Presented in partnership with Vancouver Public Library and TELUS.
Marlon James’ Black Leopard, Red Wolf was a show-stopping tour de force of literary fantasy, an instant bestseller, and the first book in what has now become a highly-anticipated series, the Dark Star Trilogy. James returns to shelves—and the Vancouver Writers Fest’s virtual stages—with Moon Witch, Spider King, heralded by writers such as Neil Gaiman and Salman Rushdie, and praised by Buzzfeed as “even more brilliant than the first” and “the literary equivalent of a Marvel Comics universe” by The New York Times. As the Washington Post reports: “Stand aside, Beowulf.”
Joined by Cherie Jones, 2021 Festival guest and the acclaimed, award-winning author of How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House, this spectacular Incite event explored rich narratives and powerful reimaginings, emotive writing and more, from two of the industry’s most respected visionaries.
Participants and Speakers

Marlon James
MARLON JAMES was born in Jamaica in 1970. He is the author of the New York Times-bestseller Black Leopard, Red Wolf, which was a finalist for the National Book Award for fiction in 2019. His novel A Brief History of Seven Killings won the 2015 Man Booker Prize. It was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and won the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature for fiction, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for fiction, and the Minnesota Book Award. James is also the author of The Book of Night Women, which won the 2010 Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Minnesota Book Award. James divides his time between Minnesota and New York.

Cherie Jones
CHERIE JONES was born in Barbados in 1974. A graduate of the MA program at Sheffield Hallam University, she was awarded a fellowship at the Vermont Studio Center. Her short fiction has been published in PANK, Reflex Fiction, and the Feminist Wire. (BARBADOS)