Events - Ottawa International Writers Festival

Ottawa's Festival of Ideas Since 1997

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Live Online Event

Mon Feb 22 • 7:30pm

with Rinaldo Walcott

Live Online Event

Thu Feb 25 • 7:30pm

Can You Hear Me Now?

with Celina Caesar-Chavannes

Episode 1 • Fri Feb 26

with Ashley Audrain

Episode 2 • Fri Feb 26

The Centaur’s Wife

with Amanda Leduc

Live Online Event

Tue Mar 2 • 7:30pm

The New Age of Empire

with Kehinde Andrews

Live Online Event

Thu Mar 4 • 12:00pm

One Page: This Strange and Violent World

with Elif Shafak

Episode 3 • Fri Mar 5

with Catherine Bush

Episode 4 • Fri Mar 5

with Kim Echlin

Live Online Event

Mon Mar 8 • 7:30pm

Episode 5 • Fri Mar 12

A Town Called Solace

with Mary Lawson

Episode 6 • Fri Mar 12

with Jael Richardson

Live Online Event

Mon Mar 15 • 7:30pm

Return of the Trickster

with Eden Robinson

Live Online Event

Tue Mar 16 • 7:00pm

If I Tell You The Truth

with Jasmin Kaur

Episode 7 • Fri Mar 19

Nothing the Same, Everything Haunted

with Gary Barwin

Episode 8 • Fri Mar 19

The Deficit Myth

with Stephanie Kelton

Live Online Event

Mon Mar 22 • 7:30pm

Neglected No More: The Urgent Need to Improve the Lives of Canada's Elders

with André Picard

Live Online Event

Thu Mar 25 • 7:00pm

One Page: Foregone

with Russell Banks

Episode 9 • Fri Mar 26

with Camilla Gibb

Episode 10 • Fri Mar 26

Four Lost Cities

with Annalee Newitz

Live Online Event

Mon Mar 29 • 7:30pm

Peyakow: Reclaiming Cree Dignity

With Darrel J. McLeod

Live Online Event

Thu Apr 8 • 7:00pm

One Page: Klara and the Sun

with Kazuo Ishiguro

Episode 11 • Fri Apr 9

Tainna: The Unseen Ones

with Norma Dunning

Live Online Event

Mon Apr 12 • 7:30pm

The New Climate War

with Michael E. Mann

Live Online Event

Thu Apr 15 • 12:00pm

One Page: The Soul of a Woman

with Isabel Allende

Episode 12 • Fri Apr 16

Hana Khan Carries On

with Uzma Jalaluddin

Live Online Event

Mon Apr 19 • 7:30pm

A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency

with Seth Klein

Live Online Event

Thu Apr 22 • 9:00pm

One Page: Under the Wave at Waimea

with Paul Theroux

Episode 13 • Fri Apr 23

Episode 14 • Fri Apr 23

A Desolation Called Peace

with Arkady Martine

Live Online Event

Mon Apr 26 • 7:30pm

Take Back the Fight

with Nora Loreto

Episode 15 • Fri Apr 30

The Girl from Dream City

with Linda Leith

Episode 16 • Fri Apr 30

On Time and Water

with Andri Snaer Magnason

Episode 17 • Fri May 7

Elizabeth & Margaret

with Andrew Morton

Episode 18 • Fri May 7

with Nina Berkhout

Live Online Event

Mon May 10 • 7:30pm

with Linwood Barclay

Live Online Event

Thu May 13 • 7:00pm

One Page: Goodbye, Again

Episode 19 • Fri May 14

with Tanya Boteju

Episode 20 • Fri May 14

Hummingbird Salamander

with Jeff VanderMeer

Live Online Event

Mon May 17 • 8:00pm

The Shadow List

with Jen Sookfong Lee

Live Online Event

Thu May 20 • 7:00pm

One Page: Monkey Boy

with Francisco Goldman

Episode 21 • Fri May 21

The Good Father

with Wayne Grady

Episode 22 • Fri May 21

with Edward Rutherfurd

Live Online Event

Tue May 25 • 7:30pm

with Brad Fraser

Live Online Event

Wed May 26 • 7:35pm

with Thomas King

Live Online Event

Thu May 27 • 7:00pm

One Page: The Window Seat

with Aminatta Forna

Live Online Event

Mon May 31 • 7:00pm

with Andrew O’Hagan

Episode 23 • Fri Jun 4

Because the Sun

with Sarah Burgoyne

Episode 24 • Fri Jun 4

A Girl Called Echo

with Katherena Vermette

Episode 25 • Fri Jun 11

Change: How to Make Big Things Happen

with Damon Centola

Episode 26 • Fri Jun 11

with M.G. Vassanji

Live Online Event

Thu Jun 17 • 5:30pm

The Life and Times of Robbie Burns

with John Ivison and Pauline Mackay

Episode 27 • Fri Jun 18

with David Macfarlane

Episode 28 • Fri Jun 18

The Bright Side

with Cathrin Bradbury

Live Online Event

Fri Jun 18 • 7:30pm

The Menopause Manifesto

With Dr. Jen Gunter

Live Online Event

Sun Jun 20 • 7:30pm

with Richard Van Camp

Episode 29 • Fri Jun 25

The Traitor's Blade

with Kevin Sands

Episode 1 • Fri Aug 20

with Jordan Abel

Episode 2 • Fri Aug 20

Better Not Bitter

with Yusef Salaam

Episode 3 • Fri Aug 27

with Tessa McWatt

Episode 4 • Fri Aug 27

with Genki Ferguson

Live Online Event

Tue Aug 31 • 7:30pm

Operation Angus

with Terry Fallis

Episode 5 • Fri Sep 3

How to Be Animal

with Melanie Challenger

Episode 6 • Fri Sep 3

Where Beauty Survived

with George Elliott Clarke

Episode 7 • Fri Sep 10

The Last Exiles

Episode 8 • Fri Sep 10

Life in the City of Dirty Water

with Clayton Thomas-Muller

Live Online Event

Mon Sep 13 • 7:30pm

with Ashley Bristowe

Live Online Event

Tue Sep 14 • 7:30pm

August into Winter

with Guy Vanderhaeghe

Episode 9 • Fri Sep 17

with Elisabeth de Mariaffi

Episode 10 • Fri Sep 17

with Kathleen Winter

Live Online Event

Tue Sep 21 • 7:30pm

with Jesse Wente

Live Online Event

Wed Sep 22 • 7:30pm

The Mystery of Right and Wrong

with Wayne Johnston

Live Online Event

Thu Sep 23 • 7:30pm

"Indian" in the Cabinet

with Jody Wilson Raybould

Episode 11 • Fri Sep 24

The Spectacular

with Zoe Whittall

Episode 12 • Fri Sep 24

with Alison MacLeod

Live Online Event

Sun Sep 26 • 5:30pm

Book Launch: Masses on Radar

by David O’Meara

Live Online Event

Mon Sep 27 • 7:30pm

Live Online Event

Tue Sep 28 • 7:30pm

with Katherena Vermette

Live Online Event

Wed Sep 29 • 7:30pm

with Kamal Al-Solaylee

Episode 13 • Fri Oct 1

Ripping down half the trees

Episode 14 • Fri Oct 1

The Death of Francis Bacon

with Max Porter

Live Online Event

Mon Oct 4 • 7:30pm

Out of the Sun: On Art, Race, and the Future

with Esi Edugyan

Live Online Event

Tue Oct 5 • 7:30pm

BOOK LAUNCH: Off the Record

with Peter Mansbridge

Live Online Event

Thu Oct 7 • 7:30pm

An Embarrassment of Critch’s

with Mark Critch

Episode 15 • Fri Oct 8

with Jordan Tannahill

Episode 16 • Fri Oct 8

The Book of Form and Emptiness

with Ruth Ozeki

Live Online Event

Tue Oct 12 • 7:30pm

Not a Happy Family

with Shari Lapena

Live Online Event

Thu Oct 14 • 7:30pm

Episode 17 • Fri Oct 15

What Storm, What Thunder

with Myriam J.A. Chancy

Episode 18 • Fri Oct 15

On the Origin of the Deadliest Pandemic in 100 Years

with Elaine Dewar

Live Online Event

Sun Oct 17 • 7:00pm

Books and Biryani: A Muslim History of the Americas

with Omar Mouallem

Live Online Event

Mon Oct 18 • 7:30pm

with Chris Hedges

Live Online Event

Tue Oct 19 • 7:30pm

BOOK LAUNCH: Hunting by Stars

with Cherie Dimaline

Live Online Event

Wed Oct 20 • 6:00pm

THE OTTAWA BOOK AWARDS & PRIX DU LIVRE D’OTTAWA

Episode 19 • Fri Oct 22

Nice White Ladies

with Jessie Daniels

Live Online Event

Mon Oct 25 • 7:30pm

BYWORDS JOHN NEWLOVE AWARDS

with Megan Misztal and John Ian

Live Online Event

Tue Oct 26 • 7:00pm

Book Launch: My Stories, My Times, Volume 2

with The Right Honourable Jean Chrétien

Live Online Event

Wed Oct 27 • 7:30pm

My Best Mistake

with Terry O’Reilly

Episode 20 • Fri Oct 29

A Time Outside This Time

with Amitava Kumar

Live Online Event

Mon Nov 1 • 7:30pm

Between Certain Death and a Possible Future

With Alexander McClelland, Eddie Walker, Kate Doyle Griffiths and Ryan Conrad

Live Online Event

Thu Nov 4 • 7:30pm

Book Launch: Best Canadian Poetry 2021

With Anita Lahey, Souvankham Thammavongsa and many more!

Episode 21 • Fri Nov 5

with Hasan Namir

Live Online Event

Tue Nov 9 • 7:30pm

Me Tomorrow: Indigenous Views on the Future

with Drew Hayden Taylor, Norma Dunning and Darrel J. McLeod

Live Online Event

Wed Nov 10 • 7:30pm

Launch of ARC 96

Featuring: Junie Désil, Simone Dalton and Shery Alexander Heinis

Episode 22 • Fri Nov 12

Permanent Astonishment

with Tomson Highway

Live Online Event

Mon Nov 15 • 7:30pm

Exile: Celebrating 50 Years in Publishing

with Barry Callaghan, Michael Callaghan, Darlene Madott, Katie Zdybel and George Elliott Clarke

Episode 23 • Fri Nov 19

It Doesn't Matter What We Meant

with Rob Winger

Episode 24 • Fri Nov 19

Finish this Sentence

with Leslie Roach

Episode 25 • Fri Nov 26

with Todd Babiak

Episode 26 • Fri Nov 26

The Weight of Sand

with Edith Blais

Live Online Event

Mon Nov 29 • 7:30pm

What Strange Paradise

with Omar El Akkad

Live Online Event

Tue Nov 30 • 7:00pm

Writing and Activism: Words in Action

with Monia Mazigh

Sun Dec 5 • 7:00pm • Christ Church Cathedral

Talking to Canadians

with Rick Mercer

Live Online Event

Tue Dec 14 • 12:00pm

Changing the World One Story at a Time with Natasha Deen

In Conversation with Neil Wilson

Live Online Event

Tue Dec 14 • 12:30pm

The Healing Power of Stories: A Muslim View with Rukhsana Khan

In Conversation with Neil Wilson

Live Online Event

Tue Dec 14 • 1:00pm

Seen and Heard: Children’s Art and Activism with Marah Gubar

In Conversation with Neil Wilson