LitFest 2019

Gladwell’s first new book in six years, TALKING TO STRANGERS: What We Should Know about the People We Don’t Know, offers an incisive and powerful examination of our interactions with strangers—and why they often go so terribly wrong.

A conversation featuring Indigenous and Métis voices in podcasting. There will be talk about books, too!

A live recording of Rick Harp's MEDIA INDIGENA, with roundtable contributors Kenneth T. Williams and Kim TallBear.

Alicia Tobin of Super! Sick! Podcast!, Retail Nightmares, and author of So You’re A Little Sad, So What? in conversation with Edmonton’s current Poet Laureate, Nisha Patel.

Falen Johnson and Leah-Simone Bowen of CBC Podcasts Secret Life of Canada in conversation with previous Edmonton Historian Laureate Chris Chang Yen Phillips. This event is presented with support from the Edmonton Heritage Council and CBC Podcasts.

A panel on how to talk about unfunny things in a funny way with author and podcaster Alicia Tobin, and Falen Johnson and Leah-Simone Bowen of CBC's The Secret Life of Canada. Hosted by the ever-irreverent Peter Brown.

$12 in advance, $15 at the door subject to availability.

Note: Admission to AuthorPods events in included in the LitFest 2019 Festival Pass.

A candid discussion on reporting from real-life neighbourhoods and the people who call them home. With Justin Ling of Uncover: The Village, Slumtown producer Elizabeth Hames, and Carissa Halton, author of Little Yellow House. Hosted by Trisha Estabrooks.

In conversation with Justin Ling of CBC Podcasts Uncover: The Village, and the Globe & Mail’s crime reporter Jana Pruden, author of Fear on the Family Farm. Hosted by Karen Unland of the Alberta Podcast Network.

$12 in advance, $15 at the door subject to availability.

Note: Admission to AuthorPods events in included in the LitFest 2019 Festival Pass.

 

A noon-hour conversation with Darren Dochuk, author of Anointed With Oil: How Christianity and Crude Made Modern America.

We kick off the festival with a host of passionate people, from the wide-ranging ideals of evangelists and oil magnates to a shared concern for the planet. May we all learn better how to talk with strangers. 6PM Conversation with authors Darren Dochuk and Satya Brata Das, with Glass Buffalo contributors Emily Riddle and Emma Jackson. Hosted by The Narwhal’s Sharon J. Riley. 7PM The Elevator Cabaret We'll finish off the evening's program with the rapid-fire tradition of the Elevator Cabaret! Stick around to hear quick pitches on what to put in your calendar for the rest of the fest. Your Elevator Attendant will be LitFest's head bookworm, Fawnda Mithrush.

A noon-hour conversation with Annahid Dashtgard, author of Breaking the Ocean: A Memoir of Race, Rebellion, and Reconciliation.

An hour with author Jesse Thistle on his memoir, From the Ashes. Hosted by the Book Women podcast, presented in part with the RISE Book Club.  

Three authors present readings and discussion on varied challenges and experiences with race and reconciliation. Hosted by the Book Women Podcast.

Assessing the welfare of women and children is key to determining the efficacy of foreign aid and development initiatives. Documentary filmmaker and author Roberta Staley specializes in international reportage, and in this session she will discuss the importance of investigating gender in the developing world. Her writing covers violence against women, HIV-AIDS, media, maternal health, and female genital mutilation, and knowledge will be shared based on her reporting in Haiti, Afghanistan, Papua New Guinea, Cambodia, Colombia, South Africa, Kenya, and El Salvador. All masterclass sessions are 90 minutes in length. Space is limited. Festival Passholders must reserve your spot in advance at rsvp@litfestalberta.org.

Three authors discuss their experiences leaving, returning to, and reflecting on their hometowns in recent memoirs. **Note: Luna Ferguson is no longer slated to appear as part of this event. We apologize for any inconvenience to ticket holders. If a refund is desired, please contact us at rsvp@litfestalberta.org.**

A conversation with author Suzanne Methot and host Miranda Jimmy. Five hundred years of colonization have taken an incalculable toll on the Indigenous peoples of the Americas: substance use disorders and shockingly high rates of depression, diabetes, and other chronic health conditions brought on by genocide and colonial control. With passionate logic and chillingly clear prose, author and educator Suzanne Methot uses history, human development, and her own and others’ stories to trace the roots of Indigenous cultural dislocation and community breakdown in an original and provocative examination of the long-term effects of colonization. But all is not lost. Methot also shows how we can come back from this with Indigenous ways of knowing lighting the way. Note: This event has been adjusted from that originally scheduled. Author Jessica McDiarmid has had to cancel her appearance. If you have questions or would like to refund/transfer your tickets, please let us know at rsvp@litfestalberta.org.  

One of the most anticipated cookbooks of the year, tawâw traces Chartrand’s culinary journey from his childhood in Central Alberta, where he learned to raise livestock, hunt, and fish on his family’s acreage, to his current position as Executive Chef at the acclaimed SC Restaurant in the River Cree Resort & Casino in Enoch, Alberta, on Treaty 6 Territory. Hosted by Linda Tzang. Featuring bites from the Royal Alberta Museum's Cafe.

Delving into the effects climate change on city trees, foraging in the city, Dutch elm disease, and squirrels in the living room, author Ariel Gordon explores our relationships with the natural world with great passion. Join her on a walk through YEG's treasured river valley for insights on our very own urban forest. Hosted by U of A Historian Dwayne Donald. The walk will begin at the Matrix Hotel lobby, and will conclude at Yellowhead Brewery.  

Most people lead unremarkable, and little unremarked upon, lives. They are born, grow up, have children (or not), find work, perhaps grow old, and die. We can be sure that each of these life passages was filled with effort and feeling. Yet all that remains to the next generation is a scattered assortment of clues: the bare data of genealogy, the testimony of old photos, the uncertain evidence of family anecdotes. In this lively, conversational workshop, Candace Savage will explore techniques for telling rich, personal stories about long-departed people based on fragments of evidence. Drawn in part from what Candace learned while writing her latest book, Strangers in the House, this discussion will be of special importance to anyone interested in writing narrative history or in exploring their own family stories. All masterclass sessions are 90 minutes in length. Space is limited. Festival Passholders must reserve your spot in advance at rsvp@litfestalberta.org.

Jennifer Cockrall-King has done it all from restaurant reviews to culinary trends, chef profiles to co-authoring a cookbook. Bring your passion for food and drink and learn how to take the next step in your writing. Open to all levels of writers. Presented with the support of Alberta Magazine Publishers Association. All masterclass sessions are 90 minutes in length. Space is limited. Festival Passholders must reserve your spot in advance at rsvp@litfestalberta.org.

Two authors with stories of incredible change, exploring the politics of bodies through personal transition and an international scandal/sensation. All daring greatly. Hosted by Anya Zoledziowski.  **Note: Due to unforeseen circumstances, Luna Ferguson will no longer appear as part of this event. We apologize for any inconvenience to ticket holders. If a refund on tickets is desired, please contact us at rsvp@litfestalberta.org.**

More memoir! These authors share stories on journeying far from home, by boat, on land, and toward the skies. Hosted by Spencer Sekyer. 

With fierce, emotional prose, Ayelet Tsabari crafts a beautiful meditation about the lengths we will travel to escape our grief, the universal search to find a place where we belong, and the sense of home we eventually find within ourselves. Winner of the the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature and the Edward Lewis Wallant Award, this is a speaker to remember.

In a heartbreaking yet hopeful collection of personal essays and prose poems, blending the confessional, political, and literary, acclaimed poet and essayist Kai Cheng Thom dives deep into the questions that haunt social movements today. With the author's characteristic eloquence and honesty, I Hope We Choose Love proposes heartfelt solutions on the topics of violence, complicity, family, vengeance, and forgiveness. Taking its cues from contemporary thought leaders in the transformative justice movement such as adrienne maree brown and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, this provocative book is a call for nuance in a time of political polarization, for healing in a time of justice, and for love in an apocalypse. Presented in partnership with the Canadian Literature Centre. Free to attend.

A plea for empathy across lines on election night, featuring Humble the Poet, Kai Cheng Thom, Ayelet Tsabari and Ami McKay. Hosted by Dave Cournoyer. Admission is by donation; proceeds are shared by Metro Cinema and LitFest. Festival Passholders must RSVP to reserve a seat.

Weaving together family history, genetic discovery, and scenes from her life, Ami McKay tells the compelling, true-science story of her own family's unsettling legacy of hereditary cancer while exploring the challenges that come from carrying the mutation that not only killed many people you loved, but might also kill you. Presented with the Canadian Literature Centre. 

A discussion on family, genetics, and early detection with authors Ami McKay and Renée Pellerin. Hosted by Keren Tang. 

Three authors discuss the myriad manifestations of female sexual experience, including but not limited to polyamory, lesbianism, virginity, patriarchal nonsense, and other such things. Hosted by Breanna Mroczek. 

Slammers be slammin' again! Sign-up at 7pm, slam at 7:30pm. Ten tellers. Five minutes. One winner. Let the game of truth begin! Seating is limited. Please arrive early; passes do not guarantee admission.

A noon-hour conversation with Bob McDonald, host of CBC's Quirks & Quarks, and author of An Earthling's Guide to Outer Space.

Acclaimed science commentator Bob McDonald takes us on a tour of our galaxy, unraveling the mysteries of the universe, and helping us navigate our place among the stars.

With courageous honesty and uncommon eloquence, award-winning journalist Anna Mehler Paperny's stunning memoir chronicles her experience of depression and her quest to explore what we know and don't know about this disease that afflicts almost one fifth of the population—providing an invaluable guide to a system struggling to find solutions.

A noon-hour conversation with Anna Mehler Paperny, author of Hello I Want to Die Please Fix Me

A night to mix and mingle, and to address our worst and best fears: Talking about our feelings with strangers. Join a host of writers for this evening of loose lips and big feels. Expect short readings and discussions with authors on the act of writing on personal stories, writing as therapy, and other light-hearted fare. With host Andrea Beça. 

Many find moving their story idea or life experience from their heads to the page incredibly daunting. Lorimer Shenher talks about his process for ensuring the topics he writes about keep him engaged throughout the process of creating a book. From writing good scenes to navigating delicate ‘characters’ or topics, Lorimer tells of what has worked for him, what he’s doing differently, and how each experience helped on his writing path. All masterclass sessions are 90 minutes in length. Space is limited. Festival Passholders must reserve your spot in advance at rsvp@litfestalberta.org.

Two perspectives on the actor's life: Joanne Vannicola is an Emmy Award–winning actor who has worked in theatre, film, and television, and published her first memoir this year, All We Knew But Couldn't Say. Richard Kemick is an armchair-atheist who joined the 100+ cast of The Badlands Passion Play, North America's largest production of its kind, and then wrote his memoir, I Am Herod, about the experience. Hosted by Sheri Somerville.  

One of LitFest's most popular events returns with stories and writers expounding on restaurant road trips, forever lost food experiences, and friends who inspire good taste throughout life's challenges. Enjoy tastings and nibbles, and don't forget to tip your server. Presented with support from the Alberta Craft Beer Guide. 

Our final feast of the fest is always a treat. Join the authors for a delicious buffet brunch, readings, and a special sneak peek on LitFest's future plans. $49 in advance only. Tables of eight for $369. Passes not valid for this event.

A gold mine. A millionaire. An island paradise. An unsolved murder. A missing fortune. The story of the infamous Sir Harry Oakes, by an all-time festival favourite. Charlotte Gray wraps up this year's fest as only one of Canada's ultimate historians can. Hosted by Marty Chan.