🎟️ Tickets are on sale NOW for all events at the 2025 Vancouver Writers Fest! 🎟️ writersfest.bc.ca/2025-festiva... #VWF2025 takes place from October 20–26, featuring over 130 authors in 87 events to spark empathy, action, and transformation. Join us on Granville Island and beyond.

One of the world's bravest writers, Arundhati Roy, is in town to speak with Naomi Klein tonight at the Vancouver Playhouse. It's a @writersfest.bc.ca event. Learn more about her and her new memoir in this @pancouver.bsky.social article: pancouver.ca/arundhati-ro...

Reminded today of a little game I’d play with my (single) mom as a child. She’d leave a grocery list on the counter that we’d contribute to over the week. I’d always add “Robert Redford” for her, and “golden retriever” for me. She never did come home with Robert but one day I came home to a doggo ❤️

Tickets are on sale now for #VWF2025, which kicks off with the Alma Lee Opening Night event on Oct 20, presented with @createastir.ca. Notable Canadian authors illuminate who we are—and who we could be, if we commit to protecting this country and making it better. writersfest.bc.ca/festival-eve...

Tickets for our flagship Festival go on sale tomorrow at 10am! 📣 Thousands of tickets have already been snapped up during the Member pre-sale. We recommend exploring the program and building your schedule now, to avoid missing out on your top pick events!  writersfest.bc.ca/2025-festiva...

🔥 HOT TICKET ALERT🔥 Vancouver @writersfest.bc.ca tickets go on Member-sale tomorrow, including tickets to hear this remarkable icon of Canadian letters, @margaretatwood.bsky.social on December 9, in conversation with @caroloff.bsky.social 📕”Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts” #McClelland&Stewart

Our amazing volunteers have been dropping off #VWF2025 Program Guides at friendly stores and venues all across Metro Vancouver. Here’s where you can find one! Don’t forget, our website has the latest event updates: writersfest.bc.ca/2025-festiva...

Looking for an antidote to the piling-on of dreadful news? Join us for a festival of insightful dialogue with a world of exceptional writers. It’s a balm and a blast. 🩷📚💥 Tickets on sale next week!

Before I began working at the Festival, I volunteered—Hands down my favourite week of the year! Join us! 😀💫📚

Mel died 9 years ago today. He’d be apoplectic with frustration if he were here to witness the unraveling of…everything. His books are more relevant today than ever. ❤️🇨🇦 thetyee.ca/Books/2008/0...

I’m giddy with anticipation for our 38th annual October Festival! Just look at these authors and books! 🤩📚 Full program announced at the end of August and tickets on sale in September!

Watch this to the end.

Naomi Klein, Madeleine Thien, Deborah Cowen and Kyo Maclear call out the Canadian government's "special" program to help evacuate Palestinians in Gaza as a "cruel taunt." www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

It’s a good time to remind @mark-carney.bsky.social & @stevenguilbeault.bsky.social about the importance of investing in arts & culture which accounts for 3.2% of all jobs in 🇨🇦, and 63.2B in GDP. Moreover, if ever there was time to protect the arts in Canada, it’s now. www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

Hey Alberta! We need to encourage our children to read a multitude of books that are relevant to them, and the complex issues they encounter as they grow- Bcs most of the $hit they get online is a hell of a lot more damaging than books your local librarian is curating! www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

“Arundhati Roy is one of the most confident and original thinkers of our time,” proclaims Naomi Klein. Hear both of these revolutionary authors and activists in a rare conversation on Sept 17, presented with @ccj-ubc.bsky.social and Indian Summer Festival. Get your tickets:

“we are ignoring the collapse of the international system that has defined our lives for generations at our own collective peril.” ‼️ www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

More of this!

This year marks the 40th anniversary of The Canadian Encyclopedia 🇨🇦 www.thestar.com/opinion/elam...

We’re excited to share this list of exceptional books and authors (with more still to come) and to announce our 2025 Guest Curator, Canisia Lubrin! 📚 Join us this fall for Special Events and our flagship Festival, October 20-26.

We closed out the inaugural season of Books & Ideas last night with a brilliant conversation featuring Robert Macfarlane. With nine Books & Ideas events wrapped up, we’re moving full steam ahead, with much enthusiasm and exhilaration, towards the 2025 Festival!

We can respond to Trump’s threats and build a strong and resilient economy without undermining our democratic values, environmental protections, and Indigenous rights.

Beginning to see some of the back-room-talk results from the *rump/Carney meeting. With G7 and NATO meetings on the horizon are Canadians ready for the deals that lead to a more militarized Canada, including reducing rights for asylum seekers, and privacy of Cdns in the name of “safer borders”?

“I’m interested in something else: that moment when the shock fades and the (figurative) show goes on.” We can’t let the shock fade. Stay shocked! There is seemingly no end to the issues we should be feeling rocked by. Don’t let yourself begin to think they’re normal.

This Thursday in Vancouver, May 22 2025, 7:30 p.m. Join us to celebrate short stories! @writersfest.bc.ca

Hurrah for this masterpiece of a novel! Congratulations #MichaelCrummey!

It seems like an important time to remind Canadians about this book: quillandquire.com/review/rushi...

It’s been an unforgettable inaugural season of Books & Ideas, and we’re honoured to close the 2025 series in the company of bestselling author and naturalist Robert Macfarlane, joining us with his new book, Is a River Alive? on June 18. 🎟️ Click here to grab your tickets: buff.ly/8z0fcMm

Just announced: Scott Turow, #1 bestselling author of Presumed Innocent, joins us with his highly anticipated new court drama, Presumed Guilty — June 3 in conversation with @susinnielsen.bsky.social at the Granville Island Stage. Tickets: writersfest.bc.ca/event/scott-...

The forever-correct way to translate Canadian parties to other countries without using their politics for reference

he should have done the hip flip

You can donate to support the BC Filipino community here: filipinobc.com/donate

Happy Independent Booksellers Day! There are a lot of fun events happening across the country today—Go buy some books and meet some authors! Photo of my mom and dad (at Hurtig Books in Edmonton, circa 1957).

How to turn an esteemed Canadian poetry prize into something irrelevant to Canadians.

Celebrate Short Story Month in May with brilliant new collections from André Alexis (Other Worlds), Clea Young (Welcome to the Neighbourhood), and @catebush.bsky.social (Skin), who join us in conversation with Caroline Adderson, May 22 at Books & Ideas. Tickets:

We’re with @garthmullins.bsky.social tonight and I’m blown away by his precise and compelling arguments for safe supply and support in his new book, “Crackdown”—Should be part of @liberalca.bsky.social and @ndp.ca campaign. Check it out! Thanks to @andreawoo.bsky.social for the great convo

The 2025 Vancouver Writers Fest Silent Auction is open for bidding! 🌟 auctria.events/whiskywords2... All proceeds support the VWF, so bid early, and bid often, in support of the arts and our local literary community! Bidding is open now until Friday, April 25.

THE RISE OF END TIMES FASCISM My first major piece of the new Trump era, co-written with @astra.bsky.social. The governing ideology of the far right has become a monstrous, supremacist survivalism. Our task is to build a movement strong enough to stop them. www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

On April 26, UBC Centre for Climate Justice, Vancouver Writers Fest, and Chan Centre for the Performing Arts present The NEW Shock Doctrine: an evening with Naomi Klein, Seth Klein, and CBC’s Elamin Abdelmahmoud, charting Canada’s path in a time of crisis. tickets.ubc.ca/online/defau...

Booker Prize-shortlisted author Madeleine Thien joins us in Vancouver on May 8 to launch The Book of Records, one of the most anticipated releases of the year. She sits down in conversation with award-winning Canadian author David Chariandy. 🎟️ Tickets: writersfest.bc.ca/event/thien-...

Now streaming on the Books & Ideas Audio podcast: Canada Research Chair and author of The Certainty Illusion @caulfieldtim.bsky.social joined us for a rousing conversation with @marshalederman.bsky.social about recognizing and combatting misinformation.

A Poetry Bash in a dangerous time; just the thing to remind us of what’s important right now—community, art, love and resilience Join us! 🌷📚

Marine Le Pen barred from running for French presidency in 2027 This is how you do it! 👊🏼🇫🇷🔥

It is with the deepest sorrow that we announce the passing of the Vancouver Writers Fest’s founding artistic director, Alma Lee. Alma’s vision and dedication put Vancouver on the literary map. She passed away peacefully on March 28, 2025. writersfest.bc.ca/alma-lee-mem...

I owe so much to Alma Lee-A mentor, a friend, and a masterclass on how to live an impactful life full of love (and books). I will miss her dearly and remember her always. ❤️📚

Turn your agitation into action! 💪🇨🇦❤️ Join us on April 26th!

Check out some of the tantalizing offerings that will be flowing at Whisky & Words on April 25! @scoutmagazine.bsky.social solicited some book and spirit recommendations from six of this year’s participating distilleries. scoutmagazine.ca/scout-book-c...

Jeffrey Goldberg in the group chat

“I believe that most Americans would rather raise their kids in a society that values empathy and not cruelty.” 🤞🙏 www.nytimes.com/2025/03/21/o...