Presenting A World of Words

Visit: Granville Island Website

All of the Festival venues are located on Granville Island. Set in the heart of Vancouver, Granville Island is Vancouver’s cultural hub. During the day, a visitor to the Island can explore arts and crafts galleries, watch artisans at work, shop for fresh food and delicacies at the public market, enjoy a specialty coffee or tea and absorb the Island atmosphere. At night, visitors can sample a variety of excellent restaurants and bars, spend the night at the Granville Island Hotel and start all over again in the morning. Consider coming to the Island by public transit or on one of the charming passenger ferries that cross False Creek.

The Vancouver International Writers Festival is one of North America's premier literary events, held annually over six days in late October. It was inaugurated in 1988 as the brainchild of founding Artistic Director Alma Lee. In 2010, the Festival was named as the best large literary festival in Canada, by the Canadian Tourism Commission.

Check out a short video about the Festival.

Currently under the artistic direction of Hal Wake, the Writers Festival attracts the world's best writers to Vancouver. Internationally renowned and undiscovered authors mingle with 14,000 readers of all ages in intimate, interactive and informal settings on Granville Island, an urban oasis in the heart of Vancouver. In its 24 year history the Festival has presented luminaries such as Martin Amis, Margaret Atwood, Maeve Binchy, Peter Carey, Roddy Doyle, Timothy Findley, Tomson Highway, John Irving, P.D. James, Thomas Keneally, Rohinton Mistry, Frank McCourt, Alice Munro, Michael Ondaatje, Anita Rau Badami, JK Rowling, Salman Rushdie and Carol Shields. The Writers Festival also produces special events throughout the year featuring the best of Canadian and international writers. You may browse the festival archives to sample from some of our past offerings.

In January 2011, the Festival launched a twice-monthly reading series entitled Incite that is housed at the Central Library, downtown. The series, which is free to the public, features a wide range of Canadian and international authors in events for readers.

Spreading the Word, the Festival's schools program is the largest children's literary event in Canada. Each year we present great children's writers to over 7,000 BC children and young people, in English and in French. Corporate and private support helps us offer outreach programs to schools and subsidized tickets to children, youth and adult learners who would otherwise be unable to attend. We also offer discounted tickets to seniors and students.

The Vancouver International Writers Festival is a registered non-profit charitable organization that operated with the support of public sector funding, ticket sales, advertising revenue, corporate sponsorships and donations.

Festival Objectives

To advance literacy by introducing young readers to the wonder of books.
To deliver the world's best writers to Festival audiences.
To promote new and undiscovered British Columbian, Canadian and international writers.