LitFest 2016

We kick off the festivities for our 10th "Nonfictionversary" with the release of Globe & Mail reporter Marty Klinkenberg's anticipated book, The McDavid Effect. The author followed the young hockey prodigy throughout his first year in the NHL, and brings insight into how a single player can effect the morale of an entire city. After the launch, follow us to Brittany's Lounge and get set for the return of the Elevator Cabaret—a fast-paced open mic session where Edmonton's literati "pitch" the LitFest events they're most excited about.

Ticket Information

$12 advance on Eventbrite, $15 at the door

Award-winning journalist Deborah Campbell discussed the riveting true story of a remarkable relationship between herself and Ahlam, an Iraqi woman working as a "fixer" for Western media in Syria. The story reveals as much about the universal power of friendship as about the courage of those who bring us our daily news. Deborah Campbell appears at LitFest with support from MacEwan University. 

Ticket Information

FREE

After the launch, follow us to Brittany's Lounge and get set for the return of the Elevator Cabaret—a fast-paced open mic session where Edmonton's literati "pitch" the LitFest events they're most excited about.

Ticket Information

FREE

Contributors from the U of A's Glass Buffalo Magazine share writing and personal stories from their experiences following the release of the Truth and Reconciliation report.   Download the TRC's Calls to Action

Ticket Information:

FREE

This candid discussion features writers of Indigenous and non-Indigenous backgrounds sharing their own experiences following the publication of the full Truth and Reconciliation Commission and its 94 Calls to Action. If there's one thing Canadians have learned so far, it's that we're all in this together.   Download the TRC's Calls to Action

Ticket Information

$12 advance on Eventbrite, $15 at the door

At age 37, Teva Harrison was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. She began documenting her journey through comic illustration and short essays, confronting the crises of identity that cancer brings, and the struggle to reconcile her long-term goals with an uncertain future. Originally appearing in serial in The Walrus, Harrison's full-length graphic memoir, In-Between Days, offers readers an ultimately redemptive and uplifting gift. Presented in partnership with MacEwan University.

Ticket Information

$12 advance on Eventbrite, $15 at the door

A gaggle of female writers provide readings and chat about writing as women, penning memoirs, and expunging about family. With special guest, Andi Zeisler, author of We Were Feminists Once.

Ticket Information

$12 advance on Eventbrite, $15 at the door (CASH ONLY) -- PLEASE NOTE: Start time for this event is 5 PM not 6 PM as stated in your Festival Schedule.

Thinking of self-publishing? Nobody can stop you if you want to get your book into the world! But there's a lot involved in doing it right. In this session, local self-published authors Tema Frank and S.G. Wong will take you through the basics of what you need to know if you want to succeed at self-publishing.

Ticket Information

$12 advance on Eventbrite, $15 at the door

Join six internationally published writers as they explore the impact of immigration and adaptation to a new culture on creative writing. What does a writer lose and what do they gain in calling a new place home? Sometimes caught between two worlds, how does the immigrant experience contribute to or complicate subject matter, narrative voice, and artistic endeavor? How is new work received both "back home" and in the new place? The afternoon will feature readings and moderated open discussion. Presented as part of the Writers Guild of Alberta's Borderlines program.

Ticket Information

FREE (Donations accepted at the door)

Once a dirty word brushed away with a grimace, “feminist” has been rebranded as a shiny label sported by movie and pop stars, fashion designers, and powerhouses like Beyoncé. It drives advertising and marketing campaigns for everything from wireless plans to underwear to perfume, presenting what’s long been a movement for social justice as just another consumer choice in a vast market. What does it mean when social change becomes a brand identity? Co-founding editor of B*tch Media discusses her newest book: We Were Feminists Once: From Riot Grrrl to Cover Girl, the Buying and Selling of a Political Movement.

Ticket Information

$12 advance on Eventbrite, $15 at the door (CASH ONLY)

Coming of age in a culture that demands women be as small, quiet, and compliant as possible--like a porcelain dove that will also have sex with you--writer and humorist Lindy West quickly discovered that she was anything but. Shrill is an uproarious memoir, a feminist rallying cry in a world that thinks gender politics are tedious and that women, especially feminists, can't be funny.

Ticket Information

$12 advance on Eventbrite, $15 at the door

Nonfiction is everywhere, and it touches us everyday through the media. CANADALAND is Canada's only independent, crowd-funded news and media criticism organization that publishes investigative stories and four weekly podcasts. Live from Metro Cinema, CANADALAND's Jesse Brown and Katie Jensen will be joined by a panel of local media and writers for a taping of a podcast episode, followed by an audience Q&A.

Ticket Information

$12 advance on Eventbrite, $15 at the door

New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Awesome, award-winning blogger, and one of the most popular TED speakers in the world, Neil Pasricha has been deemed “a pied piper of happiness” by the Toronto Star. With infectious enthusiasm, heartfelt authenticity, and a “what works” authority, Pasricha draws on the latest research in happiness to increase individual performance and create a positive work-life balance. His new book, The Happiness Equation:Want Nothing + Do Anything = Have Everything (also an international bestseller), illustrates how to apply a unique set of principles to improving and managing everything—your time, your career, your bottom line, your relationships and ultimately, of course, your happiness.

Ticket Information

Single tickets are available for $25 at the Winspear Box office starting September 2nd. Or, you can book your spot at this event when you purchase a Festival Pass! 

Following the success of his novels Cataract City and Rust and Bone, author Craig Davidson experienced a period of great doubt about his abilities as a writer. One morning in 2008, desperate, impoverished, and living in a one-room basement apartment, Davidson plucked a flyer out of his mailbox that read "Bus Drivers Wanted." That was the first step towards an unlikely new career: driving a school bus full of special-needs kids for a year. Precious Cargo is Davidson's memoir of that year; it is a moving and important story about how people with specials needs are seen and treated in our society.

Ticket Information

$12 advance on Eventbrite, $15 at the door. Support workers are allowed free. 

10 writers. 5 minutes. Total glory. The nonfiction edition of Story Slam returns to LitFest this year, and is one of the festival's most well-loved events. Participants can sign up to tell a true story for their chance to win the pot at the end of the night.

Ticket Information

FREE (Donations go to the Slam winner)

Author and advocate for literary diversity Jael Richardson discusses her father-daughter memoir, The Stone Thrower, which has been newly released as a children's book in 2016. As Richardson unravels the story of her father’s life, she begins to compare her own childhood growing up in Canada with her father’s US civil rights era upbringing. Along the way, she also discovers the real reason – despite his athletic accomplishments – that her father was never drafted into the National Football League -- PLEASE NOTE: Due to the popularity of this event, we've decided to move to a larger room in the Rutherford library. Closest parking to the Rutherford library would be either lot U/N, Saskatchewan drive or Education lot. If you choose to park in lot U/N or on Saskatchewan drive the Rutherford library is connected to the West side HUB Mall right in the middle. If you choose to park in Education parking lot, you will have to cross the bus lanes south and Rutherford is the first building behind the LRT University Station. Please use the School of Library Studies entrance on the North West side of the building to enter and proceed up the stairs or elevator to Room 2-09.  

Ticket Information

FREE

Alberta has long been seen as politically paralyzed. But it has always been a cauldron of discontent, producing the Reform Party, the Wildrose movement, the modern Conservative Party of Canada, and Stephen Harper. Notley Nation tells how this pent-up energy exploded in an unexpected direction with an NDP victory that presaged the Trudeau Liberal win on the federal stage.

Ticket Information

$12 advance, $15 at the door

All ages are welcome to join author Jael Richardson for this reading of The Stone Thrower, a new picture book by Jael Richardson with illustrations by Matt James. The book is based on Richardson's memoir of the same name, and examines the career of her father, African-American football player Chuck Ealey. Despite the racist taunts he faced at all the games he played in high school, Chuck maintained a remarkable level of dedication and determination. And when discrimination followed him to university and beyond, Chuck Ealey remained undefeated. This event is presented with support from the Chinese Lions Club  and the Multicultural Education Foundation.

Ticket Information

FREE

In 1911, Monet's adored wife, Alice, died, plunging the artist into deep mourning. A year later he began going blind. Then, his eldest son fell ill and died of syphilis, and his other son was sent to the front to fight for France. A violent storm destroyed the garden that had been his inspiration for two decades. At the same time, his reputation was under attack as a new generation of artists, led by Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, were dazzling the art world and expressing disgust with Impressionism. Fighting self-doubt, depression, and age, Monet found the wherewithal to construct a massive new studio to accommodate the gigantic canvases that would, he hoped, revive him. Using letters, memoirs and other sources not employed by other biographers, and focusing on this remarkable period in the artist's life, author Ross King reveals a complex, human, and intimate Claude Monet than has ever been portrayed, and firmly places his water lily project among the greatest achievements in the history of art. Presented in partnership with the Art Gallery of Alberta.

Ticket Information

$12 advance on Eventbrite, $15 at the door

Readings with authors who explore aspects of what society treats as "normal." Think unconventional family dynamics, gender challenges, and the curious identity of women's bodies—anything's up for discussion with these writers.

Ticket Information

FREE

Given the rapid changes in the literary publishing industry, in 2012 Betsy Warland decided to find a different way of reaching readers. This meant going on(the)line to create Oscar's Salon, a digital interactive space for writers and readers. In this workshop, Warland will focus on creating publishing and readership environments that are lively and gratifying, and will reflect on the process of creating the template for the online interactive salon (which it turned out to be the venue for the publishing of Oscar of Between: A Memoir of Identity and Ideas in 2016). The new pathways, from writing to creating an online site to connecting with a larger readership to having that work published in book format provided Warland with a renewed sense of adventure. "We’re in a time of having to think laterally, inventively. If creating more alternative appeals to you," she says, "let's talk."

Ticket Information

$12 advance on Eventbrite, $15 at the door

The standards applied to creative nonfiction are the same as those that apply to any kind of nonfiction: the truth must be upheld. But how can a true story be told in a way that makes it as readable and exciting as a novel or short story? In this 75-minute session, historian and creative nonfiction master Ross King discusses navigating the truth with an eye for entertainment, and offers an extended Q&A to discuss strategies on keeping the facts interesting. Presented in partnership with the Alberta Magazine Publishers Association.

Ticket Information

$12 advance on Eventbrite, $15 at the door

10 writers celebrate their love of food, wine, and gourmet vocabulary. Our biggest Food Matters event ever, and it's all about eating in YEG. Chefs in the city provide nibbles, and the wine will flow all the way from the Naramata Bench. Housed in the gorgeous Duchess Atelier, this will be the city's most anticipated food event of the year.

Ticket Information

$25 advance on Eventbrite, $30 at the door. 

We're celebrating 10 years of nonfiction, and the Canadian Literature Centre is celebrating their 10th, too. So we're throwing a party. Five writers + five artists + silent auction = ALL FUN. Join us for the literary event of the season, with food, wine, and much merriment. Featuring contributors from Ten Canadian Writers in Context (Alice Major, Caterina Edwards, and Marina Endicott), with Charlotte Gray and Ross King. Guest artists of multidisciplinary backgrounds will be in tow to respond to each writer's work. Presented in partnership with Canadian Literature Centre and the University of Alberta Press.

Ticket Information

$25 advance on Eventbrite, $30 at the door

Ruth Daniell and Betsy Warland discuss identity within the parameters of the female (and sometimes not-so-female) body, and all its wonder, strangeness, and glory.

Ticket Information

$12 advance on Eventbrite, $15 at the door

What does it mean to be a Canadian? What great ideas have changed our country? The award-winning writer Charlotte Gray casts her eye over 150 years of Canadian history. in The Promise of Canada, she weaves together masterful portraits of nine influential Canadians—from George-Étienne Cartier and Emily Carr to Tommy Douglas, Margaret Atwood, and Elijah Harper—creating a unique history of the country over the past 150 years. 

Ticket Information

$12 advance on Eventbrite, $15 at the door