Thank you to HarperCollins Canada for supporting Barbara Kingsolver’s appearance in Vancouver, and our Community Partner: Vancouver Academy of Music.
Barbara Kingsolver’s bestselling works of fiction—including The Poisonwood Bible, Demon Copperhead, and The Lacuna—have earned her a devoted readership around the world. Kingsolver joins us with her new instant classic, Partita, in conversation with award-winning journalist and author Marsha Lederman.
A promising, former music conservatory student has made peace with her marriage and modest livelihood, when a shocking phone call from an old lover shakes her to the core. With razor-sharp acuity and deep affection, Partita reflects on class barriers, the risks of ambition, and what might be the greatest romance of all: our eternal human longing for art and beauty.
Kingsolver herself is a pianist and music lover, and this captivating event will be uplifted by piano pieces performed by Allen Ding, an award-winning pianist and student at the Vancouver Academy of Music. Celebrate the opening of the 39th annual Vancouver Writers Fest at an evening of brilliant art, music, and conversation.
Tickets: Starting at $50
(Youth under 25: $25)
Books will be for sale at the event from Book Warehouse, a division of Black Bond Books. There will be no book signing at this event.
Participants and Speakers
Barbara Kingsolver
BARBARA KINGSOLVER is the author of ten bestselling works of fiction, as well as books of poetry, essays, and creative nonfiction. Her work has been translated into more than thirty languages. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and has received numerous awards and honors including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the National Humanities Medal, and the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.
Marsha Lederman
MARSHA LEDERMAN is an award-winning journalist and author. She is a columnist at The Globe and Mail, and was previously The Globe‘s Western Arts Correspondent. She is the author of Kiss the Red Stairs: The Holocaust, Once Removed and October 7th: Searching for the Humanitarian Middle. Born in Toronto, she has lived in Vancouver since 2007.
Allen Ding
An 11th grade student at St. George’s School, ALLEN DING currently studies with renowned pianist and conductor Ian Parker at VAM. Allen won 3rd place at the CMC National Finals in both 2018 and 2022. In 2023, he earned a National Gold Medal for his outstanding exam results in Level 10 Piano and was invited to perform at the RCM Canadian National Celebration of Excellence recital in Toronto. In 2024, he won the Kay Meek Scholarship and went on to perform Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto no. 3 with the VAM Symphony Orchestra the following year. In 2025, he received a Provincial Gold Medal for his exam results in ARCT Piano. Allen plays piano in the award-winning Pi Trio, coached by Ian Parker and award-winning violinist Jenny Lim. They have performed at and organized many concerts, raising tens of thousands of dollars for charities such as Doctors Without Borders and the Canadian Cancer Society.