Events - Ottawa International Writers Festival

Ottawa's Festival of Ideas Since 1997

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Live Online Event

Tue Mar 22 • 7:00pm

Who is Served and What is Protected?

With Desmond Cole and Brandi Morin

Live Online Event

Sun Mar 27 • 7:00pm

Books and Biryani: Zarqa Nawaz and the Comedy of Errors

Live Online Event

Tue Mar 29 • 8:00pm

What Would Freedom Look Like?

With Rinaldo Walcott, Clayton Thomas-Mueller and Mona Eltahawy

Live Online Event

Tue Apr 12 • 7:30pm

The Next Civil War

With Stephen Marche

Live Online Event

Tue Apr 19 • 7:00pm

Spotlight on our Virtual Seasons: Keeping Connected While Maintaining our Distance

Episode 01 • Tue Apr 26

Look Back at Season 1

Episode 02 • Tue Apr 26

Look Back at Season 2

Live Online Event

Tue Apr 26 • 7:00pm

The Power of Teamwork

With Dr. Brian Goldman

Episode 03 • Wed Apr 27

Look Back at Season 3

Fri Apr 29 • 8:00pm • Online Event

Arc Poetry Magazine Spring Launch: Tribute to Diana Brebner

With John Barton, Dessa Bayrock, Anita Lahey, Sneha Madhavan-Reese and music by Ensemble Allure

Episode 01 • Tue May 3

With Sarah Moss

Episode 02 • Tue May 3

This Is Assisted Dying

with Dr. Stefanie Green

Live Online Event

Tue May 3 • 7:00pm

Have You Eaten Yet?

With Cheuk Kwan

Episode 03 • Tue May 10

The Nutmeg's Curse

with Amitav Ghosh

Episode 04 • Tue May 10

with Chloe Cooper Jones

Tue May 10 • 7:00pm • Christ Church Cathedral

with Maude Barlow

Episode 05 • Tue May 17

with Alexander MacLeod

Episode 06 • Tue May 17

with Jean van Loon

Live Online Event

Wed May 18 • 7:00pm

Take Your Breath Away

With Linwood Barclay

Thu-Mon May 19-23 • 10:30-11:15am & 2:00-2:45pm • LeBreton Flats Park

Mindfullness Workshops

Episode 07 • Tue May 24

with Katie Kitamura

Episode 08 • Tue May 24

The Artist and the Assassin

with Mark Frutkin

Episode 09 • Tue May 31

Looking for Jane

with Heather Marshall

Episode 10 • Tue May 31

Jamilah at the End of the World

with Mary-Lou Zeitoun

Episode 11 • Tue Jun 7

The Book of Grief and Hamburgers

with Stuart Ross

Episode 12 • Tue Jun 7

with Patrick McCabe

Episode 13 • Tue Jun 14

Night in the World

with Sharon English

Episode 14 • Tue Jun 14

The Embroidered Book

with Kate Heartfield

Episode 15 • Tue Jun 21

I Am Billy the Kid

with Michael Blouin

Episode 16 • Tue Jun 21

A Hero of Our Time

with Naben Ruthnum

Sun Jun 26 • 7:00pm • Christ Church Cathedral

Run Towards the Danger

with Sarah Polley

Episode 17 • Tue Jun 28

with Conyer Clayton

Episode 18 • Tue Jun 28

The Hidden Kingdom of Fungi

with Keith Seifert

Episode 19 • Tue Jul 5

with Katie Tallo

Episode 20 • Tue Jul 5

And a Dog Called Fig

with Helen Humphreys

Episode 21 • Tue Jul 12

with Rich Larson

Fri Sep 9 • 7:00pm • Christ Church Cathedral

Making Love with the Land

with Joshua Whitehead

Mon Sep 19 • 7:00pm • Christ Church Cathedral

When We Lost Our Heads

With Heather O'Neill

Sat Sep 24 • 5:00pm • The Manx Pub

Plan 99 Presents

Thomas Lynch and Jean Van Loon

Episode 01 • Thu Sep 29

with Emma Donoghue

Sat Oct 1 • 3:00pm • Christ Church Cathedral

Book Launch: The Cold Edge of Heaven

with Whit Fraser

Sat Oct 1 • 6:59pm • LIVESTREAM

LIVESTREAM: The Myth of Normal

with Gabor Mate

Sat Oct 1 • 7:00pm • Christ Church Cathedral

SOLD OUT: The Myth of Normal

with Gabor Mate

Episode 2 • Thu Oct 6

Dream of Me as Water

Wed Oct 12 • 6:00pm • National Gallery of Canada

Between the Pages An Evening with the Scotiabank Giller Prize Finalists

with Kim Fu, Rawi Hage, Suzette Mayr and past winner Ian Williams

Sat Oct 15 • 5:00pm • Manx

Plan 99 presents

Mike Garry & Ellen Chang-Richardson

Wed Oct 19 • 5:00pm • Christ Church Cathedral

Wednesday’s Menu at the Festival Café

Prepared fresh daily by Chef Harriet

Wed Oct 19 • 6:30pm • Christ Church Cathedral

with Patty Krawec

Wed Oct 19 • 8:30pm • Christ Church Cathedral

with Douglas Stuart

Thu Oct 20 • 7:00pm • Christ Church Cathedral

Bywords John Newlove Poetry Awards

Richard-Yves Sitoski and Subrahj Singh

Fri Oct 21 • 5:00pm • Christ Church Cathedral

Friday’s Menu at the Festival Café

Prepared fresh daily by Chef Harriet

Fri Oct 21 • 6:30pm • Christ Church Cathedral

Scene of the Crime

with Joy Fielding and Adrian McKinty

Fri Oct 21 • 8:30pm • Christ Church Cathedral

Strike Back The Empires

with JM Miro and RF Kuang

Sat Oct 22 • 11:30am • Christ Church Cathedral

Saturday Snacks at the Festival Café

Sat Oct 22 • 12:00pm • Christ Church Cathedral

An Autobiography of Our Galaxy

with Moiya McTier

Sat Oct 22 • 1:30pm • Christ Church Cathedral

Civilization and the Stars

with Jo Marchant

Sat Oct 22 • 3:00pm • Christ Church Cathedral

How Climate Migration Will Reshape Our World

with Gaia Vince

Sat Oct 22 • 4:30pm • Christ Church Cathedral

Mothers of Invention

With Shyam Selvadurai

Sat Oct 22 • 5:00pm • Christ Church Cathedral

Saturday’s Menu at the Festival Café

Prepared fresh daily by Chef Harriet

Sat Oct 22 • 6:00pm • Christ Church Cathedral

The Ties That Bind

with Katherine Alexandra Harvey and Lisa Moore

Sat Oct 22 • 7:30pm • Christ Church Cathedral

with Suzette Mayr

Sat Oct 22 • 9:00pm • Christ Church Cathedral

Truth and Consequences

with Leah Mol and Fawn Parker

Sun Oct 23 • 1:00pm • Christ Church Cathedral

Sunday Snacks at the Festival Café

Sun Oct 23 • 1:30pm • Christ Church Cathedral

My Road from Damascus

with Jamal Saeed

Sun Oct 23 • 3:00pm • Christ Church Cathedral

The River Twice

with John Bemrose

Sun Oct 23 • 4:30pm • Christ Church Cathedral

Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm, Shani Mootoo, Phoebe Wang, and Michael Crummey

Sun Oct 23 • 5:00pm • Christ Church Cathedral

Sunday’s Menu at the Festival Café

Our apologies but there has been a change to the menu tonight!

Sun Oct 23 • 6:30pm • Christ Church Cathedral

Running in the Family

with Jamie Chai Yun Liew, Tanis Rideout and Tsering Yangzom Lama

Sun Oct 23 • 8:30pm • Christ Church Cathedral

Culture of Conspiracy

with Sarah Kendzior

Mon Oct 24 • 5:00pm • Christ Church Cathedral

Monday’s Menu at the Festival Café

Prepared fresh daily by Chef Harriet

Mon Oct 24 • 6:30pm • Christ Church Cathedral

Fayne: One on One

with Ann-Marie MacDonald

Mon Oct 24 • 8:30pm • Christ Church Cathedral

Surviving Apocalyptic Economics

with Douglas Rushkoff, Rebecca Giblin and Cory Doctorow

Tue Oct 25 • 5:00pm • Christ Church Cathedral

Tuesday’s Menu at the Festival Café

Prepared fresh daily by Chef Harriet

Tue Oct 25 • 6:00pm • Christ Church Cathedral

Is Truth Stranger?

with Colin McAdam and Graeme Macrae Burnet

Tue Oct 25 • 7:30pm • Christ Church Cathedral

with Camille Fouillard and David A Robertson

Tue Oct 25 • 9:00pm • Christ Church Cathedral

with Danny Ramadan and Billy-Ray Belcourt

Wed Oct 26 • 5:00pm • Christ Church Cathedral

Wednesday's Festival Café Menu

Prepared fresh daily by Chef Harriet

Wed Oct 26 • 6:00pm • Christ Church Cathedral

Kiss the Red Stairs

with Marsha Lederman

Wed Oct 26 • 7:30pm • Christ Church Cathedral

Abolitionist Intimacies

Wed Oct 26 • 9:00pm • Christ Church Cathedral

Son of Elsewhere

with Elamin Abdelmahmoud

Episode 03 • Thu Nov 3

The Myth of Normal

with Dr. Gabor Maté

Episode 04 • Tue Nov 8

We Are All Birds of Uganda

With Hafsa Zayyan

Tue Nov 8 • 7:00pm • Christ Church Cathedral

A Heart Full of Headstones

With Ian Rankin

Episode 5 • Wed Nov 9

Where The Air Is Sweet

With Tasneem Jamal

Episode 6 • Wed Nov 9

Orange for the Sunsets

With Tina Athaide

Wed Nov 9 • 7:00pm • Christ Church Cathedral

True Reconciliation

with Jody Wilson-Raybould

Mon Nov 14 • 7:00pm • Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre

Carleton Presents: No New Land?

With Tina Athaide, Tasneem Jamal, and Hafsa Zayyan

Episode 7 • Thu Nov 17

Try Not to Be Strange

with Michael Hingston

Sat Nov 19 • 3:00pm • Christ Church Cathedral

With Bryan Trottier

Episode 8 • Thu Nov 24

Jennie's Boy: A Newfoundland Childhood

with Wayne Johnston

Episode 9 • Thu Dec 1

The Petroleum Papers

with Geoff Dembicki

Episode 10 • Thu Dec 1

The Opportunist

with Elyse Friedman

Episode 11 • Fri Dec 9

with Michelle Sinclair

Episode 12 • Fri Dec 9

Lifesavers and Body Snatchers

Mon Dec 12 • 7:00pm • Christ Church Cathedral

The Last Chairlift

With John Irving

Episode 13 • Thu Dec 15

with Manahil Bandukwala

Episode 14 • Thu Dec 15

The Pursuit of Urban Utopias

with John Lorinc