Five Vancouver Writers Fest events to add to your must-see list

Vancouver's John Vaillant, he of the best sellers The Tiger, The Golden Spruce and Fire Weather, is one of the authors who will be speaking at the Vancouver Writers Fest's opening night event Read, Resist, Repair, Rejoice on Oct. 19 at 7:30 p.m. at the Vancouver Playhouse. The festival runs Oct. 18-25. Photo by John Sinal /John Sinal

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This year, the 39th-annual festival, running Oct. 18-25, is hosting more than 90 events and welcoming 150-plus authors from Canada and around the globe.

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Kicking the festivities off is the festival’s always-entertaining and insightful opening night event. Hosted by CBC’s Elamin Abdelmahmoud, Grand Openings: Read, Resist, Repair, Rejoice will take place Oct. 19 at 7:30 p.m. at the Vancouver Playhouse. Authors taking to the stage in a wide range of sequential talks include: Ayad Akhtar, Cory Doctorow, Tayari Jones, Ruth Ozeki, Ece Temelkuran, John Vaillant, Jesse Wente, and Jody Wilson-Raybould.

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It’s worth noting that the authors speaking on opening night are also taking part in other events during the festival. VWF also has a very robust livestream program for those who are unable to attend in person.

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With such a packed program to pick from, we thought we’d lend a hand and suggest five events that would make great additions to your VWF plan.

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Patrick deWitt will be this year’s Vancouver Writers Fest for an event on Oct. 20. The annual festival runs Oct. 18-25. Photo by Ray Bidegain /Ray Bidegain

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Patrick deWitt in Conversation

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Oct. 20, 6 p.m., Waterfront Theatre

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Former Vancouver Islander and bestselling author of The Librarianist and The Sisters Brothers will be in talking with Canadian writer David Moscrop about his new novel Dodge City.

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Another character rich offering the novel follows a 23-year-old Lee on a speed (the drug) – fueled road trip across the U.S. as he flees Los Angeles and the Vietnam War draft for the safe haven of Canada.

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Signed up to a drive-away car delivery service, Lee throws his suitcase and a bag of amphetamines into a new Jaguar and heads east and north across the country, making stops in four different towns to visit his family. And yes, his family is complicated.

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Playing the Changes: A Musician’s Memoir by Colin James. Photo by Courtesy of Penguin Random House Canada /Courtesy of Penguin Random House Canada

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An Evening with Colin James

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Oct. 20, 7:30 p.m., York Theatre

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You’ve listened to his music for years and likely seen him live. Now you can get an understanding of where the Canadian blues icon came from as James sits down to discuss his recently released memoir Playing the Changes: A Musician’s Memoir.

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In Playing the Changes, James, who calls North Vancouver home, takes fans back to his childhood in Saskatchewan to a home where music was always played. As a kid, with hypochondriac tendencies, he learned the guitar by playing along to blues records and then began performing with musicians much older than him. And in what can be described as music lore he got his big break when as a teenager he was asked to throw a band together and open for legendary guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan. The memoir ends at James’s first record deal.

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Award-winning author Marlon James will taking part in the Vancouver Writers Fest event on Oct. 22, 8 p.m. at Waterfront Theatre. James’ latest book The Disappearers is currently short-listed for the Booker Prize. Photo by Mark Seliger /Mark Seliger

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Marlon James

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Oct. 22, 8 p.m., Waterfront Theatre

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The winner of the Booker Prize in 2015 for A Brief History of Seven Killings, a fictionalized look at the attempted assassination of Bob Marley, James is back with The Disappearers, a novel that the New York Times said is “the novel of the decade, if not the century,” and which has recently been named to the shortlist for this year’s Booker Prize which will be announced Nov. 9.