Show Notes
Acclaimed Canadian writer Sheila Heti speaks with Molly Cross-Blanchard in this conversation from our 2024 Incite series, presented in partnership with the Vancouver Public Library. Her latest book, Alphabetical Diaries, collects lines from a decade's worth of her journals—rearranged in alphabetical order to create something entirely fresh and sublime.
Heti is the author of ten previous books, including experimental and philosophical works such as Motherhood, Pure Colour, and How Should a Person Be?
More from Books & Ideas Audio — Vancouver Writers Fest
For years, #1 New York Times bestselling author Carley Fortune was told that international readers weren’t interested in books with rural, authentic Canadian settings. And ever since she published her first novel in 2022, her meteoric success has told a different story. The Ontarian author joined the Vancouver Writers Fest with her latest book, Our Perfect Storm (set in Tofino!), in conversation with her best friend, Meredith Marino.
Stephanie Sinclair, co-editor of A Steady Brightness of Being and publisher of McClelland & Stewart, hosts a panel conversation with award-winning contributors to the book from across Turtle Island: David A. Robertson, Kyle Edwards and Niigaan Sinclair. This first-of-its-kind anthology is a groundbreaking collection of letters from Indigenous writers, activists, and thinkers—to their ancestors, to future generations, and to themselves. Recorded at the Vancouver Writers Fest on October 24, 2025, and presented in partnership with Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week, Talking Stick Festival, and Full Circle: First Nations Performance.
Booker Prize-winning author of Lincoln in the Bardo, and one of Time’s one hundred most influential people in the world, George Saunders writes books that are both irreverent and momentous—and utterly unique. He joined us to discuss his latest bestselling novel, Vigil, with acclaimed author Alix Ohlin. Both authors are also revered writing instructors—Saunders at Syracuse University, and Ohlin at the University of British Columbia—and this conversation is filled with essential insights for writers and readers.
Arundhati Roy’s first novel, The God of Small Things, won the Booker Prize and made her an international household name. She has gone on to publish multiple acclaimed books—including The Ministry of Utmost Happiness—and to challenge injustices around the world as a prominent political and environmental activist. She joined us with her debut memoir, in conversation with award-winning author Naomi Klein. One of the best reviewed books of the year, Mother Mary Comes to Me is a soaring account of how Roy became the person and the writer she is, shaped by circumstance, but above all by her complex relationship to her extraordinary, singular mother.
Dionne Brand’s first major book of nonfiction in more than 20 years—Salvage: Readings from the Wreck—offers a bracing look at the intersections of reading and life, and of what remains in the wreck of empire. In conversation with Kimberly Bain, she shares how she learned to read the literature of two empires, British and American, in an anti-colonial light—in order to survive and in order to live. This conversation was recorded on October 23, 2024, and presented in partnership with Hogan's Alley Society.