Calendar :: All Events

About 2. In Pursuit of Global Justice

Deborah Ellis, hailed as an important voice of moral and social conscience, takes us into the lives of young people in harrowing places—in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and right here at home. In her internationally acclaimed bestsellers The Breadwinner and Children of War, she explores the common ground that unites all peoples, quietly promoting the ideals of social justice between nations, races, and communities. The journey continues with her new novel for teen readers, No Safe Place, which lays bare the lives of young modern-day migrants. Also recently released is Ellis’s anthology of first-person accounts We Want to Know: Kids Talk About Bullying.

A Youth Project event for high-school students and adults.

For full author profiles, please visit the Kingston WritersFest website.

You can also visit Kingston WritersFest's website.

About 3. Your Backyard, 2050

Environmentalist and award-winning science writer Wayne Grady paints a grim future for Kingston in the face of unchecked climate change and species invasion. In a stimulating visual presentation, Grady draws on several of his books—his sweeping study of the Great Lakes; The Quiet Limit of the World, which tracks the first signs of global warming in the Arctic; his evolutionary essays, Bringing Back the Dodo; and Technology, his latest exploration into our past and future world. Is there anything we can do to change the picture?

A Youth Project event for high-school students and adults.

For full author profiles, please visit the Kingston WritersFest website.

You can also visit Kingston WritersFest's website.

About 4. Words Out Loud

Some say language evolved from music. This connection comes alive in spoken word poetry, which is among the oldest of the arts—and the newest, too. Written to be said, not read, performance poems find their roots in medieval ballads as well as contemporary rap, hip-hop, dub, and slam, drawing on the power of voice and gesture to give words meaning. Join Lara Bozabalian, spoken-word artist, published poet, and English teacher with the York Region District School Board, as she guides young writers from the page to the stage.

A Youth Project Writers Studio event for high-school students only.

For full author profiles, please visit the Kingston WritersFest website.

You can also visit Kingston WritersFest's website.

About 5. Starting Young

Karen Connelly knew from age 11 that she wanted to be a writer. At 17, she travelled to Thailand as a Rotary exchange student and lived for a year in a small village. Drawing on this experience, she wrote Touch the Dragon: A Thai Journal and won a Governor General’s Award—the youngest writer ever to receive the prize. Choosing the university of life over a formal education, she has lived all over the world. Now in Burmese Lessons, a memoir of her travels through a country caught in the grip of a fierce military regime, she turns again to Southeast Asia for her literary inspiration. In conversation with Merilyn Simonds.

A Youth Project event for high-school students and adults.

For full author profiles, please visit the Kingston WritersFest website.

You can also visit Kingston WritersFest's website.

About 6. In and Out of the Nest

A novelist and a memoirist take aim at the family and the nature of home in two perceptive and bitingly humourous works that speak to all ages. In Cordelia Strube’s Lemon, an acid-tongued teenager has every reason to flee: three mothers, one deadbeat dad, two dysfunctional friends, and a 60 percent average. Yet she cannot resist the need to find her true mother and a bond she scarcely believes possible. Iain Reid’s nonfiction debut, One Bird’s Choice, recounts his flight from the family farm for university and work, and then his surprising—and unsettling—decision to return in his late twenties. Moderated by Barbara Bell.

A Youth Project event for high-school students and adults.

For full author profiles, please visit the Kingston WritersFest website.

You can also visit Kingston WritersFest's website.

About 7. BookMark: Bronwen Wallace

Longtime friend and poet Joanne Page, author Lara Bozabalian, and the Bronwen Wallace Award-winner Alison Pick read work inspired by and dedicated to one of Kingston’s most beloved poets, the late Bronwen Wallace. Wallace will be honoured during the Festival with the unveiling of a Project BookMark plaque at the corner of Clergy and Princess at 12:30 pm. For details, visit projectbookmarkcanada.ca. Moderated by Carolyn Smart.

For full author profiles, please visit the Kingston WritersFest website.

You can also visit Kingston WritersFest's website.

About 9. Book Lovers’ Lunch

The Dewey Divas, insiders from Canada’s top publishing houses, offer a lively sneak preview of great book club picks—books to curl up with, books to spark debate, new voices, midlist gems, genre crossovers, and just darned good reads. Gather your book club and choose your winter reads. Price includes lunch. Cash bar.

Ticket must be purchased by September 17th.

You can also visit Kingston WritersFest's website.

About 8. Paul Quarrington: Life in Music

Paul Quarrington was an award-winning and much-loved author, filmmaker, musician, and teacher. In this film by Judith Keenan, recorded in the months before he succumbed to lung cancer, Paul gives a rare and insightful glimpse into the inner workings of an artist in the act of creating. We witness the artist, and the man, reaching for a resolution to the question we all contemplate in the face of a suddenly abbreviated life: “What would you do?”

This is a free event.

For full author profiles, please visit the Kingston WritersFest website.

You can also visit Kingston WritersFest's website.

About 10. Cops & Authors

Peter Robinson and Louise Penny bring two of Canada’s favourite sleuths to Kingston —Inspector Banks and Chief Inspector Gamache—in brand new mystery novels hot off the press. Join Eric Friesen for an inside look at murder and mayhem and how they are resolved in Bad Boy and Bury Your Dead.

For full author profiles, please visit the Kingston WritersFest website.

You can also visit Kingston WritersFest's website.

About 11. In Search of Memory

Author of the acclaimed story collection China Dog and the hauntingly suspenseful novel, Midnight at the Dragon Café, Judy Fong Bates travelled to China to discover her family story and uncovered secrets that prompted the writing of her achingly beautiful memoir, The Year of Finding Memory. In conversation with Susan Olding, author of Pathologies, a memoir of adopting a Chinese daughter.

For full author profiles, please visit the Kingston WritersFest website.

You can also visit Kingston WritersFest's website.

About 12. Writing the Teenage Mind

For centuries writers have been trying to get inside the minds of troubled, rebellious youth. Shakespeare, Voltaire and Salinger, to name a few, have all dared to navigate these unpredictable waters. Is your inner teen struggling to be heard? Do you need tips on how to create a convincing teen-age voice? Has the adolescent world changed since you were skipping class or are there universal truths that can be explored in fiction? Whether writing adult, young adult, or crossover fiction, if your protagonist is a teen, novelist Cordelia Strube will help you get inside your character to create authentic dialogue, gesture, and vision.

A Writers Studio master class.

For full author profiles, please visit the Kingston WritersFest website.

You can also visit Kingston WritersFest's website.

About 13. Writing the Real

A sharp eye, a stout heart, a driven curiosity, a passion for facts, a belief that truth can sometimes be stranger and more engaging than fiction—what does it take for a writer to tackle the hard edge of reality in a nonfiction work? Join Dave Bidini, Wayne Grady, and Iain Reid in conversation with Larry Scanlan on the particular perils and pleasures of writing real life.

For full author profiles, please visit the Kingston WritersFest website.

You can also visit Kingston WritersFest's website.

About 14. The Shape of Memory

Life is an ongoing stream of memories, but how do you capture the myriad anecdotes, the bits and pieces of recollection, all the flotsam and jetsam of experience and shape them into a cohesive whole? The essential question is: Do you have a story? Novelist and memoirist Judy Fong Bates can’t give you a definitive answer, but she’ll share her writing experience and her own process for drawing the fragments together into a powerfully moving tale.

A Writers Studio master class.

For full author profiles, please visit the Kingston WritersFest website.

You can also visit Kingston WritersFest's website.

About 15. Battle of the Books with host Eric Friesen

Local luminaries face off as they defend one of the 10 books nominated for the Ontario Library Association’s prestigious Evergreen Award. A no-word-play-barred, flip-the-page battle in which defenders attempt to win over the audience to their choice in the wildly popular Kingston Reads competition. Come join in the fun and help choose the winner. Includes presentation to last year’s winner, Helen Humphreys, author of Coventry. Hosted by Eric Friesen.

This is a free event.

For full author profiles, please visit the Kingston WritersFest website.

You can also visit Kingston WritersFest's website.

About 16. Book Promotion for Luddites

Writers have to promote their books online—everyone says so—but what if you don’t know where to begin? What if you've never seen a Facebook page, or if you have, you only have a handful of friends (your family), so what’s the point? And where are you supposed to find the time? You’re a writer, not a blogger, much less a Tweeter. Novelist Sandra Gulland shows you a simple way to build your on-line following with a minimum of time and effort. She doesn’t make any promises, but you might even start to enjoy it!

A Writers Studio master class.

For full author profiles, please visit the Kingston WritersFest website.

You can also visit Kingston WritersFest's website.

About 17. Graphics Plus: The Story of Kenk

Is it a book? A comic? A film adaptation? KENK: A Graphic Portrait is a cutting-edge hybrid form of popular culture created not by a single author but by a creative team consisting of a writer, filmmaker, illustrator, and producer. It is soon to be an animated short, too— all based on the story of Igor Kenk, the man The New York Times has called “the world’s most prolific bicycle thief.” Join Queen’s alumni Jason Gilmore and Alex Jansen and team members Nick Marinkovich and Craig Small in conversation with author and filmmaker Clarke Mackey.

For full author profiles, please visit the Kingston WritersFest website.

You can also visit Kingston WritersFest's website.

About A Cross-Country Photo Exhibit Tour presented by WaterCan

The Grand Theatre is pleased to present the Water for Life: An African Photo Exhibit. This photography exhibit features a powerful selection of images by internationally renowned phtoographer Peter Bregg. The exhibit includes forty photographs taken by Bregg during his travels to WaterCan project sites during the fall of 2009. Through this exhibit, WaterCan hopes to deliver its message of fighting global poverty by helping the world's poorest people gain access to clean water, basic sanitation and hygiene education.

As part of Culture Days, this exhibit is free of charge. The exhibit can be viewed at the Grand Theatre September 23 - October 6 from 2pm-5pm daily, and 12noon-5pm September 25 and 26. The opening reception will take place September 23 at 7pm as part of Downtown Kingston's Art After Dark, with Peter Bregg in attendance.

Visit WaterCan online for more information.

About 18. Hooked: A Theatrical Performance

Adapted for performance from Carolyn Smart’s astonishing collection of poems about obsessed women, Hooked: A Theatrical Performance promises an unforgettable evening of literary theatre. Originally designed as an intimate offering performed for a small group in seven rooms of a private residence, this production of Hooked is being staged by Gemini Award-winning actress Nicky Guadagni and director Layne Coleman especially for Kingston WritersFest.

For full author profiles, please visit the Kingston WritersFest website.

You can also visit Kingston WritersFest's website.

About 19. The Leadership Debate

What does it take to lead a nation? Are we in Canada bereft—or blessed? Or do voters just get what they deserve? Join political biographers Lawrence Martin (Harperland: The Challenge to Democracy), Richard Gwyn (The Man Who Made Us: John A. Macdonald, 1815–1867) and Conservative insider, outspoken Senator, and author Hugh Segal (The Long Road Back: The Conservative Journey) in lively debate under the gavel of Charlotte Gray.

For full author profiles, please visit the Kingston WritersFest website.

You can also visit Kingston WritersFest's website.

About Collected Stories

by Donald Margulies | directed by Steve Powell

When a student and protégé develops from an insecure student to a successful writer, she has done so by writing a novel based on her teacher’s affair with poet Delmore Schwartz. The two women then have to deal with the moral dilemma of whether a person’s life events are suitable for another to use in the creative process.

You can also visit Domino Theatre's website.