Your Guide to the 2025 Vancouver Writers Fest

Year after year, the Vancouver Writers Fest delivers one for the books.

This year’s festival returns October 20 to 26, with 150 authors and 87 events, and includes a roster of luminaries that ranges from poets and memoirists to cartoonists and humourists. A sampling of the authors reads like a who’s who of the literary world: Madeleine Thien, Emma Donoghue, Miriam Toews and André Alexis will be there, alongside heavy hitters like Kiran Desai and comedian Brent Butt.

We chatted with Leslie Hurtig, the festival’s artistic director, ahead of the big week. Here’s what she wants Vancouverites and visitors from around B.C. to know.

It’s thoughtful, but also a page-turner

If stuffy author readings are what you picture at a writers festival, think again.

“One of my favourite events every year is what we call Lyrics Night, and that’s when we invite a whole bunch of our festival authors to get up on stage and recite song lyrics like serious poetry,” says Hurtig. “It’s just a hoot. It’s a fun, fun event.”

That event is best paired with the Shake It Off: Dance Party on the same evening. Hurtig says she’s also excited to attend the opening night event O Canada! that features eight authors in conversation. The topic, she says, is “what it means to be Canadian in a time when our closest ally is turning towards authoritarianism… It’s going to be a powerful opening event.”

Other fun events include Food for Thought (detailed in the program as “TED Talk meets café social, with a morning snack”), interactive workshop UBC Night Class, Give Love a Chance for fans of the romance genre, The Poetry Bash, and a sampling of scones and readings at The Afternoon Tea.

Consider the setting

Imagine an island filled with your favourite poets, authors and moderators—for many book lovers, a version of paradise. That’s Granville Island during the week of Vancouver Writers Fest, when 24,000 people visit the island that also happens to be home base for their literary heroes.

“The festival atmosphere on that island, because of where it is situated, is kind of electric,” says Hurtig. “I think that is one of the things that makes us unique. Just that intimate setting we have.”

It’s an ongoing series

Many people don’t realize that Vancouver Writers Fest doesn’t begin and end in October. Events take place all year, including two special events happening just after the main festival: Margaret Atwood (December 9) presents her long-awaited autobiography Book of Lives, and astronaut Chris Hadfield (November 15) chats about his new interstellar thriller, Final Orbit.

“My role at the Vancouver Writers Fest is to curate all of the events that we present year-round, and those are both for youth as well as adults,” explains Hurtig. “We have special events that happen year-round with international bestselling authors.” That means there’s always an event to look forward to.

Guest-curated events are poetry in motion

This year’s guest curator is poet and novelist Canisia Lubrin, who has curated four events that focus on “cycling and renewal for the earth,” explains Hurtig. “It’s looking at transformative thinking about the world, engaging writers and thinkers and students and artists to collaborate and look at new ways to understand this place, in an effort to make it a better place for all of us.”

Lubrin’s events include Blood in the Pen, a conversation about the role of writers in times of crisis, and Verses of Transformation, where she and six other poets reflect on secret questions pulled from a bag.

Lose yourself in a good… event

“Before I had this job, I used to take a week off work to come down and attend as many events as possible,” says Hurtig. “They gave me a bit of a jolt in the best way.”

“I came away from a week at festival events feeling like I had just attended four years of university. Such a well-rounded range of conversations happening on these stages made me invigorated… And on top of that, I was getting to see some of my favourite writers face to face.”

While dialogue and ideas are at the forefront, Hurtig also recognizes that for many readers, good books are simply about escape. The festival is for those readers too, she says. “Sometimes it’s just finding the greatest new book you can’t wait to pass on to your book club or your best friend. It’s a week that does all of that. It gives you some great new reads, but also gives you some new ideas and new ways of thinking about things.”