyarts.com/accessibility
Covid Protocols: Masks keep our community safe and are mandatory (N95 masks are recommended as they offer the best protection). We ask if you are showing symptoms, that you stay home. Thank you kindly.
About the book:
Cold (Penguin Random House Canada, 2024)
A tragic plane crash that leaves two women stranded and fighting for their lives kicks off this sweeping and hilarious novel from award-winning writer Drew Hayden Taylor that blends thriller, murder mystery, and horror with humour and spectacle.
Elmore Trent is a professor of Indigenous studies who finds himself entangled in an affair that’s ruining his marriage; Paul North plays in the IHL (Indigenous Hockey League), struggling to keep up with the game that’s passing him by; Detective Ruby Birch is chasing a string of gruesome murders, with clues that conspicuously lead her to both Elmore and Paul. And then there’s Fabiola Halan, former journalist-turned-author and famed survivor of a plane crash that sparked a nationwide tour promoting her book.
What starts off as a series of subtle connections between isolated characters quickly takes a menacing turn, as it becomes increasingly clear that someone—or something—is hunting them all.
Taking tropes from the murder mystery, police procedural, thriller, and horror genres, Drew Hayden Taylor weaves a pulse-pounding and propulsive narrative with an intricate cast of characters, while never losing the ability to make you laugh.
About the author:
DREW HAYDEN TAYLOR has done many things, most of which he is proud of. An Ojibway from the Curve Lake First Nations in Ontario, he has worn many hats in his career, from performing stand-up comedy at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., to being Artistic Director of Canada’s premiere Native theatre company, Native Earth Performing Arts. He has been an award-winning playwright (with over 100 productions of his work), a journalist/columnist (appearing regularly in several Canadian newspapers, magazines, and news networks), short story writer, novelist, television scriptwriter, and has worked on over 20 documentaries exploring the Native experience including the popular Searching for Winnetou. His documentary series on APTN, Going Native, is in its third year. The author of 34 books, he looks forward to finding out where his imagination will take him next.
About the host:
Sam Wiebe is the author of the Wakeland novels, one of the most authentic and acclaimed detective series in Canada. His latest, Sunset and Jericho (2023), was a BC bestseller for over ten weeks, and Hell and Gone (2021) won a silver medal from the Independent Publisher Book Awards. His work has also won the Crime Writers of Canada award and the Kobo Emerging Writers prize, and been shortlisted for the Edgar, Hammett, Shamus and City of Vancouver book prizes. He lives in New Westminster, BC.

Best Canadian Poetry 2024 selected by Bardia Sinaee
2024-02-20 18:00
On Tuesday, February 20th at 6pm, join Massy Arts, Massy Books, Biblioasis for the launch of Best Canadian Poetry 2024.
The following volume contributors will be reading at the event: Nicholas Bradley, Aislinn Hunter, Meghan Kemp-Gee, Barbara Nickel, Matt Rader, Meagan Rondeau, Joanna Streetly, and Rob Taylor.
This project has been made possible by the Government of Canada. Ce projet a été rendu possible grâce au gouvernement du Canada.
Venue & Accessibility
The event will be hosted at the Massy Arts Gallery, at 23 East Pender Street in Chinatown, Vancouver.
Registration is free and required for entrance.
The gallery is wheelchair accessible and a gender-neutral washroom is on-site.
Please refrain from wearing scents or heavy perfumes.
For more on accessibility including parking, seating, venue measurements and floor plan, and how to request ASL interpretation please visit: massyarts.com/accessibility
Covid Protocols: Masks keep our community safe and are mandatory (N95 masks are recommended as they offer the best protection). We ask if you are showing symptoms, that you stay home. Thank you kindly.
About the book
Selected by editor Bardia Sinaee, the 2024 edition of Best Canadian Poetry showcases the best Canadian poetry writing published in 2022.
Featuring:
David Barrick • Nina Berkhout • Nicholas Bradley • Alison Braid • Louise Carson • Hilary Clark • Erin Conway-Smith • Nancy Jo Cullen • Kayla Czaga • Rocco de Giacomo • Jean Eng • Joel Robert Ferguson • Susan Gillis • Luke Hathaway • Beatriz Hausner • Robert Hogg • Evan Jones • Meghan Kemp-Gee • Joseph Kidney • Matthew King • Sarah Lachmansingh • T. Liem • Seth MacGregor • Sadie McCarney • Erin McGregor • Anna Moore • Rhiannon Ng Cheng Hin • Barbara Nickel • Peter Norman • Tolu Oloruntoba • Michael Ondaatje • Jana Prikryl • Matt Rader • Monty Reid • Lisa Richter • Meaghan Rondeau • Olajide Salawu • Francesca Schulz-Bianco • James Scoles • Allan Serafino • Sue Sinclair • Carolyn Smart • Misha Solomon • John Steffler • John Elizabeth Stintzi • Joanna Streetly • Rob Taylor • Sarah Yi-Mei Tsiang • James Warner • Elana Wolff
About Bardia Sinaee
Bardia Sinaee’s poetry, essays, and book reviews have appeared in magazines throughout Canada. His first book, Intruder (House of Anansi, 2021), received the Trillium Book Award for Poetry and was shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. He was born in Tehran, Iran, and currently lives in Ottawa.

Sheila Heti in Conversation with Lee Henderson
2024-02-20 19:00 - 21:00 | Munro’s Books, 1108 Government Street, Victoria, BC, V8W 1Y2, Canada
Please join Munro’s Books in celebrating the launch of Sheila Heti’s latest book, Alphabetical Diaries. Sheila will be in conversation with UVic writing professor, Lee Henderson.
Munro’s Books is pleased to present two Canadian award-winning authors, Sheila Heti and Lee Henderson, in conversation at their store on Tuesday, February 20th at 7:00 p.m. Sheila Heti will read from her new book Alphabetical Diaries and then chat about it with local fiction writer and UVic creative writing professor, Lee Henderson. The evening will end with a Q&A with audience members and a book signing with Sheila Heti. This event is free to attend.
A little over a decade ago, Sheila Heti—the award-winning author of a string of modern classics including How Should a Person Be?, Motherhood, and Pure Colour—began looking back at the diaries she’d kept over the previous ten years, searching for signs of deeper change inside herself. She loaded all 500,000 words of her journals into Microsoft Excel, to order the sentences alphabetically and seek out patterns and repetitions. How many times had she written, “I hate him,” for example? With the sentences untethered from the narrative of her diaries, she started to see herself—and the Self—in a new way: as something quite solid, anchored by shockingly few characteristic preoccupations. Returning to the project over the years, something more universal and novelistic emerged. Alphabetical Diaries is the sublime and probing result—one that rises to the heights of artistry and insight for which Heti is rightfully acclaimed.
Sheila Heti is one of our greatest literary innovators and has been pushing boundaries with her work since the age of 24, when she published her first book, the short-story collection, The Middle Stories, in 2001. She’s since won the Governor General’s Award for Fiction and the Vine Award for Canadian Jewish Literature, and has been shortlisted for the Giller Prize and longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction. Heti’s fiction and criticism have appeared in the New York Review of Books, London Review of Books, The Paris Review, The New Yorker, and Granta.
WHEN: Tuesday, February 20th at 7:00 p.m. (doors at 6:30).
WHERE: In-store at Munro’s Books, 1108 Government St.
WHAT: A reading by Sheila Heti from her latest book, followed by a conversation with Lee Henderson and a Q&A with the audience.
HOW: This event is free to attend.

The Deepest Map by Laura Trethewey and Pitfall by Christopher Pollon
2024-02-21 18:00
On Wednesday, February 21st, at 6pm join Massy Arts, Massy Books, Goose Lane Editions and Greystone Books in celebrating the launch of The Deepest Map: The High-Stakes Race to Chart the World’s Oceans by Laura Trethewey with guest Christopher Pollon.
This project has been made possible by the Government of Canada. Ce projet a été rendu possible grâce au gouvernement du Canada.
Venue & Accessibility
The event will be hosted at the Massy Arts Gallery, at 23 East Pender Street in Chinatown, Vancouver.
Registration is free and required for entrance.
The gallery is wheelchair accessible and a gender-neutral washroom is on-site.
Please refrain from wearing scents or heavy perfumes.
For more on accessibility including parking, seating, venue measurements and floor plan, and how to request ASL interpretation please visit: massyarts.com/accessibility
Covid Protocols: Masks keep our community safe and are mandatory (N95 masks are recommended as they offer the best protection). We ask if you are showing symptoms, that you stay home. Thank you kindly.
About the books:
The Deepest Map: The High-Stakes Race to Chart the World’s Oceans (Goose Lane Editions, 2023)
Five oceans cover approximately seventy per cent of the earth, yet we know little of what lies beneath them. Scientists, investors, militaries, and private explorers are all vying to be the first to completely map the oceans’ floor.
In The Deepest Map, Laura Trethewey chronicles this race to the bottom. Crossing the globe, Trethewey documents Inuit-led crowdsourced mapping in the Arctic as climate change alters the landscape, a Texas millionaire’s efforts to become the first man to dive to the deepest point in each ocean, and investigates the increasingly fraught question of whether and how to mine the deep sea.
Pitfall: The Race to Mine the World’s Most Vulnerable Places (Greystone Books, 2023)
A harrowing journey through the past, present, and future of mining, this expertly-researched account ends on a vision for how industry can better serve the needs of humanity.
A race is on to exploit the last bonanzas of gold, silver, and industrial metals left on Earth. These metals are not only essential for all material comfort and need, but for the transition to clean energy: in the coming decades, billions of tons of copper, nickel, silver, and other metals will be required to build electric vehicles, solar and wind installations, and green infrastructure. We need more metals than ever before, yet the qualities and quantities are diminishing, making the extraction process more polluting to land, air and water. And most of these metals will be mined from the global south, where social conflict will only grow, led by Indigenous peoples demanding a greater say in how their wealth is used.
About the authors:
Laura Trethewey is an author and ocean journalist whose writing has appeared in the Guardian, the Atlantic, and the Walrus. Her first book, The Imperilled Ocean, was a Globe and Mail Top 100 Selection. In The Deepest Map, she continues to explore the mysteries of the oceans and their watery depths.
Christopher Pollon is an independent journalist who reports on the politics of natural resources, focusing on mining, oceans, and energy. His work has appeared in dozens of publications, including National Geographic, VICE, the Walrus, the Tyee, and the Globe and Mail. He is also the author of The Peace in Peril: The Real Cost of the Site C Dam. He lives in Vancouver, BC.
