Books & Ideas Audio

Rebecca F. Kuang discusses transparency in publishing, cultural identity, Asian representation, and the messy main character in her literary thriller 'Yellowface'. The podcast explores themes of racism, appropriation, and diversity in literature, as well as the author's transition from The Poppy War to her latest novels. It also delves into the complexities of character relationships, forging multi-dimensional villains, and the importance of amplifying important stories despite feeling tokenized.

Those who are first introduced to Maggie Nelson soon notice her name throughout their literary and social worlds. The award-winning writer, scholar, poet, and critic is one of the most prolific and influential Western thinkers today. She’s the author of the National Book Critics Circle Award winning work The Argonauts, a genre-bending memoir that gives a firsthand account of the complexities and joys of queer family-making. Her latest work, On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint, draws on a vast range of material to explore how we might think, experience, or talk about freedom. Thinking publicly through the knots in our culture—from recent art-world debates to the turbulent legacies of sexual liberation, from the painful paradoxes of addiction to the lure of despair in the face of the climate crisis—is itself a practice of freedom, a means of forging fortitude, courage, and company. Hear her in conversation with bookseller-turned-librarian Baharak Yousefi.

These three American writers are at the top of their game, their works each addressing timeless and timely themes of individuality, freedom, justice, equality. Megha Majumdar’s electrifying debut, A Burning, follows three characters seeking to rise—to the middle class, to political power, to fame in the movies. Kawai Strong Washburn’s groundbreaking novel folds the legends of Hawai’ian gods into an engrossing family saga. Charles Yu’s Interior Chinatown is an intimate story about race, pop culture, and escaping stereotypes. These three sharp minds talk about upending stereotypes, writing with a day job, and the bright side of living and writing in America right now.

Entrancing, surprising, and memorable: The Poetry Bash gathers some of our favourite poets from across the globe. This recording from our 2022 flagship Festival features Claudia Castro Luna (Cipota under the Moon) sharing an ode to the Salvadoran immigrant experience in the United States; Andrew Faulkner, who’s written a “buddy cop dramedy poetry collection” (Heady Bloom); New Zealand poet Tayi Tibble sharing a bold, intimate exploration of being an Indigenous woman (Poūkahangatus); Alexandra Oliver with a scintillating portrait of the suburban uncanny (Hail, the Invisible Watchman); and 2022 ReLit Award-winner Charlie Petch (Why I Was Late). Hosted by Billeh Nickerson.

Canadian writer, director, and actor Sarah Polley joined the Vancouver Writers Fest in celebration of her evocative release, Run Towards the Danger. A complex and exquisite collection of essays, the book captures keystone moments in Polley’s life, as well as the “fallibility of memory, the mutability of reality in the mind, and the possibility of experiencing the past anew, as the person you are now but were not then.” With the paperback version publishing this month, and Polley’s adaptation of Women Talking nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, revisit this intimate conversation between Polley and Vancouver Writers Fest Artistic Director Leslie Hurtig. 

Two of the biggest names in literary historical fiction discuss race, humanity, and writing sweeping stories based on true events. Nadifa Mohamed’s The Fortune Men, based on the real story of a young Somali sailor accused of a crime he did not commit, was a finalist for the Booker Prize. Nathan Harris joined us with The Sweetness of Water, depicting the bond between two brothers, freed by the Emancipation Proclamation in the waning days of the Civil War. It was an Oprah’s Book Club pick, one of President Obama’s favourite books of the year, and won the Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction. The authors spoke about their powerful novels, and the historical contexts in which they took place, with moderator John Freeman at our 2022 Festival.

The long wait is over: John Rebus, detective inspector and the central protagonist of Edgar Award and Diamond Dagger recipient Ian Rankin’s acclaimed series, is back in A Heart Full of Headstones. In this 24th book in the now televised series, Rankin brings new intrigue and suspense to the dark of Edinburgh, in what Publishers Weekly called “one of his best Rebus novels in years.” He joined us in partnership with SFU Woodward's Cultural Programs, to speak with local detective writer and Juno-nominated comedian Charles Demers about the craft of sleuths, scandals, and (of course) murder.

In a television interview for CBC in the mid-60s, Mavis Gallant spoke of her love for mirrors—as objects, and as symbols. She refers to them often in her 120 short stories, almost all of which were published over a fifty year span in The New Yorker. Her legacy was even the inspiration behind Wes Anderson’s female journalist in The French Dispatch. Mavis Gallant was often interviewed; sometimes, she cooperated, sometimes not. Born in Montreal in 1922, Gallant died in Paris in 2014. On the last night of the last day of the last full year of her life, alone in her apartment, age 91, she grants one last interview, this one to herself. Tune in to this magnificent one-of-a-kind staging, with the distinguished collaboration of actors Nicola Cavendish, Gabrielle Rose, and Alessandro Juliani. Curated and written by Bill Richardson.

Between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean lies the tiny island of Redonda. Uninhabitable by humans, Redonda is home instead to a variety of wildlife—including untold generations of seabirds that produce the island’s prized source of fertilizer. Though it might not seem like much, this peculiar island is the figurative home of a fantastical and international community of writers, with a highly-contested lineage of kings that includes John Gawsworth, Jon Wynne-Tyson, Dylan Thomas, Umberto Eco, Javier Marías, Alice Munro, and Pedro Almodóvar. In an exclusive Festival Week episode of the Books & Ideas Audio podcast, author Michael Hingston discusses his new book—Try Not to Be Strange: The Curious History of the Kingdom of Redonda—in conversation with Naben Ruthnum, the author of A Hero of Our Time and Find You in the Dark, among other books.

We all share a common humanity. No matter how long or difficult the path ahead, we are all one. Chief Robert Joseph, globally recognized peacebuilder and Hereditary Chief of the Gwawaenuk People, joined the Vancouver Writers Fest in September to share his first book, Namwayut. In it, he traces his journey from his childhood surviving residential school to his present-day role as a leader who inspires individual hope, collective change, and global transformation. His dedication to reconciliation has been recognized with multiple honorary degrees and awards. Hear him in conversation with his collaborator, Lisa Thomas-Tench. This event was presented in partnership with Massy Books and Raincoast Books.