Prefaces & Afterwords

Welcome to the Prefaces & Afterwords, Q&A interviews with authors. Watch this space for our conversations with writers who will be featured in upcoming events.

Converted Disciple to the Art of Spoken Word

I was never one for spoken word. I had been to the the typical bohemian cafes, and seen countless unvarying performances by self-proclaimed slam poets. I found myself rolling my eyes at their hackneyed lyrics and haughty attitudes, and I hastily wrote off the genre. However, I had always been a great fan of Brendan McLeod, who was to be the host of the event 'Spoken Word', and decided that if he was the MC, there was going to be a stacked lineup, and I decided to give spoken word another try.

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Posted October 18th, 2012 by Eleni Jackson in 2012 Festival, Brendan McLeod, C. R. Avery, Ivan E. Coyote, Lemn Sissay, Music, Poetry, Spoken Word, Spoken World

Their dads' dramas

The largely teenage audience that heard Deni Y. Bechard and Carol Shaben talk about their memoirs Thursday afternoon found much to like in the event called Long Walk to Truth. The writers were friendly, open and had intriguing stories to tell about their dads.

Bechard, a well-travelled, young-looking Quebecker, had a father who robbed banks and jewelry stores. This man, who made do with a Grade 5 education, also had a habit of stopping his car, with his three kids inside, in the path of an oncoming train and then pretending not to be able to start the engine.

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Posted October 18th, 2012 by Rebecca Wigod in 2012 Festival, Deni Y Bechard and Carol Shaben

Grand Openings

Performance Works, 8pm Tuesday - A twelve-year-old Dominican girl growing up in New Jersey; a taxi driver on the prowl for fares at night; a mother hearing her lost son's voice in the recursive loops of a cassette recording; a grown woman's recollections of her father during Mao’s cultural revolution. These were some of the characters brought to life at the official opening of the 25th Annual Vancouver Writers Fest on Tuesday evening as seven renowned authors and a poet took to the stage.

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Posted October 18th, 2012 by Josh Rose in 2012 Festival, Ekiwah Adler-Beléndez, Gail Jones, Junot Díaz, Kyo Maclear, Marie Darrieussecq, Nuruddin Farah, Rawi Hage, Simonetta Agnello Hornby

An Evening With Gordon Pinsent

Waterfront theatre, 8 pm Tuesday. Older crowd. Women outnumber men looks like about two to one. The ever-ebullient Vicki Gabereau, wearing what looks like a black toga, crimson-lined, appears at the lectern. A few introductory comments and the man himself, Gordon Pinsent, emerges from the shadows stage left. His new memoir, Next, has just been published by Random House Canada.

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Posted October 17th, 2012 by Steven Brown in 2012 Festival, Gordon Pinsent

Amis on the eve of the Fest

Novels rarely have subtitles, so what’s the deal with Lionel Asbo: State of England? Martin Amis was asked that question at the Granville Island Stage when he appeared at a Writers Fest special event on October 14.

The 63-year-old Briton, dapper in a navy suit, white shirt and black ankle boots, said he had originally planned to use State of England, on its own, as the title yet isn’t making sweeping pronouncements about Britain today. “Novels don’t sum up; they glance off,” he said epigrammatically.

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Posted October 17th, 2012 by Rebecca Wigod in 2012 Festival, Martin Amis