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9 Grand Openings, The Alma Lee Opening Night Event

Caroline Adderson British Columbia	Emma Donoghue Ontario / Ireland	Paolo Giordano Italy
Marc Levy France	Andrew O’Hagan United Kingdom	Kate Pullinger United Kingdom / Canada
Kamila Shamsie* Pakistan / United Kingdom

Caroline Adderson, British Columbia

Caroline Adderson is the author of two internationally published novels (A History of Forgetting, Sitting Practice), two collections of short stories (Bad Imaginings, Pleased to Meet You) and several books for young people. A two-time recipient of the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize and three-time CBC Literary Award winner, Caroline lives in Vancouver. She comes to the Festival with a new novel, The Sky Is Falling. Read more

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Emma Donoghue, Ontario / Ireland

Emma Donoghue is an award-winning Irish writer who has written four novels, including the internationally acclaimed and bestselling historical drama Slammerkin. She’s also published three books of short stories, two works of literary history, two anthologies and two plays. After years of commuting between England, Ireland and Canada, in 1998 she settled in London, Ontario, where she lives with her partner and their two children. Her new novel, Room, is told through the voice of a young boy. Read more

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Paolo Giordano, Italy

Paolo Giordano has the distinction of being the youngest-ever winner of Italy’s prestigious literary award, the Premio Strega. This accomplishment seems greater, considering it was for his debut novel, The Solitude of Prime Numbers.The book has now been published in more than 38 countries. Just 28 years old, Giordano is a professional physicist and has a PhD in particle physics. He lives in Italy.

Paolo Giordano’s appearance is made possible by the Istituto Italiano di Cultura. Read more

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Marc Levy, France

Marc Levy’s eight books have been translated into 41 languages and are bestsellers around the world. If Only It Were True, his first novel, was made into the Hollywood movie Just Like Heaven. His latest, The Children of Freedom, has been on bestseller lists in France since its original publication; it was also a bestseller in Québec. Read more

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Andrew O’Hagan, United Kingdom

Andrew O’Hagan is the author of the novels Our Fathers, Personality and Be Near Me, which was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. His work has appeared in the London Review of Books, The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker and The Guardian (UK). In 2003, O’Hagan was named one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists. He lives in London, England. His new novel is The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog, and of His Friend Marilyn Monroe. Read more

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Kate Pullinger, United Kingdom / Canada

Kate Pullinger was born in Cranbrook, BC and moved to London, England in 1982. Her eighth and most recent novel, The Mistress of Nothing, was the winner of the 2009 Governor General’s Award for fiction. Other recent books include A Little Stranger, Weird Sister, and the short story collection, My Life as a Girl in a Men’s Prison. With director Jane Campion, she co-wrote the novelization of the film The Piano. Her digital fiction projects include the award-winning graphic novel, Inanimate Alice. Read more

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Kamila Shamsie*, Pakistan / United Kingdom

Kamila Shamsie’s first novel, In The City by the Sea, was shortlisted for the John Llewelyn Rhys Prize in the UK, and received the Prime Minister’s Award for Literature in Pakistan in 1999. Read more

* We regret that Kamila Shamsie will not be appearing at event 46. The Literary Cabaret.

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Host: Hal Wake
Tuesday, October 19, 2010 - 8:30pm
Performance Works
$29.00

Drum roll: it’s opening night at the Writers Festival, and Artistic Director Hal Wake introduces seven fine writers. Vancouver treasure Caroline Adderson and Irish-Canadian favourite Emma Donoghue both read from much-anticipated new novels. Italian sensation Paolo Giordano and France’s bestselling novelist Marc Levy also take the stage, along with British star Andrew O’Hagan, who reads from his engaging new novel told from the point of view of Marilyn Monroe’s dog. Kate Pullinger, winner of last year’s Governor General’s Award for her novel The Mistress of Nothing, and Orange Prize finalist Kamila Shamsie each promise to transport us to distant places and times. Open the Festival in grand style in the company of these authors.