LitFest Edmonton Authors Well Represented At 2018 Fest.

Canada's only non-fiction literary festival has a strong local contingent on-hand this October to represent Edmonton's homespun literary talent.

From expats to some of our city's most in-demand authors and thought leaders, there's no shortage of familiar voices on the 2018 roster.

Edmonton Connections: Featured Authors

Oct 13, 2018 @ Metro Cinema

Former Edmontonian, now based in Calgary, Vivek Shraya is an artist whose body of work crosses the boundaries of music, poetry, fiction, visual art, and film. A Publishing Triangle Award winner, her books include even this page is white, The Boy & the Bindi, and She of the Mountains . Shraya is one half of the music duo Too Attached and founder of the publishing imprint VS. Books. She teaches creative writing at the University of Calgary.

Oct 11, 2018 @ CBC Centre Stage
Oct 18, 2018 @ OTTO Food & Drink
October 21, 2018 @ Matrix Hotel
Carissa Halton in an award-winning magazine writer and author of the book Little Yellow House: Finding Community in a Changing Neighbourhood. Her work has been featured in Alberta Venture, Alberta Views , In This Together and Broadview Anthology of Expository Prose , as well as The Globe and Mail and Today's Parent. She is the Off the Beaten Track columnist for Edmonton AM on CBC radio. When not writing, she has worked broadly as a non-profit leader, an advisor to government ministers, a communications consultant, and group facilitator.

Oct 21, 2018 @ The Aviary
Oct 21, 2018 @ The Matrix
Billy-Ray Belcourt is from the Driftpile Cree Nation. He is a Ph.D. student I the Department of English & Film Studies at the University of Alberta. He is also a 2016 Rhodes Scholar and holds an M.St. in Women's Studies from the University of Oxford. Billy-Ray was named one of six Indigenous writers to watch by CBC Books in 2016, one of ten Indigenous writers to read right now by VICE in 2017, and he was the recipient of the 2017 P.K. Page Founder's Award for Poetry. This Wound is a World is his first book.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Oct 12, 2018 @ Metro Cinema

Wayne Arthurson is an Indigenous writer whose work has appeared in a variety of regional, national and international publications. He is the author of five novels, including the bestselling Leo Desroches crime series and five books of non-fiction.

Oct 11, 2018 @99TEN

Michael Hingston's writing has appeared in Wired magazine, the Washington Post, and the Guardian. His novel The Dilettantes was a #1 regional bestseller. He is also co-creator of the Short Story Advent Calendar.

Oct 13, 2018 @The Common

Jay Martin grew up in Melbourne and lived in the UK, Vietnam, India, Japan, and Perth before moving to Canberra, where she worked as a social policy adviser and inadvertently married a diplomat. While in Poland, Jay worked as a freelance writer for Australian and European publications, volunteered at the Warsaw Uprising Museum, and baked one decent chocolate cake. She came to understand snow and vodka, but never, really, pickled herring.

Other Events at the Festival

LitFest is more than just books. It's a moveable feast that touches on every area of popular culture, politics, art, and the way we live our lives. Readings often feature performance artists, musicians, and multi-disciplinary acts to complement the featured works.

Food and drink also play a large role in the festival, with past events incorporating scotch tastings, full-course meals, and chef panel discussions that have included such industry heavyweights as Jen Agg and David Wolfman.

Prospective writers can participate in writing workshops hosted by festival authors that cover everything from interviewing techniques to writing a memoir.

LitFest 2018 runs from October 11 - 21, 2018