The Federation of BC Writers has assembled a panel that spans the publishing industry to discuss changes that have impacted writers and readers since the onset of the pandemic. Join us for an engaging chat about where we are, what has changed, and what we might expect over the coming years.

It doesn’t take long for a band to become a memorable Vancouver favourite when you’re as talented as this group of emerging musicians. Come end the day with music, festivity, and of course, dancing!

Oppression can take the form of erasure. Turbulent times can leave their mark on the languages of those who live them. Ayaka Yoshimizu will discuss the work of Tamura Toshiko, a feminist writer from Tokyo known primarily for her work produced in Japan.

For years, both these poets lived and worked in male-dominated trades and industries. Both humorous and tender, their stories illustrate the at-times surreal world of industrial construction and labour culture.

Playwright Yolanda Bonnell, graphic fiction author Sami Alwani, and poet Carellin Brooks read from their acclaimed books, each of which takes “directness of expression” to new levels.

Using a blend of traditional and modern art, graphic novelist Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas brings to life the tumultuous history of first contact between Europeans and Indigenous peoples and the early colonization by the Europeans of the northern West Coast. Join him in discussing the storytelling process through graphic novel, and the importance of drawing out histories from an Indigenous perspective.

This poetry workshop led by nationally acclaimed author Jude Neale is for novices as well as experienced writers. It will ignite your imagination and free your creativity through writing prompts, games, and exercises. Everyone will come away with poems and a deeper connection with language. There will be lots of time to share your work with the rest of the group. Jude is known for her fun and interactive workshops and is looking forward to writing with each of you. Bring what you like to write on, notebook or electronic — Jude has written her last six books on her phone!

As webcomics surge with more popularity year after year, the format has become a venue for a wide breadth of genres. Join comic artist Jaki King and writer Tara Avery as they discuss King’s sapphic DnD Webtoon, Lady Killers, and her science fiction drama, Kismet.

BC Federation of Writers, Real Vancouver Writers Series, Sunshine Coast Writers Fest, Surrey International Writers Conference, Vancouver Writers Fest, Whistler Writers Fest, and Word Vancouver have come together to raise awareness and funds to support those impacted by the wildfires devastating BC.

Indigenous Literatures span many different nations, cultures, and literary traditions that have a long history dating back to a time long before Canada and colonization. These writers are working in genres and traditions that encompass a long history of language, artistic expression, and storytelling traditions that are far older than CanLit. Come hear three Indigenous wordsmiths share their work spanning the different genres of poetry, fiction, and spoken word, as well as discussion of their creative process and practice.

What happens when you have secrets you can’t share with those closest to you, but more importantly, what happens when those people find out? Join authors C.A. Tanaka and Emily Pohl-Weary as they tell us coming of age stories of finding freedom, family, and acceptance.

Editors will read and assess the first pages of submissions from authors, offering commentary and options for each. Authors will see in real time how to make the most of those initial paragraphs that can either hook or lose the reader.

Watch out for Marina as she hoops around the rink in the afternoon!

Celebrate the synergy of poetry and film with a screening of imaginative and evocative poetry videos by the finalists of the Vancouver Poet Laureate’s City Poems Contest!

Death Rides a Unicorn Events is proud to début our new show The Head to Head Haiku Challenge at Word this year. The event will feature head-to-head haiku battles where five random members of the audience decide the winner. Contestants can sign up onsite, and the top four poets will split a $200 cash prize!

Join poets Sheryda Warrener and Jen Currin as they read their own work and the work of some of their favorite poets, using this work to discuss poetry as a living practice of reading, noticing, and writing.

Discovering your strengths when you’re a teen isn’t always easy, but it can be quite the adventure. Join these two authors as they depict these defining moments of youth.

Arno Kopecky and Anjali Appadurai unpack some of our environmentalist dilemmas and discuss what needs to change in our conversations on climate to really shift us away from our current patch towards extinction, and into climate action.

Join Jess Hill as she returns to her roots as one of Vancouver favourite singer-songwriters to delight us all with her lyrical tales and haunting tunes.

One is a gripping tale of misidentification and murder, the other a thrilling look at Vancouver’s criminal underworld. With striking examinations of wealth and class against urban noir backdrops, S.C. Lalli and Sam Wiebe present their exciting new thriller novels.

Whether it’s our relationships to pop culture, religion, or race (or sometimes all three), the world we grow in impacts how we understand ourselves. These three memoirs examine the social environments we grow up in, how they shape our sense of belonging, and how through these routes of reflection we can discover ourselves.

All writers need to find their audience. Writing instructors and publishers have been saying this for years because it’s the golden rule to selling books. Readers from different genres have unique expectations that you as an author must comply with or they may never read you again. Before you can write to your audience, you must first understand them. Author and social media coordinator for Crime Writers Canada, Erik D’Souza, will review several steps that you should take before even lifting your pen.

From Japanese internment to France in WWI to mythological landscapes of ancient China, these three authors contend with the depiction of difficult circumstances. Join them in a discussion around developing complex characters and relationships through the challenging environments they find themselves in.

Are the personal and the political ever truly separate? How can literature affect change in the world? Tawahum Bige, Nelson Augustin and Daniel Gawthrop wrestle with these questions as they read from and discuss their provocative new works.

What do children’s illustrators have in common? They can draw, obviously! But can they draw to catch your eye, take your breath away, or make you want to jump out of your seat? You decide in this competition!

Join us for a storytelling session for all ages!

The Writer's Studio at SFU is offering free one-on-one consults on up to five pages of your poetry or prose as part of Word Vancouver.

What is Indigenous Poetics? How does Indigeneity intersect with language, history, resilience and belonging in contemporary and traditional poetic forms? Showcasing a stellar lineup of Indigenous literary brilliance, join us for a reading and literary panel discussion centered around Indigenous Poetics, creative process, inspirations, and the legacy of Cree, Métis, and Saulteaux poetic voice in storytelling traditions.

This unique workshop will feature the work of three distinct digital artists: Kedrick James, Jim Andrews, and Natasha Boskic. They will share their experimentation with poetry and technology, from creating a permanent digital record of multimodal poetics to layers of verses that are fragmented or disappearing. Andrews’ Sea of Po, a poetry mag-app, will allow the participants to play with the app and experience poetry in visual form as a computer art. James’ app PhoneMe invites poets and word-lovers across the globe to be part of a social network for place-based spoken poetry. Boskic offers an opportunity for literary expression where analog and digital technologies are mixed.

Magdaragat: An Anthology of Filipino-Canadian Writing (Cormorant Books) is the first anthology of Filipino-Canadian writing published by a mainstream press, coming out at a time when the Filipino diasporic population in Canada is fast approaching one million. Join Teodoro Alcuitas, Patria Rivera, and Leah Ranada as they read from their contributions to this landmark project.