VWF 2015 Program Guide

AU T HOR BIOG RAP H IES 51 SHILPI SOMAYA GOWDA ONTARIO/UNITED STATES, EVENTS 65, 85 Shilpi Somaya Gowda's first novel, The Secret Daughter, was an international bestseller. In 1991, she spent a summer as a volunteer at an Indian orphanage, which seeded the idea for the book. Her new novel, The Golden Son, moves between India and the United States and tells the story of two childhood friends whose lives, despite distance, areinextricably combined. @ShilpiGowda, shilpigowda.com LAUREN GROFF UNITED STATES, EVENTS 73, 78, 85 Lauren Groff is the author of the novel The Monsters of Templeton, shortlisted for the Orange Prize for New Writers; Delicate Edible Birds, a collection of stories; and Arcadia, a New York Times Notable Book, winner of the Medici Book Club Prize and finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Her third novel Fates and Furies explores a marriageover the course of 24 years. She lives in Gainesville, Florida. @legroff, laurengroff.com DARREN GROTH BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENT 2 Darren Groth is an internationally-published author, native of Australia and adopted son of Canada. His work has been shortlisted in the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards, the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards, the CBCA Book of the Year and the Text Prize of Australia. His novel Kindling, published in 2013 for Kindle by ExcitingPress, was hailed as a “five star stunner” by Australian Publisher & Bookseller. His new YAnovel is Are You Seeing Me? @darrengroth, darrengroth.com ENSAF HAIDAR QUEBEC/SAUDI ARABI. EVENT 63 Ensaf Haidar is the wife of Raif Muhammad Badawi, a Saudi Arabian writer, who in 2008 founded the online forum Free Saudi Liberals, a website on politics and religion in Saudi Arabia. He has been imprisoned since 2012 and was publicly punished for expressing his opinions with 50 lashes on the 9th January 2015. Haidar has been tirelessly campaigningfor her husband’s freedom since 2013. Haidar and her three children have lived in Sher-brooke, Quebec since 2013 when they were granted political asylum by Canada. @miss9afi STELLA HARVEY BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENT 48 Stella Harvey’s short stories have appeared in the Literary Leanings Anthology, The New Orphic Review, Emerge Magazine and The Dalhousie Review. Harvey’s non-fiction has appeared in Pique Newsmagazine, the Question and The Globe and Mail. She founded the Whistler Writers Group, also known as the Vicious Circle, which each year produces theWhistler Writers Festival under her direction. Her first novel Nicolai’s Daughters, came outin 2012, and her second, The Brink of Freedom, is forthcoming. stellaharvey.com

5 2 AU T H OR B IO GRAPHIES PAULA HAWKINS UNITED KINGDOM, EVENTS 68, 72, 76 presents AN EVENING WITH Paula Hawkins worked as a journalist for 15 years before turning to fiction. Under the penname Amy Silver, Hawkins began writing Ian Rankin lighthearted romance novels, but, she was dissatisfied with the genre and, over time, her stories grew darker as she inched closer to a novel that November 16, 2015 7.30 pm she herself would want to read. That novel was The Girl on the Train, a heart-pounding thriller which resulted in a bidding war amongst publishers and became St. Andrew's Wesley (Burrard and Nelson) an instant bestseller. @PaulaHWrites, paulahawkinsbooks.com Tickets on sale mid-September ELIZABETH HAY Check cuffedfestival.com for ticket information ONTARIO, EVENTS 49, 62, 73 Elizabeth Hay is the author of the Canadian bestselling novel Alone in the Classroom and the Scotiabank Giller Prize-winning novel Late Nights On Air. She has also written three other award-winning works of fiction: A Student of Weather, Garbo Laughs and Small Change. Her new novel is His Whole Life. Formerly a radio broadcaster, she spent a number of years in Mexico and New York City before returning to Canada. elizabethhay.com STEVEN HAYWARD UNITED STATES/CANADA, EVENTS 52, 85 Steven Hayward is a novelist and short story writer. Born in Toronto, he now teaches in the English Department at Colorado College in Colorado Springs. A frequent contributor to The Globe and Mail and the Literary Review of Canada, Hayward’s first novel, The Secret Mitzvah of Lucio Burke, won Italy’s prestigious Grinzane Cavour Prize and his most recent novel, Don’t Be Afraid, is a Canadian national bestseller. His new book is a collection of stories, To Dance the Beginning of the World. @haywardsteven, stevenhayward.com ROBERT HEIDBREDER BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENT 4 Robert Heidbreder is an award-winning children’s poet and author. His many books include I Wished for a Unicorn and Drumheller Dinosaur Dance. His newest book is Song for a Summer Night. Heidbreder spent 30 years as a primary school teacher and won the Prime Minister’s Award for Teaching Excellence. He lives in Vancouver and continues to do many school and festival presentations. robertheidbreder.com LAWRENCE HILL ONTARIO, EVENTS 13, 48, 67 Lawrence Hill is the author of nine books. His novel The Book of Negroes won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book, and both CBC Radio’s Canada Reads and Radio-Canada’s Combat des livres. Hill's non-fiction book, Blood, formed the basis of his 2013 Massey Lectures. With director Clement Virgo, he co-wrote a six-part television miniseries based on The Book of Negroes, which aired on CBC Television. His fourth novel is The Illegal. lawrencehill.com

AU T HOR BIOG RAP H IES f 53 f TONY HOAGLAND f sara tilley kate cayley f UNITED STATES, EVENTS 60, 79 f Duke, a novel How You Were Born Tony Hoagland’s books of poetry include Sweet Ruin, which was chosen “ A ground-breaking short fiction for the Brittingham Prize in Poetry and won the Zacharis Award from achievement.” — winner — Emerson College; Donkey Gospel, winner of the James Laughlin Award; 2015 Trillium Book Award What Narcissism Means to Me, a finalist for the National Book Critics – joan sullivan Circle Award; Hard Rain and Unincorporated Persons in the Late HondaDynasty. He has also published a collection of essays about poetry, Real Sofistakashun. His pedlarpress.com GUTSY & GORGEOUS flatest works are Application for Release from the Dream, a book of poetry, and Twenty Poems Literary works by writersthat Could Save America, a collection of essays. @tonyhoags_LPS from across Canada, since 1996Tony Hoagland’s appearance is made possible by a generous donation to the Alma Lee LegacyFund by Dr. Yosef Wosk. See Paul Paul Yee Michael V. Smith GREG HOLLINGSHEAD a A SUPERIOR MAN MY BODY IS YOURS ONTARIO, EVENTS 52, 78 Michael in person at Greg Hollingshead has published three novels and four story collections the VWF! the most recent titled, Act Normal. His third story collection, The Roaring Girl, won the Governor General’s Award. His novel The Healer won “The work of a first- FPO: Ad the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and was shortlisted for the rank storyteller.” Scotiabank Giller Prize. He is a Professor Emeritus at the University ofAlberta and director of the Writing Studio at the Banff Centre. He served as chair of the —Kevin ChongWriters’ Union of Canada and was awarded the Order of Canada. greghollingshead.com “An affecting work JUNE HUTTON of self-analysis.” BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENTS 32, 59 —The Globe and Mail June Hutton was a Northern reporter, then an inner-city teacher, before writing her first novel, Underground. Called “taut and lean, elegant and poetic” by The Globe and Mail, it was shortlisted for the OLA Evergreen Award. Her new novel is Two Gun & Sun. An instructor for Simon Fraser University’s Writer’s Studio Online and the University of BritishColumbia’s Writing Centre, Hutton lives in Vancouver. @HjhuttonJune, junehutton.com MARLON JAMES UNITED STATES/JAMAICA, EVENTS 62, 65 Marlon James is the author of John Crow’s Devil, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize as well as the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and a New York Times Editors’ Choice. The Book of Night Women, James’ second novel, won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Minnesota Book Award, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics CircleAward and an NAACP Image Award. In his third novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings,James explores multiple genres: the political thriller, the oral biography and the classicwhodunit. @MarlonJames5 SUSAN JUBY BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENTS 8, 33, 45 Susan Juby is the author of the critically-acclaimed Another Kind of Cowboy, as well as the bestselling Alice series: Alice, I Think, Miss Smithers and Alice MacLeod, Realist at Last. Her latest books are Republic of Dirt—the sequel to The Woefield Poultry Collective and her first novel for adults—and the young adult novel The Truth Commission. Juby holds amaster’s degree in publishing. She lives on Vancouver Island. @thejuby, susanjuby.com arsenal pulp press arsenalpulp.com

5 4 AU T H OR B IO GRAPHIES HANNAH KENT JONARNO LAWSON AUSTRALIA, EVENTS 14, 88, 89 ONTARIO, EVENTS 4, 24 Hannah Kent's debut novel, Burial Rites, has been translated JonArno Lawson is a three-time winner of The Lion and the into more than 20 languages and was shortlisted for the Baileys Unicorn Award for Excellence in North American Poetry and the Women’s Prize for Fiction and The Guardian First Book Award. author of many books for children and adults, including Enjoy It It won the ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year, the Indie While It Hurts, Down in the Bottom of the Bottom of the Box and Think Awards Debut Fiction Book of the Year and the Victorian Premier’s Again. Lawson’s new picture book is Sidewalk Flowers, an ode to thePeople’s Choice Award, and was longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin importance of small gestures and the open-hearted kindness of children. He lives inLiterary Award. Kent is also the co-founder and publishing director of the Australian Toronto. @JonArnoLawsonliterary journal Kill Your Darlings. @HannahFKent, hannahkentauthor.com CATHERINE LEPAGEHannah Kent's appearance is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia QUEBEC, EVENT 23Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisary body, and the Melbourne Writers QUÉBEC, ÉVÉNEMENT 23Festival. Catherine Lepage a étudié le graphisme au cégep de Sainte-Foy, WAB KINEW puis s’est perfectionnée en illustration à l’École supérieure des MANITOBA, EVENTS 69, 80 arts décoratifs de Strasbourg. Après avoir étudié le graphisme et l’illustration, elle a travaillé pendant de nombreuses années en tant Wab Kinew was named by Postmedia News as one of “nine que directrice artistique pour des agences de publicité au Québec. En 2007, Mme Aboriginal movers and shakers you should know.” He is the Lepage a écrit et illustré 12 mois sans intérêt, ouvrage qui traite de la dépression, puis associate vice-president for Indigenous Relations at the University l’an passée Fines tranches d’angoisse. Son travail a été récompensé plusieurs fois au of Winnipeg and a correspondent with Al Jazeera America. Kinew niveau international, notamment par Communication Arts et 3X3. successfully defended Joseph Boyden’s The Orenda on CBC Radio’sCanada Reads and hosted the acclaimed documentary series 8th Fire. Kinew is also Catherine Lepage studied Graphic Design at CEGEP de Sainte-Foy and thenan honourary witness for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. His illustration at École supérieure des arts décoratifs in Strasbourg, France. Shememoir The Reason You Walk tells the story of reconciliation with his father. worked for several years as an art director for advertising agencies, both in Quebec@WabKinew, wabkinew.ca City and Montreal where she now lives. Her work has been awarded several times internationally, by Communication Arts and 3X3 to name a few. Co-founder of the IRINA KOVALYOVA creative design studio Ping Pong Ping, she now spends her time creating images for BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENTS 52, 87 others, and sometimes for herself. @catherinelepage, catherinelepage.com Irina Kovalyova has a master’s degree in chemistry from Brown TRACEY LINDBERG University, a doctoral degree in microbiology from Queen’s ALBERTA, EVENTS 44, 55, 69 University and an MFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia. She is a senior lecturer in the Department of Tracey Lindberg is of Cree and Métis ancestry and is a professor Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at Simon Fraser University. of law at Athabasca University, where she is also chair of the CentreKovalyova interned for NASA and worked for two years as a forensic analyst in New for World Indigenous Knowledge and Research and the CanadaYork City. Specimen is her first collection of stories. Research Chair in Indigenous Traditional Knowledge, Legal Orders and Laws. She is an Indigenous rights activist and was awarded TANYA LLOYD KYI the Governor General’s Gold Medal. She describes herself as next in a long line of BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENTS 18, 21 argumentative Cree women. Birdie is her first novel. @TraceyLindberg When Tanya Lloyd Kyi enrolled in the creative writing program at KELLY LINK the University of Victoria, she fully intended to specialize in poetry, UNITED STATES, EVENTS 11, 30 but quickly elected to specialize in non-fiction instead. Since then she’s written more than 15 books for middle grade and young adult Kelly Link is the author of the story collections Stranger Things readers. The most recent, DNA Detective, teaches young readers Happen, Magic for Beginners, and Pretty Monsters. Her latest, Get inabout the science behind genes and tests their knowledge with an engaging challenge Trouble, has been described as ‘weird fiction,’ a genre which defiesat the end of each chapter: helping a young detective solve a major crime based on a definition. She and Gavin J. Grant have co-edited a number ofreal-world case. @tanyakyi, tanyalloydkyi.com anthologies, including multiple volumes of The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror and, for young adults, Steampunk! and Monstrous Affections. She is the co- PATTI LABOUCANE-BENSON founder of Small Beer Press and co-edits the occasional zine Lady Churchill’s Rosebud ALBERTA, EVENTS 36, 55 Wristlet. @haszombiesinit, kellylink.net Patti LaBoucane-Benson is Métis and the director of research, training and communication at Native Counselling Services of Alberta. She has a PhD in human ecology focusing on Aboriginal family resilience. LaBoucane-Benson's new graphic novel, The Outside Circle, is a story of two Aboriginal brothers and theirstruggle towards reconciliation. @PALB2011

AU T HOR BIOG RAP H IES 55 ELAINE LUI HAPPY 3 - 6 PM ONTARIO, EVENTS 68, 75, 84 HOUR MON-THU Elaine Lui is a celebrity gossip blogger and the voice behind LaineyGossip, $2 TASTINGS | $4 HIGHBALLS | $6 SIGNATURE COCKTAILS | $8 MARTINIS a leading international celebrity news source followed by more than 1.5 million people internationally. Her TEDx talk, “The Sociology of Gossip,” HAVE YOU TAKEN THE TOUR ? is about the critical place of gossip in modern pop culture. Lui has been a reporter on etalk since 2006 and is now a co-host on CTV’s daily talk RESERVE TODAY 1 (604) 558-1998show The Social. Her memoir is Listen to the Squawking Chicken: When Mother Knows Best,What’s a Daughter to Do? @LaineyGossip, laineygossip.com proud contributing sponsor IAN MCALLISTER @tldistillery tldistillery the liberty distillery BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENTS 28, 40 1494 old bridge st | granville island | thelibertydistillery.com Ian McAllister is the author of seven books and the co-founder of the wildlife conservation organization Pacific Wild. His latest book, The Wild in You, is a collaboration with poet Lorna Crozier. He and his wife, Karen McAllister, were named by Time magazine as “Leaders of the 21st Century” for their efforts to protect BC’s endangered rainforest. Amember of the International League of Conservation Photographers, McAllister has wonthe North American Nature Photography Association’s Vision Award and the RainforestAction Network’s Rainforest Hero Award. pacificwild.org JOAN MCEWEN BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENT 74 Joan McEwen is a lawyer and arbitration specialist. Educated at Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia, she was called to the bar in 1978. After making partner at two law firms, she became a freelance labour arbitrator, her specialty since 1990. McEwen is involved in innocence projects across North America that help exonerate andcompensate the wrongfully convicted. She is the author of Innocence on Trial: The Framing ofIvan Henry. She lives in Vancouver. @joan1mc, joanmcewen.com PAIGE MCKENZIE UNITED STATES, EVENTS 17, 75 Paige McKenzie is the star of the hit YouTube channel The Haunting of Sunshine Girl, a multi-webisode network with stories of zombies, ghosts, the Sasquatch and, of course, Sunshine. At 16, McKenzie co-founded the production company Coat Tale Productions with her mother, actress Mercedes Rose, and producing partner, Nick Hagen. The Haunting ofSunshine Girl has recently been turned into a book series and subsequently optioned by theWeinstein Company for TV. @hauntedsunshine, thehauntingofsunshinegirl.com DENISE MINA SCOTLAND, EVENTS 12, 31 Denise Mina worked in a number of dead-end jobs before studying at night school to get into the University of Glasgow School of Law. She went on to study for a PhD at the University of Strathclyde and used her student grant to write her first novel, Garnethill, which won the Crime Writers’ Association John Creasy Dagger. Mina has written 12 novels,including, most recently, Blood, Salt, Water; three plays; five graphic novels; and for televisionand radio in the United Kingdom. @DameDeniseMina, denisemina.com

5 6 AU T H OR B IO GRAPHIES LUCIA MISCH KENNETH OPPEL BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENTS 5, 16, 39 ONTARIO, EVENTS 34, 41 Lucia Misch grew up at an astronomical observatory near San Jose, Kenneth Oppel is the author of many books for young readers. California. She began writing and performing at 15 and moved to His award-winning Silverwing trilogy has sold more than a million Canada three years later. She placed second at the 2011 Canadian copies worldwide. Airborn won a Michael L. Printz Award and the Individual Poetry Slam, was a member of the 2010/11 Vancouver Governor General’s Literary Award; its sequel, Skybreaker, was a Slam Team and has performed and taught poetry across North New York Times bestseller and named children’s novel of the year byAmerica. She performs and facilitates spoken word workshops with children and The Times of London. Oppel is also the author of Half Brother and This Dark Endeavor,youth as part of Vancouver Poetry House’s WordPlay program. a prequel to Frankenstein. His most recent book is The Nest. @kennethoppel, kennethoppel.ca MICHELLE MULDER SUSAN PHILPOTT BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENT 3 ONTARIO, EVENTS 72, 76 Michelle Mulder is the author of several books for children. After Susan Philpott first fell in love with crime fiction as a child reading graduating from university, she cycled six thousand kilometres the Nancy Drew series but didn’t begin writing seriously until across Canada, became a travel writer, taught creative writing in much later in life. Prior to becoming a novelist, Philpott completed the Arctic and worked as a simulated patient for medical students. a master’s degree in both science and social work. She has worked Mulder began writing for kids because she’s always loved reading as a university teaching assistant, zookeeper and mental healthchildren's books. Her most recent book, Trash Talk, explores the ways that people professional. Blown Red, Philpott’s first novel, is a thriller about a woman who isaround the world are re-using trash and striving towards a ‘zero-waste’ society. recruited to work for a shadowy underground network dedicated to helping womenmichellemulder.com in danger. @susanphilpott1 VIET THANH NGUYEN ANNA PORTER UNITED STATES, EVENTS 51, 65 ONTARIO, EVENT 46 Viet Thanh Nguyen’s stories have appeared in Best New American Anna Porter was the co-founder of Key Porter Books, a leading Voices, TriQuarterly, Narrative and the Chicago Tribune, and he is Canadian publisher for 30 years. She is the author of many books, the author of the academic book Race and Resistance. His acclaimed including The Ghosts of Europe, Kasztner’s Train, The Storyteller debut novel, The Sympathizer, features one of the most remarkable and, released earlier this year, Buying a Better World: George Soros narrators of recent fiction: a conflicted subversive and idealist and Billionaire Philanthropy. Porter has won many awards for herworking as a double agent in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Nguyen teaches writing, including the Shaughnessey Cohen Prize for Political Writing, the NereusEnglish and American Studies at the University of Southern California and lives in Writers’ Trust Non-Fiction Prize, the Canadian Jewish Book Award for History andLos Angeles. @viet_t_nguyen, vietnguyen.info the Canadian Authors Association/Birks Family Foundation Award for Biography. annaporter.ca, @annaporter_anna BARBARA NICKEL BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENTS 4, 24 BETH POWNING NEW BRUNSWICK, EVENTS 51, 88 Barbara Nickel has cycled through Vietnam, taught English in Puerto Rico and spent a year of her childhood in Kenya. She is the Beth Powning grew up in a small New England town and critically-acclaimed author of Hannah Waters and the Daughter of later immigrated to Canada and bought an 1870s farm in New Johann Sebastian Bach. Nickel's other books for children include The Brunswick. She is the author of three memoirs: Seeds of Another Secret Wish of Nannerl Mozart and From the Top of a Grain Elevator. Summer (published in the United States and in a new editionHer new picture book is A Boy Asked the Wind. She is the author of several young as Home: Chronicle of a North Country Life), Shadow Child andadult novels and is also an acclaimed poet. Edge Seasons. She has also written the bestselling novels The Hatbox Letters, The Sea Captain’s Wife and A Measure of Light. @bethpowning, powning.com/beth SUSIN NIELSEN BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENTS 2, 8 SABRINA RAMNANAN ONTARIO, EVENTS 62, 82 Susin Nielsen is a Gemini Award-winning screenwriter who wrote 16 episodes for Degrassi Junior High and four books in the Degrassi Sabrina Ramnanan was born in Toronto to Trinidadian parents. book series. She also adapted Susan Juby’s book Alice, I Think for She completed her BA in English and BEd at the University of television. Nielsen has published children’s and young adult books, Toronto. She is also a recent graduate of the University of Toronto’s including Word Nerd, Dear George Clooney, Please Marry My Mom, School of Continuing Education Creative Writing Program and theThe Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen and, most recently, We Are All Made of recipient of the 2012 Marina Nemat award. Her work has appearedMolecules. She lives in Vancouver. @susinnielsen, susinnielsen.com in Diaspora Dialogues, Cerulean Rain, Writing in the Margins, The Caribbean Writer and Joyland. Nothing Like Love is her debut novel. @SabrinaRamnanan Sabrina Ramnanan’s appearance is made possible by a generous donation to the Alma Lee Legacy Fund by Jab Sidhoo.

AU T HOR BIOG RAP H IES 57 NINO RICCI PAcific MfA in Writing ONTARIO, EVENTS 61, 67, 85 An exceptional low-residency program in the Pacific Northwest Nino Ricci's first novel, Lives of the Saints, won the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Books in Canada First Novel Award and the F.G. Poetry — Fiction — creative nonFiction Bressani Literary Prize. Next, Ricci published In a Glass House and Where She Has Gone, which was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. His Work with award-winning bestselling novel Testament won the Trillium Book Award. The Origin writers through briefof Species received the Governor General’s Literary Award and the Canadian Authors residencies andAssociation Award for Fiction. His new novel is Sleep. @NotNinoRicci, ninoricci.com one-on-one correspondence. BILL RICHARDSON BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENTS 29, 45, 89 Ben Percy Author of The Wilding Bill Richardson has hosted many shows on CBC Radio, including www.pacificu.edu/mfa Saturday Afternoon at the Opera and In Concert. Most recently, he collaborated with Veda Hille in creating Do You Want What I Have Got? WE LOVE BOOKS A Craigslist Cantata, which was staged at the Arts Club in Vancouver. His books include Bachelor Brothers’ Bed & Breakfast and After Hamelin, a 2 great bookstores in your neighbourhoodnovel for children. His new book is The First Little Bastard to Call Me Gramps: Poems of theLate Middle Ages. PAUL ROUX QUEBEC, EVENTS 7, 37 QUÉBEC, ÉVÉNEMENTS 7 ET 37 Cet auteur-illustrateur français a écrit et illustré, à ce jour, plus de 170 livres et albums; il partage son amour des images et des mots avec les lecteurs de tous âges depuis 1981. Très actif et passionné depuis plus de 30 ans, Paul Roux a largement contribué à l’éclosion de la bandedessinée, tant en Outaouais qu’au Québec. Il a également été chroniqueur BD pendant denombreuses années pour le quotidien Le Droit et la radio de Radio-Canada.Paul Roux is a Quebeçois author-illustrator who has written over 170 books and albumnsfor far. Roux has been sharing his passion for drawings, images and words with readers ofall ages since 1981. He has been a major contributor to the popularity of la bande dessinéein French Canada. Roux received the prestigious Dragon Award in September 2012 forLes toiles mystérieuses. SIGAL SAMUEL UNITED STATES/CANADA, EVENTS 49, 85 Sigal Samuel is a writer and editor whose fiction and journalism have appeared in The Daily Beast, The Rumpus, The Forward, Tablet, The Walrus, Event, Descant, Grain, Prairie Fire, Room, Matrix and Plenitude, among other publications. She has written and produced six plays in Montreal, Vancouver, and New York. Her debut novel, The Mystics of Mile End,is about a dysfunctional Jewish family with a dangerous mystical obsession. Samuel isoriginally from Montreal and currently lives in Brooklyn. @SigalSamuel, sigalsamuel.wordpress.com ANAKANA SCHOFIELD BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENTS 44, 61 Anakana Schofield is an Irish-Canadian writer of fiction, essays and literary criticism. She contributes to the London Review of Books, The Recorder: The Journal of the American Irish Historical Society, The Globe and Mail and The Vancouver Sun. She has lived in London and Dublin, and now lives in Vancouver. Malarky was her debut novel; Martin John, afootnote to Malarky, is her new book. @AnakanaSchofiel, anakanaschofield.com

5 8 AU T H OR B IO GRAPHIES OWEN SHEERS BILL SLAVIN UNITED KINGDOM, EVENTS 15, 53, 57 ONTARIO, EVENTS 6, 38 Owen Sheers is a novelist, poet and playwright. He has published Bill Slavin has illustrated more than 100 children’s books, both two poetry collections, The Blue Book and Skirrid Hill, which won fiction and nonfiction, including Stanley’s Party by Linda Bailey, a Somerset Maugham Award. His debut prose work, The Dust which won the 2004 Blue Spruce Award, the Christie Harris Diaries, won the Welsh Book of the Year in 2005 and his first novel, Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize, and the Amelia Frances Resistance, has been translated into 11 languages. In 2009, Sheers Howard-Gibbon Illustrator’s Award. In 2014, he completed hispublished the novella White Ravens. His latest novel is I Saw a Man. @owensheers, Elephants Never Forget graphic novel trilogy — Big City Otto, Big Top Otto, and Bigowensheers.co.uk Star Otto — fulfilling a lifetime desire to return to the world of comic books that he had inhabited in his youth. billslavin.com LORI SHENHER BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENT 74 NEIL SMITH QUEBEC, EVENTS 30, 85 Lori Shenher was the first detective in the Vancouver Police Department assigned to Vancouver’s Missing and Murdered Neil Smith is a French translator and the author of the Women Investigation. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in English critically-acclaimed national bestseller Bang Crunch. He has been Literature and worked for several years as a newspaper reporter/ nominated for the Journey Prize three times, and has also received photographer before joining the Vancouver Police Department as a nominations for the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction and theconstable in 1991. Today she is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book. His new book isprovides fitness and wellness training to people suffering from PTSD, depression, and Boo, the story of a teen boy who, after a tragic accident, wakes up in a town populatedanxiety. She lives in Burnaby with her family. That Lonely Section of Hell is her first only by 13 year olds.book. @ShenherLori, lorishenher.com MICHAEL V. SMITH JIM SHEPARD BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENTS 56, 84 UNITED STATES, EVENTS 50, 51 Michael V. Smith won the inaugural Dayne Ogilvie Prize for Jim Shepard is the author of seven novels and four story collections, LGBT Emerging Writers from the Writers’ Trust of Canada for his including Like You’d Understand, Anyway, a finalist for the National first novel Cumberland. He has since published two poetry books Book Award and winner of The Story Prize. His new novel is and a second novel, Progress. His new book is the memoir My Body The Book of Aron. His short fiction has appeared in, among other Is Yours. An improv comic, filmmaker, drag queen and occasional magazines, The New Yorker, Harper’s, McSweeney’s and The Paris clown, Smith’s work deals with community and belonging, especially in relation toReview and has often been selected for The Best American Short Stories and The sexuality, gender, class and identity. He teaches creative writing at the University ofPEN/O. Henry Prize Stories. He lives in Williamstown, Massachusetts and teaches at British Columbia Okanagan. @MichaelVeeSmith, michaelvsmith.comWilliams College. jimshepard.wordpress.com KAREN SOLIE ÅSNE SEIERSTAD ONTARIO, EVENTS 60, 79 NORWAY, EVENTS 9, 25 Karen Solie’s first collection of poems, Short Haul Engine, won the Åsne Seierstad is an award-winning journalist and writer renowned Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize and was shortlisted for the Griffin for her work as a war correspondent. Her books include The Poetry Prize, the ReLit Award and the Gerald Lampert Memorial Bookseller of Kabul, One Hundred and One Days: A Baghdad Journal, Award. Her second collection, Modern and Normal, was shortlisted The Angel of Grozny: Inside Chechnya and, most recently, One of Us: for the Trillium Book Award. Her third collection, Pigeon, won The Story of Anders Breivik and the Massacre in Norway, which draws the Griffin Poetry Prize, the Pat Lowther Memorial Award and the Trillium Bookfrom statements and writings of Breivik in order to understand the events of 2011. Award. Her latest collection is The Road In Is Not the Same Road Out.Seierstad lives in Oslo. @AsneSeierstad BRADLEY SOMERSeierstad's appearance is made possible by NORLA. ALBERTA, EVENTS 71, 89 YRSA SIGURðARDÓTTIR Bradley Somer’s short fiction—characterized by a bent for the ICELAND, EVENTS 14, 27, 31, 72 off-kilter and a touch of urban fantastic—has appeared in several literary journals, reviews and anthologies. His debut novel, Yrsa Sigurðardóttir is a civil engineer and crime writer who has Imperfections, won the CBC Bookie Award for Debut of the Year been dubbed “Iceland’s answer to Stieg Larsson.” She is the author and was a Canadian Bookseller Top Pick for 2012. His new novel, of the bestselling Thora Gudmundsdottir series which opened with Fishbowl, is told from the perspective of a goldfish named Ian as he climbs out of Last Rituals in 2005, since translated into more than 30 languages. his fishbowl and falls from the 27th floor of an apartment building. @BradleySomer, Her standalone horror novel I Remember You was awarded the bradleysomer.comIcelandic Crime Fiction Award and her novel The Silence of the Sea won the PetronaAward in 2015. The latest installment of the Thora Gudmundsdottir series isThe Undesired.

AU T HOR BIOG RAP H IES 59 JORDAN STRATFORD STEVE TOLTZ INN- BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENTS 22, 34 AUSTRALIA, EVENTS 12, 26 DISPENSABLE Jordan Stratford is the author of the Steve Toltz’s first novel, A Fraction of the The Vancouver Writers Fest Wollstonecraft Detective Agency series in Whole, was released to widespread critical gratefully acknowledges which Ada Lovelace and Mary Shelley meet acclaim and shortlisted for the Man Booker Dockside Restaurant and the as girls and form a secret detective agency. Prize and The Guardian First Book Award. Granville Island Hotel for The first installment in the series is The Case His new novel Quicksand has been described their generous contributionsof the Missing Moonstone. Stratford launched the idea for the as “brilliantly dark” by The Guardian. Prior to his literary career, to this year’s Festival.series on Kickstarter, where the response was overwhelmingly Toltz lived in Montreal, Vancouver, New York, Barcelona andenthusiastic. He lives on a tiny windswept island in British Paris, variously working as a cameraman, telemarketer, securityColumbia. @jordanstratford, jordanstratford.com guard, private investigator, English teacher and screenwriter. stevetoltz.com RICH TERFRY ONTARIO/NOVA SCOTIA, EVENTS 62, 80 Steve Toltz's appearance is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australian Council for the Arts, its funding and Rich Terfry, aka Buck 65, is a performer and advisory body, and the Melbourne Writers Festival. musician from Mt. Uniacke, Nova Scotia. Buck 65’s music started out as hip hop but has JOHN VAILLANT since evolved into something else. Sometimes BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENTS 48, 61, 62 it sounds rural; sometimes it sounds likesomething fished out of a drainpipe. Buck 65 raps, sings, John Vaillant is a freelance writer whosemakes beats, plays instruments and DJs, but is best known for work has appeared in The New Yorker, Thehis dancing. His memoir Wicked and Weird tells the story of Atlantic, National Geographic, Outside andgrowing up “poor, talented, baseball-obsessed, music-mad and Men's Journal, among others. Of particulargirl-smitten on the East Coast.” @Buck65, buck65.com interest to Vaillant are stories that explore collisions between human ambition and the natural world. His RUSSELL THORNTON first book, The Golden Spruce, was a bestseller and won several BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENT 79 awards, including the Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction. His second book, The Tiger, was an international Russell Thornton is a North Vancouver bestseller and has been translated into 15 languages. The Jaguar's poet. He won first prize in the League of Children is his first novel. thetigerbook.com, @JohnVaillant Canadian Poets National Contest in 2000 for “The Beginnings of Stars.” His poems LAURA VAN DEN BERG are included in a number of anthologies of UNITED STATES, EVENTS 77, 89Canadian poetry. In addition to A Tunisian Notebook, Thorntonis the author of several books and chapbooks, among them The Laura van den Berg’s collections of stories,Accurate Earth, The Fifth Window and House Built of Rain, which What the World Will Look Like When All thewas a finalist for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. His new Water Leaves Us and The Isle of Youth werecollection, The Hundred Lives, was nominated for the Griffin both published to great acclaim and have beenPoetry Prize in 2015. included on lists for the Frank O’Connor International Award, the Rosenthal Family Foundation Award SARA TILLEY and more than a dozen ‘Best Book’ awards from a variety of NEWFOUNDLAND & LABRADOR, EVENTS 59, 64, 88 venues. Her first novel, Find Me, has received starred reviews from Booklist and Library Journal. van den Berg is a writer-in- Sara Tilley is a writer, theatre artist and residence at Bard College. @Lvandenberg, lauravandenberg.com clown in St. John’s. She is the founder of a feminist theatre company, She Said Yes!, JEFF VANDERMEER and has written, co-written or co-created 11 UNITED STATES, EVENTS 11, 30, 81 plays, all of which have received professional Jeff VanderMeer’s most recent fiction is Theproduction. Skin Room, her first novel, won both the New York Times-bestselling Southern ReachNewfoundland and Labrador Percy Janes First Novel Award trilogy (Annihilation, Authority, andand the inaugural Fresh Fish Award for Emerging Writers. Acceptance). A three time World FantasyShe also won the Lawrence Jackson Writers’ Award from the Award winner and 13 time nominee,Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council. Her new novel is VanderMeer has been a finalist for the Nebula, Philip K. DickDuke. saratilley.ca, @SheSaidTheatre and Shirley Jackson awards, among others. His non-fiction appears in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Washington Post, The Atlantic and the Los Angeles Times. VanderMeer serves as the co director of Shared Worlds, a unique teen science fiction/fantasy writing camp at Wofford College. @jeffvandermeer, jeffvandermeer.com

60 AU T H OR B IO GRAPHIES LESLIE VRYENHOEK DAMIEN WILKINS NEWFOUNDLAND & LabRADOR, EVENTS 26, 49 NEW ZEALAND, EVENTS 12, 57, 71 Leslie Vryenhoek is the acclaimed author of Scrabble Lessons Damien Wilkins is the author of seven novels, including The (fiction), Gulf (poetry) and a new novel, Ledger of the Open Hand, Miserables, The Fainter and Max Gate. Wilkins has had books which asks how we can reconcile the emotional debts we owe. published in New Zealand, the United States and the United Her work has been published and broadcast across Canada and Kingdom, and has won and been nominated for a range of prizes internationally. A Manitoban now based in St. John’s, she is and awards. He has also published poems, stories and written foralso the founding director of the Piper’s Frith writing retreat. Vryenhoek’s diverse television and stage. Under the band name The Close Readers he has released threecommunications career has focused on local and international development, advanced albums of original songs. He lives in Wellington, where he is the director of theeducation and disaster response. International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University.@LeslieVryenhoek, leslievryenhoek.com Damien Wilkins’ appearance is made possible by Creative New Zealand and the New SHERYDA WARRENER Zealand Book Council. BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENT 53 SIMON WINCHESTER Sheryda Warrener’s poems have appeared in Event, The Fiddlehead, UNITED STATES, EVENT 47 Grain, Hazlitt, The Believer and in the anthology Best Canadian Poetry in English 2013. Her work has been shortlisted for Lemon Simon Winchester is a journalist, broadcaster and the author of Hound’s inaugural poetry contest and the Robert Kroetsch Award bestselling nonfiction and young adult books, including the New for Innovative Poetry, among others. Warrener has been a resident York Times best-selling The Professor and the Madman. His recentat The Banff Centre and the Baltic Centre for Writers and Translators. Her first book titles include Atlantic, The Men Who United the States and Pacific.was Hard Feelings, and her new collection is Floating Is Everything. @shereets Winchester was awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his services to journalism and literature. He lives in Massachusetts and New York MÉLANIE WATT City. @simonwwriter, simonwinchester.com QUEBEC, EVENTS 20, 24, 35, 43 QUÉBEC, ÉVÉNEMENTS 20, 24, 35 ET 43 SARAH WINMAN UNITED KINGDOM, EVENTS 12, 26 Diplômée de l’école de design de l’UQAM (Montréal), l’auteure et illustratrice a inventé une foule de personnages, tous aussi colorés Sarah Winman grew up in Essex and now lives in London. She les uns que les autres. La collection Frisson l’écureuil dont le héros attended the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art and went est un petit rongeur anxieux qui vit des aventures calculées et on to act in theatre, film and television. Her debut novel, When Godroutinières s’est vendue à plus de 1,5 million d’exemplaires. Qu’elle aborde le thème Was a Rabbit, was the recipient of the Galaxy National Book Awardde l’amitié, de l’égocentrisme ou de la vente sous pression, ses albums débordent for Book of the Year and the Edinburugh International Bookd’humour, d’ironie et de charme, et laissent place à l’interprétation et à la réflexion. Festival’s Newton First Book Award. Her highly-anticipated new novel is A Year of Marvellous Ways.Mélanie Watt’s best-known book, Scaredy Squirrel, has won many awards includingthe Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Award for Children’s Picture Book RONALD WRIGHTand the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator’s Award. Watt has often noted BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENTS 32, 51how the Scaredy Squirrel books helped her work out her own insecurities and fears,as the success of these titles has required her to venture out into the unknown, and Ronald Wright is a novelist, historian and essayist. He is thelike Scaredy she has found the experience truly uplifting. Watt's newest book is Bug award-winning author of nine books of non-fiction, including Ain a Vacuum. @iamscaredy, scaredysquirrel.com Short History of Progress, and fiction, including A Scientific Romance, published in 16 languages and in more than 40 countries. Much of ROBERT J. WIERSEMA his work explores the relationships between past and present, people BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENTS 15, 30 and power, other cultures and our own. His new novel is The Gold Eaters. ronaldwright.com Robert J. Wiersema is one of Canada’s most respected book RACHEL WYATT reviewers. Before I Wake, his first novel, was named a Globe and BRITISH COLUMBIA, EVENTS 33, 57 Mail Best Book. The World More Full of Weeping, a novella, was shortlisted for the Aurora Award. His second novel, Bedtime Story, Rachel Wyatt is a prolific and award-winning author of novels, became a national bestseller. His first non-fiction book was Walk short fiction, stage and radio plays, and non-fiction. Wyatt wasLike a Man: Coming of Age with the Music of Bruce Springsteen. His new novel is Black director of the Writing Program at The Banff Centre during theFeathers. @robertjwiersema, robertjwiersemabooks.com 1990s and has appeared at writers conferences across Canada and internationally. She has won the CBC Literary Competition Drama Award and was awarded the Order of Canada and the Queen’s Jubilee Medal. Her new book of stories is Street Symphony.

AU T HOR BIOG RAP H IES 61 GENE LUEN YANG www.greystonebooks.com UNITED STATES, EVENTS 22, 36 Freedom to read, Freedom to Write Gene Luen Yang’s first book, American Born Chinese, was the first graphic novel to be nominated for a National Book Award and the 1000 Lashes first to win the Michael L. Printz Award. It also won an Eisner Award Because I Say What I Think for Best Graphic Album—New. His second book, Boxers & Saints, a two-volume graphic novel about the Boxer Rebellion, was nominated raif Badawifor a National Book Award and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Yang teachescreative writing at Hamline University. @geneluenyang, geneyang.com Ensaf Haidar talks about her husband’s fight for freedom of expression at VWF PAUL YEE ONTARIO, EVENTS 42, 59 Brian Brett Lori Shenher Lorna Crozier & Ian McAllister Paul Yee was born in Saskatchewan but grew up in Vancouver’s Tuco ThaT LoneLy Chinatown. He is the author of nearly 30 books, including Ghost secTion of heLL The WiLd in you Train, winner of the Governor General’s Literary Award for Children’s The Parrot, the Literature (Text), and Saltwater City: An Illustrated History of the Others, and a The Botched Investigation Voices from the Forest Chinese in Vancouver, winner of the Vancouver Book Award. His most Scattershot World of a Serial Killer and the Searecent children’s book is Chinese Fairy Tale Feasts: A Literary Cookbook. His new novel, ASuperior Man, is his first written for an adult audience. paulyee.ca Who Almost Got Away CYBÈLE YOUNG Stella Leventoyannis Harvey ONTARIO, EVENTS 6, 19 The Brinkwiothf Freedom Cybèle Young is an award-winning artist who has illustrated several books for children, including Pa’s Harvest, which was nominated for When a well-meaning Canadian aid worker in the Governor General’s Literary Award for Children’s Literature Greece takes a refugee boy into her care, she finds (Illustration) and Jack Pine. She has recently written and illustrated herself jailed and accused of kidnapping. Harvey’s A Few Blocks, a Kirkus Best Children’s Book; Ten Birds, winner of theGovernor General’s Literary Award for Children’s Literature (Illustration); and A Few new novel balances the politics of the momentBites, which received starred reviews in Kirkus and Publishers Weekly. Her new titles are with rich, deep character development.The Queen’s Shadow and Some Things I’ve Lost. @cybeleyoung, cybeleyoung.ca www.signature-editions.com ANANSI PUBLISHES VERY GOOD BOOKS WWW.HOUSEOFANANSI.COM

e Vancouver Writers Festand Penguin Random House present AN EVENING WITH John Irving Irving returns to the themes that established him as one of our most admired and beloved authors in Avenue of Mysteries, an absorbing novel of fate and memory. 7:30 pm Tuesday, December 1, 2015The Vancouver Playhouse - 600 Hamilton Street, Vancouver 604.629.8849 or vancouvertix.comTickets: $25 adults / $23 students & seniorsBook club members: $21 (5 tickets minimum; phone sales only) WRITERSFEST.BC.CAPlus service charges

63 The Seventeenth Annual Vancouver Writers Fest Poetry & Short Story Contest Submit your finest prose and poetry to the Festival’s Poetry & Short Story Contest. The Rewards Prizes will be awarded to the top two entries in poetry and fiction. 1ST PRIZE IN EACH CATEGORY: $500 2ND PRIZE IN EACH CATEGORY: $350 First prize winners will published in subTERRAIN and on the Festival website at writersfest.bc.ca. Enter online at writersfest.bc.ca/writingcontest.Please note, we accept only electronic entries. Entries must be uploaded and payment confirmed by 5:00 pm on Sunday, October 25, 2015.Spreading the WordYouth Writing Contest What’s your story? Grab a pen and get writing! If we like what we read, you could win a cash prize and haveyour work published in The Claremont Review, a magazine that showcases aspiring young writers.The contest is open to all young writers enrolled in grades 8–12 in British Columbia. The Rewards Prizes will be awarded to the top two entries in poetry and fiction. 1ST PRIZE IN EACH CATEGORY: $300 2ND PRIZE IN EACH CATEGORY: $200 Prize winners’ works will be published in The Claremont Review and on the Festival website at writersfest.bc.ca.Please note, we accept only electronic entries. The Spreading the WordEntries must be uploaded and payment confirmed Youth Writing Contest is supportedby 5:00 pm on Sunday, October 25, 2015. by The Hamber Foundation and the Chris Spencer Foundation. See writersfest.bc.ca/youthwritingcontestfor complete contest details and to submit your entry.

HarperCollins Canada welcomes our authors toVancouver Writers FestELISABETH de MARIAFFI LAWRENCE HILL JEFF VANDERMEER ROBERT J. WIERSEMA SIMON WINCHESTERTRACEY LINDBERG DENISE MINA SHILPI SOMAYA GOWDA KALLIE GEORGE KENNETH OPPEL photo credit Neil Davidson